CHAP. LJ REVIEWING FOR MB. AND MRS. GRIFFITHS.

" himself, of whom our modern Lyrist is an imitator, 1757.
" appears entirely guided by it. He adapted his works m29
"exactly to the dispositions of his countrymen. Irregular,
" enthusiastic, and quick in transition,—he wrote for a
" people inconstant, of warm, imaginations, and exquisite
" sensibility. He chose the most popular subjects, and all
" his allusions are to customs well-known, in his days, to
" the meanest person."

Admirable rebuke to those who seize the form, but not
the spirit, of an elder time ; and mistake the phrase which.
passes in a century, for the heart which is young for ever.
The poetical genius of which. Goldsmith is already conscious,
was in its essential character of a lower grade than that
of Gray: but the exquisite uses to which he will direct it,
and the wise and earnest purpose which will shape and control
it, are to be read, as it seems to me, in this excellent piece
of criticism.

Mr. Gray, continued Goldsmith, wants the Greek writer's
advantages. " He speaks to a people not easily impressed
" with new ideas; extremely tenacious of the old; with.
" difficulty warmed; and as slowly cooling again. How
" unsuited, then, to our national character is that species
" of poetry which rises upon us with unexpected flights;
" where we must hastily catch the thought, or it flies from
"us; and the reader must largely partake of the poet's
" enthusiasm, in order to taste his beauties ! . . . Mr. Gray's
" Odes, it must be confessed, breathe much of the spirit of
"Pindar ; but then they have caught the seeming obscurity,
" the sudden transition, and hazardous epithet of his mighty
" master ; all which, though evidently intended for beauties,
" will probably be regarded as blemishes by the generality
"of his Headers. In short, they are in some measurected the