174 MEMOIRS OF 



poetry, while it delights the imagination, 

 leaves the nerves at reft, may be, that he 

 feldom mixes with the picturefque the (as 

 it is termed in criticifm) moral epithet, 

 .meaning that quality of the thing men- 

 tioned, which pertains more to the mind, 

 or heart, than to the eye, and which, in- 

 ftead of picture, excites fenfation. Shake- 

 fpear gives no diftincT: picture of the glow- 

 worm, lince the only epithet he ufes for it 

 is not defcriptive of its appropriate luftre, 

 which has a tint fpecified in the enfuing 

 quotation. 



" From the bloom that fpreads 



" Refplendent in the lucid morn of May, 

 tr To the green light the little glow-worm fheds 

 '* On mofly banks, when midnight glooms prevail, 

 " And Silence broods o'er all the (helter'd dale." 



If Dr. Darwin alfo omits to mention the 

 particular hue of this infect, when it is 

 luminous, he conveys that hue to the 



imagi- 



