were they as eloquent as the poet's. The choice of this style is the more to be regretted in Mr. Campbell, because his genius evidently points to the most attractive sympathies of our nature, and his great talent lies in the pathetic. Indeed it is observable, how inevitably his own taste leads him to forget the imitative turn of his versification, whenever he has to describe some particular scene, in which the affections are interested; but the present stock of readers, who have had their ears spoiled by easy versification, will not readily consent to exchange it for one of a less accommodating description with additional difficulties. Of several styles of imitation that come before them, they will inevitably prefer that which comes easiest to their old habits; and this is one great reason why the productions of Mr. Walter Scott have outrun in popularity the coy loveliness of Gertrude of Wyoming,-the first poem, in my mind, of any length, that has been produced in the present day.-While I have been palled with the eternal sameness of Mr. Scott, and disgusted with the puerilities and affectations of Mr. Southey,

I have read over and over again the Gertrude of Wyoming, and have paid it that genuine tribute, which the pride of manhood and the necessary habits of adversity are not much in the custom of lavishing.

In speaking of Mr. Campbell, his smaller pieces must not be forgotten. Their merits are very unequal, and some of them, written perhaps in early youth, seem altogether unworthy of his pen; but Hohenlinden, and the two naval songs, are noble pieces, beautifully dashed with the pathetic; and the Soldier's Dream is one of those heartfelt and domestic appeals, from which the fancy, after dwelling upon their tenderness, is suddenly glad to escape.

13 And never should poet, so gifted and rare,
Pollute the bright Eden Jove gives to his care,
But love the fair Virtue for whom it is given,
And keep the spot pure for the visits of Heaven.

It is natural in congratulating a person on his escape from some extraordinary defect, to forget the mention of smaller ones; otherwise, Apollo might have raillied Mr. Moore on his exuberant fondness for

dews, flowers, and exclamations, and have quarrelled with him for not applying his powers to some poem of length that should exhibit them in their proper light. The first of these faults however will most likely follow the other misdemeanours of his youth; and the latter he is understood to be doing away, at this moment, in a country retirement. Certainly the pernicious tendency of Mr. Moore's former productions is not to be questioned :—it was only to be equalled perhaps by the good that might result from a change in his way of thinking, and from the pains he would take, when so altered, to transfer the attractiveness of his style to the cause of virtue. But there always appeared to me, in the midst of that taste of his, a cordial and redeeming something, -a leaning after the better affections,which shewed a conscious necessity of correcting it. Part with it altogether he need not as a writer, and could not as a poet; but to correct and unite it with nobler sympathies was his business as a true lover both of the sex and of his country. It would have been inconsistent in a politician so spirited, and a

patriot so warm as Mr. Moore, to assist in rendering us slaves in private, while he would have us all freemen in public.

The real admirers therefore of this poet were rejoiced to see in his latter publication, the Irish Melodies, how greatly he had improved his morality, and not only so, but how much the graces of his fancy had gained instead of lost by the improvement. In the sprightly and idiomatic flow of his songs he had already overtaken Prior, and on the ground of sentiment had left him behind; but the union of strong fancy and feeling discoverable in his later productions, and the unexpected appearance of a taste for the dignified and contemplative, so distinct from the town associations that crowded about one's ordinary idea of him, were promises of a still greater reputation, and will enable him, it is trusted, to reach posterity under an exemplary as well as graceful aspect.

As a versifier, Mr. Moore does not appear, hitherto, to have attempted any improvement of the models he found in vogue; but what he might do in this

respect may easily be conceived, from the natural fineness of his ear. The lines in his lyric pieces however have a music in them, distinct from the ordinary monotony of his contemporaries, and evidently traceable to his taste for the sister art. You feel at once, that his songs are indeed to be sung,—a happy propriety, which he seems to share exclusively with Dryden.

14 When, all of a sudden, there rose on the stairs A noise as of persons with singular airs;

You'd have thought 'twas the Bishops or Judges a coming, Or whole court of Aldermen hawing and humming,

Or Abbot, at least, with his ushers before,

But 'twas only Bob Southey and two or three more.
The last couplet originally stood thus,—

Or at least my lord Colley with all his grand brothers;
But 'twas only Bob Southey and three or four others.

Colley is one of the Christian names of the Marquis Wellesley. I notice this alteration, lest having felt myself bound to make it, I should seem to evade it's acknowledgment. There are still some points