■4S4 J A M A I C A. 



his heart is filled with wifdom j his morals are immaculate; and he 

 abounds with patriotifm and virtue. 



To confider the merits of this fpecimen impartially, we mull en- 

 deavour to forget, in the firft place, that the writer was a Negroe; for 

 if we regard it as an extraordinary produftion, merely becaufe it 

 came from a Negroe, we admit at once that inequality of genius 

 which has been bel'ore fuppofed, and admire it only as a rare phas- 



nomenon. 



" What woeful fluff this madrieal would be 

 " In fome ftarv'd, hackney fonneteer, or me ! 

 " But let a Negroe own the happy lines, 

 " How the wit brightens! how the ftyle refines! 

 " Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault, 

 " And each exalted flanza teems with thought!" 

 We are to eftimate it as having flowed from the poliflied pen of 

 one, who received an academic education, under every advantage that 

 able preceptors, and munificent patrons, could furnifli ; we mufi: like- 

 wife believe it to be, what it aftually was, a piece highly laboured; 

 defigned, modeled., and perfeded, to the utmtfl ftretch of his in- 

 vention, imagination, and flcill. 



Should we, or fhould we not, have looked for fomething better 

 from one, upon whom (to borrow his own phrafe) omnes artium, 

 Icientiarumque ^r/o/f^ Atticarum in cumidutn accejjerunl ? or, is it at all 

 Superior, in claflic purity of fi:yle and numbers, in fentiment and pro- 

 priety, in poetic images and harmony, to any compofition we might 

 expedl from a middling fcholar at the feminaries of Weflminfler or 

 Eaton ? It is true, pocta nafciinr, non fit : but the principal forte and 

 excellence of this man lay in verlification j however, as I mean not 

 to prejudge the caufe, I fhall leave it to the fair verdidt of a jury of 

 critics. The Spaniards have a proverbial faying, " j^unque Ne'gros 

 <■'■ fomos genie;" " though we are Blacks, we are men." The truth 

 of which no one will difpute; but if we allow the fyftem of created 

 beings to b.e perfed and confident, and that this perfedtion arifes 

 from an exadl fcale of gradation, from the lowefl to the highefl, 

 combining and connefting every part into a regular and beautiful 

 harmony, reafoning them from the vifible plan and operation of in- 

 finite wifdom in refpeft to the human race, as well as every other 

 feries in the leak, we mufi, 1 think, conclude, that, 



o *' The 



