That nutritive enthusiasm, which cherishes the seeds of poetry, and which is, indeed, the only soil wherein they will grow to perfection, lays open the mind to all the influences of fiction. A passion for whatever is greatly wild or magnificent in the works of nature seduces the imagination to attend to all that is extravagant, however unnatural. Milton was notoriously fond of high romance and gothic diableries; and Collins, who in genius and enthusiasm bore no very distant resemblance to Milton, was wholly carried away by the same attachments. "Be mine to read the visions old, Which thy awakening bards have told: And, lest thou meet my blasted view, Hold each strange tale devoutly true." "On that thrice hallow'd eve," &c. There is an old traditionary superstition, that on St. Mark's eve, the forms of all such persons as shall die within the ensuing year make their solemn entry into the churches of their respective parishes, as St. Patrick swam over the Channel, without their heads. ODE TO SIMPLICITY. The measure of the ancient ballad seems to have been made choice of for this ode, on account of the subject; and it has, indeed, an air of simplicity, not altogether unaffecting: "By all the honey'd store On Hybla's thymy shore, By all her blooms, and mingled murmurs dear, By her whose lovelorn woe, In evening musings slow, Sooth'd sweetly sad Electra's poet's ear." This allegorical imagery of the honeyed store, the blooms, and mingled murmurs of Hybla, alluding to the sweetness and beauty of the Attic poetry, has the finest and the happiest effect: yet, possibly, it will bear a question, whether the ancient Greek tragedians had a general claim to simplicity in any thing more than the plans of their drama. Their language, at least, was infinitely metaphorical; yet it must be owned that they justly copied nature and the passions, and so far, certainly, they were entitled to the palm of true simplicity; the following most beautiful speech of Polynices will be a monument of this, so long as poetry shall last: ––––––πολυδακρυς δ’ αφικομην Χρονιος ιδων μελαθρα, και βωμους θεων, Γυμνασια θ’ οισιν ενετραφην, Διρκης, θ’ ὑδωρ, Hων ου δικαιως απελαθεις, ξενην πολιν Ναιω, δι’ οσσων ναμ εχων δακρυρῥοουν. Αλλ’ εκ γαρ αλγους αλγος αυ, σε δερκομαι Καρα ξυρηκες, και πεπλους μελαγχιμους Εχουσαν. Eurip. Phœniss. ver. 369. ~--------polydakrys d' aphikomên Chronios idôn melathra, kai bômous theôn, Gymnasia th' oisin enetraphên, Dirkês, th' hydôr, Hôn ou dikaiôs apelatheis, xenên polin Naiô, di' ossôn nam echôn dakryrrhooun. All' ek gar algous algos au, se derkomai Kara xyrêkes, kai peplous melanchimous Echousan.~ Eurip. Phœniss. ver. 369. 22 "But staid to sing alone 33 To one distinguish'd throne."