I

LETTER XV.

To EUPHEMIUS.

Have been as often enraged, EUPHE

MIUS, as yourself, at the trite, dull, and false Observation, often made by the half-witted Pretenders to Learning, that we have no poetical Genius left among us. How far this tasteless Prejudice against our own Times, may tend to extinguish what we have, I know not; but certain I am, that, if this ftupid Reverence for whatever was the Productions of our Anceftors, and the more irrational + and indifcri

+ This Failing is by no means totally peculiar to our prefent Age, (tho' perhaps now carried higher than it ever was in any other ;) for HORACE makes the fame Complaint of the Romans in his Time, in his Epiftle to AUGUSTUS. The Poet after having ingenioufly to his Patron fhewed the Injury and Abfurdity of the Practice, cries out,

Indignor quicquam reprehendi, non quia craffe
Compofitum, illepideve putetur, fed quia nuper.

If the Reader would fee one of the most ingenious critical
Performances ever published, I refer him to Mr. H-
Notes and Commentary on this Epistle.

indifcriminate neglect of our Contemporaries prevail, we fhall be ftigmatifed by our more difcerning Succeffors as the leaden Sons of BOEOTIA were of old. For my Part, I am of opinion, that there is now living a Poet of the most genuine Genius this Kingdom ever produced, SHAKESPEAR alone excepted. By poetical Genius, I don't mean the meer talent of making Verses, but that glorious Enthufiasm of Soul, that fine Frenzy, as SHAKESPEAR calls it, rolling from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven, which, like an able Magician, can bring every Object of the Creation in any Shape whatever before the Reader's Eyes. This alone is Poetry, aught else is a mechanical Art of putting Syllables harmonioufly together. The Gentleman I mean is Doctor AKINSIDE, the worthy Author of the Pleasures of Imagination, the most beautiful dictactic Poem that ever adorned the English or any other Language. A Work in which the great Author has united VIRGIL'S Tafte, MILTON's Colouring, and SHAKE

SPEAR'S incidental Expreffion, with a Warmth peculiar to himself, to paint the finest Features of the human Mind, and the most lovely Forms of true Religion and Morality. Befides this Leader of the Muse's Train, we have others now living, who, in their respective Compofitions, leave not only all our deceased Poets, and those of FRANCE and ITALY far behind them, but even bear the Palm away from any of their Competitors of ancient ROME; and, as HOMER describes in his Games the Steeds of DIOMEDES preffing close on the Chariot of EUMELUS,

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("Clofe on EUMELUS' Back they puff'd the Wind, And feem'd juft mounting on his car behind, "Full on his Neck he feels the fultry Breeze, "And hov'ring o'er their ftretching shadow fees) POPE'S TranЛl.

they breathe in the Race even on the Shoulders of their GRECIAN Mafters. I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the Elegy in a Country Church-Yard, written by Mr. GRAY, of Peter-Houfe in Cambridge, to the best Performance, in that kind, of OVID,

Iliad. .

OVID, TIBULLUS, or PROPERTIUS. Has HORACE any Moral Ode equal to Mr. NUGENT'S Ode to MANKIND, or any defcriptive one to Mr. COLLINS's Ode to the EVENING? Mr. Jos. WARTON's Ode to FANCY Would not suffer by the fame Comparison. I should pay Mr. MASON no Compliment to compare all the Excellencies in SENECA together to his elegant ELFRIDA; nor do I think I should at all degrade the ATHENIAN Stage to say, that the Palm of tragic Glory hangs wav'ring betwixt the conjoined Merit of SOPHOCLES'S PHILOCTETES and the +OEDIPUS Coloneus, and this modern Tragedy, did not SHAKESPEAR, like a Champion of old infpired by all the Gods, step majestically in to bear it away by supernatural Power from the utmost Force of human Abilities. I dare fay his MONODY H 4

сп

I hope private Friendship does not prepoffefs my Judgment in thinking our Language will be enrich'd, in a Year or two hence, by an elegant Tranflation of SOPHOCLES, NOW preparing for the Public, by that worthy Man and ingenious Writer Mr. FRANKLIN, Profeffor of Greek in the Univerfity of CAMBRIDGE.

on the Death of Mr. POPE, wherein he has imitated the Stile of four of our English Poets, has given you and every Man of true Tafte, more Pleasure than the joined Efforts of all the Wits in the celebrated Court of LEO the Tenth †. There is another little Piece written by the fame Author, which has no Rival in the Court of AUGUSTUS, entitled an Ode to a Water Nymph. These Opinions you'll fay, are very bold ones to give under my Hand; but as I think I can support them by juft Criticism, I fhall not fear the misplac'd Imputation of being particular, for I am fure I fhall not stand alone in my judgment. I dare fay AMELIA will be pleased at my warm Defence of her favorite Poets, and pray tell

+ Thefe Imitations of the ancient Roman Poets FAMIANUS STRADA has preserved in his Academical Prolufions, where the Stiles of LUCAN, LUCRETIUS, CLAUDIAN, OVID, STATIUS, and VIRGIL, are imitated by JANUS PARRHAGIUS, PETER BEMBO, BALTHASAR CASTILIONIUS, HERCULES STROZZA, JOVIANUS PONTANUS, and ANDREAS NAUGERIUS, as he latinizes their Names. Lib. Prolif. 6.