1308.] Lyceum of Ancient Literature—Didactic Poetry. 
mirable propriety, the effusions of his ge- 
nius. 
. Of another species of the didactic, 
which, without requiring so much as- 
sistance from the imagination of the poet, 
may yet be rendered equally interesting 
and pleasing, Horace has left us a noble 
specimen. In disclosing to the Pisos the 
rules of his art, he adopted a style clear, 
simple and unadorned. The same poet 
who had been accustomed to the fire and 
irregular profusion of the ode, was satis- 
fied with the plain and familiar language 
of imstruction. He disdained to en- 
cumber with ornament a subject in itself 
sufficiently varied and beautiful, and of 
which the theory never could be barren. 
Elementary ideas, often new, and always 
pregnant with sense and meaning, form 
the principal features of this beautiful 
piece; and while poetry shall continue to be 
held in estimation among mankind, so long 
will this abridged code of its laws be per- 
used with profit and delight, and be in- 
debted for its duration to the solidity of 
itsmatter. But Boileau, to whom Aris- 
totle and Horace had left little to add, 
who in his art of poetry has not presented 
to us one idea that can properly be said 
to be his own—the judicious Boileau felt, 
that precision, propriety, and the most 
industrious mechanism of verse, could not 
alone give interest to precepts already 
knewn. He has therefore decorated 
them with all the elegance and graces 
which poetry could bestow. He ha 
translated Horace, and imitated Virgil, 
with admirable ingenuity and taste. This 
is undoubtedly the method which should 
be observed by all didactic poets; and the 
less his subject is susceptible of import- 
ance or interest, the more it will stand in 
need of necessary crnaments, He must 
study to vary its form, enrich it with de- 
tails, spread through the whole a genial 
ray of warmth and life, and endeavour to 
render elegant, rapid, and easy, that 
which seldom has, and indeed seldom re- 
quires, the grandeur and animation of 
the epic or the ode. The “ Eloquentiz 
genus,” to use the words of Quintilian 
(lib. xi. c. 1.) should not, as in the Epic, 
be plenum et ergctum, et audax et pre- 
celsum, but rather pressum, et mite, et 
limatum. 
In all didactic works, method and or- 
der are essentially requisite; not so strict 
and formal as in a prose treatise, yet 
such as may exhibit clearly to the reader 
a connected train of instruction. Ho- 
race, whom we haye so justly praised, has 
Sk 
been the most censured for want of me- 
thod. ‘This is afault which may in gene- 
ral be applied to all his writings. He 
writes with ease and gracefulness, but 
eften in a loose and rambling style. Bat 
if the “‘ Ars poetica” be considered as 
intended for the regulation of the drama, 
which seems to have heen the author's 
chief purpose, it will be found te be a 
more regular treatise than under the 
common notion of its being a system of 
the whole poeticalart. Bishop Uurd has 
shewn “ that Horace observed a strict 
method and unity of design in his Epistle 
to the Pisones; and although the connec 
tions are delicately fine, and almost im- 
perceptible, like the secret hinges of a 
well-wrought hox, yet they artfully and 
closely unite together, and givecoherence, 
uniformity, and beauty, to the work.” 
With regard to episodes, descriptions, 
and other similar embellishments, suih- 
cient liberty is allowed to writers in dix 
dactic poetry. We are soon tired of a 
continued series of instructions, especi- 
ally in a poetical work, where we look 
for entertainment. The great art of 
rendering it interesting, is to relieve and 
amuse the reader by connecting some 
agreeable episodes with the principal 
subject. These are always the parts of a 
work witich are best known, and which 
contribute most to the reputation of the 
poet. They should be in themselves in- 
teresting, and so placed as to illustrate 
rather than interrupt the thread of the 
subject. It is in the proper distinction 
of these ornaments that the judgment of 
the poet is more particularly displayed. 
If they occur too rarely, the attention of 
the reader is fatigued; if too frequently, it 
is distracted from the more essential ob-= 
jectofthe poem. Virgil, whom we must 
again cite as the most perfect of all du 
dactic writers, is in no instance more ad- 
mirable than inthis. The principal beau- 
ties of the Georgics lie in digressions of 
this kind, in which he has excited all the 
powers of his genius, such as the prodi- 
gies that attended the death of Czsar, the 
praise of Italy, the happiness of a country 
life, the fable of Aristeus and the pathetic 
tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the 
same manner the favourite passages in 
the poem of Lucretius, and which alone 
would render such a dry subject tolerable 
in poetry, are the digressions on the evils 
of superstition, the praise of Epicurus and 
his philosophy, and the description of 
the plague, and the incidental allusions, 
which are remarkably elegant and adorn- 
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