Of the reft I cannot think any excellent; the Skylark pleases me beft, which has however more of the epigram than of the ode.

But the four parts of his Paftoral Ballad demand particular notice. I cannot but regret that it is paftoral; an intelligent reader, acquainted with the fcenes of real life, fickens at the mention of the crook, the pipe, the Sheep, and the kids, which it is not neceffary to bring forward to notice, for the poet's art is felection, and he ought to fhew the beauties without the groffness of the country life. His ftanza seems to have been chofen in imitation of Rowe's Defpairing Shepherd,

In the first part are two paffages, to which if any mind denies its fympathy,

it

it has no acquaintance with love or na

ture:

I priz'd every hour that went by,

Beyond all that had pleas'd me before; But now they are past, and I figh,

And I grieve that I priz'd them no more.

When forc'd the fair nymph to forgo,
What anguish I felt in my heart!

Yet I thought-but it might not be fo,
*. 'Twas with pain that she saw me depart.

She gaz'd, as I flowly withdrew;

My path I could hardly difcern;

So sweetly the bade me adieu,

I thought that she bade me return.

In the fecond this paffage has its prettiness, though it be not equal to

I have found out a gift for my fair;

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed: But let me that plunder forbear,

She will fay 'twas a barbarous deed:

For he ne'er could be true, fhe averr'd,

Who could rob a poor bird of its

young;

And I lov'd her the more, when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue..

In the third he mentions the common places of amorous poetry with fome addrefs:

"Tis his with mock paffion to glow;

'Tis his in fmooth tales to unfold,

How her face is as bright as the fnow,
And her bofom, be fure, is as cold:
How the nightingales labour the strain,
With the notes of his charmer to vie;
How they vary their accents in vain,
Repine at her triumphs, and die.

In the fourth I find nothing better than this natural ftrain of Hope:

Alas! from the day that we met,

What hope of an end to my woes ? When I cannot endure to forget

The glance that undid my repose. Yet Time may diminish the pain :

The flower, and the fhrub, and the tree,

Which I rear'd for her pleasure in vain,

In time may have comfort for me.

His Levities are by their title exempted from the feverities of criticism; yet it may be remarked, in a few words, that his humour is fometimes grofs, and feldom fpritely.

Of the Moral Poems the first is the Choice of Hercules, from Xenophon. The numbers are smooth, the diction elegant,

gant, and the thoughts juft; but fomething of vigour perhaps is ftill to be wifhed, which it might have had by brevity and compreffion. His Fate of Delicacy has an airy gaiety, but not a very pointed general moral. His blank verses, those that can read them may probably find to be like the blank verfes of his neighbours. Love and Honour is derived from the old ballad, Did you not hear of a Spanish Lady-I wish it well enough to wish it were in rhyme.

The School-mistress, of which I know not what claim it has to ftand among the Moral Works, is furely the most pleafing of Shenftone's performances. The adoption of a particular ftile, in light and fhort compofitions, contri

butes