which consume and destroy mankind; Peace, Mercy, Pity, these are the themes he delights to dress and adorn with all his pomp of imagery; and his gentle spirit seems to have been wounded with the contemplation of the miseries of his race. The image of Peace escaping to the skies, and just saving her hair from the furious grasp of her enemy, is appropriate and beautiful,

66

-tergoque fugaci

“Imminet, et crinem sparsum cervicibus adflat.” This Ode was probably written during the war of the

Austrian succession.

THE MANNERS.

That COLLINS was more

fond of abstract and metaphysical ideas than of the busy haunts of common life, his works sufficiently evince. It must, therefore, have been in some moment of disgust against the usual train of his ideas, that he professes himself desirous to abandon the philosophic porch for the walks of life; and speculation, for wit and humour. We may reason

C

ably conclude, however, that with wit and humour

as well as with speculation, his acquaintance was formed through books; and that when he speaks of studying the Manners, he had only laid down his Plato to take up Gil Blas. The scintillations of wit are ingeniously alluded to by,

"The jewels in his crisped hair,

66 placed each other's beams to share.” The remark that the name of humour is known only to Britain's favoured isle, is calculated to mislead; since surely no one will pretend that the thing is peculiar to our own country; and it is of little importance that the terms do not exactly correspond in different languages. LE SAGE should not have been characterized by the story of Blanche, which, though beautiful, is not in his peculiar style of excellence, and has more to do with the high passions than with Manners. Indeed the subject

isn ot particularly proper for an Ode, and, though not devoid of merit, this is by no means one of his most striking pieces.

THE PASSIONS. The connection of Music with Poetry, and their united power over the Passions, has been a favorite theme of authors. DRYDEN, who had a musical ear, and POPE who had none, have both written Odes for St. Cecilia's day. To try his strength with these great masters, was an exertion worthy of the ambition, and not above the powers of COLLINS. This Ode to the Passions may be considered as the happiest production of his pen. His art is the more to be admired, as he has not, like his predecessors, taken advantage of a story for the basis of his piece; but has raised it solely on an allegorical fiction of his own.

who had often crowded round the

The Passions,

cell of Music,

while she sung in early Greece, being once upon a time more than usually affected, and raised into a kind of ecstacy, snatched her instrument which hung upon the surrounding myrtles, and produced, each of them, a strain suitable to the peculiar expres

sion of his character.

The Passions are thus enu

merated in the beautiful lines of Pope,

"Love, Hope, and Joy, fair Pleasure's smiling

“train,

"Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of Pain." This division is not exactly followed. Hate is given under the different modifications of Anger and Revenge. Fear, with that of Despair. Jealousy is introduced; a passion compounded of many others. Grief is, with the happiest effect, softened into Melancholy. Joy is preceded by Cheerfulness; and Love, all-powerful Love, is only mentioned incidentally. The reader may perhaps expect from the frame of the piece that an appropriate instrument should be found for every passion, as in the ingenious paper of ADDISON, in which characters are resembled to musical instruments. This however is not the case. To some of the passions no particular instrument is assigned. Anger and Joy have two; and the horn, though with " an altered tone" is common to Melancholy and Cheerfulness.

The aim of the Poet was rather to describe them by their manner of playing, than by a circumstance which, if extended to every one, might have given rather a formal air to the Poem, and allied it more to wit than to fancy. In the order in which they are brought forward, the sole view seems to have been that they should relieve one another; Melancholy is followed by Cheerfulness; the song of Hope is broken off by Revenge; and his movements are contrasted by those of Pity. It may perhaps be asked, why Fear is set in the front of the contest ; he is described, however, very characteristically. He does not properly play, he lays his “hand, bewilder'd, amid the "chords," and is startled at the sound he has himself produced. Anger sweeps the lyre in one rude clash. It is rather a violent fiction to make Despair play at all. So deadening a sensation hardly leaves room for any exertion.

The

next is truly enchanting. It begins with a sprightly

apostrophe,

"But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair.