The writer seems to have apprehended that
a dash of humour was requisite to render his story in the highest degree
interesting. And he has spared no exertion of any kind of which he was
capable, for accomplishing this purpose.
The scene is laid in Egypt and the adjacent countries. The peasant is
the son of the celebrated Saladin. The author has exercised his
imagination in painting the manners of the times and climates of which
he writes.
ARTICLE VI.
AN ESSAY ON NOVEL, IN THREE EPISTLES INSCRIBED TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LADY CRAVEN, BY WILL. HAYLEY, ESQ. 4TO.
The public has been for some time agreed that Mr. Hayley is the first of
English poets. Envy herself scarcely dares utter a dissentient murmur,
and even generous emulation turns pale at the mention of his name. His
productions, allowing for the very recent period in which he commenced
author, are rather numerous. A saturnine critic might be apt to suspect
that they were also hasty, were not the loftiness of their conceptions,
the majesty of their style, the richness of their imagination, and above
all, the energy both of their thoughts and language so conspicuous, that
we may defy any man of taste to rise from the perusal, and say, that all
the study and consideration in the world could possibly have made them
better.
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