r, printed the piece.

The Letter from Italy has been always praised, but has never been
praised beyond its merit. It is more correct, with less appearance of
labour, and more elegant, with less ambition of ornament, than any other
of his poems. There is, however, one broken metaphor, of which notice
may properly be taken:--

"Fired with that name--
I bridle in my struggling Muse with pain,
That longs to launch into a nobler strain."

To BRIDLE A GODDESS is no very delicate idea; but why must she be
BRIDLED? because she LONGS TO LAUNCH; an act which was never hindered by
a BRIDLE: and whither will she LAUNCH? into a NOBLER STRAIN. She is in
the first line a HORSE, in the second a BOAT; and the care of the poet
is to keep his HORSE or his BOAT from SINGING.

The next composition is the far-famed "Campaign," which Dr. Warton
has termed a "Gazette in Rhyme," with harshness not often used by the
good-nature of his criticism. Before a censure so severe is admitted,
let us consider that war is a frequent subject of poetry, and then
inquire who has described it with more justice and force. Many of our
own writers tried their powers upon this year of victory: yet Addison's
is confessedly the best performance; his poem is the work of a man not
blinded by the dust of learning; his images are not borrowed merely from
books. The superiority which he confers upon his hero is not personal
prowess and "mighty bone," but deliberate intrepidity, a calm command of
his passions, and the power of consulting his own mind in the midst of
danger. The rejection and contempt of fiction is rational and manly. It
may be observed that the last line is imitated by Pope:--

"Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright--
Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,
And those that paint them truest, praise them most."

This Pope had in his thoughts, but, not knowing how to use what was not
his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it:--

"The well-sung woes shall soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them who shall feel them most."

Martial exploits may be PAINTED; perhaps WOES may be PAINTED; but they
are surely not PAINTED by being WELL SUNG: it is not easy to paint in
song, or to sing in colours.

No passage in the "Campaign" has been more often mentioned than the
simile of the angel, which is said in the Tatler to be "one of the
noblest thoughts