The associating link is the same in each instance;―dew or rain, not distinguishable from the liquid substance of tears, are employed as indications of sorrow. A flash of surprize is the effect in the former case, a flash of surprize and nothing more; for the nature of things does not sustain the combination. In the latter, the effects of the act, of which there is this immediateconsequence and visible sign, are so momentous that the mind acknowledges the justice and reasonableness of the sympathy in Nature so manifested; and the sky weeps drops of water as if with human eyes, as "Earth had, before, trembled from her entrails, and Nature given a second groan." Awe-stricken as I am by contemplating the operations of the mind of this truly divine Poet, I scarcely dare venture to add that " An address toan Infant," which the Reader will find under the Class of Fancy in the present Volumes, exhibits something of this communion and interchange of instruments and functions between the two powers; and is, accordingly, placed last in the 1 class, as a preparation for that of Imagination which follows. Finally, I will refer to Cotton's “Ode upon Winter," an admirable composition though stained with some peculiarities of the age in which he lived, for a general illustration of the characteristics of Fancy. The middle part of this ode contains a most lively description of the entrance of Winter, with his retinue, as " A pal"A sied King," and yet a military Monarch,-advancing for conquest with his Army; the several bodies of which, and their arms and equipments, are described with a rapidity of detail, and a profusion of fanciful comparisons, which indicate on the part of the Poet extreme activity of intellect, and a correspondent hurry of delightful feeling. He retires from the Foe into his fortress, where Of sovereign juice is cellared in. Liquor that will the siege maintain Should Phœbus ne'er return again." Though myself a water-drinker, I cannot resist the pleasure of transcribing what follows, as an instance still more happy of Fancy employed in the treatment of feeling than, in its preceding passages, the Poem supplies of her management of forms. 'Tis that, that gives the Poet rage, It lays the careful head to rest, Calms palpitations in the breast, Then let the chill Scirocco blow," And gird us round with hills of snow, Or else go whistle to the shore, And make the hollow mountains roar. Whilst we together jovial sit Careless, and crown'd with mirth and wit; We'll think of all the Friends we know, And drink to all worth drinking to; When having drunk all thine and mine, We rather shall want healths than wine. But where Friends fail us, we'll supply Our friendships with our charity; Men that remote in sorrows live, Shall by our lusty Brimmers thrive. We'll drink the Wanting into Wealth, And those that languish into health, The Afflicted into joy; th' Opprest Into security and rest. The Worthy in disgrace shall find The Brave shall triumph in success, And the neglected Poet, Bays. Thus shall our healths do others good, For, freed from envy and from care, What would we be but what we are?" It remains that I should express my regret at the necessity of separating my compositions from some beautiful Poems of Mr. Coleridge, with which they have been long associated in publication. The feelings, with which that joint publication was made, have been gratified; its end is answered, and the time is come when considerations of general propriety dictate the separation. Three short pieces (now first published) are the work of a Female Friend; and the Reader, to whom they may be acceptable, is indebted to me for his pleasure; if any one regard them with dislike, or be disposed to condemn them, let the censure fall upon him, who, trusting in his own sense of their merit and their fitness for the place which they occupy, extorted them from the Authoress. When I sate down to write this preface it was my intention to have made it more compre |