are other inferior properties, which I shall consider
in due order.

Not to keep my readers longer in suspense, the subject of the poem is
"_The Reformation of the Knave of Hearts_." It is not improbable, that
some may object to me that a _Knave_ is an unworthy Hero for an Epic
Poem; that a Hero ought to be all that is great and good. The objection
is frivolous. The greatest work of this kind that the World has ever
produced, has "_The Devil_" for its hero; and supported as my author is
by so great a precedent, I contend, that his Hero is a very decent Hero;
and especially as he has the advantage of _Milton_'s, by reforming at
the end, is evidently entitled to a competent share of celebrity.

I shall now proceed in the more immediate examination of the poem in its
different parts. The _beginning_, say the Critics, ought to be plain and
simple; neither embellished with the flowers of poetry, nor turgid with
pomposity of diction. In this how exactly does our Author conform to the
established opinion! he begins thus,

"The Queen of Hearts
"She made some Tarts"--

Can any thing be more clear! more natural! more agreeable to the true
spirit of simplicity! Here are no tropes,--no figurative
expressions,--not even so much as an invocation to the Muse. He does not
detain his readers by any needless circumlocution; by unnecessarily
informing them, what he _is_ going to sing; or still more unnecessarily
enumerating what he _is not_ going to sing: but according to the precept
of Horace,

----in medias res,
Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit,----

That is, he at once introduces us, and sets us on the most easy and
familiar footing imaginable, with her Majesty of Hearts, and interests
us deeply in her domestic concerns. But to proceed,

"The Queen of Hearts
"She made some Tarts,
"All on a Summer's Day."

Here indeed the prospect brightens, and we are led to expect some
liveliness of imagery, some warmth of poetical colouring;--but here is
no such thing.--There is no task more difficult to a Poet, than that of
_Rejection_. _Ovid_, among the ancients, and _Dryden_, among the
moderns, were perhaps the most remarkable for the want of it. The latter
from the haste in which he generally produced his compositions, seldom
paid much attention to the "_limae labor_," "the labour of correction,"
and seldom therefore rejected the assistance of any idea that presented
itself. _Ovid_, not content with catching t