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to the production of an epic, we prefer saying that, because these elements were wanting in him, therefore he is not entitled to the rank. His way of life confirms the remark. His life was not one of exertion,-indeed he was physically incapacitated, but of study. He thought rather than acted.

Nothing could be more infelicitously introduced by the advocates of Pope, than the comparison of his poetical character, with Shakspeare's description of a poet. No poet ever less realized such description. In Pope, we look in vain "For the poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling."

We deny him not the possession of the vision,—but never author had less of

"That fine madness,

Which rightly should possess a poet's brain."

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He was confessedly the poet of reason and of common sense. He pretended not to address the imagination, or fancy; and exercised the faculties himself but seldom. He is never extravagant,-runs riot never,-and was only anxious to have the reputation of writing "what oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." His eye glanced not from earth to heaven; but was well satisfied with that small portion of cerulean sky perceptible in a crowded city, and contented with so much of nature as might be imitated in a garden grotto, or introduced into a pleasure-ground. His "imagination, never bodies forth the form of things unknown;" neither does his " pen turn them to shape, and give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name. Pope dealt with the acknowledged-the known-the palpable-the visible. Even the Sylphs, which have been called in as witnesses in favour of his invention, had pre-existence in the fable of the Rosicrucians. In their imagination were they created, not in Pope's. He had only the merit of adapting them to purposes of burlesque, as the machinery of an heroi-comic poem. And what was this merit? Why, he took them from their imaginative localities, their phantastic habitations, their undefined abodes, from their undiscovered land of faëry,-and made them denizens of the toilet and the card-table. Ere then, their residence was in the regions of poetry-the infinite, immortal, immutable. Hé Не introduced them into the prose walks of life,-a dwelling not their own, and a country which they knew not. And in so doing, he acted a part the very antithesis to a poet's; which is to exalt the common into an ideal state of existence, not to reduce the ideal to the level of familiar intercourse. What "unknown thing," then, hath he "turned to shape?"-what "airy nothing" located? The word poetry, defines itself,-it is a creation What hath Pope created? From the creations of others he hath selected and recombined, the standard

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of some he hath reduced-and where he may be said to have improved, he hath only abstracted certain verbal impediments, or substituted a collocation of his own.

The opinion of the majority, is no argument for the poetical rank of Pope. It is only the gifted few that are capable of appreciating the higher excellencies of poetry, and only the most gifted that are susceptible of the highest. Yes-until the majority of mankind are composed of the wisest, the best, and the happiest, the many must be incapable of judging of the Muse aright; until they are wise enough to forsake the peccancies of office, and the vices of sordid engagement, and to live with Nature; until they are good enough to live as Nature would-among her beauties, her harmonies, her sublimities, in the purity and simplicity of her governmentamong the flowers and the fields-by the still waters-and where the soft blue sky sinks into the soul-and the moonlight serenes the affections-and to receive, in singleness of heart, that religious love which Nature ever teacheth; until they thus become participant of the joy wherewith Nature causeth the tree to bud and the tender herb to shoot in Spring timeand the birds to trill their matins and their vespers, and of the felicity wherewith Heaven biddeth the innumerable host of stars to blossom out, as a stellar Paradise, "for the fair moon to walk abroad in,"—and of the gladness wherewith the sun goeth forth in the morning, like a giant in his strength, or a visible god resuming the providence of the world, and rejoiceth over the majestic oak, as a father over a son he hath reared at noon,-yea, rejoiceth in his brightness, as the pervading presence of the all-inspiring Apollo, aye-kindling the mind to develope its marvellous faculties, and germinate in productions, not only pale reflections of the external creation, but imagings of the human spirit divine, impressed with the sublime and beautiful apparitions from without, and supported and strengthened from within by the mysterious soul of the universe, of which it is a part; until they thus be made sharers and coparceners in the purity and beauty, and sublimity of Nature, her health and her happiness; until they become thus wise-thus good-thus happy-living in the presence of Nature, and active and joyous in her potential workings-genuine poesy, which consisteth in the things of which we speak; can never be understood by the general mind, intelligible to the common ear, neither can the public heart conceive it.

