poetical tower for "patent shot," so well as by a plain instance that of the "Old Minster" and the "Glass-houses" at Bristol! If a glass-house had the same architecture, to a painter it would appear the same; but try the effect in poetry. Chatterton, speaking of the spirit of ELLA, says, "Whether Or fiery round the MINSTER glare:" Try the effect of the other building, supposing its architecture the same, "Or fiery round the Glass-house glare!" the whole passage becomes ludicrous. The Wall of Malamocco, Euxine, and Argo.-When I speak of the sea, I do not speak of the Adriatic, or any part of it in particular. You take particular spots, and ask, whether, in that spot, the "master" that curbs the sea, be not more poetical than the sea? "Curb the Adriatic!" What must this strip of sea be to bear being "so curbed?" Its poetical SUBLIMITY must be entirely subdued, by Venice in one corner, and “a wall" in the other! Bring your "walls," my Lord, to "curb" THE, PACIFIC! and you would do something! But the mighty Cordilleras, of NATURE, only can do that. The "Argo" entering into the Euxine must have been, indeed, a most poetical object; and I can readily feel with the poet, standing on the spot from whence the spectacle might have been first seen, repeating the lines from the Greek tragedian. No ship had been there before! What reflections, fears, and awe, would that thought alone create! But I ask, is the interest, even here, derived from the ship as a work of art? It is in part derived, no doubt, from the idea of the courage, enterprise, and mastery of man over this great element, in part from the beauty added to the scene; but the novelty, the awe, and other complex ideas, excite the highest poetical enthusiasm, which I should partake with your Lordship, but should not think my principles of the sublime of Nature in the least affected by this instance. For, abstractedly, the Euxine is a more sublime object than the Argo; and if you admit associations, they must be derived from feelings of NATURE. I find I have done your Lordship injustice in supposing the canal of Venice "artificial;" but the name alone is quite sufficient to destroy its poetical interest. I think I have now examined almost all of your arguments. The "tall" ship becomes" diminished to a buoy ;"-the mar ble temples sink to dust, or, opposed even to the mountains of VOL. XVIII. Pam. NO. XXXVI. 2 B America, appear as little as the Pyramids, scarcely seen at the bottom of the engraving called the "scale of mountains ;"Mrs. Unwin's needle renders not more service than that of Gammer Gurton, which was found in Hodge's "breeches !"-Antinous' bust becomes fragile as the brazen head of Friar Bacon; and Homer's arms, that make such a glittering shew, impose only for a moment, like the coruscations of a fire-work, which seems to add, as it ascends, a thousand stars and glories to the night, and falls down a bit of burnt stick!" So, my Lord, the airy style, the pleasant stories, the delightful pictures, the brilliant imagery, of your publication, are as beautiful as they are baseless; because, on the least touch of argumentative examination, they are reduced to nothing, "Cum ventum ad veram est sensus, NATURA repugnat." 'I had almost forgot a line of Horace which you have quoted: "O fons Banduciæ SPLENDIDIOR vitro." This would have been something to your Lordship's purpose, if" the glass" had been made more splendid" than the fountain." How perverse must Horace have been, who so unfortunately for your Lordship's argument has described the fountain more splendid than the GLASS: "the glass" is as brittle as your Lordship's arguments. I will not say they are as muddy as the fountain is clear. *** In return for "the hog and the high wind," which is introduced as a specimen of what your Lordship is pleased to call facetiously Mr. Bowles' NATURE!" "bare Nature!" I might make a comparison between a toy which I have seen in the shops, and which might be called with as much justice a specimen of Lord Byron's ART! It is a wooden mastiff with ears and tail erect, half showing his teeth, as ready to bite at all that pass. It stands upon a footboard, which when it is pressed between the finger and thumb utters a sound something like a mixture of the quack of a duck in a high wind" and the bark of a dog. I am far from wishing to designate your Lordship's arguments by such an emblem, but