Here we have a perfect definition in common but adequate words. And the idea is carried out most pleasingly by such phrases as "hermit heart," "decent maiden" and "sister meek of truth." This delicate propriety of language is characteristic of Collins, and enables him to venture upon figures which a less chaste poet would urge into extravagance. How the imagination is filled and charmed by two images of one of his most famous odes:

When spring with dewy fingers cold
Returns to deck their hallowed mould.

There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,

To bless the turf that wraps their clay.

Who has not envied the sleep of the brave thus guarded and graced? Who has not been thrilled at the idea of beautiful spring "with dewy fingers cold" lingering over the hero's grave, and seen in fancy the august image of that gray pilgrim invoking a benediction upon the consecrated spot? In the twelve lines of this ode there is a world of meaning. The fancy and the heart are deeply impressed, and yet how simple the diction and unpretending the design. Mercy is characterized with the same felicity of metaphor and epithet:

Oh thou, who sitt'st a smiling bride,

By Valour's arm'd and awful side,

Gentlest of sky-born forms and best adored.

Subsequently she is represented as looking away rage, the most touching manner in which we can imagine her power to be exerted. A constant tendency to personify appears throughout the poetry of Collins. In his ode on the death of Colonel Ross, we have again the image of Honour slightly varied:

Blest youth, regardful of thy doom,
Erial hands shall build thy tomb,

With shadowy trophies crown'd;

Whil'st Honour bathed in tears shall rove
To sigh thy name through every grove,
And call his heroes round.

What bold images follow:

The warlike dead of every age,
Who fill the fair recording page,
Shall leave their sainted rest;
And half-reclining on his spear,
Each wandering chief by turns appear
To hail the blooming guest.

But lo, where sunk in deep despair,
Her garments torn, her bosom bare,
Impatient Freedom lies!

Her matted tresses madly spread,

To every sod which wraps the dead,
She turns her joyless eyes.

This spirited ode was written to commemorate the death of the poet's rival, who was affianced to the lady of his heart at the time of his decease. One of the few jokes related of Collins has reference to his unfortunate love. He was born within a few hours of his unkind mistress, and used to remark facetiously that he came into the world"the day after the fair." Few poets more successfully give us the sensation of a scene or an event than Collins. In his ode to Evening, he speaks of the beetle's "small but sullen horn," the "heedless hum," the "folding-star," and "the pensive pleasures" that "prepare the shadowy car," "hamlets brown,” “dimdiscovered spies" and "the gradual dusky veil—” expressions which make us almost sensibly feel the coming on of the twilight. It is a fine idea that Peace should be invoked, as in the following stanza, to unite herself with the only principle that makes her existence consistent with national dignity:

Let others court thy transient smile,
But come to grace thy western isle,

By warlike honour led;

And, while around her ports rejoice,

While all her sons adore thy choice,

With him forever wed!

The faith Collins placed in native inspiration as the source of poetry rather than art or study, is suggested by this invocation:

O Nature! boon from whence proceed,

Each forceful thought, each prompted deed;
If but from thee I hope to feel

On all my heart imprint thy seal!

Let some retreating cynic find

Those oft-turned scrolls I leave behind;

The sports and I this hour agree

To roam thy scene-ful world with thee.

In the attempt to appreciate the elements of genius, we should select the most complete specimen. Expression is at all times a difficult process and the most fluent poet often fails to give utterance to what is glowing in his mind. The fairest example of the poetry of Collins is his celebrated Ode on the Passions. Observation alone could not have gifted him so to describe as in this masterpiece of verse. The heart that prompted this picture must have known, in its own delicate and earnest workings, the mysterious fluctuation so vividly sketched. Rare sympathy with human nature revealed these striking touches. Briefly as each passion is depicted, the key-note is struck which at once suggests what is left unsaid. How impressively the metrical harmony accords with the feelings portrayed. It was unnecessary to adapt this ode to music; the very numbers are melodiously expressive. What speaking figures of speech are those which make Fear strike the lyre with " one rude crash," and then recoil at a sound of its own creation; Despair call forth a strain alternately sad and wild ;

Hope appear with "eyes so fair," and awaken echo so typical of her own illusions; Jealousy, with no fixed cadence, restless and variable as its own perplexed mood; melancholy's notes "by distance made more sweet and dying away "in hollow murmurs;" Cheerfulness with "buskin gemmed with morning dew" beguiling forth "brown exercise" and "sylvan boys peeping from their alleys green" and Mirth shaking "a thousand odours from her dewy wings!" In this one production how much of the essence of true poetry is concentrated. How it sets at nought the superficial criticism of Dr. Johnson. How eloquently does it suggest the depth of feeling, the susceptibility and the beautiful insight which distinguished the genius of Collins. If this gem was not originally recognised at its true value, later times have made amends for previous neglect. An adept in the art of elocution can give a pathos, and vividness to this ode of which few English poems are capable. Its variety is admirable, its imagery bold and glowing, and the whole conception warm with the imaginative beauty of a poet's mind. It has made dear the name of Collins, and hallowed the memory of his sufferings, by associating them with the sacred legacy of genius.

POPE.

THAT System of compensation which is thought by many to balance the apparent inequalities of human destiny, is strikingly illustrated in the case of Alexander Pope. Born in obscurity, he achieved a great reputation, extremely feeble in frame, his mind was singularly ener getic, cut off by deformity from many accomplishments, he gave to his intellectual efforts an unrivalled elegance. Who would have imagined, in contemplating the delicate and misshapen child, that life, by any possibility, could prove any thing to him but a weary experience, whose monotony would be totally unrelieved? Yet glance at the adventures of his poetical career, and in number and variety they will be found equal to those of many a hale knight or wild votary of fashion, At what a tender age

he renounced the dictation of masters, assumed the reins of education, and resolutely launched into the profession of a poet! How soon he was engaged in a quarrel with Ambrose Phillips, and what a long satirical contest ensued with Dennis and Cibber! Then followed his intimacy with Lady Montague; their fierce encounters of wit; their friendship, correspondence, and mutual enmity. These and similar scenes of literary animosity, were brightened by friendly intercourse with Gay, Swift, and Bolingbroke, and relieved by long periods of study and composition, visits to noblemen, short journeys, and domestic duties

And thus the weak and diminutive poet