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the excellence of many of their writings, and their early proficiency in criticism and the belles lettres, had indeed given a certain currency to most of their domeftic favourites, and fpread into the circulation of Europe, whatever had received the stamp of Parifian approbation. But their reception was more owing to the authority by which they were recommended, than to their own powers of univerfal fascination. Men wifhed to admire the poems of those, whofe profe was in general fo delightful; and feldom had courage to fet up their own judgement in oppofition to the fentence of a tribunal that was for the most part fo enlightened. French poetry was read, therefore, and applauded over all Europe, without being fincerely admired. Some pretended to be enchanted with it, and others imagined that they were fo; while all the men of letters fpoke of it with deference, and condemned, without mercy, all that refembled it in the productions of their own countrymen. Although a poet, who had obtained reputation in France, was not fure, therefore, of pleafing all the rest of Europe, he came before his foreign readers with very confiderable advantages. He was certain of being patiently and favourably liftened to, and might affure himself, that many would applaud, and that the greater part would be willing to admire. As foon, therefore, as a French poet appeared, who was willing to lay afide the gaudy coftume of his country, and to accommodate himfelf to the taste of the other European nations, it was to be expected that his popularity would be at least equal to his merits. It was referved for M. de Lille to make this experiment; and we are really perfuaded, that a very great share of his reputation is to be afcribed to its fuccefs.

It is chiefly from the modern poets of England, that M. de Lille has borrowed the peculiarities of his manner. Befides the obvious and avowed imitations of Pope, Addison, Goldsmith, Cowper, and Darwin, that occur in the prefent publication, there is fomething in the whole temper and complexion of his compofitions, that certainly does not belong to the genuine fchool of French poetry. The profe of Rouffeau and of Florian, may have afforded fome inftances of it; but if it had a poetical origin, it must have been borrowed from the poetry of England. The great vice of the French poets, was an affected magnificence of diction, and elevation of fentiment, that admitted of no relaxation, and precluded, in a great degree, all that was interefting or natural. The charm of eafy and powerful expreffion was generally facrificed to the fupport of a certain fonorous and empty dignity; the picturefque effect of individual defcription was loft in cold generalities; character was effaced, by the prevalence of one glittering uniform; and high-founding fentiments were fubftituted for the lan

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guage of nature and of paffion. In this way, almost all the ferious poetry of France had come to resemble the declamation of a hired pleader, in which no imitation of nature was so much as attempted; but all kinds of reflections and antithefes were thrown. together in a style of affected paffion, and falfe elevation. Every English reader, we apprehend, must have felt how little painting there is in the poetry of France, and how much more it deals in thoughts than in images. It is full of reafoning and ingenuity, and abounds in all the graces of polite and elegant expreffion; but there is little that comes diftinctly forward to the imagination or the heart; and we are never tempted, for a moment, to believe in the infpiration of the author.

M. de Lille has corrected a great number of these defects, and divefted the poetry of his country of a great deal of that artificial ftatelinefs which was fo fatal to its pathetic effect. Inftead of vague and lofty declamation, he has prefented his readers with minute and faithful defcriptions of all that was interefting in his fubjects; and has impreffed them with the feelings he was defirous of communicating, not by running over all the verbs and interjections that were fuppofed to denote them, but by placing before their eyes a living picture of the fituations in which they muft arife. In another particular, too, M. de Lille may be confidered as an innovator in French poetry, and a follower of the English writers. He is the first, we believe, in that country, who has fucceeded in embellishing his compofitions with reprefentations of ruftic fcenery, and ruftic virtues and occupations. His predeceffors fpoke, indeed, of groves and fountains, and paraded their mufes, as of old, among thickets and upon lawns; but they spoke of them as they did of the tygers and lions which were found in their company in the writers of antiquity, and neither pretended to detain their readers among them, nor to delineate them with the fulness and precifion of realities. M. de Lille has made them familiar, however, with cottages and farms, and sendered current in verfe, the whole phrafeology of planting and enclosing. He has dwelt, with great feeling and effect, upon the contemplative and innocent pleafures that a rural fituation may afford, and has contrived to defcribe them in language fo pure and fo elegant, that even the Parifians have perufed them without derifion or difguft. He has not only ventured to speak of the country, but has had the courage to take an intereft in its inhabitants. The older French poets were utterly unacquainted with cottagers and hufbandmen. Their only ruftic perfonages were fhepherds and fhepherdeffes, who afked for nothing but fympathy, and laboured at nothing but finging. M. de Lille has introduced the real peafant and labourer to the acquaintance of

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his readers; has represented their occupations, their pleafures, and their virtues; and has folicited relief for their fufferings, and refpect for their fervices. All this is familiar to English poetry; but it was new to that of France.

M. de Lille, finally, is a much greater philanthropist than any of his predeceffors we remember; and betrays, throughout, a fort of fentimental tenderness, and delicacy of feeling, that did not enter before into our conception of a French poet. His morality is perfectly pure; and there is not a page in his writings, in which he does not labour to enforce it. There is no poetry, with which we are acquainted, indeed, that is fo uniformly and zealously moral.

