Amidst the spirited beauties of this passage, it is impossible not to
consider some as particularly conspicuous. How strong and nervous the
second and fourth lines! How happily expressive the two Alexandrines!
What a luminous idea does the epithet "murky" present to us! How
original and picturesque that of the "clotted tear!" If the same
expression be found in the Ode to Howard, let it however be considered,
that the exact propriety of that image to wash it from the face (for how
else, candid reader, could a tear already clotted be removed) is a clear
improvement, and certainly entitles the author to a repetition. Lastly,
how consistent the assemblage, how admirable the climax in the last six
lines! Incomparable they might appear, but we recollect a passage nearly
equal in the Essay on History,
"_Wild_ as thy _feeble_ Metaphysic page,
Thy History _rambles_ into _Steptic rage_;
Whose giddy and fantastic _dreams abuse_,
A Hampden's Virtue and a Shakespeare's Muse."
How elevated the turn of this passage! To be at once luxuriant and
feeble, and to lose one's way till we get into a passion, (with our
guide, I suppose) is peculiar to a poetic subject. It is impossible to
mistake this for prose. Then how pathetic the conclusion! What hard
heart can refuse its compassion to personages _abused_ by a _dream_, and
that dream the _dream of a History!_
Oh, wonderful poet, thou shalt be immortal, if my eulogiums can make
thee so! To thee thine own rhyme shall never be applied, (_Dii, avertite
omen_).
"Already, pierc'd by freedom's searching rays,
The waxen fabric of his fame decays!"
ARTICLE VII.
INKLE AND YARICO, A POEM, BY JAMES BEATTIE, L.L.D. 4TO.
This author cannot certainly be compared with Mr. Hayley.
We know not by what fatality Dr. Beattie has acquired the highest
reputation as a philosopher, while his poetry, though acknowledged to be
pleasing, is comparatively little thought on. It must always be with
regret and diffidence, that we dissent from the general verdict. We
should however be somewhat apprehensive of sacrificing the character we
have assumed, did we fail to confess that his philosophy has always
appeared to us at once superficial and confused, feeble and
presumptuous. We do not know any thing it has to recommend it, but the
good intention, and we wish we could add the candid spirit, with which
it is written.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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