beyond imitation.

_Ut sibi quivis
Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret
Ausus idem_[50]!

All may hope to imitate with ease:
Yet while they drive the same success to gain,
Shall find their labour and their hopes are vain. FRANCIS.

[Footnote 50: Hor. de Art. Poet.]

The unequal measures which are used in these shorter Odes, are likewise
adapted with great propriety to the subjects of which they treat. Horace
says, that this inequality of numbers was originally fixed upon as
expressive of the complaints of a lover; but he adds, that they became
quickly expressive likewise of his exultation.

_Versibus impariter junctis Querimonia primum
Post etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos[51]._

Unequal measures first were taught to flow,
Sadly expressive of the Lover's woe.

[Footnote 51: Id. ibid.]

These looser and shorter measures distinguish this branch of the Ode
from the Hymn which was composed in heroic measure[52], and from the
Pindaric Ode (as it is commonly called) to which the dithyrambique or
more diversified stanza was particularly appropriated. Of the shorter
Ode therefore it may be said with propriety,

_Son stile impetueux souvent marche au hazarde
Chez un beau disordre est un effect de l'art[53]._

[Footnote 52: Aristotle expressly mentions this circumstance, when
he explains the Origin of the Drama. +Paraphaneisas de tes Tragodias
kai Komodias, hoi eph' hekateron te poiesen harmontes kata ten
oikeian phusin hoi men anti ton Iambon, Komodopoioi egenonto; hoi
de anti ton Epon tragodidaskaloi, dia to meizo kai enemotera ta
schemata einai tauta ekeinon.+ Arist. Poet. c. 4.]

[Footnote 53: Boil. Art. Poet.]

Thus, my Lord, we have taken a view of the Lyric poetry of the Ancients,
as it appeared originally in the works of the earliest Poets, and as it
was afterwards employed to enliven a train of more elegant and delicate
sentiment. I have attempted, in the course of this enquiry, to follow
the lights which Antiquity throws on this subject as closely as
possible, to explain facts by placing them in connection, and to
illustrate reasoning by example.

Your Lordship's acquaintance with the principles of civil Government,
and your experience of the effects of education have enabled you to
observe the _character_, which the Manners _of an age_ stamp upon the
productions of the Authors who live in it. Experienc