But though, in thefe and fome other particulars, M. de Lille bears a much greater refemblance to the poets of England, than to thofe of his own country, we must not imagine, by any means, that he has entirely renounced his national tafte, or conducted himself in every thing according to our notions of propriety. In examining more minutely the structure of the poem before us, we shall have occafion to point out feveral paffages, and turns of expreffion, that are certainly very foreign to our habits of compolition. Nor are we, on the other hand, to conceive that M. de' Lille is a writer of a warm and enthufiaftic imagination, who has been hurried into a difregard of his national models, by the impuife of a bold and creative imagination, or from any ardour of temperament that difdained the controul of authority. He is, in truth, a great deal more diftinguifhed for correctnefs and delicacy of tafte, than for original or inventive genius; and, while he has done us the honour of preferring our authors to his own, he has not copied any thing that could not be justified by claffical ufage, or the most rigorous canons of criticifm. He has prudently abftained, therefore, from attempting to imitate thofe higher graces of compofition, which no imitator is ever permitted to attain; and has confined himself to thofe accomplishments of fine writing that may always be reached by the union of elegant taste and diligent application. Although most of his writings, therefore, recal to us the general manner of English poetry, we shall be but feldom reminded of the loftier flights of Milton, the luxuriant tenderness of Thomfon, or the fairy fancy and magical facility of Shakespere. We shall find more of the pointed polish and elaborate elegance of Pope, the dignified and correct tenderness of Goldfmith, and the dazzling amplifications of Darwin de Lille, in fhort, is a refined, ftudied, polite, and accomplished writer, who never forgets himself in the ardour of compofition, and feldom lets the reader forget him; who culls out the niceft phrases, and most unexceptionable images; and oftener reminds

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us that the defcription is beautiful, than he impofes upon us with the belief of its reality. He belongs to that clafs of poets that may be faid to be of fecondary formation, and that could not have existed, if a hardier race had not existed before them. He does not wander in the pathlefs places of Parnaffus, nor gather flowers where no poetical foot had ever trodden before him. He has the praife of judicious felection, artful difpofition, and dignified imitation. He has reached the eminence upon which he stands, by following with attention the footsteps of those who have mounted ftill higher. He has become a poet by reading and patient difcipline; and probably could not have written les Jardins,' if he had not begun with a tranflation of Virgil.

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The fubject of M. de Lille's poems do not naturally carry him into the higher regions of poetry, and he does not feek for occafions of elevation. The art of laying out pleasure-grounds, and of paffing one's time agreeably in the country, might be difcuffed, no doubt, without trefpaffing on the provinces of the Epic or the Tragic writer; but admitted, at the fame time, of a great deal of pathetic imagery, and a great variety of embellishment. It would be improper to enter upon any particular criticism of these poems, in this place; but there is one remark fuggested by them, which applies fo obviously to the general character of M. de Lille's genius, that no apology can be neceffary for its infertion. The greater part of the pleasure derived from poetical reprefentations of ruftic fcenery and occupations, confifts in a pleafing illufion of the imagination, that carries us back to the golden age of the poets, and foothes us into a temporary forgetfulness of all the vice and the artifice, the cares and perplexities of real life. There is fome period in eve ry man's life, in which he has fancied that happiness and innocence were to be found among cottages and pastures, and defired to retire from the buftle and corruption of the world, to fome elegant and fimple feclufion; and, as often as fpleen or difap-. pointment turn back his thoughts to this vifion of his childhood, the diffipation and constraint of a city life always prefent themfelves as objects of fcorn and deteftation. Whatever tends, therefore, to recal our thoughts to thofe incongruous objects, is mifplaced in fuch a poem; it difpels the illufion, by the help of which alone, fuch themes are capable of pleafing, and diftracts the imagination from the train of images that engroffed it. Now, this fault, which is not chargeable either upon Virgil or Thomfon, M. de Lille has certainly committed. He begins his encomium on a country life, with fome critical remarks on the regulation of private theatres, and entertains his readers: with a long enumeration of pompous villas, and great princes that inhabit them. He is conftantly interfperting farcaftic

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and pointed reflections upon the diffipated and luxurious, and has compofed the greater part of his poem in fuch an epigrammatic and courtly ftyle, as is altogether unfuitable to the fubjects upon which he is employed. Although enamoured of rural objects and employments, he feems anxious to convince his courtly readers, that he is as familiar as they can be with the language and occupations of the polite world; and that, though he chooses, to fhew his fenfibility to obfcure and fentimental pleasures, he poffeffes all the urbanity and accomplishments of a gentleman, and a courtier. His whole ftyle is infected with this peculiarity; he cannot avoid an ingenious turn, or a brilliant antithefis; and inftead of the fimple and enthusiastic votary of nature and virtue, he frequently appears like a fine gentleman paying compliments to the fylvan goddeffes.

Upon the whole, we think that the genius of M. de Lille is. rather of a pleafing, than a powerful character; and that the delicacy of his tafte, and the elegance of his language, are a good deal more remarkable, than the force of his imagination, or the originality of his invention. He will be relifhed moft, we conceive, by those who admire rather the art, than the nature of poetry; and though he will give delight to almost all who have been trained to the admiration of elegance, by the habitual ftudy of fine writers, he will scarcely ever be found fpeaking in that univerfal language, by the use of which, Shakespere has found his way, from the closet of the ftudent, into the workfhops of our manufacturers, and the cottages of our peafantry. It is now proper, however, to leave thofe general obfervations upon the poetical character of the author, and to inquire how, he has acquitted himself in the publication now before us.

There is fomething fingular in the hiftory of this publication. M. de Lille emigrated from France foon after the beginning of the Revolution, and took refuge, feveral years ago, in England. There he compofed that edition of the prefent poem, the title of which ftands first at the head of this article, and fent the manuscript to be printed, under the care of his friend M. de Mervé. While the work was going through the prefs, however, in the beginning of the prefent year, the impaired ftate of his health, as we are informed, made him yield to the folicitations of the Confular cabinet, and confent to return to his native country. Soon after his establishment at Paris, and before the London bookfellers. had been able to complete the first publication, they were furprised to find that an edition had been publifhed in France, under the immediate inspection of the author; in which feveral paffages that might have given offence to the new government, are fup

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