true
that some of his Canzoni are _not less_ esteemed, but _not_ more; who
ever dreams of his Latin Africa?

[Footnote 1: Of these there is one ranked with the others for his
SONNETS, and _two_ for compositions which belong to _no class_ at
all? Where is Dante? His poem is not an epic; then what is it? He
himself calls it a "divine comedy;" and why? This is more than all
his thousand commentators have been able to explain. Ariosto's is not
an _epic_ poem; and if poets are to be _classed_ according to the
_genus_ of their poetry, where is he to be placed? Of these five,
Tasso and Alfieri only come within Aristotle's arrangement, and Mr.
Bowles's class-book. But the whole position is false. Poets are
classed by the power of their performance, and not according to its
rank in a gradus. In the contrary case, the forgotten epic poets of
all countries would rank above Petrarch, Dante, Ariosto, Burns, Gray,
Dryden, and the highest names of various countries. Mr. Bowles's
title of "_invariable_ principles of poetry," is, perhaps, the most
arrogant ever prefixed to a volume. So far are the principles of
poetry from being "_invariable_," that they never were nor ever will
be settled. These "principles" mean nothing more than the
predilections of a particular age; and every age has its own, and a
different from its predecessor. It is now Homer, and now Virgil; once
Dryden, and since Walter Scott; now Corneille, and now Racine; now
Crebillon, now Voltaire. The Homerists and Virgilians in France
disputed for half a century. Not fifty years ago the Italians
neglected Dante--Bettinelli reproved Monti for reading "that
barbarian;" at present they adore him. Shakspeare and Milton have had
their rise, and they will have their decline. Already they have more
than once fluctuated, as must be the case with all the dramatists and
poets of a living language. This does not depend upon their merits,
but upon the ordinary vicissitudes of human opinions. Schlegel and
Madame de Stael have endeavoured also to reduce poetry to _two_
systems, classical and romantic. The effect is only beginning.]

Were Petrarch to be ranked according to the "order" of his
compositions, where would the best of sonnets place him? with Dante
and the others? no; but, as I have before said, the poet who
_executes_ best, is the highest, whatever his department, and will
ever be so rated in the world's esteem.

Had Gray written nothing but his Elegy, high as he stands,