106 Defence of Gray against the Reasoner's Second Attack on his Poems.

may have in them from depredation; which recognizes their use, and, by severe penalties or long imprisonment, prohibits their destruction.

The keeping of those that are ferocious only subjects the parties to civil actions. Why the Legislature, foreseeing such times of alarm as the present, stopped short, and did not make the keepers of dogs penally answerable for the consequences of their going loose, or give the Magistrates a dis cretional power to order their immediate destruction? it is not for me to

sav.

There is no doubt but, under circumstances of well founded apprehension, any Magistrate would take this burthen upon himself, and, stimulated by his duty in guarding the public from the horrid calamity that diseased dogs might occasion, order any number, upon which even the slightest suspicion rested, to be destroyed; but then he must, before he acts with decision, he allowed to judge with coolness, and to endeavour to discriminate betwixt the ebullitions of TERROR and the emanations of truth.

This observation leads me to make a few remarks upon apprehension and its consequences; to the influence of which we are, perhaps, more liable than any other nation in Europe.

Though it is far, far indeed, beyond the memorial limits of myself, or any of my contemporaries, yet the alarm of the metropolis upon the supposed enormities of the MOROCKS, most of which, though gravely reported, proved groundless, has been so frequently recorded, and read, as to be in every

mind.

An alarm as general, attended with supposed circumstances as terrific, pre

vailed about the years 1777 or 1778, respecting the insane fury of the LASCARS. Even at the west end of the town, we daily heard of their nightly cruelties exercised upon his Majesty's subjects: cruelties which it was dangerous even to doubt, and impossible, without very considerable risk, to controvert. Yet, like the story of the three frows, these alarms, upon inquiry, terminated in the simple fact of a Lascar sailor, inflamed with their favourite liquor, Gin, drawing his knife upon a

* Fur Dyer, 236. 2 Strange, 1261. 1 Ld. Raymond, 110,

girl at Mile-end, who very prudenti

ran away.

Even the cry of Mad-dogs! was, about the autumn of 1786, as prevalent as at present.

Yet although I know that causes of aların are, in most instances, exaggerated, such are the dreadful effects of the Hydrophobia, that I would have every precaution taken to guard against it. It is certain that too many useless dogs are kept; and, from hounds to mongrels, I could wish that nine out of ten were destroyed, being convinced that they are not only dangerous to the public, in other respects besides the introduction of canine madness into the human system, but injurious to the poor. At the same time, I am sorry to see in newspapers, the conductors of which are equally venal and stupid, an obloquy cast upon Magistrates who have done all in their power to remove even every cause of apprehension, and who would, if the safety of individuals required it, at their own risk exert against those obnoxious animals " vigour beyond the law."

I am, Sir,
Your obedient humble servant,
Feb. 2, 1807.

Y. Z.

To the Editor of the European Magazine.

SIR,

S an admirer of the poetry of Gray,

I had hoped that the observations of Y.Z. upon the Reasoner's first attack upon his works would have had the desired effect, and prevented him from ha zarding any more of his puerile criticism. The gentle correction he then received having failed, the lash ought to be applied by a ruder arm, to make him feel it. Leaving that, however, to some abler castigator than myself, I shal only here produce some plain animadversions upon his No. II, which I shall pursue, paragraph by paragraph,, as there placed.-In his opening one; he says, "1e it should appear” (“Great virtue in your If;" as if it operates in no other manner; at least it secures a retreat, and therefore a very proper phrase to take the lead, where the onset is dangerous, and consequently the event uncertain.)—Johnson's' censure," as the Reasoner calls it, on the Ode to Spring, "is too general to be regarded:" he would have had it equal to his own, if possible; and what that would

Defence of Gray against the Reasoner's Second Attack on his Poems. 107

have been, is but too apparent: Johnson had not penetration enough to find out the "Insipidity" that was left to the more acuminated criticism of the Reasoner--The questions, "Why the year is purple? Why the hours are rosy bosomed and why they are in the train of Venus?" are too childish almost to be noticed; that I do so, is in order to impress with more force upon the reader's mind the NATURE AND COMPLEXION of the Reasoner's criticism:

he might as well have asked, Why poets ever make use of FICTION? Certainly he had forgotten, at that in

stant,

"The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling." He is extremely lenient on the Elegy on the Death of his Cat, when compared with either the preceding or subsequent articles; yet he cannot let it escape totally unblamed; for after treating it with some degree of contempt, as a trifle beneath criticism, he finishes by saying, "But these are faults which gone but a critic would discover, and they are therefore pardonable." How particularly amiable and condescending this is -No one but himself, I should suppose, would have selected the passage which he has done from The Prospect of Eton College, in order to point out what he deems an inaccuracy:

Gay Hope is theirs, by Fancy fed;
Less pleasing when possess'd."

And then proceeds to say, "Hope itself
cannot be possessed, though the object
of it may.
Now I humbly conceive
that Hope itself may be possessed, unless
the Reasoner can reason me out of
my belief that there is a mental pos-
session as well as a corporeal one.-lu
the Reasoner's observations on the
Bard, which follow, I should be happy
if he would clear up an OBSCURITY
of his own, where he says, by way of
elucidation, that "No architect would
wish to adorn St. Paul's cathedral by
destroying the regularity of its archi-
tecture." Certainly not: but how any
thing can be adorned by what destroys
is greatest beauty, is far beyond my
comprehension. It would have been
but candid if the Reasoner had marked
that happy play upon words, where he
notices the Progress of Poetry, that
"What is good is not new, and what is

