With pliant arm thy glassy wave?
The captive linnet which enthrall?
What idle progeny succeed,

To chase the rolling circle's speed,
Or urge the flying ball?

While some on earnest business bent,
Their murmuring labours ply,
'Gainst graver hours that bring constraint
To sweeten liberty;

Some bold adventurers disdain
The limits of their little reign,

And unknown regions dare descry,
Still as they run they look behind,
They hear a voice in every wind,
And snatch a fearful joy.

Gay hope is theirs by fancy fed,
Less pleasing when possest;
The tear forgot as soon as shed,

The sunshine of the breast:
Theirs buxom health of rosy hue,
Wild wit, invention ever new,

And lively cheer, of vigour born;
The thoughtless day, the easy night,
The spirits pure, the slumbers light,
That fly th' approach of morn.

Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!

No sense have they of ills to come,
No care beyond to-day.

Yet see how, all around them, wait
The ministers of human fate,

And black misfortune's baleful train;
Ah show them where in ambush stand,
To seize their prey, the murderous band!
Ah tell them they are men!

To each his sufferings: all are men,
Condemn'd alike to groan;

The tender for another's pain,

The unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah, why should they know their fate!
Since sorrow never comes too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.

WILLIAM COLLINS (1720-1756), the son of a hatter in Chichester, and educated at Oxford, can hardly be deemed inferior to Gray in the harmony and polish of his composition; while, with less pathos than the former, he displays a still richer imagination. In 1746, while

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living as a literary adventurer in London, he published his odes, among which was the celebrated one To the Passions. He was a man of extensive learning, and very amiable character; but having contracted irregular habits, he gradually lost the powers of both body and mind, and finally was placed in an asylum for lunatics, where he died. Among his best pieces may be mentioned his Ode to Evening, his Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlanders (of Scotland), and a little lyric in honour of those who die fighting for the liberties of their country-the last of which is as follows:

How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
By all their country's wishes blest!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod,
Than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honour comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall a while repair,
And dwell a weeping hermit there.

The Pleasures of Imagination, by MARK AKENSIDE (1721-1770), published when the author was only twenty-three years of age, is a poem full of fine imagery, expressed in rich, copious, and msuical language. Akenside was the son of a butcher at Newcastle, and practised physic first at Northampton, and afterwards in London. Personally he was vain and irritable; but his poetical genius displayed a vigour and enthusiasm superior to his age. The ardour expressed in the two following stanzas, is calculated to enchant every generous mind :

ON A SERMON AGAINST GLORY.

Come, then, tell me, sage divine,

Is it an offence to own

That our bosoms e'er incline

Towards immortal Glory's throne?
For with me nor pomp nor pleasure,
Bourbon's might, Braganza's treasure,
So can Fancy's dream rejoice,

So conciliate Reason's choice,

As one approving word of her impartial voice.

If to spurn at noble praise

Be the passport to thy heaven,
Follow thou those gloomy ways;

No such law to me was given,
Nor, I trust, shall I deplore me,
Faring like my friends before me;
Nor an holier place desire

Than Timoleon's arms require,

And Tully's curule chair, and Milton's golden lyre.

The chief poems of OLIVER GOLDSMITH (1728-1774), are The Traveller and The Deserted Village; the former of which is a contemplative and descriptive piece of the highest merit, while the latter contains some of the happiest pictures of rural life and character in the English language. Goldsmith, who was a native of Ireland, and originally educated for the medical profession, spent the time between the year 1758 and his death, as a professed man of letters, in the metropolis, and wrote comedies, histories, and miscellanies, particularly an inimitable novel called the Vicar of Wakefield. He was a man of good dispositions, but vain, and irregular in his conduct; and, though he realized large sums by his writings, he died deeply in debt. His poetical compositions are characterised by a delightful combination of simplicity, elegance, and pathos.

JAMES BEATTIE (1736-1803), a native of Scotland, was the last of those who can properly be placed in the first order of the poets of this time. In 1771, while professor of moral philosophy at Aberdeen, he published his celebrated poem The Minstrel, which describes, in the stanza of Spenser, the progress of the imagination and feelings of a young and rustic poet. Beattie also wrote several philosophical and controversial works, which attracted considerable attention in their day. His poetry is characterised by a peculiar meditative pathos.

