describe a whole gallery of gods and goddesses. At the conclusion of the poem, Ericeyra again summons all his powers of description, not entirely without success, but still without avoiding those faults into which his factitious enthusiasm had previously involved him.[349] That such a poet as the Count da Ericeyra could, with all his praiseworthy endeavours, succeed in restoring the ancient glory of Portuguese poetry, or in giving a new direction to the poetic spirit of his nation, certainly was not to be expected. But in consequence of his labours it ceased to be taken for granted in Portugal, that the mines of the higher poetry were exhausted, and he contributed to encourage the idea of improvement in poetic cultivation. His name, therefore, deserves to be held in honourable recollection. What benefits he, as a theorist, sought to impart to the poetic art, shall be noticed in the next chapter. CONTINUANCE OF CORRUPT TASTE IN PORTUGUESE POETRY. BARROS PEREIRA--ALEXANDRE ANTONIO DE LIMA. The age of the Count da Ericeyra presents, at its close, a resting point in the history of Portuguese poetry, which, if the numerical division of the years be not too rigidly insisted on, may form a boundary between the first and the second halves of the eighteenth century. It was solely during the latter half that a favourable change became obvious in the poetic cultivation of the Portuguese. In the former half only a few Portuguese poets of celebrity laboured to maintain a suitable connection between the new and the old eras. Among those poets it is not meant to include Father Antonio de Lima Barros Pereira, who in the year 1720 published his spiritual and temporal works, under the title of _Floresta Apollinea_, (Apollinian Flower-garden). But this collection of miscellaneous poems ought to be mentioned, as it serves to prove that in the beginning of the eighteenth century the Spanish was the favourite dramatic language in Lisbon. Among the works of Barros Pereira, his _loas_, or allegorical preludes, are the most numerous, and are all written in Spanish. Barros Pereira also sought to distinguish himself by those poetic rhapsodies without plan or object, which were, both in Spain and Portugal, called _Sylvas_ (Forests.)