juvenile pieces of our own celebrated poets, that a povertjr 

 of idea prevails uniformly among them. Thej even seem 

 conscious of their own defect, for whenever they seize upon 

 a favourable or happy idea,, they seem unwilling ever to let 

 it escape, and it is compelled to drag it's way through twenty 

 or perhaps thirty lines, Roscommon says of the French poe- 

 try, compared with the Knglish, 



" The sterling bullion of one Englbh line. 



Drawn to French wire, would in whole pages shine." 



and some old critic, (Lucian, I believe) speaking of that 

 passage in the Odyssey, which has been so admirably trans- 

 lated by Pope, and begins thus ; 



" With many a weary step, and many a groan. 

 Up a high bill he heaves a huge round stone." 



Makt. 



says, ** if it were Apollonius or Callimachus that attempted 

 this description, how many verses would they have employed 

 in tracing the ascent of the stone, and how, many more would 

 they have found necessary to conduct it down the eminence, 

 whither it had been moved with such tedious labour, as well of 

 the poet, as the criminal." Such a difference as is here pointed 

 out between French and English poetry in general, or be- 

 tween the sublime conciseness of Homer, and the minute 

 and feeble refinements of Apollonius, may be observed be- 

 tween the compositions , of the same poet in youth and in 



