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"But when the pomp is past, the peril o'er,
"Rebel against the rod they kiss'd before;

So cavilling tribes who roam the graphic waste,
"Scarce rescued from the savage state of taste,
"Assail the rights of Rubens, grudge his praise,
"And talk high treason 'gainst the state he
"But, when triumphant crown'd in every part,
sways;
"He moves in some vast enterprize of art,
"His lawful claims, licentious critics own;

And wond'ring painters bend before his throne.”
ELEM. Canto III. 1. 259.

Though no advocate for the pursuits of the Flemish School, he defends them liberally from the sneers of affectation, and the contempt of fastidious criticism.

"Let not the pedantry of taste despise

"The humbler beauties of Batavian skies:
"Tho' Painting there, no epic wreath requires,
"Nor feels, nor feigns to feel, poetic fires;
"Content on boors and burgomasters still,
"At wakes and weddings to display her skill;
"Tho' Fancy too, each towering flight deterr'd,
"Degenerates there, a tame domestic bird!
"In homely scenes alone, familiar found,
"To skip, and sport, and flutter on the ground;
"Strong in their glass reflected tho' we own,
"The broad low comedy of life alone;

"Yet Truth is there and Nature, while we trace
"Her coarser characters and common face,
"Avows her image mark'd in every part,
"And by her sanction consecrates their art."

ELEM. Canto III. 1. 339.

Many other passages might be pointed out, which reflect much honour on the author's taste and liberal mode of thinking; but the extracts already made, will be sufficient to convey a general idea of the poem. That it has many faults is true; but in a work of no higher pretensions, they may well be overlooked.

Of his prose style, it is scarcely necessary to say, after the specimens that have been exhibited, that it is vitiated and meretricious to a degree almost if not absolutely without parallel. He seems to have endeavoured to make every particular sen

tence, as it were, a picture; and to have selected for this purpose the most extravagant figures and the gaudiest colours. To speak in the terms of his own art, there is no keeping in his style; every part is equally laboured, and stands equally prominent. His metaphors are so grotesque and ridiculous, that it is not easy to say whether they will excite most mirth or contempt in the reader. It would be too severe a sentence on the writer, who could seriously talk of "stirring with his "small pebble the lake of public feeling," to doom him to the fate of St. Stephen; but it would be almost worth while to try whether a dip sufficient to let him know the nature of a lake, might not cure him of his metaphorical madness. It is very palpable that he has been frequently led into contradictions, by his inability to resist the temptation of pointing a sentence, or levelling a sarcasm. The little patches of Latin, with which he has here and there decked his work, neither improve its value nor appearance: but a trifling vanity of this sort deserves no severity of reprehension. There is certainly a good deal of novelty and spirit in many of the author's observations; but as a whole, his production cannot be better characterized than by a passage of his own, contained in a note to the fourth canto, p. 254.

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"Didactic writers, in general, are more desirous to shew themselves than their subject, and labour rather to display "the powers of their eloquence than the principles of their The author almost always supersedes the teacher; "and where they can amuse by their wit, they are seldom "solicitous to instruct by their science. Every thing, there"fore, is pompous and exaggerated; raised to the altitudes " of affected enthusiasm, or refined to the siftings of subtle "discrimination."

LES TROIS REGNES DE LA NATURE, &c. i.e. THE THREE

BY JACQUES DE LILLE

WITH

འ.

KINGDOMS OF NATURE. NOTES BY MR. CUVIER, OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, AND OTHER LEARNED MEN, 2 vols. 12mo. xxxviii. 309. II. 285. Paris. 1808. Imported by Dulau and Co.

THE most correct description of external nature, though by its minute accuracy it may satisfy the understanding, if it be unanimated by dramatic action, leaves the reader cold; and mere descriptive verses, though ever so characteristic and excellent in their kind, must still be deficient in what constitutes the very essence of poetry, since they can awaken no, latent sympathy of the heart. They may force us to acknowledge the skill and industry of the writer; but they are as little calculated to confer on their author the envied appellation of a poet, as the best drawing of Richmond-hill or Westminster-abbey would be to elevate the drawer to the proud eminence of a great painter. Nor is the talent of affixing proper epithets to

"The gloomy pine, the poplar blue,

The yellow beech, the sable yew,"

sufficient to raise those awful, tender, or pleasing emotions, which it is the province of the poet to excite.

