l8o MEMOIRS OP 



fancy adorn it with fome rare, and lovely 

 flowers, " allows to ornament but a fecond 

 " place, and always renders it iubordinate 

 " to intrinfic worth and juft defign." To 

 whomfocver he might have been practically 

 inferior on themes he has left unattempted, 

 he is furely not inferior to Ovid ; and if 

 poetic tafte is not much degenerated, or 

 fliall not hereafter degenerate, the Botanic 

 Garden will live as long as the Metamor- 

 phofes. 



That in his poetic ftyle Dr. Darwin is a 

 mannerift cannot be denied; but fo was 

 Milton, in the Paradife Loft ; fo was Young, 

 in the Night Thoughts ; fo was Akenfide, 

 in the Pleafures of Imagination. The Dar- 

 winian peculiarity is in part formed by the 

 very frequent ufe of the imperative mood, 

 generally beginning the couplet either with 

 that, or with the verb aclive, or the noun 

 perfonal. Hence, the accent lies oftener 

 on the firft fyllable of each couplet in his 

 i verfe 



