his imagination glowed, and he has given it the finest touches of his pencil.

Milton, like all great men, was fully sensible of the blessings we derive from the society of women, and how cheerless the face of nature would have been without them. He, therefore, labours to make the mother of his Paradise every thing that could charm, and every thing that could alleviate the infelicities of life. Let the libertine read his description of marriage, and tell me what he thinks of the prevailing rage for impurity and seduction.

Homer is universally celebrated; and, though you cannot read his poem in the original language, Pope has given an admirable translation. The same may said of Dryden's Virgil, if you wish to taste the ex. quisite richness of these ancient authors.

Mason's poems have great merit, and have acquired him considerable celebrity. His Caractacus, his Elfrida, and his English Garden, have all been admired. Nothing, however, from his pen, has pleased me more than the epitaph upon his lady. His talents seem to be particularly formed for the pensive and pathetic. But poetry, after all, is but an embellishment, and, in the character of a divine, a very secondary distinction. How much more important and useful to mankind, are the labours of that pastor, who, by one judicious, impassioned, and well directed discourse, appals the sinner, encourages the saint, revives the drooping, guides the

perplexed, or condescends to cheer the bed of sickness with divine consolations.

This remark, however, is not particularly intended to depreciate the ingenious author of Caraeacus. He is said to excel, likewise, as a preacher.

LETTER LX.

IN poetry, the ladies have, of late, asserted their claim to genius, and the trampled honours of their understanding. Several of them appear in the walks of Parnassus, with considerable lustre.

Miss Seward, in my idea, is a star of the first magnitude in the hemisphere of imagination. She has given us chiefly little fugitive pieces; a monody on the death of captain Cook, and major Andre; a poem to the memory of lady Miller, and a few stanzas to Mr Wright, on taking her father's picture. The last always gave me the highest pleasure. It required indeed no great effort, but is a most pleasing specimen of filial affection, and of a rich, fervid, glowing imagination. Her Louisa, though her largest, is not, in my idea, her happiest performance. A novel is too much dignified by the charms of poetry. It is a courtezan, dressed like a queen.

Whenever Miss Hannah More takes up her pen, she never loses sight of piety and virtue. Her Bleeding Rock, Search after Happiness, Sir Eldred

of the Bower, Sacred Dramas, Female Fables, &c. will please and instruct you. The little tract, lately published, intitled, "Thoughts on the Manners of the Great," which has had so very extensive a circulation, is said to have come from her ingenious pen. The design is excellent, and the execution displays a considerable knowledge of human life and manners. I wish it may leave some lasting impressions. But, alas! the dissipated have few intervals for reflection

Miss Williams bids fair for a poetic laurel, that shall long be green. Her Peru is a work of considerble merit.

The little sonnets of Miss Charlotte Smith are soft, pensive, sentimental and pathetic, as a woman's production should be. The muses, if I mistake not, will in time raise her to a considerable eminence. She has, as yet, stepped forth only in little things, with a diffidence that is characteristic of real genius in its first attempts. Her next public entre may be more in style, and more consequential.

The Comtesse le Genlis I have before mentioned, as a woman of fine taste, and a cultivated understanding Her Theatre sur l'Education, as founded on a dramatic plan, may be recommended amongst other poetical productions. There is not a sweeter rose in the garden of nature, than hers of Salency.

Lord Lyttleton was not by any means a capital poet. There is, however, such a delicacy, softness, piety, and tender pathos in his strains, as do the

highest credit to his own heart, and improve that of every attentive reader. His monody upon his Lucy has immortalized his sensibility, his affection, and his virtue.

Akenside's work on the Pleasures of Imagination, needs no other recommendation, than what it has received from a generous and discerning public. It is highly interesting; it required a very considerable effort, and his genius has rendered it beautifully picturesque.

Cowper's poems are calculated to do considerable service. He has made the muses handmaids to religion. He has chosen verses only as a vehicle for conveying instructions of so important a nature, as would not, by any means, have dishonoured the pulpit. His style is simple, bold, manly, spirited, and energetic; his judgment strong and penetrating; his metaphors forcible and happily conceived; his observations on life and manners accurate, and his satire just and poignant.

He does not seem so much to have studied the production of a poem, with unity for its design, and harmony in all its parts, as to serve the cause of piety and virtue by general, desultory and impassioned reflections. His work, on the whole, is a strong specimen of genius and talents; rigid criticism, perhaps, would say, that his piety wants a little mildness, and seems to breathe the spirit of a party.

But the most finished poet of the age is Hayley.

His Essay on History and on Epic Poetry, his Ode to Howard, and his Triumphs of Temper, have received very great and very general applause.

LETTER LXI.

YOUR question is a very proper one, and I will give you the best satisfaction in my power.

Pronunciation, or that part of grammar called Orthoepy, as to any uncommon or difficult words, is governed by the quantity which those words have in the original language from which they are derived. As you cannot be supposed to understand the dead languages, you will of course frequently be at a loss how to pronounce many words with propriety. The only method is recourse to a dictionary, and the best in my opinion are those of Sheridan and Johnson. Pronunciation, however, is a very fluctuating thing; and, though there certainly is a standard of propriety, over which mere fashions ought to have no power, yet, I should always recommend a conformity to the manner of the politest people you may happen to converse with, rather than a pedantic affectation of grammatical strictness. The latter would be thought a conceited ostentation of knowledge, which in a young lady would not be forgiven.

The allusions to Jupiter, Pallas, Venus, the