Education > Essays on rhetoric

NATURE OF POETRY.
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Of these romances the most perfect model is the
Orlando Furioso. But as magic and enchantment
came to be disbelieved and ridiculed, the chivale-
rian romances were discontinued,and were succeeded
by a new species of fictitious writing.
Of the second stage of romance writing, the
Cleopatra of Madame Scuderi, and the Arcadia of
Sir Philip Sidney, are good examples. In these,
however, there was still too large a proportion of
the marvellous; and the books were too volumi¬
nous and unwieldy. Romance writing appeared,
therefore, in a new form. It dwindled down to the
familiar novel. Interesting situations in real life
are the ground-work of novel writing. Upon this
plan the French have produced works of great
merit. Such is the Gil Bias of Le Sage, the Mari¬
anne of Marivaux, and the Nouvelle Heloise of
Rousseau.
In this mode of writing the English are inferior
to the Frencli; yet in this way we have performances
which discover the strength of the British genius.
Robinson Crusoe is a well-conducted fiction. Mr.
Fielding’s novels are distinguished for their humour,
and for a boldness of character. Mr. Richardson,
the author of Clarissa, is the most moral of all our
writers; but he possesses the unfortunate talent of
spinning out his books into an immeasurable length.
As to the common run of performances, under the
titles of lives, adventures, and histories, they are
most insipid; and it is too often their tendency to
deprave the morals, and to encourage dissipation
and idleness.
NATURE OF POETRY.
ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS ; VERSIFICATION.
WHAT, it maybe asked, is poetry? and how
does it differ from prose ? Many disputes have been