Radcliffe. Draw Evelina from her native shade, To own and feel the impulse of her sway. 190 [die, While Nature howls, and Mirth's gay whispers Her eye on fire-her soul in ecstasy! See bolder Radcliffe* take her boundless flight, 201 has most simplicity---but I think that Cecilia manifests most genius, and excites greatest interest. *This lady, who has been called a mighty magician, soars amid the wild regions of romance. Her imagination is strong and daring; and, though it sometimes fails in its attempt, it is generally successful. In her department of genius, in the present day, none can approach her. She leaves far behind her the monks and castle spectres. It is remarkable of this writer, that, from her first performance to the last, she has been advancing to greater excellence. Her Italian is the noblest production of her pen, and one which Zenobia; Sappho. A light appears--some hollow voice is near---- To her unfold the golden doors of Fame. 210 This truth, those names which we have past declare, Whom Fiction wafts transported thro' the air. -Where fall'n Palmyra moulders with the ground, And Terror spreads its misty robe around; The great Zenobia held her powerful sway, And with stern virtue bade her realms obey. Her mind unshaken all the world admire, And Pity, weeping, sees the queen expire. Hapless in love, in Sorrow's moving strain, Hear Sappho mourn her unrequited pain. 220 -Cold-hearted youth, where wanders Phaon now? Bend o'er the waves which beat the rock below; 230 Corinna; Mary Queen of Scots. All aid is vain-ye rolling billows cease! She seeks with you the silent arms of peace, -Hear bold Corinna* strike her lyric string, And bear young Pindar on her eagle wing. -With "Lion port" and with a nervous hand, Eliza sway'd the sceptre of her land. --Nurs'd on the bosom of luxurious France, The queen of Scotland led the airy dance, Love's softest lustre wanton'd o'er her face, 239 Her limbs were form'd, her actions mov'd, in grace. Gay "laughs the morn"---the sullen night appears--- *It is said that Corinna was the instructor of Pindar; and often, in competition with him, bore away the prize. + Who does not wish to vindicate the character of Mary, queen of Scots ? What heart has not bled over her interesting history? Who does not lament her thoughtless levities, her criminal follies? Who does not execrate the stern policy, the hardened vices of Elizabeth, which doomed to the scaffold this enchanting woman, unrivalled in loveliness, accomplishments, and distresses? Who, that has read her Colonna; Dacier; More; Barbauld. How sweet and musically flows that lay, Which now in murmurs softly dies away; Colonna * bending o'er her husband's bier, 250 Breathes those sad numbers hallowed with her tear. 260 Hear Montague repel light Voltaire's rage, Carter both Science and Invention own And Genius welcomes from her watchful throne. On Barbauld's verse the circling muses smile, And hail her brightest songstress of the British isle. beautiful lamentation on her unhappy fate, does not feel the fervour and pathos of her genius? * Criticism has called this lady the first poetess of Italy. Dispensations of Genius. But few can sway the boundless field of art; To few will Genius all her gifts impart.* One, she enables on the winds to soar, And higher regions of the air explore. 272 *The instances are innumerable which confirm this assertion. I shall notice some, which are the most striking--Cicero, the first name on the page of antiquity, failed in his attempts at poetry.---Archimedes, whose name may stand for a large class devoted to mathematics, had little taste for any other branch of literature, than geometry. There are not a few, who would prefer the investigation of the legs and wings of the most tiny insect, to the contemplation of the brightest planet that rolls through the worlds of space! Berkeley, to the exclusion of most other employments, was for ever attempting to dig in a well without a bottom---while Gray, who, at his time, was pronounced to be the first scholar in Europe, had no taste either for mathematics or metaphysics; in a letter to his friend are contained the following sentences, "Must I plunge into metaphysics? Alas! I cannot see in the dark; Nature has not furnished me with the optics of a cat. Must I pore upon mathematics? Alas! I cannot see in too much light; I am no eagle. It is very possible that two and two make four, but I would not give four farthings to demonstrate this ever so clearly; and if these be the profits of life, give me the amusements of it." Perhaps the three modern writers who possessed the most universal genius were Leibnitz, Milton, and Haller. E |