1821.] 



iutrudSng so much on your valuable 

 pages, and on your readers' patience is, 

 the desire to contribute my very humble 

 share to the welfare of literature. 

 Feb. 20. A Bookseller. 



For the Monthly Magazine. 



NEWS FROM PARNASSUS. 



No. IV. 



AMARYNTHITS, THE NYMPHOLEPT. 



TTIIIE original source of poetry is in 

 M. the bosom of nature — in the sim- 

 ple elemental passions of the heart, 

 and in the solitudes of rural scenery, 

 those feelings are most strongly ex- 

 cited, which swell up in the heart, like 

 a newly discovered spring, and sponta- 

 neously flow into song. In the early 

 stages of human manners, the master 

 passion of love, unchecked by social 

 and prudential restrictions, would 

 form the tirstsubject of the muse ; and 

 with this would be combined the im- 

 pression produced by the external 

 forms of nature, sometimes exhibited 

 in beauty and tranquillity, and some- 

 times overwhelming the mind with the 

 terrors of her awful and mysterious 

 operations. Here the ground-work of 

 poetry is laid, and it becomes in the 

 first instance, amatory and pastoral. 

 As the infinite relations of society in- 

 crease and vary, and new incentives 

 are presented to the mind, the poet 

 finds a wider compass for his exertions, 

 and adds many a new string to his 

 lyre. But after he has run his hand 

 over them all, from the high sounding 

 epic to the meanest and lowest chord, 

 there is none to which we hear him 

 revert with more pleasure than to those 

 simple notes which are inseparably 

 connected in our hearts, with ideas of 

 rural sim])licit}% innocence and love. 

 In fact, we may pretty fairly estimate 

 the genuine powers of (he poet, by the 

 degree of fondness which he displays 

 for these elements of liis art, and by 

 the skill with which he employs them. 

 Homer, himself, abounds in beautiful 

 images drawn from th(^ face of nature, 

 and in picturesque illustrations of 

 ruial life; and if we would give to the 

 Paradise Lost its proper designation, 

 we miglit say with trutli, that it is an 

 epic-pastoral poem, containing passages 

 of more beauty and nujre justly entitled 

 to the latter denomination tlian can be 

 found in any other author. The ex- 

 quisite mind, of Milton seems, indeed, 

 fo have dwelt with peculiar compla- 

 cency upon the features of nature and 

 the objects of rustic life. In the Pen- 



News from Parnassux. — No. IV. 231 



seroso, and Allegro, but, above all, in 

 the Lycidas, and Comus, he shews him- 

 self to be a Pastoral Poet, in the best 

 sense of the term. He plunged with 

 rapture into the depth of woods, and 

 the silence of nature. 

 " He knew each lane and every alley green, 

 Dingle or bushy dell of each wild wood, 

 And every bosky bourn from side to side, 

 His daily walks and ancient neighbour- 

 hood." 

 And Shakespeaie, too " was an Arca- 

 dian." Though mixing as an author 

 and an actor with the herd of men, 

 his soul yearned after the scenes of his 

 youth, to which at last he was happy 

 enough to return, and amidst which he 

 died. With his own valentine, 

 " The shadowy desart, unfrequented woods, 

 He better brook'd than flourishing peopled 



towns ; 

 There could he sit alone, unseen of any, 

 And to the niglitingak's complaining notes. 

 Tune his distresses, and record his woes." 

 It would be useless to multiply in- 

 stances in proof of lliis doctrine, or to 

 shew more clearly that the finest and 

 noblest intellects are most deeply im- 

 bued with a profound love of nature, 

 and a truly pastoral spirit. But this 

 spirit, it will at once be seen, is not 

 only thoroughly distinct from, but the 

 very reverse of that puerile and aflFected 

 style of composition which has done so 

 much to degrade the reputation of the 

 Pastoral, and which is merely a nau- 

 seous compound of affected simplicity 

 and dull imitation. Misled by this 

 false taste, not even the sense and ta- 

 lent of Pope, could save his attempts 

 in this species of writing from neglect 

 and oblivion. Of our later poets, Shen- 

 stone advances pretensions, which if 

 not despicable, are weak and insuffi- 

 cient. Cowper possessed an infinitely 

 larger portion of love and admiration 

 lor the scenes of nature, and a capacity 

 of depicting them which has been sel- 

 dom excelled. With a deep and me- 

 lancholy intellect, rendered still more 

 so by a constant meditation on the 

 most awful subjects that can absorb 

 the human mind, he bent an obser- 

 vant eye upon the miglity works of 

 creation, over tlie broad earth and in 

 the deep waters, and the breathings of 

 his soul were worthy of the subject 

 which inspired them — He deserved to 

 be one of the minstrels of nature. With 

 the.ie views of the spirit and dignity of 

 pastoral poetry, is it not to be expected 

 that we should often meet with produc- 

 tions which would deserve tobeclassed 

 in the first raak of merit. An inferior 

 degree 



