Poetry. 187 



has not passed without two important events. The 

 Iliad, that great parent stock of epic productions, 

 has been, in the course of the last century, incor- 

 porated with English poetry, by the genius of Mr. 

 Pope; and Fingaland Temora have been recalled 

 from a long oblivion by the labours of Mr. Mac- 

 pherson. In the former, this age may boast of 

 having produced the noblest translation ever pre- 

 sented to the republic of letters; and in the latter 

 of having recovered a work of true and uncommon 

 genius, which, on several accounts, will probably 

 be read with pleasure for many centuries to come, 

 whatever opinion may be formed with respect to 

 its origin. 



The history of German literature, during the 

 eighteenth century, presents us with an epic poem, 

 which some have brought into competition with 

 the Paradise Lost. This is the Messiah of Klop- 

 stock, a work which has been, perhaps, more 

 read throughout the literary world, and honoured 

 with more general approbation than any other 

 poetic production of the same country. The Mes- 

 siah certainly may be, in some respects, ad- 

 vantageously compared with the Paradise Lost. 

 Though the former does not possess the " gigantic 

 sublimity" of the latter, yet it elevates the mind 

 by the grandeur and novelty of its fiction, and dis- 

 plays more tenderness and pathos.'" The Death of 

 Abel is not less familiar to every intelligent reader, 



m Herder, an eloquent German writer, thus compares the Paradise Lost 

 and The Messiah: " The edifice of Milton is a stedfast and well-planned 

 building, resting on ancient columns: Klopstock's is an enchanted dome, 

 echoing with the softest and purest tones of human feeling, hovering be- 

 tween heaven and earth, borne on angels' shoulders. Milton's muse is 

 masculine: Klopstock's is a tender woman, dissolving in pious ecstacies, 

 warbling elegies and hymns. When music shall acquire among us the high- 

 est powers of her art, whose words will she select to utter but those of 

 Klopstock?" Letters on Humanization. This is quoted from the Literary 

 Hours of Dr. Drake, who says that " impartial posterity will probably 

 confirm the judgment of Herder." A good English translation of Tie 

 JMessiah is still a desideratum. 



