XXIII.

In the twenty-third stanza, the last of the four formerly mentioned, is held out. a sentiment which criticism is willing to praise, till, collecting her ideas, she remembers having bestowed praise on its contrary. Does the "some fond breast," do the "some pious drops," alluded to, contribute to take from the bitterness of death, and smooth the passage to the world of spirits? So says Gray. But

guages, proceeding, in different degrees, and some of them whimsically enough, upon that idea. The subjoined Trifle is formed, in part, upon it; though all the resources alluded to, those particularly of a more technical kind, are not called in to contribute to the intended effect. It is to be found cloathed with an highly elegant and appropriate Melody' by that great master of the school of Simplicity, the late Mr JACKSON, of Exeter; whose truly classical compositions will long be relished by those who seek for a temperate and quiet enjoyment in the meeker and more gentle effusions of Musical Expression,

1 OPERA XVI, Song, 8.

what says Parnel,' in a case pretty similar? Audi alteram partem:

Nor can the parted body know,

Nor needs the soul, these forms of woe.

dictated by correct discrimination, and regulated by the chastest Taste. His Saltem accumulem Donis....!] SOBER ANACREONTICK.

I.

If the watchful eye of CARE

Could out-watch DEATH, or TROUBLE scare,....

If Thought could think Mishap away,

Then 'TWERE FOLLY TO BE GAY.

And Thomson ?

How many stand

Around the death-bed of their dearest friends,
And point the parting anguish!

Sterne too, whose dissipation was too short-lived, completely to destroy in him the seeds of sensibility and nature, has described, in a book of which perhaps one fifth part is worth reading, the sympathies of surrounding friends, as constituting the acutest part of a dying man's anguish. Having recorded his wish to die in an inn (a species of death for which there will be few competitors,) he proceeds thus: "At home,---I know

it,---the concern of my friends, and the "last services of wiping my brow, and "smoothing my pillow, which the quivering hand of pale Affection shall pay me, will so crucify my soul, that I shall

66

• Winter.

"die of a distemper which my physician " is not aware of."

Amongst Doctors who thus disagree, who shall settle the dispute? To a mind given to shift its views, and to sensibilities not yet properly made up, both aspects of the fact, and both impressions of the sentiment, offer themselves in turn; and both are in turn approved. Of this vicissitude of feeling, no man is without his share. As the frame of the mind alters, so alter its likings, and its prepossession in favour of a sentiment, or its opposite. Of sentiments exclusively just, the catalogue would be but small. Relative truth is all we have a title to expect in the department of taste; of which, as no standard exists, it is vain to suppose any standard should be found. Scepticism, dangerous in philosophy, and impious in religion, urges a reasonable plea for admission into the court of criticism; of whose decisions she may tem

per

the severity, and diminish the selfimportance.

With these mutually contradictory sentiments (to which the late Mr Savage gave the name of ambidextrous,' and of which he had made large collections from the body of English poetry that then existed,)-sentiments to which the mind makes alternate love, as the antiquary bestows his admiration, now on the Head of the medal, and now on the Reverse, the writings of all authors of fancy are replete. We recognise them, at times contradicting each other, and at times contradicting themselves. The language of the

The appropriation of the word is contrary to analogy. Colliding would have been more proper. On the occasions alluded to, it is the mind that is ambidextrous; not the sertiments. Savage, whose fancy led him to form more projects than his means allowed him to execute, seems to have intended some work upon this subject. But to render the design complete, his Collections, of which I retain an indistinct idea, should have taken in prose-writers as well as poets, and other languages as well as the English.