EUROPEAN. 303 



Pleasant, are charming descriptions. Dyer's Ruins of Rome, Ad- 

 dison's Letter from Italy, and especially Rogers's Italy, are choice 

 and instructive poems. Falconer's Shipwreck, is a well drawn and 

 affecting picture ; and the same may be said of Campbell's Gertrude 

 of Wyoming. Bloomfield's Farmer Boy, though simple, has excited 

 much interest ; and Burns's Cotter's Saturday Night, is one of our 

 sweetest poems. Wordsworth's Excursion, and Grahame's Sab- 

 bath, and Sabbath Walks, are fine productions ; and Parnell's little 

 poem, the Hermit, should not be forgotten. Thomson's poem on 

 the Seasons, is natural and beautiful ; and Akenside's Pleasures of 

 the Imagination, Rogers's Pleasures of Memory, and Campbell's 

 Pleasures of Hope, cannot fail to be read with pleasure and improve- 

 ment. The Triumph of Peace, and the Empire of Neptune, by 

 Hughes, like the Brittania, and the poem on Liberty, by Thomson, 

 are national or patriotic poems of merit. Dryden's Jlstrsca Redux, 

 and Jlbsalorn and Jlchitophel, are in praise of Charles II. ; his Jln- 

 nus Mirabilis, treats of the Great Fire in London, and the Dutch 

 War; and Addison's Campaign, describes the battle of Blenheim. 



Of English didactic poetry, Tusser's Good Husbandry, is one of 

 the oldest specimens, quaint but valuable. Gascoigne's Fruits of 

 War, is well argued and noble ; and Greville's (Lord Brooke's) poem 

 on Human Learning, is one of merit ; as also Daniel's Musophilus, 

 in defence of learning. The Immortality of the Soul, by Davies, 

 is an admirable argument ; and Prior's Alma, or Progress of the 

 Mind, is a popular poem, superior to his Solomon, or the Vanity of 

 the World, which is wanting in force. The Spleen, a poem by 

 Green, gives good directions for preserving cheerfulness ; and Arm- 

 strong's Jlrt of Preserving Health, is an excellent treatise on Hy- 

 gienics. John Philips's Pomona, a poem on Cider, is amusing and 

 practical; and Darwin's Botanic Garden, is worthy of the horticul- 

 turist's perusal. Pope's Essay on Criticism, is superior ; and 

 Churchill's Eosciad, is a good criticism on theatrical performances. 

 Ambrose Philips wrote a poem on Education ; and Stillingfleet one 

 on Conversation. Pope's Essay on Man, has been widely read ; and 

 his Moral Essays, are rich in thought and diction. Cowper's Task, 

 is a valuable and instructive poem; and Beattie's J/zVis/re/, is noble and 

 sublime. Young's Complaint, or Night Thoughts, is a deeply pious 

 production; and Pollok's Course of Time, is a lofty flight of genius. 

 The poems of Heber, White, and Miss Hannah More, are chiefly 

 didactic, and very beautiful. Of satirical poetry, Butler's Hudibras, 

 in ridicule of the dissenters in Cromwell's time, is witty, but coarse 

 and vulgar. Pope's Dunciad, and GifFord's Baviad, and Mseviad, 

 are satires on bad, but conceited writers. Byron's English Bards 

 and Scotch Reviewers, is a similar satire, but unjustly severe. Young 

 left seven satires on the Universal Passion, or the love of fame. The 

 satires of Wolcot, (Peter Pindar), against George III., are of little 

 worth. 



Of English dramatic poetry, the great and early master is Shak- 

 speare ; whose truth to nature and richness of imagination have pro- 

 bably never been surpassed. Of his tragedies, we would mention 

 Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and Othello ; and 



