any ample records of themselves; of many not
even a letter or fragment of memorials is preserved. None of Cowley's
letters, a mode of composition in which he is said to have eminently
excelled, have come down to us. Of Prior, Tickell, Thomson, Young, Dyer,
Akenside, the Wartons, there are few of any importance known to be in
existence. Those of Hayley, which Dr. J. Johnson has brought forward,
are not of the interest which might have been expected. Mrs. Carter's
are excellent, and many of Beattie's amusing and amiable: it had been
well for Miss Seward if most of hers had been consigned to the flames.
Those of Charlotte Smith it has not been thought prudent to give to the
public. The greater part of those of Lord Byron, which Moore has
hitherto put forth, had better have been spared: they are written in
false taste, and are under a factitious character: in general, the prose
style of poets is admirable;--it was not Lord Byron's excellence. We
have no specimens of the prose of Collins: it is grievous that he did
not execute his project of The History of the Revival of Literature, or
of the Lives for the Biographia Britannica, which he undertook. Poets of
research are, of all authors, best qualified to write biography with
sagacity and eloquence; they see into the human heart, and detect its
most secret movements; and if there be a class of literature more
amusing and more instructive than another, it is well written
biography.

We have a few poets who have not possessed erudition; for genius will
overcome all deficiencies of art and labour, such as Shakespeare,
Chatterton, Burns, and Bloomfield: but it cannot be questioned that
erudition is a mighty aid. Milton could never have been what he was
without profound and laborious erudition. Another necessary knowledge is
the knowledge of the human heart, which no industry and learning will
give. It is an intuitive gift, which mainly depends on an acute and
correct imagination, and a sympathetic sensibility of the human
passions. Among the innumerable rich endowments of Shakespeare this was
the first; it was the predominant brilliance of his knowledge which
gave him correctness of description, sentiment, and observation, and
clearness, force, and eloquence of language.

Collins had only reached the age of twenty-six when his Odes were
published: what inconceivable power would the maturity of age have given
him? It is lamentable that he had no familiar friend and companion from