so pious as that of Wales, it would have been next to impossible for the
poet, though ever so much upon his guard, to avoid all allusion to the
system of revelation. On the contrary, every thing is Pagan, and in
perfect conformity with the theology we are taught to believe prevailed
at that time.

These reasons had induced us to admit, for a long time, that it was
perfectly genuine, and justly ascribed to the amiable Druid. With
respect to the difficulty in regard to the preservation of so long a
work for many centuries by the mere force of memory, the translator,
together with the rest of the world, had already got over that objection
in the case of the celebrated Poems of Ossian. And if he be not blinded
by that partiality, which the midwife is apt to conceive for the
productions, that she is the instrument of bringing into the world, the
Pastoral Romance contains as much originality, as much poetical beauty,
and is as happily calculated to make a deep impression upon the memory,
as either Fingal, or Temora.

The first thing that led us to doubt its authenticity, was the striking
resemblance that appears between the plan of the work, and Milton's
celebrated Masque at Ludlow Castle. We do not mean however to hold forth
this circumstance as decisive in its condemnation. The pretensions of
Cadwallo, or whoever was the author of the performance, are very high to
originality. If the date of the Romance be previous to that of Comus, it
may be truly said of the author, that he soared above all imitation, and
derived his merits from the inexhaustible source of his own invention.
But Milton, it is well known, proposed some classical model to himself
in all his productions. The Paradise Lost is almost in every page an
imitation of Virgil, or Homer. The Lycidas treads closely in the steps
of the Daphnis and Gallus of Virgil. The Sampson Agonistes is formed