which every thing primarily flows. Epic Poets, in order that their mode
of composition may accord with the elevation of their subject, represent
themselves as _singing_ from the inspiration of the Muse, 'Arma virumque
_cano_;' but this is a fiction, in modern times, of slight value; the
'Iliad' or the 'Paradise Lost' would gain little in our estimation by
being chanted. The other poets who belong to this class are commonly
content to _tell_ their tale;--so that of the whole it may be affirmed
that they neither require nor reject the accompaniment of music.

2ndly, The Dramatic,--consisting of Tragedy, Historic Drama, Comedy, and
Masque, in which the poet does not appear at all in his own person, and
where the whole action is carried on by speech and dialogue of the
agents; music being admitted only incidentally and rarely. The Opera may
be placed here, inasmuch as it proceeds by dialogue; though depending,
to the degree that it does, upon music, it has a strong claim to be
ranked with the lyrical. The characteristic and impassioned Epistle, of
which Ovid and Pope have given examples, considered as a species of
monodrama, may, without impropriety, be placed in this class.

3dly, The Lyrical,--containing the Hymn, the Ode, the Elegy, the Song,
and the Ballad; in all which, for the production of their _full_ effect,
an accompaniment of music is indispensable.

4thly, The Idyllium,--descriptive chiefly either of the processes and
appearances of external nature, as the 'Seasons' of Thomson; or of
characters, manners, and sentiments, as are Shenstone's
'Schoolmistress,' 'The Cotter's Saturday Night' of Burns, 'The Twa Dogs'
of the same Author; or of these in conjunction with the appearances of
Nature, as most of the pieces of Theocritus, the 'Allegro' and
'Penseroso' of Milton, Beattie's 'Minstrel,' Goldsmith's 'Deserted
Village.' The Epitaph, the Inscription, the Sonnet, most of the epistles
of poets writing in their own persons, and all loco-descriptive poetry,
belong to this class.

5thly, Didactic,--the principal object of which is direct instruction;
as the Poem of Lucretius, the 'Georgics' of Virgil, 'The Fleece' of
Dyer, Mason's 'English Garden,' &c.

And, lastly, philosophical Satire, like that of Horace and Juvenal;
personal and occasional Satire rarely comprehending sufficient of the
general in the individual to be dignified with the name of poetry.

Out of the three last has been constructed a composite order