e, or the Rialto which arches it, the churches which
tower over it, the palaces which line, and the gondolas which glide
over, the waters, that render this city more poetical than Rome
itself? Mr. Bowles will say, perhaps, that the Rialto is but marble,
the palaces and churches are only stone, and the gondolas a "coarse"
black cloth thrown over some planks of carved wood, with a shining bit
of fantastically formed iron at the prow, "without" the water. And I
tell him that, without these, the water would be nothing but a
clay-colored ditch; and whoever says the contrary deserves to be at
the bottom of that where Pope's heroes are embraced by the mud nymphs.
There would be nothing to make the canal of Venice more poetical than
that of Paddington, were it not for the artificial adjuncts above
mentioned, altho it is a perfectly natural canal, formed by the sea
and the innumerable islands which constitute the site of this
extraordinary city.

The very Cloaca of Tarquin at Rome are as poetical as Richmond Hill;
many will think so: take away Rome and leave the Tiber and the seven
hills in the nature of Evander's time. Let Mr. Bowles, or Mr.
Wordsworth, or Mr. Southey, or any of the other "naturals," make a
poem upon them, and then see which is most poetical--their production,
or the commonest guide-book which tells you the road from St. Peter's
to the Coliseum, and informs you what you will see by the way. The
ground interests in Virgil, because it will be Rome, and not because
it is Evander's rural domain.

Mr. Bowles then proceeds to press Homer into his service in answer to
a remark of Mr. Campbell's, that "Homer was a great describer of works
of art." Mr. Bowles contends that all his great power, even in this,
depends upon their connection with nature. The "shield of Achilles
derives its poetical interest from the subjects described on it." And
from what does the spear of Achilles derive its interest? and the
helmet and the mail worn by Patroclus, and the celestial armor, and
the very brazen greaves of the well-booted Greeks? Is it solely from
the legs, and the back, and the breast, and the human body, which they
enclose? In that case it would have been more poetical to have made
them fight naked; and Gully and Gregson, as being nearer to a state of
nature are more poetical boxing in a pair of drawers, than Hector and
Achilles in radiant armor and with heroic weapons.

Instead of the clash of helmets, and the rushing of