felection and method are difficult. The plan of M. l'Abbé Delille is fimple, and seems to be as exact as the miscellaneous nature of the fubject will admit. The firft Canto contains a general picture of the amufements and enjoyments which rural life is capable of furnithing, to a rational and well-ordered mind. The fecond defcribes the labours of agriculture, not in its ufual ftate, but in its more extraordinary exertions, when it prevails over the difficulties of fituation, foil, and climate; conquers thofe obftacles which nature feemed to have made infurmountable by human effort, and accomplishes works which, in times of ignorance, might have been deemed prodigies and miracles. The third Canto paints the pleasures which the fcience of the naturalift adds to the mere obfervation of the furface of nature; and the fourth delivers the rules of rural and defcriptive poetry. To the Poem there is prefixed a Preface, in which the author vindicates his former works against criticifm, which feems to us undeferved, with great elegance and fpirit; with a modeft confidence in his own genius, but with perfect urbanity towards his critics. He concludes his Preface, by adverting to the gloomy period when the greater part of the Poem was compofed; for it ought never to be forgotten by any reader of the French Georgics, that they were chiefly written in France during the years 1793 and 1794. "The indulgence of the reader," fays M. l'Abbé Delille, " will judge lefs feverely of a work compofed in fuch unfortunate times; it would have been more carefully laboured, and lefs imperfect, if it had been compofed with a mind at ease, and a heart more tranquil; if in this terrible Revolution the author had loft only his fortune!" P. xxxii. The first Canto, and indeed the whole Poem, contains many lines of fententious brevity, in which fense is so happily concentrated in a fingle verfe, and in which fo much poignancy is difplayed, without the facrifice of eafe, that they are likely to have the fortune of those verses of Boileau, which, as he tells us himself, were allowed, " Devenir quelquefois proverbes en naillant." Such, among many others, are the following: "Qui fait aimer les champs fait aimer la vertû.". L'étalage fe montre et la gaîté s'enfuit," Speaking of private theatricals: "Tél neglige fes fils pour mieux jouer les pères, On relit tout Racine, on choifit dans Voltaire," But But the following verfes are peculiarly admirable: After a description of the pleasures of beneficence, he thus addrelles thofe unenlightened epicureans, who prefer empty and wearifome diffipation, to the exquifite delight of commu-. nicating happiness. "Cœurs durs, qui payez cher de faftueux dégoûts Ah voyez ces plaifirs et foyez-en jaloux !" At a period when the unfortunate nobility of France are libelled by every bafe fcribbler in Europe, it is confolatory to learn from this great poet, that thofe paffages of this Poem, which moft ftrongly reprobate the infenfibility of the rich to the miseries of their indigent brethren, were the moft warmly applauded by the most diftinguished perfons in France, when they were read at the fittings of the French Academy. The Abbé Delille has peculiar claims upon the gratitude of the English nation. He was one of the first French writers who naturalized our English poets in France, by elegant imitations of fome of the beft paffages of our poetry. In thefe imitations he did not copy the ungenerous and difhoneft conduct of Voltaire, who borrowed largely, without acknowledgment, from English writers; and who is almost as liberal in his invectives against them, as he is in his plagiarisms from them. The Abbé Delille, in the notes to this Canto, confeffes his obligations to feveral of our poets, particularly to Denham, Pope, and Thomfon; and he quotes Goldfmith's beautiful verfes on the village preacher, from which he has borrowed (but borrowed like a poet) feveral ftrokes in his delightful picture of a virtuous clergyman. In the beginning of the fecond Canto, he compares his own fortune with that of Virgil, who, in the midft of the civil wars and profcriptions of Rome, exerted his genius to inspire his countrymen with a relifh for the ufeful pleasures, and pacific occupations of agriculture. "Comme lui je n'eus point un champ de mes ayeux Et Et content de former quelques ruftiques fons Et laiffez moi fans nom, fans fortune, et fans fers, Thefe allufions to the misfortunes of the poet, and of his opprefied country, will be read with great intereft by posterity, long after the names of the obfcure ruffians, who were then the tyrants of France, are forgotten; when no impression of the events of our age fhall remain on mens' minds, but horror at their atrocity, and wonder that there should exist beings in human fhape fo depraved as to admire, or fo impudent as to applaud them. Another beautiful paffage follows, on the fame fubject, from which we shall only extract a few lines. "Trop courte illufion! délices chimériques! De mon trifte pays les troubles politiques, M'ont laiffe pour tout bien mes agreftes pipeaux, Adieu mes fleurs! adieu mes fruits et mes troupeaux!" The third Canto exhibits one of the greatest victories of the genius of the poet, over the difficulty of his fubject, that Poetry has to boat. Mineralogy and Botany are fciences that feem to us to have no kindred with Poetry; and the greater part of