ran Cassius' _dagger_ through."

If the poet had said that Cassius had run his _fist_ through the rent
of the mantle, it would have had more of Mr. Bowles's "nature" to
help it; but the artificial _dagger_ is more poetical than any
natural _hand_ without it. In the sublime of sacred poetry, "Who is
this that cometh from Edom? with _dyed garments_ from Bozrah?" Would
"the comer" be poetical without his "_dyed garments?_" which strike
and startle the spectator, and identify the approaching object.

The mother of Sisera is represented listening for the "_wheels of his
chariot_." Solomon, in his Song, compares the nose of his beloved to
"a tower," which to us appears an eastern exaggeration. If he had
said, that her stature was like that of a "tower's," it would have
been as poetical as if he had compared her to a tree.

"The virtuous Marcia _towers_ above her sex,"

is an instance of an artificial image to express a _moral_
superiority. But Solomon, it is probable, did not compare his
beloved's nose to a "tower" on account of its length, but of its
symmetry; and making allowance for eastern hyperbole, and the
difficulty of finding a discreet image for a female nose in nature,
it is perhaps as good a figure as any other.

Art is _not_ inferior to nature for poetical purposes. What makes a
regiment of soldiers a more noble object of view than the same mass
of mob? Their arms, their dresses, their banners, and the _art_ and
artificial symmetry of their position and movements. A Highlander's
plaid, a Mussulman's turban, and a Roman toga, are more poetical than
the tattooed or untattooed buttocks of a New Sandwich savage,
although they were described by William Wordsworth himself like the
"idiot in his glory."

I have seen as many mountains as most men, and more fleets than the
generality of landsmen; and, to my mind, a large convoy with a few
sail of the line to conduct them is as noble and as poetical a
prospect as all that inanimate nature can produce. I prefer the "mast
of some great ammiral," with all its tackle, to the Scotch fir or the
alpine tannen; and think that _more_ poetry _has been_ made out of
it. In what does the infinite superiority of "Falconer's Shipwreck"
over all other shipwrecks consist? In his admirable application of
the terms of his art; in a poet-sailor's description of the sailor's
fate. These _very terms_, by his application, make the strength and
reality of his poem. Why? because he was a p