ve not themselves the discrimination or
feeling to perceive.

An anecdote is related of Collins which, if true, proves that he felt
the neglect with which his Odes were treated with the indignation
natural to an enthusiastic temper. Having purchased the unsold copies of
the first edition from the booksellers, he set fire to them with his own
hand, as if to revenge himself on the apathy and ignorance of the
public.

It is unnecessary to append to the Memoir of Collins many observations
on the character of his poetry, because its peculiar beauties, and the
qualities by which it is distinguished, are described with considerable
force and eloquence by Sir Egerton Brydges, in the Essay prefixed to
this edition. Campbell's remarks on the same subject cannot be
forgotten; and other critics of the highest reputation have concurred in
ascribing to Collins a conception and genius scarcely exceeded by any
English poet. To say that Sir Egerton Brydges's Essay exaggerates the
merit of some of his productions may produce the retort which has been
made to Johnson's criticism, that he was too deficient in feeling to be
capable of appreciating the excellence of the pieces which he censures.
It is not, however, inconsistent with a high respect for Collins, to
ascribe every possible praise to that unrivaled production, the Ode to
the Passions, to feel deeply the beauty, the pathos, and the sublime
conceptions of the Odes to Evening, to Pity, to Simplicity, and a few
others, and yet to be sensible of the occasional obscurity and
imperfections of his imagery in other pieces, to find it difficult to
discover the meaning of some passages, to think the opening of four of
his odes which commence with the common-place invocation of "O thou,"
and the alliteration by which so many lines are disfigured, blemishes
too serious to be forgotten, unless the judgment be drowned in the full
tide of generous and enthusiastic admiration of the great and
extraordinary beauties by which these faults are more than redeemed.

That these defects are to be ascribed to haste it would be uncandid to
deny; but haste is no apology for such faults in productions which
scarcely fill a hundred pages, and which their author had ample
opportunities to remove.

It may also be thought heterodoxy by the band, which, if small in
numbers, is distinguished by taste, feeling, and genius, to concur in
Collins's opinion, when he expressed himself dissatisfied with his
Eclogue