that were not amply satisfied. It has undoubtedly a just claim to
very particular notice as an example of great felicity of genius,
and uncommon aptitude of acquisitions, of a young mind stored with
images, and much exercised in combining and comparing them. With
the philosophical or religious tenets of the author I have nothing
to do; my business is with his poetry. The subject is well chosen,
as it includes all images that can strike or please, and thus
comprises every species of poetical delight. The only difficulty is
in the choice of examples and illustrations; and it is not easy in
such exuberance of matter to find the middle point between penury
and satiety. The parts seem artificially disposed, with sufficient
coherence, so as that they cannot change their places without injury
to the general design. His images are displayed with such
luxuriance of expression that they are hidden, like Butler's Moon,
by a "Veil of Light;" they are forms fantastically lost under
superfluity of dress. Pars minima est ipsa puella sui. The words
are multiplied till the sense is hardly perceived; attention deserts
the mind, and settles in the ear. The reader wanders through the
gay diffusion, sometimes amazed, and sometimes delighted; but, after
many turnings in the flowery labyrinth, comes out as he went in. He
remarked little, and laid hold on nothing. To his versification
justice requires that praise should not be denied. In the general
fabrication of his lines he is perhaps superior to any other writer
of blank verse; his flow is smooth, and his pauses are musical; but
the concatenation of his verses is commonly too long continued, and
the full close does not occur with sufficient frequency. The sense
is carried on through a long intertexture of complicated clauses,
and, as nothing is distinguished, nothing is remembered.

The exemption which blank verse affords from the necessity of