IG Poetiy. [Chap. XX- 



work of high excellence *. Never sinking below 

 the dignity of his subject, he is always chaste, 

 correct, instructive, and elegant. The Grave, a 

 didactic poem, by Blair, is a work of great merit, 

 and general popularity; highly poetical in its 

 diction, and just and elevated in its sentiments. 



The English Garden of Mr. Mason, may also 

 be mentioned as a very finished and interesting 

 specimen of didactic composition. Simple, natu- 

 ral, and interesting in his descriptions, luminous 

 and instructive in his philosophy, and purely mo- 

 ral in his sentiments, he is by no means the least 

 of those authors on whose works the honour of 

 English poetry, for the last fifty years, miist rest. 

 In the Botanic Garden, by Dr. Darwin, there is 

 a bold attempt " to inlist Imagination under the 

 banner of Science," to an extent beyond example. 

 In this attempt the author has been successful to 

 a degree which does him much honour as a poet. 

 He unites great extent of learning with singular 

 variety and felicity of allusion, and a pleasing 

 harmony and splendour of versification. But it 

 must be acknowledged that there is a unifor- 

 mity, which at length fatigues, and does not so 

 much interest the reader as many less correct and 

 less regular performances f , The Minstrel, by Dr. 



* Lord Monboddo pronounces this poem to be the best speci- 

 men of didactic poetry in the English language, and equal to any, 

 ancient or modern. — Origin and Progress of Language. 



■f It has been suggested that the author of the Loves of the 

 Plants v/as considerably indebted to the Connubia Florian of de 

 la Croix, both in the plan and execution of his work. This 

 beautiful Latin poem was first published in France, about the 