ît is, at least, as much like your Lordship's " ART," as the " HOG” and the "PIG-STIES" are like "MY NATURE!" In fully, and I hope satisfactorily, developing my ideas on the subject of this controversy, I have thought it necessary to go into more minute detail, to prevent the possibility of future misrepresentation having done this, and being convinced that misrepresentation must now be from design, I hope to drop for ever the controversial pen. The "order" of classing the highest kind of poetry is not mine, and, therefore, not arbitrary; "the order" is that admitted by all who ever thought or wrote on the subject." Lord Byron's code is arbitrary, and not mine. As to the poet being ranked according to his "execution and not the branch, of his art," I have never considered the branch of the art as constituting a poet independent of the execution. I estimate a poet's character from both. Though I hope to lay down, after what I have now said, my controversial pen, I do not give up the idea of publishing a volume on poetical criticism, illustrative of these remarks. If a single expression occur in the preceding pages contrary to the fairest mode of argument, it has not been intentional. The public will decide between us; but one concluding observation must be made. Your Lordship has entertained us with a pleasant story of the "doctor's" HAT, alluding to my "sensitiveness" to criticism; therefore I devote what remains to the "chapter of the" DOCTOR'S HAT.' "Mr. Bowles's extreme sensibility reminds me of a circumstance which occurred on board of a frigate in which I was a passenger. The surgeon wore a wig. Upon this ornament he was extremely tenacious. One day a young lieutenant, in the course of a facetious discussion, said, Suppose now, doctor, I should take off your hat.' 'Sir,' replied the doctor, I shall talk no longer with you; you grow scurrilous."-Byron. Allow me only to say, that for thirty years I never made one reply to any criticism, good, bad, or indifferent; nor should I have done so now, if I had had fair play. But I must hint, that the "doctor's hat," in my opinion, fits your Lordship better than it does me; for the instant your early poems were sent into the world, and encountered the rude breath of the critics, you fell foul of critics, poets, statesmen, lords, ladies, and, among the number, none received less indulgence than your present correspondent. You have admitted with what good-humor this criticism on my temper and talents was met, whether it was more than I deserved or not. But your Lordship was "lazy;" and therefore the task of bestowing the "heaviest" and heartiest lashes, I find devolved on your friend the gallant and puissant KNIGHT OF WESTMINSTER! Can I, then, pass over entirely this your coadjutor, now my 1 66 Hippocrates says, Let us be covered. In what chapter? the CHAPTER of HATS."-Moliere. lance is in its rest? I do not know whether Hobhouse or your Lordship wrote the lines quoted in the Quarterly. If Hobhouse did not write these, I find he wrote others more severe, and therefore I take them as they stand. Let all the dulness of a former age Perch on thy pen, and flutter o'er thy page; nasies wa,& Clothe ENVY in the garb of honest zeal; Write, as if St. John's soul could still inspire, "If snow-white innocence, that from the first Let all the Froth on thiness of palav'ring prose lips, and perch upon thy nose; Affect a virtue that thou can'st not feel, Clothe faction in the garb of patriot zeal; Against King, Commons, Lords, and Canning,-bray, The gallant knight for Westminster and I are now even. I should not have introduced him on the stage, but for your Lordship's specific information; however, though I have thus glanced at him with my parting lance, I hope we shall meet at the next Wiltshire dinner for CHARITY, with that entire forgetfulness and good humor with which I first met your Lordship, and with which here drop the pen. 'Fabre d'Eglantine, one of the most noisy orators of the Palais Royal, (the Palace-yard of Paris,) hired to vilify the Royal Family. LEST it might be said that I am totally insensible to any thing Poetical, as connected with human ART, I have ventured to add a few lines, written on seeing the Egyptian Tomb. ON THE EGYPTIAN TOMB. ́ ́ ́ Pomp of Egypt's elder day, Shade of the mighty pass'd away, That strew the sandy solitude, From mazy vaults, high-arch'd and dir, |