Tlus idea muquestionably pervaded the ssic mind of Gray, from seeing that beauul picture,TEAURORA of Guide.-ELITOR

new is not good," as a quotation, as well
as marking it in italics; for such it is,
I aver, having met with it before,
although 1 cannot at this instant re-
memher where; but to the best of
that remembrance, Dr. Johnson makes,
use of it, and I also think it is in one of
his Lives of the Poets. He proceeds to
blame the couplet,

"He saw; but, blasted with excess of light,
Clos'd his eyes in endless night."
It must be evident here that the Poet

meant to convey the idea of corporal,
not mental, blindness, by making use of
the term BLASTED; just as we now
speak of any one's losing his sight by
lightning or gunpowder. Johnson,
whose vision was not obscured by any
motives, either concealed or avowed,
saw rather further, and at the same
time with greater fairness, into the
Poet's meaning, and therefore gave it
that praise which it merited:
"The living throne, the sapphire blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze,"
could certainly only affect the mental
vision, as there represented. But the
Reasoner cannot, or at least ought not,
to be ignorant, that in the hands of
Omnipotence, (to which the throne
and sapphire blaze" plainly alludes,)
even the celestial light there described
can become the means of corporal
punishment. The Reasoner asks ironi-
cally, "In what prisons are

Joy, and horror, and sympathetic tears,' confined?" I answer briefly, In the mind, heart, and eyes; and that the keys, or rather key, to all those prisons, is sensibility; a feeling to which, I am fearf.', the Reasoner is a total stranger. At last Conscience produces, what the spear of Ithuriel produces on the Reasoner, something similar to on Satan, and he is thereby constrained to acknowledge, that "It is true, that in this poem (The Progress of Poetry) there are many beautiful sntiments well expressed." He proceeds to say, in what I may safely term his general summing up, that his forte seems

to have been the tender and the mc-.

lancholy. When he wishes to describe
the natural emotions of the human mind,
to lament the miseries of lif, or to
paint the magnificence of nature, he is al-
ways successful;" (Indeed!) "his diction
and his language are pure, POETICAL,
and melodious?" (Surprising !!)
verses unite the opposite excellencies

his

WO

pations are universally ascribed to the inferior deities." If, however, Jupiter did not assume the character of a Musician, in the poems of antiquity, with a lyre or harp in his hand, he certainly was introduced by their authors, ou many, occasions, in far meaner capacities. But notwithstanding this passage of Aristotle from his Politics, (to which I have no opportunity to refer for the connexion in which it may appear,) and though he was neither. man nor slave," yet there can be no doubt of his having been a very able Musician himself, and an author on the subject, as Cardan quotes several passages from his works, one or two of which I shall notice, to show that he was not insensible of the effect which Music produces on the mind; they ate as follow: "Movemur animis, cum hæc audimus. Etenim in quibusdam graviore animo et contractiore, ut in eo, qui mixtus est lydio; in aliis molliore et remissiore animo, ut in remissis." (Modis.) And farther on: "Pueris dorius ob it convenit, ut senibus phrygius, qui animos emollit et remittit, in suavitatem ac sonum reducens; ut lydius, qui temperet, juvenibus non ad prælium concitatis aptus."-Cardanus, Oper. tomo 11, p. 117.)

pitable halls of our ancestors; or, in other words, those mansions where hardly ever a man got away sober, and where music could only serve as an instigation to drinking and rioting, is equally absurd *. The improvements of modern compositions, particularly in melody and modulation, cannot be denied; and their beautiful effect on the ear, when performed with taste and judgment, is too striking not to be felt by sober and well disposed minds. But is it fit for John Bull ? If by John Bull is meant that class of the inhabitants of this metropolis who are pleased with an air for the same reason that they are pleased with the music of a drum or a triangle, it is not impossible but John Bull may hear it without emotion; but should he happen to be a member of that "society to which music is looked upon as the great introduction," or, perhaps, "the only passport," I venture to say, that he will not rest satisfied with any thing like that insipid species of melody prescribed for him as suitable to his character.

I shall mention one more of M.'s observations, and conclude: "I can conceive," says he, "how pleasant_it must be, after having laboured for many years at perfection on an instrument, to find yourself excelled by any of the performers in the orchestras of our public places of amusement." It must be, I confess, truly humbling! Knowing yourself so superior to these ignorant and illiberal mnen, and yet to want abilities to accomplish what they can do with so much ease, must be mortifying in the extreme. Then let us not, for want of liberality in ourselues, undervalue the merits of others.. If a musician is master of his business, that is enough for one man, seeing how difficult and complicated a science it is that he professes, and what great abilities and persevering application are required to excel in it.

M. is greatly delighted with the music of our ancestors: The numerous tepantry," he says, "and guests of our sturdy barons were enlivened by it in the hospitable halls, where good humour, good sense, and honesty, reigned" but the delicacy and refinement of the Italian school" he does not think "suitable to the character of John Bull." I allow that musical refinement (like all other human affairs) may be carried to an extrome; or, rather, that the term may be misapplied to a wanton execution. A simple pathetic air should be sung or performed with simplicity and feeling whereas, dividing and subdividing the notes into innumerable sounds, till the original melody is lost, may be termed refinement, but it cer-. tainly is want of taste. But, to pass from this extreme to the opposite one, and wish for the restoration of those Leman-street, Jan. 14, 1807. vulgar songs which enlivened the hos

The argument is extremely weak, thongh it should come from Aristotle, as this conclusion may be drawn from it, that every occupation or employment must be mean which the poets did not think of assigning to Jupiter !!

I am, Sir,
Your obedient humble servant,
J. F. HERING.

Many of the favourite ballads of those times, and which, as may naturally be inferred, were sung on such occasions, are still phaunted by vagrant musicians about our streets; it is, therefore, not very difficult to form an idea of their merit. The ballads

of which the old English opera consisted are much in the same sule.