Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/98

opinion on subjects connected with poetry, must be received with the attention due to so great an authority, gives the following favourable character of Parnell's talents; it is written with discrimination and truth; but that the allusions which he makes in strong disparagement of those who adopted a different style, of more elaborate structure, and more ornamental language, appear to me to derive their severity from something that acts more strongly on the mind than a mere difference of taste. This is not the place to enter into the consideration of the question; but while I am persuaded that the expression 'tawdry things,' cannot with any propriety be applied to the poetry of Gray or Collins (the persons whom Goldsmith had in his mind); I believe that their rich and ornamented style, their selected phraseology, their profuse imagery, and metaphorical splendour to be the proper and essential constituents of the lyrical style in which they wrote; and that there are grounds sufficient, as respects either poet, to assure us, that they were not ignorant of the manner of expression that was required by the subject on which it was employed. The criticism of Goldsmith seems also to press too strongly into an opinion which cannot be received, that there is only one style of superior and undisputed excellence; and that others are faulty in proportion as they depart from it. I know of no poet of any eminence contemporary with him to whom the biographer can allude, but those I mentioned; except