"A wit's a feather, and a chief a rod; "An honeft man's the nobleft work of God." Were the first of thefe lines, or a line equally unmeaning, placed last, the couplet would have appeared execrable to a person of the most moderate taste. It affords a strong confirmation of the foregoing obfervations, that the Poets of fome nations have delighted in the practice of alliteration, as well as of rhyme; and have even confidered it as an effential circumstance in verfification. Dr. Beattie obferves, that "fome antient English poems are more distinguished 66 by alliteration, than by any other poetical contri"vance. In the works of Langland, even when no "regard is had to rhyme, and but little to a rude "fort of anapestic measure, it seems to have been a "rule, that three words, at leaft, of each line fhould begin with the fame letter." A late author informs us, that, in the Icelandic poetry, alliteration is confidered as a circumstance no less essential than rhyme*. He mentions also feveral other restraints, which must add wonderfully to the difficulty of verfification; and which appear to us to be perfectly arbitrary and capricious. If that really be the cafe, the whole plea-. fure of the reader or hearer arifes from his furprise at the facility of the Poet's compofition under these com "The Icelandic poetry requires two things; viz. words "with the fame initial letters, and words of the fame found. It " was divided into ftanzas, each of which confifted of four "couplets; and each of these couplets was again composed of "two hemisticks, of which every one contained fix fyllables; "and it was not allowed to augment this number, except in "cafes of the greatest acceffity." See VAN TROIL's Letters on Iceland, p. 208. plicated restraints; that is, from his furprise at the command which the Poet has acquired over his thoughts and expreffions. In our rhyme, I acknowledge, that the coincidence of found is agreeable in itfelf; and only affirm, that the pleasure which the ear receives from it, is heightened by the other confideration. III. Of Poetical Fancy. THERE is another habit of affociation, which, in fome men, is very remarkable; that which is the foundation of Poetical Fancy: a talent which agrees with Wit in fome circumstances, but which differs from it effentially in others. The pleasure we receive from Wit, agrees in one particular with the pleasure which arises from poetical allufions; that in both cafes we are pleased with contemplating an analogy between two different fubjects. But they differ in this, that the man of Wit has no other aim than to combine analogous ideas*; whereas no allufion can, with propriety, have a place in ferious poetry, unlefs it either illuftrate or adorn the principal fubject. If it has both thefe recommendations, the allufion is perfect. If it has neither, as is often the cafe with the allufions of Cowley and of Young, the Fancy of the Poet degenerates into Wit. If these obfervations be well-founded, they fuggeft a rule with refpect to poetical allufions, which has not always been fufficiently attended to. It frequently * I fpeak here of pure and unmixed wit and not of wit, blended, as it is most commonly, with fome degree of humour. happens, happens, that two fubjects bear an analogy to each other in more respects than one; and where such can be found, they undoubtedly furnish the most favourable of all occafions for the difplay of Wit. But, in serious poetry, I am inclined to think, that however ftriking these analogies may be; and although each of them might, with propriety, be made the foundation of a separate allufion; it is improper, in the course of the fame allufion, to include more than one of them; as, by doing fo, an author difcovers an affectation of Wit, or a defire of tracing analogies, instead of illuftrating or adorning the fubject of his compofition. I formerly defined Fancy to be a power of affociating ideas according to relations of refemblance and analogy. This definition will probably be thought too general; and to approach too near to that given of Wit. In order to discover the neceffary limitations, we fhall confider what the circumstances are, which please us in poetical allufions. As thefe allufions are fuggefted by Fancy, and are the most striking inftances in which it displays itself, the received rules of Critics with respect to them, may throw fome light on the mental power which gives them birth. 1. An allufion pleafes, by illuftrating a subject comparatively obfcure. Hence, I apprehend, it will be found, that allufions from the intellectual world to the material, are more pleafing, than from the material world to the intellectual. Mafon, in his Ode to Memory, compares the influence of that faculty over our ideas, to the authority of a general over his troops: "thou, "thou, whofe fway "The throng'd ideal hofts obey; "Who bidft their ranks now vanish, now appear; "Flame in the van, or darken in the rear. Would the allufion have been equally pleafing, from a general marshalling his foldiers, to Memory and the fucceffion of ideas? The effect of a literal and fpiritlefs tranflation of a work of genius, has been compared to that of the figures which we fee, when we look at the wrong fide of a beautiful piece of tapestry. The allufion is ingenious and happy; but the pleasure which we receive from it arifes, not merely from the analogy which it prefents to us, but from the illuftration which it affords of the author's idea. No one, fure. ly, in fpeaking of a piece of tapestry, would think of comparing the difference between its fides, to that between an original compofition and a literal tranflation! Cicero, and after him Mr. Locke, in illustrating the difficulty of attending to the subjects of our consciousness, have compared the Mind to the Eye, which fees every object around it, but is invifible to itself. To have compared the Eye, in this respect, to the Mind, would have been abfurd. Mr. Pope's comparison of the progress of youthful curiofity, in the pursuits of science, to that of a traveller among the Alps, has been much, and justly, admired. How would the beauty of the allufion have been diminished, if the Alps had furnished the original fubject, and not the illuftration! But But although this rule holds, in general, I acknowledge, that inftances may be produced, from our most celebrated poetical performances, of allufions from material objects, both to the intellectual and the moral worlds. Thefe, however, are comparatively few in number, and are not to be found in defcriptive or in didactic works; but in compofitions written under the influence of fome particular paffion, or which are meant to express fome peculiarity in the mind of the author. Thus, a melancholy man, who has met with many misfortunes in life, will be apt to moralize on every phyfical event, and every appearance of nature; because his attention dwells more habitually on human life and conduct, than on the material objects around him. This is the cafe with the banished Duke, in Shakefpeare's As you like it; who, in the language of that Poet, "Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, But this is plainly a distempered ftate of the mind; and the allufions please, not fo much by the analogies they prefent, as by the picture they give of the character of the perfon to whom they have oc curred. 2. An allufion pleases, by prefenting a new and beautiful image to the mind. The analogy or the refemblance between this image and the principal fub. ject, is agreeable of itself, and is indeed neceflary, to furnish an apology for the tranfition which the writer makes, but the pleasure is wonderfully heightened, when the new image thus prefented is a beautiful one. 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