Aware of these objections, which on both sides of the Channel have been repeatedly urged against descriptive poems, Mr. De Lille, in his preliminary discourse, admits that “ To "describe for the sake of describing is a folly;" but contends, 'that "If it be done with the view to diffuse the knowledge of "the processes of the arts, and the appearances of nature, it " is not only allowable but needful; and whatever is needful, " is always irreprehensible." This argument, however, does not establish the necessity of communicating such knowledge in verse. Sober prose appears far better adapted to convey descriptive details when they are designed to instruct. Al

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though the inversions in French poetry he not many, yet the constraint of rhyme and measure renders the admission of terms, which are not exactly the proper expressions, unavoidable, and often obscures that which should be taught in a clear, precise, and distinct manner. It is chiefly on this account, that almost every attempt to unite poetry and science has hitherto failed; and were it not for the long notes by which it is accompanied, even Mr. De Lille's work would frequently be found unintelligible. When he says,

“Ou plutôt, quand je vole à la céleste voute
"C'est à toi, cher Delambre, à diriger ma route;
"Toi qui sus réunir, par un double pouvoir,
"Les beaux arts au calcul et le goût au savoir.
"L'immortel Isaac, de ses mains souveraines,
"Des mondes étoilés te confia les rênes;
"Viens; et sans m'effrayer du sort de Phaéton,
"Que je monte avec toi sur le char de Newton!"

How is the young French student to know that the immortal Isaac is the self-same Newton, whose name is mentioned three lines after, since it is not customary in France to say le chevalier Isaac, as the English speak of Sir Isaac, but always le chevalier Newton? To an English reader, the expression is besides in danger of appearing rather facetious, as it involuntarily recalls the idea of little Isaac; and to the French reader, it must necessarily seem pedantic, because the measure of the verse requires the name of Isaac to be read I-sa-ac, as being composed of three syllables, which is contrary to common pronunciation.

What information could be obtained, without the assistance of notes, from such lines as,

"Suivant les corps divers la lumière varie;
"Dédaigneuse des uns, aux autres se marie.
"Si l'obscure matière absorbe les rayons,

"Le noir frappe nos yeux; mais lorsque nous voyons,
"Des corps où vient tomber l'éclatante lumière,

"La masse des rayons rejaillir toute entière;

"De la blancheur alors l'œil ressent les effets."

But then of what use is an idle jingle of words, which has not the least claim to poetical fire, harmony, or embellishment, if it requires a long commentary to be understood? Besides,

"Si l'obscure matière absorbe les rayons,
"Le noir frappe nos yeux;"

is, we apprehend, not philosophically correct, since the absence of light, l'obscure matière, cannot strike the eye; and the end of the line, " mais lorsque nous voyons," is intolerably prosaic. The expressions "l'obscure matière" and "dédaigneuse des uns," are also hardly reconcileable with good

taste.

When, in appreciating the comparative merits of Virgil and Lucretius, Mr. De Lille observes of the latter, that Nature had granted him but a portion of the poetical ta"lent, which she had bestowed entire on the author of the "Georgics," whatever may be the justice of the observation, it certainly applies to Mr. De Lille himself. His philosophical poem is really, as he confesses, "d'un genre un peu froid," notwithstanding the episodes with which he has attempted to supply its want of warmth.

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The assertion, that "the art of treating a subject is nothing "but the art of digressing from it without abandoning it "entirely," is rather paradoxical. We shall, therefore, quote Mr. De Lille's expressions: "L'art de traiter un sujet," he says, "n'est que l'art d'en sortir sans s'en éloigner; on en "trouve l'image dans la navigation ancienne qui se tenoit "toujours à portée de la terre et à la vue des côtes." then adds rather exultingly: "Qu'on me permette sur cette "sorte d'ornement quelques idées assez nouvelles," and illustrates his new theory of episodes more fully, by the following remark:

He

"S'il est nécessaire que les épisodes se rattachent au dessein "général de l'ouvrage, il ne l'est pas que l'idée principale de "chaque épisode soit en rapport immédiat avec le fond du sujet; au contraire, plus ces ornemens accessoires lui sont étrangers,

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