4 Poetry. [Chap. XX, 



it, and contributed much to discourage the un- 

 worthy fashion. Dryden went still further, in 

 some respects, in rectifying the public taste. But 

 toward 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, there- 

 fore, is in general more delicate in its sentiments, 

 more correct and elegant in its diction, more 

 chaste in. its figures and illustrations, more har- 

 monious in its numbers, and on the whole more 

 simple and natural in its structure, than that of 

 any preceding age. 



The impro^ ements 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 persons 

 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. Amiong the earliest and most successful 

 labourers in attuning the German language to 

 poetry were Haller, Kleist, Klopstock, Gesner, 

 and Wieland. Before the works of these great 

 literary reformers appeared, this language could 

 scarcely boast of any poems superior to those of 

 Gottsched and Schoonaik. A poetic diction wa^ 



