MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS, 
fhe love of virtue, are read with 
delight, and fix themselves on the 
memory. Where the reader has this 
previous knowledge of the subject, 
which we have mentioned as neces- 
sary, the art of the poet becomes it- 
self a source of pleasure, and some- 
times in proportion to the remote- 
ness of the subject from the more 
obvious province of poetry ; we are 
delighted to find with how much dex- 
terity the artist of ‘verse can avoid a 
technical term, how neatly he can 
turn an uncouth word, and with how 
much grace embellish a scientific 
idea. Who does not admire the in- 
finite art with which Dr. Darwin has 
described the machine of sir Richard 
Arkwright ? His verse is a piece of 
mechanism, as complete in its kind 
as that which he describes. Allured 
perhaps too much by this artificial 
species of excellence, and by the 
hopes of novelty, hardly any branch 
of knowledge has been so abstruse, 
or so barren of delight, as not to 
have afforded a subject to the didac- 
tic poet. Even the loathsomeness of 
disease, and the dry maxims of me- 
dical knowledge,have been decorated 
with the charms of poetry. Many 
of these pieces however owe all their 
entertainment to frequent digres- 
sions. Where these arise naturally 
outof the subject, as the description 
of a sheep-shearing feast in Dyer, or 
the praises of Italy in the Georgics, 
they are not only allowable but 
graceful ; but if forced, as is the 
story of Orpheus and Eurydice in the 
same poem, they can be considered 
in no other light than that of beautiful 
monsters, and injure the piece they 
are meant to adorn. The subject of 
a didactic poem therefore ought to 
be such as isinitself to be attractive 
[*131 
to the man of taste, for otherwise 
all attempts to make it so, by adven- 
titious ornaments, will be but like 
loading with jewels and drapery a fi- 
gure originallydefective and ill-made. 
Of the Infirmities and Defects of 
Men of Genius ; from D? Israeli’s 
Essay on the Literary Character. 
HE modes of life of a man of 
genius are often tinctured with 
eccentricity and enthusiasm, These 
are in an eternal conflict with the 
usages of common life. His 
occupations, his amusements, and 
his ardour, are discordant to 
daily pursuits, and prudential ha- 
bits, It is the characteristic of 
genius to display no talent to or= 
dinary men; and it is unjust to 
censure the latter when they consie 
der him as born for no human pur- 
pose. Their pleasures and their 
sorrows are not his pleasures and 
his sorrows. He often appears to 
slumber in dishonourable ease, 
while his days are passed in labours, 
more constant and more painful 
than those of the manufacturer. 
The world is not always aware that 
to meditate, to compose, and even 
to converse with some, are great las 
bours: and as Hawkesworth obe 
serves, ‘f that weariness may be 
contracted in an arm chair.” 
Such men are also censured for 
an irritability of disposition. Many 
reasons might apologize for these un- 
happy variations of humour. The 
occupation of making a great name, 
is, perhaps, more anxious ahd pre- 
carious than that of making a great 
fortune. We sympathise with the 
merchant when he communicates 
[*I-2] melancholy 
