Hor. FROM the light which you have thrown on this fubject, we may account for the oppofition in our judgments, when we bestow on Writers the reputation of being Original. For, a Poet may be original in the manner, and not at all fo in his Ideas:

Eug. TRUE Genius, Hortenfio, will be original in both of this we shall have a further proof, in the ufe that Shakespear has made of the qualities and attributes of the Heathen Divinities. And here, I cannot but wonder, that a Poet, whofe claffical images are compofed of the finest parts, and breath the very fpirit of the antient Mythology, fhould pafs for being illi

terate.

See

See what a grace was feated on his brow! Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himfelf s

An eye-like Mars, to threaten or command;

A ftation, like the herald Mercury
New-lighted on a heav'n-kissing hill.

Hamlet.

In this portrait, the features are borrowed from the antique; but they are united into a character by a creative fancy.

This power of giving an advantage to the most familiar objects, by fome unexpected happiness in their use and application, is particularly diftinguished in our Poet, when he touches on the Fables of Antiquity. Thus Perdita, at a lofs

for

for a variety of flowers to bestow on her

guefts

O Proferpina

For the flow'rs now, that frighted thou lett

fall

From Dis's waggon! Daffadils

That come before the Swallow dares, and take

The winds of March with beauty; Violets dim,

But fweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,
Or Cytherea's breath.

EXCLUSIVE of the purpose for which I have produced these lines, you must have obferved the uncommon art of the Poet, in characterizing his flowers.

They at her coming fprung.

A FINE

A FINE imagination, like the prefence of Eve, gives a second vegetation to the beauties of nature. In these principles, and in the examples by which they have been fupported, we see clearly the reafon, why every enlightened age has had, and must continue to have, its original Writers. We have no right, therefore, to complain, that Nature is always the fame; or that the fources of Novelty have been exhausted. It is in Poetry, as in Philosophy, new relations are ftruck out, new influences difcovered, and every fuperior genius moves in a world of his own.

FINIS.