I know not one in the poem that is not fuperlative in its kind. The defcription of the failing in Stan. 8. 9. muft delight every reader. The comparisons in Stan. 60. are so fine as to demand particular remark, in spite of the general praise of Taffo's fimiles which I have just expreffed. THE reproaches of Armida to Rinaldo in Canto XVI. are of exquifite fpirit: Vattene pur crudel, con quella pace Nova furia co ferpi e con la face Tanto t'agitero quanto t'amai. &c. THIS ftroke, tho minute, fpeaks the mafter. Mille affetti in un guardo appajon misti. Cant. XVIII. TASSO Very often attains the moral axiomatic fublime: here is another inftance from Book XIX. Ov'e, Signor, la tua virtute antica? (Diffe il Soldan tutto crucciofo all' ora) Tolgaci i regni pur forte nemica :- 2 and and yet another inftance from the fame Canto: Prefe i nemici han fol le mura e i tetti, E'l vulgo umil, non la cittade, han presa : Ne le man voftre, e la citta comprefa. IN the Laft Book the defcription of Godfrey's appearance before the decifive battle is wonderful. Vaffene e tale e in vifta il fommo Duce, THESE minute touches are excellent: E nel cadere egli ode Dar gridendo i nemici al colpo lode. La via d'onor de la falute e via. NOTHING but the contracted limits of a Letter can excuse my making fo diminutive a felection of beauties from a performance fo rich in them. Indeed you will eafily perceive that my aim, thro the whole, hath been rather to avoid noticing the innumerable beautiful pasfages that presented themselves, than to search for them, as a critic of lefs contracted province ought to do. LETTER LETTER LVI. ORD BACON, in his Effays, has given us what he calls the true marshalling of the degrees of fovereign honour in the following order. I. Founders of ftates, as Romulus, &c. II. Lawgivers as Lycurgus, Solon, &c. III. Deliverers of their country. IV. Enlargers and Defenders of their country, and dominion. V. Fathers of their country; as just kings and rulers. THE names of several great men whom he claffes under these heads I cannot approve : for inftance in the I. he claffes Cyrus, Cæfar, Ottoman. In the III. Auguftus Cæfar, Vespasian, Aurelian, Theodoric, our Henry VII, and Henry IV of France. He feems to forget that he might have had from Greece immaculate examples of all his ranks of celebrity. However, the degrees cannot be objected to in any point, but this, that he ought to have placed his IId rank firft; for it is certainly a more difficult, and a more glorious, work to give laws to a state, Kk 3 ftate, than to found it. The latter is a work of chance; the former of labour, and profoundest fcience of every kind, I HAVE often thought that it might be a matter of fome curiofity, not to say importance, to attempt a fimilar fcale of literary and scientific fame. The great branches of human art and fcience are, if I remember right, I. Natural and Moral Philofophy, II. Poetry. III. Hiftory. IV. Painting, V. Mufic, VI. Architecture. VII. Sculpture. VIII. Criticism, and other leffer kinds of profe writing. There is an infinite number of more minute difcriminations of fcience; but, upon examination, we fhall find that true celebrity has only fprung from one or other of thefe greater fources, or their divifions, The greater fources are formed from a numerous variety of springs, upon any of which if a candidate's bark is properly launched, he may be carried into the univerfal ocean of fame with fwelling fails. For example; in Natural Philofophy are contained Medicine, Chèmistry, Botany, Aftronomy, Geometry, &c, eminence in any of which is a fure path to lafting reputation and the like is applicable to the other larger divifions. COMMON |