cite or reward biographical research. By all who are capable of judging, he is considered as, if not the greatest, at least as one of the greatest of poets; and the writings which he has bequeathed to posterity will probably be preserved as long as monuments of genius shall be venerated by mankind.

It will be remarked, likewise, that Tasso was not only eminent, but of a class of eminence peculiarly calculated to gain the attention and interest of his species. The fame of the man of science is, in general, destined to live only in the history of his science, and in the writings of his successors. His own productions soon become imperfect and obsolete; useful only as monuments of the progress of the human mind, or as trophies of her successive conquests over nature. The duration, indeed, of writings addressed to the understanding is limited, in proportion to the quickness of discovery, since every valuable scientific work (according to the remark of Bacon,) like the rod of Aaron, devours its rivals. On the contrary, whatever addresses

itself to the fancy or the heart, while it interests a more numerous class of mankind, is more permanent in its duration, since the qualities on which that permanence is founded, instead of being strengthened, are generally enfeebled in the progress of society. Of such writers, the poet is the most eminent: his fame (if he is illustrious,) lives in his own productions, and, instead of being darkened or limited, often spreads and grows brighter by the length of days. Tasso belongs to the highest class of such poets. His greatest work is of the epic kind, a species of writing which, from the few perfect specimens of it that have been given to the world, has been thought to require the most vigorous display of the highest powers of the human mind. It is a field of poetry, too, in which the greatness of the champions who have already exercised themselves, is sufficient to deter all future adventurers, and whence the trophies to be won seem already to have been borne away. In fact, whether we consider the nature of the subjects for the heroic muse, or that pro

gressive diffusion of knowledge which is daily encroaching upon the empire of imagination, and rendering those magical wonders, which were once felt as real, mere objects for the contemplation of taste, it may be concluded, and perhaps hoped, that the last interesting epic poem has been given to the world. Another youthful bard may be placed, like Tasso, in a situation calculated to nourish sensibility to glory; and enjoy the most favourable opportunities of consulting books, nature, and society. Like him, he may possess the advantage of being born in a family where his literary emulation is excited; in a country where the most beautiful of modern languages is spoken; and where the scenery, both by what it presents, and by what it recalls, is fitted most powerfully to awaken and enrich the imagination. may possess the same genius as the author of the Jerusalem, and yet must despair of rivalling his poetical glory. It is well known that in the sciences, as in the political order, things must have reached a certain maturity, and genius

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must be born at a fortunate period, in order to produce a revolution, or to gain its highest flight. This is likewise true, to a certain degree, in literature; and the Jerusalem Delivered may be considered, in some measure, as the birth of time, as well as of exalted mental energies. Its author lived at a period of society abounding with picturesque pageantry—at that happy dawn, when Fancy has not lost her empire, and when the forms that glitter in the orient ray have not yet been dispersed by the increasing light of reason. He possessed, or availed himself of advantages of a peculiar nature. When Tasso began to write, the public seems to have been satiated both with the trite thoughts, and faded pictures of the imitators of the ancients, and with the striking, but confused and grotesque delineations of the romantic writers. Combining the advantages, while he shunned the defects of either, this poet united the Gothic splendour and variety, with the classical graces of order and regularity. He adorned a most happy subject with the most sublime and pathetic beauties; with the most vi

vid delineations of character; with the most delightful combination of events; with the noblest style, and the most brilliant images. Love, heroism, and enchantment, whatever fascinates the imagination, kindles the soul, or sooths the heart, contribute to the embellishment of his wonderful poem; and no other production of the human mind is calculated to awaken more powerfully the sweetest and most generous sympathies of our nature. Tasso, in short, has raised himself to the number of those few fortunate writers, whose works are necessary in the libraries of the learned and elegant in every nation, who have become, as it were, citizens of the world, and who excite the interest, and flatter the pride, not merely of a single people, but of civilized man.

II. Nor, unfortunately for this illustrious poet, was his life deficient in those circumstances which I have mentioned, in the second place, as essential to an interesting biographical production, since it was, in a very high degree, various and eventful. The story of Tasso has all the interest which genius, virtue, and misery can inspire, and