Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/44

 the highest degree of excellence; but the present age, more just to deceased poets than that in which they lived, delights in reviving the fame which had been obscured by the blaze of superior reputation. It is to writers of this class that we owe the formation of a great part of poetical phraseology, and the introduction of many new images into poetry. They provide the rough materials, which are moulded into form by a superior genius, as the most magnificent cities have risen from the ruins of towns less splendid.