It must not be supposed that, because these poems are concise, they are of easy production; a poet’s genius may not be diminutive because his pieces are so; nor must we call them, as a fine sonnet has been called, a difficult trifle.  A circle may be very small, yet it may be as mathematically beautiful and perfect as a larger one.  To such compositions we may apply the observation of an ancient critic, that though a little thing gives perfection, yet perfection is not a little thing.

The poet must be alike polished by an intercourse with the world as with the studies of taste; one to whom labour is negligence, refinement a science, and art a nature.

Genius will not always be sufficient to impart that grace of amenity.  Many of the French nobility, who cultivated poetry, have therefore oftener excelled in these poetical amusements than more professed poets.  France once delighted in the amiable and ennobled names of Nivernois, Boufflers, and St. Aignan; they have not been considered as unworthy rivals of Chaulieu and Bernard, of Voltaire and Gresset.

All the minor odes of Horace, and the entire Anacreon, are compositions of this kind; effusions of the heart, and pictures of the imagination, which were produced in the convivial, the amatory, and the pensive hour.  Our nation has not always been successful in these performances; they have not been kindred to its genius.  With Charles II. something of a gayer and more airy taste was communicated to our poetry, but it was desultory and incorrect.  Waller, both by his habits and his genius, was well adapted to excel in this lighter poetry; and he has often attained the perfection which the state of the language then permitted.  Prior has a variety of sallies; but his humour is sometimes gross, and his versification is sometimes embarrassed.  He knew the value of these charming pieces, and he had drunk of this Burgundy in the vineyard itself.  He has some translations, and some plagiarisms; but some of his verses to Chloe are eminently airy and pleasing.  A diligent selection from our fugitive poetry might perhaps present us with many of these minor poems; but the “Vers de Societe” form a species of poetical composition which may still be employed with great success.

* * * * *

THE GENIUS OF MOLIERE.

The genius of comedy not only changes with the age, but appears different among different people.  Manners and customs not only vary among European nations, but are alike mutable from one age to another, even in the same people.  These vicissitudes are often fatal to comic writers; our old school of comedy has been swept off the stage:  and our present uniformity of manners has deprived our modern writers of those rich sources of invention when persons living more isolated, society was less monotonous; and Jonson and Shadwell gave us what they called “the humours,”—­that is, the individual or particular characteristics of men.[A]