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O'erwhelm'd, forgotten; and high boafting Cham,

And Elam's haughty pomp; and beauteous Greece,

And the great queen of earth, imperial ROME.

ESSAY

ESSAY VI.

On COLLINS'S ORIENTAL ECLOGUES

Y thofe, with whom the bulk of

Ban author's

an author's performance is the criterion for estimating his merit, Collins, will be deemed a minor poet; there are however volumes of verfes of no mean character, which contain lefs genuine poetry, than the few pages he produced. The Oriental Eclogues were always till lately poffeffed of confiderable reputation, but our celebrated Biographer * having hinted that Collins, once in converfation

DR. JOHNSON.

tion with a friend, happened to term them his Irish Eclogues, those who form opinions not from their own reafon, or their own feelings, but from the hints of others, have caught the hint, and circulated it. That Collins ever fuppofed his Eclogues deftitute of merit, there is no reason to believe; but it is very probable, when his judgment was improved by experienee, he might discover, and be hurt by their faults, among which may poffibly be found some few inftances of inconfiftence or abfurdity.

The Oriental Eclogues, nevertheless, however they may be depreciated, have all the requifites of a good poem, description, incident, fentiment, and moral; they have fimplicity of thought, and melody of language.

The firft is intitled Selim, or The Shepherd's Moral. It introduces a Perfian

poet

poet on the bank of the Tigris, expatiating to a female audience, on the praise of virtue. The Author in this piece is not a cold teacher of morality; there is an ardour in his compofition, which induces one to think him not intirely uninterested in the leffon he is giving. Perhaps in the character of his Selim, he was obliquely advifing fome lady, whose person had attracted his affections, but whofe conduct could not merit his esteem. This is mere conjecture, and may appear fanciful; nevertheless, the late ingenious Dr. Langhorne feems rather mistaken, when he obferves, that Collins was one of the few poets who have failed to Delphi, without touching at Cythera. Our Poet poffeffed a mind that could not be infenfible to the fair; and his compofitions discover much of the tender, though nothing of the licentious.

ftance rather difpleafing to a nice The Poem opens thus

Silent Nymph, with curious eye!
Who, the purple ev❜ning, lie
On the mountain's lonely van,
Beyond the noise of busy man,
Painting fair the form of things,
While the yellow linnet fings,
Or the tuneful nightingale
Charms the foreft with her tale;
Come with all thy various hues,
Come and aid thy fister Muse;
Now while Phoebus riding high
Gives luftre to the land and sky!
Grongar Hill invites my fong,
Draw the landscape bright and strong.

Dyer in general wrote with remarka fimplicity and clearness, but here is inftance in which his sense is almost explicable. What fictitious Perfon addreffed by the appellation of Si Nymph, it seems scarcely poffible to cover. Painting, from the expreffi Sifter Mufe, and various hues, might meant ; but why should Painting

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