nd allegorical
nature of his themes.

It seems to have been the whole industry of our author, (and it is, at
the same time, almost all the claim to moral excellence his writings can
boast,) to promote the influence of the social virtues, by painting them
in the fairest and happiest lights.

"Melior fieri tuendo"

would be no improper motto to his poems in general; but of his lyric
poems it seems to be the whole moral tendency and effect. If, therefore,
it should appear to some readers, that he has been more industrious to
cultivate description than sentiment, it may be observed, that his
descriptions themselves are sentimental, and answer the whole end of
that species of writing, by embellishing every feature of virtue, and by
conveying, through the effects of the pencil, the finest moral lessons
to the mind.

Horace speaks of the fidelity of the ear in preference to the
uncertainty of the eye; but if the mind receives conviction, it is
certainly of very little importance through what medium, or by which of
the senses it is conveyed. The impressions left on the imagination may
possibly be thought less durable than the deposits of the memory, but it
may very well admit of a question, whether a conclusion of reason, or an
impression of imagination, will soonest make it sway to the heart. A
moral precept, conveyed in words, is only an account of truth in its
effects; a moral picture is truth exemplified; and which is most likely
to gain upon the affections, it may not be difficult to determine.

This, however, must be allowed, that those works approach the nearest to
perfection which unite these powers and advantages; which at once
influence the imagination, and engage the memory; the former by the
force of animated and striking description, the latter by a brief, but
harmonious conveyance of precept: thus, while the heart is influenced
through the operation of the passions or the fancy, the effect, which
might otherwise have been transient, is secured by the cooperating power
of the memory, which treasures up in a short aphorism the moral of the
scene.

This is a good reason, and this, perhaps, is the only reason that can be
given, why our dramatic performances should generally end with a chain
of couplets. In these the moral of the whole piece is usually conveyed;
and that assistance which the memory borrows from rhyme, as it was
probably the original cause of it, gives it usefulness and propriety
even there.