A THEME OF THE ABLEST WRITERS. 377 



It is not surprising that hunting should have 

 been the theme of poets, as poetry then ceases to 

 be the language of fiction ; neither can the subject 

 itself be deemed unpoetical, as it affords an oppor- 

 tunity to expatiate, not merely on the beauties, 

 but also on the endowments of nature. That the 

 feelings of nature have more of rapture in them 

 than those which are excited through the medium 

 of science, is a fact which cannot, we think, be de- 

 nied ; and thus do we account for the exhilarating 

 passion of the chase. To describe a chase, however, 

 is a task of no small dijfficulty, and perhaps more 

 so in prose than in verse, as the imagination must 

 be powerfully excited by the transporting scenes on 

 which it has dwelt, and cannot well be restrained 

 in a mere recital of facts. When the noise of the 

 battle is over, powerful must be the pen that could 

 revive the clang of arms. " The chase is done,'' 

 sings Ossian ; '' and nothing is heard on Ardven 

 but the torrent's roar." 



Somerville's poem of The Chase will live to the 

 end of time ; for although it was not faultless in 

 the eyes of the perhaps too rigid Johnson, it is 

 written with the spirit and fire his subject de- 

 manded ; and many of the instructions it conveys, 

 when stripped of their poetical dress, are highly 

 esteemed by sportsmen of the present day. " Man- 

 ners," says Lord Kames, " are never painted to the 

 life by any one to vv^hom they are not familiar ;" 

 neither could a man have written the poem we speak 

 of unless he had been himself a sportsman. In- 

 deed his descriptions of hunting the hare, the stag, 

 2i 



