The reduplication of the same letters in these lines gives such an appearance of studied trifling, that good taste would have rejected it if offering itself unsought, instead of taking pains to search for it. A chastised judgment will, I believe, seldom approve a more liberal use of this device, than occasionally to produce a consonance of adjective and substantive, or verb and noun. Several of Mason's most laboured odes are introduced in his "Elfrida" and "Caractacus," which are altogether poetical dramas, and may therefore make a part of your present course of reading. The poetry in them, especially in the latter, is often worthy of admiration. As tragedies they have not been successful; and I imagine the attempted revival of the Greek chorus will never be adopted by a real genius for the stage. Probably you will be better pleased with the elegies of Mason than with his lyric productions. Referring to real life and manners, their sentiments are more natural; and their descriptions have less of the glare of gaudy ornament. In the second elegy there is a very elegant sketch of a pleasure-ground in the modern improved taste, which may be regarded as a prelude to his later didactic poem "The English Garden." His 66 Elegy on the Death of a Lady" (the admired countess of Coventry) will doubtless particularly interest you. The description of female beauty with which it commences, is wrought to a polished brilliancy that Pope himself could not have surpassed: Whene'er with soft serenity she smil'd, Or caught the orient blush of quick surprise, Each look, each motion wak'd a new-born grace, The lesson drawn from her untimely fate, though awful, is not repulsively gloomy; and although there is some incorrectness in the reasoning concerning a future future state, it is upon the whole impressive and well pointed. I shall here close my remarks on a writer, the propriety of whose introduction in this place may be questioned; though I can feel no hesitation in recommending to your notice, wherever you may meet with them, any of the productions of one whose moral merits render him always an instructive companion, while his poetical excellencies can scarcely fail of making him an agreeable one. I remain very affectionately, Yours, &c. LETTER LETTER XV. I SHALL now request my amiable pupil to open the volume containing the works of COLLINS, a poet whom I consider as hav ing possessed more original genius than either of the two last mentioned, though a short and unhappy life did not allow him to elaborate his strains to equal perfection. Like Pope, he first tried his powers in the humble walk of pastoral, and produced his "Oriental Eclogues;" which, notwithstanding the little esteem which the author himself afterwards expressed for them, may claim the merit of quitting the ordinary ground of rural poetry, and enriching it with new imagery. The eclogues are all characterized by purity and tenderness of sentiment, by elegant and melodious verse. Two of them, "The Camel Driver," and "The Fugitives," likewise contain much appro appropriate description, and present some striking pictures. That the writer had a strong conception of scenes fitted for the pencil, further appears from his "Epistle to Sir Thomas Hanmer;" in which, after a lively sketch of the progress of dramatic poetry in modern times, he suggests that mode of illustrating the beauties of our great dramatist by the kindred art of painting, which has since taken place, so much to the honour of the liberal undertaker; and he gives spirited draughts of two designs for this purpose. The fame of Collins is however principally founded upon his "Odes Descriptive and Allegorical," pieces which stand in the first rank of lyrical poetry. Of these, some are exquisitely tender and pathetic, others are animated and sublime, and all exhibit that predominance of feeling and fancy which forms the genuine poetic character. Some are shrowded in a kind of mystic obscurity that veils their meaning from the common reader; but no one who is quali |