VOL. 1. PART I.

50

ON THE

PRINCIPLES OF LIFE.

THERE is in animals, and also in vegetables, a principle which determines their form, preserves their identity, and produces in them the phenomena of growth, nutrition, and motion. It will be asked, how do you know that such a principle exists? Who has ever seen it? I answer, that its presence is proved by inference. I hold it as a maxim that a thing cannot take place from nothing; or, in other words, that no effect can take place without a cause. Some effects are said to take place spontaneously; but it would be absurd to suppose that they start into existence of their own accord. The word spontaneous often serves as a cloak for the ignorance of mankind; by it, we can at most mean no more than that we do not know the causes of different phenomena.

Causes and effects are either substantial, or unsubstantial; or, in other words, either material or immaterial. Substantial or material causes, and effects, are all those bodies having a real existence. Unsubstantial or immaterial causes, and effects, we conceive those things to be which are not tangible; such as virtue, honour, malice, fracture, &c. These are words made use of to denote particular states of things, and these states cannot exist independently of the things themselves. Such causes as these can, therefore, produce no real and absolute effects. There must be a real and absolute entity before any phenomenon can be produced.

This

In order to illustrate this subject, it may be necessary to say a few words more with respect to causes and effects. We reason of matter as we find it. It is not our intention to inquire into the first cause of matter. We find ourselves surrounded on all sides by something, to which we give the name of matter; but we are perfectly ignorant of the nature of this substance. We find it under different forms in different bodies; and when two or more bodies unite, the product of the union is entirely different from any of the causes. may be illustrated by acids and alkalies. But it is the same throughout all the material world. It is one of the truest assertions, that "there is nothing new under the sun;" for, what we call new things, are only made up of matter which already existed in another form. There is not an atom in existence now, which did not exist thousands of years ago. This property of self-existence is inherent in matter, and no power can annihilate it, but that which first produced it.

Matter is governed by certain, determinate laws, which are

immutable, because they are implanted in the constitution of matter; they are inseparable from it, for where matter exists, these laws also are in force: these laws seem to be very few in number, when traced to their origin. Gravitation, and the mutual tendency of bodies to approach one another, depend upon the law of Attraction. The Planetary motion is regulated by the same law. It produces a disposition in bodies to come in contact, even when they are at a great distance from each other; but it does not seem to dispose matter to coalesce, and change its form. The utmost it can do is, to bring bodies into contact, and retain them so. The attractive property of bodies does not depend upon the tangible parts of these bodies. This may be easily proved to a certain extent: for, if a stick of sealing-wax, or glass, be rubbed with a dry woollen cloth, it will attract small pieces of paper held near it; some of these pieces will adhere to the surface of the wax for some time, while others will fly off instantly to some distance if the point of a metallic body, a pair of scissars, for instance, be held near these pieces of paper, while adhering to the wax, it will draw them towards it; but, if the metallic body be allowed to touch one of these pieces, it will not attract that piece again; the piece of paper will instantly fall down. In this experiment, it is evident, that it is not the substance of the wax that attracts the paper; for, 1st, the wax will not attract until it be first rubbed; 2ndly, the power of attraction is imparted to the paper, which could not be the case if the attractive property were in the constitution of the wax itself. Friction is absolutely necessary in this case before the attraction can take place, for warming the wax will not answer the purpose.

We consequently prove, by inference, that attraction here depends upon some substance, very minute, having a disposition to pass from one body into another, and that it cannot accomplish that end without carrying the body, in which it resides, along with it.

Many more instances might be brought forward to prove that attraction does not depend upon the tangible parts of bodies, or those parts which come under the evidence of our senses; but that it depends upon some very minute substance, pervading these bodies, and endeavouring to escape from one body into another. This continual tendency to escape depends upon one body containing more of the attractive substance than another, when it has a continual tendency to form an equilibrium.

The other principal law which regulates matter is that of Affinity, or the mutual relation which subsists between different varieties of matter; it is generally called chemical affinity.

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