modern attempts to clothe them with the ornaments of Poetry, have only ferved to confirm our opinion. The authors of fuch attempts have generally been compelled to hide the natural drynefs of their fubject under extravagant fictions and inflated style. As an example of the power of talte to furmount thefe obftacles, this Canto of the French Georgics will always be an object of admiration. But we must be excufed if we confcfs our doubts, whether the pleafure conveyed be at all proportioned to the difficulties conquered, or the skill excrted. The majority of readers to whom poetry must be addreffed, will always derive pleafure from defcriptions which recal to their fancy Nature, as they themselves have obferved it. But they will never receive the fame delight from the most ingenious defcription of Nature, as it is analyzed and diffected by the naturalift. Such a defcription may indeed be admired for its fkill, but it will generally excite more wonder than pleasure. It awakens no recollections, it retraces no images formerly impreffed, it is connected with no feelings, it routes no powerful fympathies, it appears only to the comparatively cold and languid paffion of curiofity, it touches none of thofe fprings of the human heart by which warm interest is excited, or exquifite pleasure is conveyed. The nature of the unlearned (if we may fo fpeak) is connected with the scenes of youth, with the fports of fancy, with all our most delightful feelings and recollections. But the nature of the learned, an inhabitant of the colder world of fcience, has no alliance with the feelings or pursuits of ordinary men. She borrows no gaiety from the remembrance of youth; the does not prefent to us the theatre on which our powers and affections were first unfolded. No tender recollection makes her interefting, no terrific images render her grand. Nature, as fhe is viewed by the chemift and the mineralogift, is too minute for fublimity, and too regular for beauty. She impofes on the obferver an investigation too toilfome for the indolent pleafures of imagination. Whoever doubts the juftnefs of thefe obfervations, has only to compare thofe paffages of the French Georgics, which paint the common fcenery of nature, with those perhaps ftill more highly finished paffages, which defcribe the appearances difcovered to us by phyfical fcience. We fhall be much deceived, if that comparifon alone be not fufficient to fatisfy him, that the paflion for fcientific poetry is one of the fymptoms of that peculiar fpecies of corrupted tafte which charac-terizes a speculative age. Many paffages of this third Canto are of the higheft beauty. The difcovery of Herculaneum, and the invocation to the fea, are admirable. The panegyric on Buffon is magnificent, though we are convinced that geologifts will not agree with the author, in the commendation which he lavishes on the fublime chimeras of, that eloquent writer. The great revolutions of which our globe bears the marks, fuggeft grand ideas of antiquity to the mind, which are molt happily expreffed in the following couplet: "Vers l'antique chaos notre ame eft repouffee, Whoever does not immediately feel the power of the fecond line, is incapable and unworthy of having its excellence thown to him by criticifm. The Abbé Delille is not one of thofe obfervers of nature, who admire every thing in the universe but the Eternal Wisdom which formed it. "Et vous, vous y venez d'un œil obfervateur, In In this Canto, he again pathetically alludes to the fad fate of his country. "Ainfi quand des excès, fuivis d'excès nouveaux, D'un état par degrés ont préparés les maux, De malheur en malheur fa chute fe confomme; Tyr n'eft plus, Thèbes meurt, et les yeux cherchent Rome! Mes yeux à ces penfers fe font mouillés de pleurs!" The fourth Canto, which, in our opinion, is the most perfect part of this admirable poem, contains the rules of rural poetry. It is fo full of excellence, that we are embarrassed in our felection by the variety of beauties. Every where the precepts are delivered, not with the coldness of a critic, but with the fpirit and fplendour of a poet. Every where the author, proves his right to "teach others", by the excellence of his own compofition. The defcription of the magnificent scenery of the tropical climates, rivals the majesty of those scenes which it paints. The defcriptions of Arabian and African deferts, and of an Arctic winter, which follow, are equally diftinguished by animation and grandeur. In his pictures of thefe fublime fcenes, the Abbé Delille frequently rifes to a happy boldness of expreffion, which we could fcarcely fuppofe either to be attainable by the feebleness of the French language, or to be tolerated by the timid correctnefs of French criticifm. The following paffage difclofes to us the fecret by which the great mafters of defcriptive poetry have imparted to their pictures of nature, a higher intereft than the defcription of mere inanimate objects can ever poffefs. "Mais n'allez pas non plus toujours peindre et décrire, Souvent dans vos tableaux placez des fpectateurs ; Sur la fcène des champs amenez des acteurs ; Cet art de l'intérêt eft la fource feconde. Oui l'homme aux yeux de l'homme eit l'ornement du monde. Les lieux les plus rians fans lui nous touchent peu, C'est un temple défert qui demande fon dieu, Avec lui mouvement, plaifir, gaîté, culture, Semblent |