182 Poetry. 



to display their reading, rather than that chaste 

 simplicity which delights, and that " noble ex- 

 panse of thought, which fills the whole mind." 

 This race of poets, if such they maybe called, did 

 not become extinct till towards the close of the 

 seventeenth century. Cowley, Waller, Den- 

 ham, and many others, were infected with the false 

 taste which they had propagated, and thus ex- 

 tended the mischief. Milton, though he adopted, 

 in one instance, the manner of these metaphysical 

 versifiers, yet in general disdained it, and contri- 

 buted much to discourage the unworthy fashion. 

 Dryden went still further, in some respects, in 

 rectifying the public taste. But towards the close 

 of the century, a style of poetry which had so 

 long, and on such high authority, maintained its 

 ground, ceased to be popular. The English poetry 

 of the eighteenth century, therefore, is, in general, 

 more delicate in its sentiments, more correct and 

 elegant in its diction, more chaste in its figures and 

 illustrations, more harmonious in its numbers, and, 

 on the whole, more simple and natural in its struc- 

 ture, than that of any preceding age. 



The improvements in French Poetry, in the cen- 

 tury under consideration, though worthy of no- 

 tice, have been less numerous and remarkable. 

 With the nature of these, however, and the per- 

 sons to whom the honour of effecting them is chiefly 

 due, the author is not sufficiently acquainted to 

 enable him to speak distinctly. In improving the 

 poetry of Italy, Spain, and Portugal, it is believed 

 that still less has been done within the last hun- 

 dred years; but of this, also, too little is known 

 to warrant an attempt to give any distinct views 

 of the subject. 



The poetic character of Germany rose to great 

 eminence in the latter half of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury. Among the earliest and most successful la- 



