WERE it not that this author affords the most perfect examples of thofe beauties which I would propose for imitation, I fhould apprehend being thought altogether unreasonable in quotations from him. But, prefuming upon the reader's indulgence on this account, I fhall venture to transcribe one other paffage, in which our painter, who unites all the minutenefs and accuracy of the Flemish, with the beauty and grandeur of the Roman school, has drawn a scene fo furprisingly natural, that our perception of it is no less lively than if it really exifted before our eyes. It is perfect ftill life; the representation of a hot fummer's noon,

The daw,

The rook and magpie, to the grey-grown oaks That the calm village in their verdant arms,

Sheltering, embrace, direct their lazy flight ;
Where on the mingling boughs they fit embower'd,
All the hot noon, till cooler hours arife. P
Faint, underneath, the houshold fowls convene
And in a corner of the buzzing shade,
The house-dog, with the vacant grey-hound, lies
Out-stretch'd and fleepy, In his slumbers one».
Attacks the nightly thief, and one exults
O'er hill and dale; till, wakened by the wafp,
They, starting, fnap.

A STRIKING inftance of the extraor dinary effect of a well-chofen epithet in adding life and force to a defcription, is fhewn in the expreffion "buzzing fhade." A fingle word here conveys to the mind all the imagery of a paffage in the fame author which Mr. Warton justly commends as equally new and picturesque.

Refounds the living furface of the ground:
Nor undelightful is the ceafelefs hum

To

To him that mufes through the woods at noon; Or drowsy fhepherd, as he lies reclin'd

With half-fhut eyes.

IT is by means of fuch bold comprehensive touches as thefe, that Poetry is frequently enabled to produce more lively representations than Painting, even of fenfible objects.

THE inftances hitherto quoted all refer to the application the application of images drawn from natural hiftory to the purpofes of fimple defcription. They are, however, capable of being used to advantage in the several figures of comparison; and thereby admit of application in various kinds of poetical compofitions, where they could not have place as primary objects.

THE

THE diftinguished rank which fimiles bear among the decorations of epic poetry has been remarked by all cri tics, ancient and modern. Indeed, as the writings of Homer were the foundation of every idea concerning the Epopea, it was impoffible that an object fo ftriking in them fhould have escaped notice. Homer, in reality, as Mr. Pope obferves, " excels all "mankind in the number, variety, and "beauty of his comparifons." He perhaps may in various inftances manage and apply them without exact propriety; but he almost always offers fomething beautiful or fublime to the imagination of his reader; and what is particularly to our prefent purpose, his fimiles are a most valuable store of accurate defcriptions of nature. That

minute

minuteness of detail, running out into circumstances foreign to the pointof fimilitude, which has been cenfured, perhaps juftly, as an imperfection in them, confidered as figures of comparifon, renders them peculiarly excellent as pieces of natural history. They are neither confined to the fingle object which correfponds to the thing compared, nor do they turn folely upon those obvious and well known properties of the fubject which might be learned from a curfory furvey, or the information of common language; but they every-where evince the man who had fedulously, with his own eyes, examined the face of nature, and whofe rapid flow of conception would not fuffer him to fupprefs any circumftances which could add beauty or animation