i, uüJl 168 THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND. expressing our ideas in the most proper and beautiful language, whether we write or speak of the things of God or men. It is pity that someof these harmonious writers have ever indulged any thing uncleanly or impure to defile their paper, and abuse the ears of their readers, or to offend against the rules of the nicest virtue and politeness: but still amongst the writings of Mr. Dryden and Mr. Pope, and Dr. Young, as well as others, there is a sufficient choice in our own language, wherein we shall not find any indecency to shock the most modest tongue or ear. Perhaps there has hardly been a writer in any nation, and I may dare to affirm, there is none in ours, has a richer and happier talent of painting to the life, or has ever discovered such a large and inexhausted variety of description as the celebrated Mr. Pope. If you read his translation of Homer's Iliad, you will find almost all the terms or phrases in our tongue that are needful to express any thing that is grand or magnificent : but if you peruse his Odyssey, which descends much more into com- mon life, there is scarcely any usual subject of discourse or thought, or any ordinary occurrence which he has not cultivated and dressed in the most proper language ; and yet still he has ennobled and enlivened even the lower subjects, with the bright- est and most agreeable ornaments. I should add here also, that if the same author had more frequently employed his pen on divine themes, his short poem on the Messiah, and some part of his letters between Abelard and Eloisa, with that ode of the dying Christian, &e. sufficiently assure us, that his pen would have honourably imitated some of the tender scenes of penitential sorrow, as well as the sublimer odes of the Hebrew psalmist; and perhaps discovered to us in a, better manner than any other translation has done, howgreat a poet sat upon the throne of Israel. 4. After all that I have said, there is yet a further use of reading poesy, and that is, when the mind has been fatiguedwith studies of a more laborious:kind, or when it is any ways unfit for the pursuit of more difficult subjects, it maybe as it were unbent, and repose itself a while on the flowery meadows where the muses dwell. It is a very sensible relief to the soul when it is over -tired, to amuse itself with the numbers and the beautiful sentiments of the poets ; and in a little time, this agreeable amusement may recover the languid spirits to activity and more important service. XXXVII. All this I proposeto the world as my best obser- vations about reading ofverse. But if the question were offered to me, shall a student of a bright genius never divert himself with writing poesy ? f would answer, Yes, when he cannot possibly help it: a lower genius in mature years, would heartily
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