. BARAVltf. 



CHAPTER VI L 



BEFORE Dr. Darwin flood forth a candi- 

 date for the Delphic laurels, he was extremely 

 alive to the beauties of poetic literature, 

 as it rofe and expanded around him. No 

 perfon could be more ready to difcern and 

 to praife it's graces ; but, from the com- 

 mencement of the Botanic Garden, the 

 jealous fpirit of authorifm darkened his 

 candor. When, with avowed delight in 

 the poetic powers of Cowper's Tafk, the 

 writer of thefe ftridures, in converfation 

 with Dr. Darwin and Sir Brooke Boothby, 

 afked their opinion of that poem, each de- 

 clared they could not read it through; 

 each taxed it with egotifm, with profaicifm, 

 with a rough and flovenly ftyle, and with 



utter 



