428 
and Erasmus the wit was born at Rot- 
terdam. 
Education, {of which government 
forms a considerable part) appears to 
influence genius far more than climate. 
-Bacen lived under Elizabeth, when 
science was a fashion, and when people 
_were accustomed to think deeply: 
Siiakspeare also adorned her reign; 
and though-endowed with every faculty 
of mind which could be defined genius, 
we can scarcely suppose he would have 
been equally sublime, had he written in 
the present day. 
¢s Whenever criticism flourishes, a sevese 
and minute taste will be cultivated, and 
the luxuriances of imagination lopp’d_off.”* 
The peculiarity of his phrase, in which 
his genius appears as conspicuously as 
his thought, the concise amplitude, vigour 
and boldness of his expressions, are cen- 
sured by a critic of our own, partial to 
the French scxool, who tauntingly 
observes among the faults of English 
authors, “ that they would be all ge- 
nius.” | . 
Cowley, it must be acknowledged, 
was a wit: but_he lived when the times 
were not frivolous. The poets of the 
seventeenth century were men of learn-- 
ing; and it was essential for the reader 
to be learned also, to receive any pleas 
sure from their works, or even to under- 
stand them. But though the fancy was 
uncharmed, and the passions unraffecied, 
the understanding was fully exercised, 
and all the powers of recollection and 
inquiry awakened by the perusal: we 
cannot but respect an age (whatever be 
our opinion of tts taste) when a poet dis- 
tinguished by scholastic speculation, and 
a wit by metaphysical researches, were 
held in such high estimation. 
Milton wrote when England was a 
republic, and he was embued with the 
spirit of his party: we can always dis- 
cern under republican governments a 
strength of thought, and energy of expres- 
sion, in its writers; which are lost under 
monarchies, 15 times Of refinement, 
The genius of a people will have a 
corresponding language; the Greck was 
that of a polite people, who cultivated a 
great taste for arts aud sciences: the use 
of the participles gives it a peculiar force 
and brevity, without taking any thing 
from its perspicuity: if is copious, sono- 
rous, and varied. The Latin, which 
r 
# Shaites 
bury. 
On- Genitts. 
[June 1, 
has strength and expression, suited the 
character of the Romans; warlike, and 
engaged in battles and commotions. 
It was admirably adapted to history and 
nervous popular eloquence, in which they 
exceliéd ; more figurative than the Eng 
lish, less pliant than the French, less copi- 
ous than the Greek, and less melodious 
than the Italian. : 
The Italian indeed is a proof that 
language degenerates with the genius 
of a nation into effeminacy: its sweét- ~ 
ness, smoothness, and harmony, are 
substituted for strength; and it furnishes 
an instance that the character of a peo- 
ple, yet living under that sky where 
valour once was universal, is more 
influenced by government than climate. 
In the east, where temperature and 
Mahometanism combine to influence 
the imagination, the human mind has 
lost much of its capacity and powers. 
It has been observed by an admired - 
writer, that the Arabie, the sweetest and 
most copious of the eastern tongues, 
was peculiarly adapted te charm the ~ 
shepherd and the soldier, (with whom it 
was vernacular), in those wild and beau- 
tiful compositions of their poets, in 
which 
occupations of love and war; and it 
were celebrated their favourite 
became, in the hands of Mahomet, a 
powerfu! instrument of fascination to 
men little qualified to judge of any works 
of genius, but those addressed to the 
fancy and the heart. 
In the west, under the auspices of a 
better government and a better religion, 
the mind attained a vigour in its intel- 
lectual exertions, an extent in its intel- 
lectual pursuits, and a success in their 
cultivation, utterly unknown in any other 
period of their history. 
The English has copiousness and 
~ strength; nor is it deficient in harmony, 
as its poetry, without the aid of rhyme, 
evinces. It derives its very forcible and 
significant words from the 
which are formed on the model of the 
Greek compounds; it may retain some- 
thing of the Gothic roughness, and somes 
times remind us of those who framed our 
Greek, | 
language; but we have enriched it with 
every tongue, and cultivated it with 
everyart. The brightest passages of Mil- 
ton and Shakspeare, (says an ingenious 
essayist) are so closely connected with 
the genius of our own language, that no 
foreigner can ever taste them in the 
original, nor can any translation convey 
an idea of their beauties: but this is not’ 
defect, * 
