436 ON PATHOGNOMY. 



Hence the attractive affections are far more easy to be expressed by the 

 painter than by the poet, and fall immediately within the range of classical 

 sculpture, which limits itself to the calm and the dignified, and has rarely 

 been known to wander into the regions of intensity, distortion, or violence. 



The poet, incapable of catching those transient lights and shades, that 

 unutterable play of feature into feature, by which the passions of this class 

 are chiefly distinguished from each other, is compelled to have recourse to 

 collateral imagery, complex personification, or allegorical accompaniments. 

 To this remark it will be difficult to find an exception in any writer. Let us 

 take Collins as an example, who is one of the best and boldest of our lyric 

 bards. His description of Hope, in his celebrated Ode to the Passions, is 

 exquisitely fine, but, after all, somewhat indefinite ; the whole of its figure 

 being that of a beautiful nymph, with fair eyes, an enchanting smile, and 

 wavy golden hair, accompanied with a lyre or some other instrument, for we 

 are not told what, which she strikes to a song of future or prospective pleasure, 

 amid the echo of surrounding and responsive rocks, and woods, and valleys. 



But tbou, O Hope, with eyes so fair, 



What was thy delighted measure 1 



Still it whisper'd promised pleasure, 

 And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail. 

 Still would her touch the strain prolong, 



And from the rocks, the wood?, the vale, 

 ShecalPd on Echo still through all the song. 



And where her sweetest theme she chose, 



A soft responsive voice WHS heard at every close. 

 And HOPE enchanted smiled, and waved her golden hair. 



The portrait is graceful, elegant, and animated ; but I may venture to say, 

 that the only real expression of the character of Hope, is derived, not from 

 the features of her person, but from the subject of her song, the whisper of 

 promised pleasure, the hail of distant scenes. I say not this, however, aa a 

 proof of the imperfection of the artists, but of the art itsel/. 



Let us try another description from the same captiva'.in g pioduction. The 

 mellow horn having just been sounded and laid dev-a by I./LLANOHOLV, thft 

 poet proceeds as follows : 



But O how alter'd was its sprightlier lone 

 When CHEERFULNESS, a nymph of hea'tl i ,t ;iue, 

 Her how across her shoulders slung, 

 Her buskins gemin'd with mo: imm de.v, 

 Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thjcr.e? njn^, 

 The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known. 

 The oak-crown'd sisters and their cf-atte-eyed queen, 

 Satyrs and sylvan boys were seen 

 Peeping from forth their alleyi ^reen ; 

 Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear, 

 And Sport leap'd up, and seized ois beechen spear. 



The remark I have just made will apply to the whole of this admirable grout 

 than which a finer or more correct and accordant was never offered to tlit 

 world. The passion of CHEERFULNESS gives, indeed, a specific expression and 

 character to the countenance that sufficiently identifies it to the beholder, and is 

 sufficiently capable of being seized and fixed by the painter ; but it is not calcu- 

 lated for poetry, and the only feature Mr. Collins has copied into big dcscnp 

 tion is that of a healthy hue. But he has admirably atoned for thi? pcveity of 

 his art by the picturesque scenery and associates with which he hp.fj surrai-nded 

 her, and in which the province of poetry has an inexhaustible mb.f; of \vrcalth; 

 and as much exceeds that of painting as painting exceeds poetry ift ^ia deli- 

 neation of specific features and attitudes. Cheerfulness, thovgh not distin- 

 guishable by the features of her person, is sufficiently imde /.'nov/n to us by 

 the company she keeps, by her attire, her manner, and h*,r accoutrements. 



One of the finest pictures and sweetest groupings of \kir, allegorical kind 

 to be met with in our own language, is contained in tl/c /o;; owing verses of 

 Dr. Darwin's Ode to May in his Botanic Garden. i'hv./ are worthy ol 

 Anacreon or Pindar. 