Of the second class of the poets of this age, the first in point of time is WILLIAM SOMERVILLE, a country gentleman of Warwickshire (1692-1742), whose chief poem was one in blank verse, entitled The Chase, describing in a very animated manner the circumstances attending that sport. ROBERT BLAIR (1700-1748), minister of Athelstaneford, in Scotland, wrote a serious

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poem in blank verse, entitled The Grave, which has ever since been admired for the strong and solemn pictures which it draws of mortal affairs. JOHN DYER (17001758), a country clergyman, enjoys a respectable reputation as a didactic and descriptive poet: his chief poems are The Fleece and Grongar Hill. One lively descriptive poem, entitled The Spleen, has preserved the name of MATTHEW GREEN (1696-1737), an officer in the custom-house of London. RICHARD GLOVER (1712 -1783), is chiefly remembered for an epic poem called Leonidas, which he published in his twenty-fifth year, and which for a long time enjoyed considerable celebrity, though none of his works are now much read. The name of ISAAC WATTS, venerable for the worth of him who bore it, continues to enjoy as extensive popularity as any other of this period. Watts (1674-1748), was originally a Dissenting minister in London, but, on account of delicate health, spent the last thirty-six years of his life in the bosom of a private family of opulence at Stoke Newington, where he wrote many works in divinity and morals. Besides some miscellaneous poems, which display a lively fancy and refined taste, he wrote a large mass of devotional lyrical poetry, part of which was adapted to the capacities of children. WILLIAM SHENSTONE (1714–1763), a gentleman of Shropshire, is chiefly remembered for his pastoral elegies, which have a softness and smoothness of diction, in the highest degree pleasing, though they bear little reference to the sentiments and circumstances of actual rustic life.

WILLIAM FALCONER, a native of Scotland, and reared as a common sailor, published in 1762 The Shipwreck, a descriptive poem, which has ever since been considered as a valuable part of the stock of English poetry. It was designed to describe a scene of suffering which took place in a voyage from Alexandria to Venice, when the poet was one of three, who, out of a large crew, were able to make their way from the perishing vessel to the shore. A tale of the affections is interwoven with the narrative; but it was the liveliness and originality of the descriptions, that gave the poem its principal title to notice. In consequence of his suc

cess as a poet, Falconer was elevated to the situation of purser in an East India vessel; but the ship, after leaving the Cape of Good Hope, was never more heard of.

The name of CHURCHILL is now remembered as a part of political and literary history, while his works have almost entirely ceased to be read. He was originally a clergyman, but having fallen into embarrassed circumstances, and being fond of the life of a man of letters, he began in 1761 to employ himself as a satirist, his first production being The Rosciad, the object of which was to hold up to ridicule the defects of the principal London actors, as well as the characters of a number of gentlemen who interested themselves in theatrical affairs. Churchill was a man of coarse feelings and low habits; but his powers as a satirist were so very great, that, if he had exerted them on subjects of general and permanent interest, his writings could hardly have failed to secure a lasting reputation. Being attached to a popular party, of which Mr. John Wilkes was the chief, he devoted himself to the task of satirizing the ministry of the Earl of Bute, and all its adherents, among whom might be reckoned the whole of the Scottish nation. In the Prophecy of Famine, all the antiquated notions of the lower English respecting their northern neighbours are embodied with such fancifulness of exaggeration, as almost redeems the prejudice from which the poem took its rise. Many works of less note were published by Churchill during his brief career, which terminated in November, 1764, when he was only thirty-three years of age.

TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721-1771), so eminent as a novelist, wrote a few poetical pieces, which display much delicacy, and an elevated tone of sentiment. Among these, his Ode to Leven Water is the most popular. JOHN ARMSTRONG (1709-1779), who, like Smollett, was a native of Scotland, and a physician, was the author of a didactic or instructive poem of respectable reputation, entitled The Art of Preserving Health, and of some other pieces of less celebrity. LANGHORNE, a clergyman of the English church, enjoyed in his lifetime considerable fame as a poet, but is now little known: Owen of Carron, an imitation of the old ballad style, in peculiarly