upon one or two particular notes. See, for instance, the first twenty lines of Windsor Forest, the two first paragraphs of Eloisa to Abelard, and that gorgeous misrepresentation of the exquisite moonlight picture in Homer. The last may well be quoted :

As when the moon-refulgent lamp of night,

O'er Heav'ns clear azure-spreads her sacred light,
When not a breath-disturbs the deep serene,
And not a cloud-o'ercasts the solemn scene;
Around her throne-the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd―gild the glowing pole,
O'er the dark trees-a yellower verdure shed,
And tip with silver-ev'ry mountain's head;-
Then shine the vales-the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory-bursts from all the skies:
The conscious swains-rejoicing in the sight,
Eye the blue vault-and bless the useful light.

Yet this is variety to the celebrated picture of Be linda in the Rape of the Lock

Not with more glories-in th' ethereal plain
The sun first rises-o'er the purpled main,

Than issuing forth-the rival of his beams,
Launch'd on the bosom-of the silver Thames.

Fair nymphs and well-dress'd youths-around her shone,
But ev'ry eye-was fix'd on her alone.

On her white breast-a sparkling cross she wore
Which Jews might kiss-and infidels adore.
Her lively looks-a sprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes and as unfix'd as those:
Favours to none-to all she smiles extends;
Oft she rejects-but never once offends.
Bright as the sun-her eyes the gazers strike,
And like the sun-they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful ease-and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults-if belles had faults to hide:
If to her share-some female errours fall,
Look on her face-and you'll forget them all.

This is a very brilliant description of a drawingroom heroine; but what are the merits of it's versification, which are not possessed by even Sternhold and Hopkins? Out of eighteen lines, we have no

less than thirteen in succession which pause at the fourth syllable, to say nothing of the four ies and the six os which fall together in the rhymes; and the accent in all is so unskilfully managed, or rather so evidently and totally forgotten, that the ear has an additional monotony humming about it,

Quick as her eyes,
Favours to none,
'Oft she rejects,

Bright as the sun.

It does not follow that the critic who objects to this kind of sing-song, should be an advocate for other extremes and for the affected varieties of which Johnson speaks. Let the varieties, like all the other beauties of a poet, be perfectly unaffected: but passion and fancy naturally speak a various language; it is monotony and uniformity alone that are out of nature. When Pope, in one of his happy couplets, ridiculed the old fashion of gardening, he forgot that on principles common to all the arts, he was passing a satire on himself and his versification; for who can deny, that in the walks of his Muse

Grove nods at grove-each alley has it's brother,
And half the platform—just reflects the other?

As the present notes are written for the poem to which they belong, not the poem for the notes, it is high time to finish the one before me; otherwise I was much tempted to conclude it with some counter examples of real poetic harmony from the verses of Dryden, Spenser, and Milton; not that the style of any great writer is to be imitated at a venture, or to be studied with any

direct view to imitation at all; but because in the best effusions of those writers are to be found the happiest specimens of English versification, and such as with due regard to every man's own mode of thinking and speaking, might lead the poets of the present age to that proper mixture of sweetness and strength,-of modern finish and ancient variety,— from which Pope and his rhyming facilities have so long withheld us.

4 Not though I collected one pattern victorious
Of all that was good, and accomplish'd, and glorious,
From deeds in the daylight, and books on the shelf,
And call'd up the shape of young Alfred himself.

A note upon Alfred might be indulged me, on the strength of his having been reckoned the " Prince of the Saxon Poets;" but the name of that truly great man is not to be mentioned without enthusiasm by any constitutional Englishman,-that is to say, by any Englishman, who truckling to no sort of licentiousness, either of prince or people, would see the manliest freedom of a republic, adorned by the graces

and quickened by the unity of a monarchy.-But to whom indeed, that has an admiration for any great or good quality, is not the memory of Alfred a dear one?a man, beloved in his home, feared by his enemies, venerated by his friends,-accomplished in a day of barbarism, anticipating the

wisdom of ages, self-taught, and what is more, self-corrected,a Prince too, who subdued the love of pleasure, a Monarch, who with power to enslave, delighted to make free,-a Conqueror, who could stop short of the love of conquest, and sheath his sword the moment it had done enough,-a Sage, in short, who during the greatest part of a reign, in which he had practised every art of peace as well as war, of leisure as well as activity, in which he had fought upwards of fifty pitched battles, had cleared his country from it's invaders, and had established the foundation of those liberties, upon which we are at this moment enjoying our every-day comforts, had to struggle with a melancholy and agonizing disorder, which neither soured his temper nor interrupted his industry. If this is a character to make emula