XLVIII. Thus much in general for modern Spanish poetry; but the worst is, that you hear these sort of compositions in the sacred canticles; which are often so bad, that it would be better, instead of them, to sing the couplets of blind men; because these seem to have a tendency to promote devout affections, and their rustic simplicity is in some degree the symptom of a good intention. All the gracefulness, or rather the attempt at displaying it, in the church canticles of these times, consists in low equivocations, trivial metaphors, and puerile changes and rechanges. The worst is, that they are entirely void of spirit, and not at all calculated to excite religious emotions, which are the principal, if not the only qualities required, and which ought to be sought after in such compositions. Don Antonio de Solis was without doubt a person of sublime genius, and one who well understood the excellencies of poetry. He exceeded all others, and even sometimes himself also, in painting the passions with such apt, close, and subtile expressions, that the descriptions of his pen seem to give you a clearer idea of, and make you better acquainted with them, than the knowledge which is gained by experience. But with all this, we in his small sacred tracts, perceive a strange falling-off; because in them, we don’t meet with that nobleness of thought, that delicacy of expression, and that stirring of the passions, which is frequent and common in his other Lyric Poems. This did not happen because he wanted genius or talents to write sacred compositions; for his dirges upon the conversion of St. Francisco de Borja, are some of the best things he ever exhibited, and perhaps the most sublime, which to this day have been composed in the Spanish language.