With eyes up-raised, as one inspired, And, from her wild sequester'd seat, In notes by distance made more sweet, Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul: Bubbling runnels join'd the sound; Through glades and glooms the mingled measure stole, Or o'er some haunted stream, with fond delay, Round an holy calm diffusing, Love of peace, and lonely musing, In hollow murmurs died away. But O! how alter'd was its sprightlier tone, Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew, Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung, The hunter's call to Faun and Dryad known! The oak-crown'd sisters, and their chaste-eyed Queen,1 Satyrs and Sylvan Boys were seen, Peeping from forth their alleys green : Brown Exercise rejoiced to hear; And Sport leapt up and seized his beechen spear. Last came Joy's ecstatic trial: He, with viny crown advancing, First to the lively pipe his hand address'd; But soon he saw the brisk-awakening viol, Whose sweet entrancing voice he loved the best ; To some unwearied minstrel dancing, While as his flying fingers kiss'd the strings, As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings. O Music! sphere-descended maid, 1 The Dryads and Diana. THE PASSIONS. Arise, as in that elder time, 329 MARK AKENSIDE. (1721-1770.) A SUBSTANTIAL butcher in Newcastle was the father of Akenside, and the fastidious poet had the folly to be ashamed of the humbleness of his origin. At the age of sixteen he was the author of pieces of great merit in the Gentleman's Magazine. His parents were dissenters, and Mark was sent to the University of Edinburgh to be educated for the Presbyterian ministry. He entered, however, the ranks of medicine, and, after a course of study at Edinburgh and Leyden, he received, in 1744, the degree of M.D. from the latter university. His great poem, "The Pleasures of Imagination," notwithstanding the abstruse character of the subject, was received with unbounded applause. He settled as a physician at Northampton; but, finding the practice in that district already occupied, he removed to London, where he spent the remainder of his life. A handsome annuity, generously allowed him by his friend Mr. Dyson, maintained him in comfort, and his practice increased. Besides his poetry, he published several medical works, said to be still regarded with respect. He died of putrid fever in 1770. Akenside's manners were formal and precise to an extent that bordered on the ludicrous: his features were manly and expressive; his temper irritable, yet kind and benevolent: he was a brilliant and pleasing companion. As a poet he possesses singular talent in description and in the expression of metaphysical abstractions; his versification is sounding and magnificent. No writer may be more recommended as an instructor in the classic graces of a polished phraseology. His poem is largly quoted in the ethical lectures of Dr. Thomas Brown. Akenside's Odes, except the "Hymn to the Naiads," which is full of classical grandeur and beauty, are of no great merit. 1 Poetry: the allusion is to Orpheus and Amphion. 2 Cecilia was the patron saint of music, honoured as a martyr since the fifth century. In Smollett's Peregrine Pickle, Akenside is the doctor who gives the feast after the manner of the ancients. FROM THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. Book I. TENDENCIES OF THE SOUL TOWARDS THE INFINITE. To chase each partial purpose from his breast: Of Nature, calls him to his high reward, The applauding smile of Heaven? Else wherefore burns In mortal bosoms this unquenchéd hope, That breathes from day to day sublimer things, And mocks possession? wherefore darts the mind, Who that, from Alpine heights, his labouring eye Nilus or Ganges rolling his bright wave Through mountains, plains; through empires black with shade And continents of sand; will turn his gaze To mark the windings of a scanty rill That murmurs at his feet? The high-born soul FROM THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. 331 She darts her swiftness up the long career Of Nature, and looks back on all the stars, Power's purple robes, nor Pleasure's flowery lap, Through all the ascent of things enlarge her view, DR. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. (1728-1774.) GOLDSMITH'S poetical works are limited, but they are exquisite in their kind; he is one of the pioneers who broke down the artificial barriers which convention had erected against a natural literature. He was the son of a humble Irish curate, and was born and spent his youthful years in the county of Longford. He received his education at the university of Dublin, and for a short time studied in Edinburgh and in Leyden. Suddenly quitting the latter city, although in utter poverty, he resolved to make the tour of Europe. His fortunes on the Continent were singular and various; from a passage in the " 'Traveller," he seems to have often earned, by his flute, a supper and bed from the peasants. He returned to England in the same poverty; but, acquiring the friendship of Johnson, the critic's advice to publish his "Traveller raised Goldsmith to a high rank of poetical celebrity. His comedies and other publications followed; the poet was enriched, but his irregular and careless habits, and his generous disposition, kept him in perpetual embarrassment. He possessed much of the warm-hearted merits of his countrymen, but perhaps more of their faults. He was, like Gay, at 1 This theme is a favourite both with poets and philosophers: the extract would form an excellent subject of exercise in parallel passages. once the pet and the butt of his associates, among whom he numbered Burke, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the other members of that brilliant intellectual circle. He died in 1774, leaving about £2000 of debt. Goldsmith's two principal poems, "The Traveller" and the "Deserted Village," belong to the highest order of descriptive poetry. His ballad of "Edwin and Angelina" is an exquisite specimen of its class. His best comedy," She Stoops to Conquer," is still a favourite; his miscellaneous prose works comprise "An Inquiry into the present state of Polite Learning in Europe;" "The Vicar of Wakefield," one of the most delightful of domestic novels; and various essays, including those which form "The Citizen of the World." His compiled histories of England, Greece, and Rome, abridgments which have long formed standard school text books, but have little merit beyond the grace of style; they were merely task-work for the booksellers. His "Animated Nature" was published posthumously. Every year has added to the popularity of Goldsmith; his works are published in every form, and copious lives of the poet have been written. FROM THE TRAVELLER. Where rougher climes a nobler race display, Where the bleak Swiss their stormy mansions tread, No product here the barren hills afford But man and steel, the soldier and his sword: |