'SecT/.'V.] Descriplive Podtnj. 31 



Goldsmith, are so well known, and have been so 

 generally admh'ed, that a formal and detailed ac- 

 count of their beauties is altogether unnecessary. 

 His versification has been pronounced more sweet 

 and harmonious than that of any other poet ; and 

 both his sentiments and imagery display excel- 

 lence of the first order. The Wander ej\ by Sa- 

 vage, discovers a large portion of those various 

 and extraordinary powers which distinguished 

 that unfortunate and degraded man *. It teem.'i 

 with beautiful imagery, with " strong descriptions 

 of nature, and just observations on life." The 

 Shipwreck, by Falconer -j-, is well known, and has 

 been universally esteemed, as abounding with the 

 richest beauties. Scarcely, if at all, inferior, in 

 descriptive excellence, to any that have been men- 

 tioned, are some of the poems of Robert Burns, 

 the Ayrshire bard \. Though his versification is 

 frequently faulty, yet, for ease and vigour of Ian- 



* It is generally known that this extraordinary man was the 

 son of Anne, countess of Macclesfield, by an adulterous corx- 

 nexion with earl Rivers. His great talents, the unnatural cruelty 

 of his mother, his degrading vices, his accumulated distresses, 

 and his melancholy end, have been so often the subject of min- 

 gled astonishment and regret, that to attempt to describe them is 

 as unnecessary as it would be unpleasant. He vvas born in 1698, 

 and died in 174-3, one of the most remarkable instances of unfor- 

 tunate genius that the age produced. 



t William Falconer was a native of Scotland. His Shipiireck 

 was published about the year 1762. He was a seaman by pro- 

 fession ; and going out in 1769 in the Aurora frigate, was never 

 -heard of afterward. 



I Robert Burns was born in Ayrshire, in 1758. He first 

 became celebrated as a poet about the year 1787, and died mi- 

 jserably at Dumfries iu 1796. See Dr. Currie's v«ry interesting 

 Life of this poet< 



