diftinction of them is an act of RATIONAL and judicious criticism.

All Imitation is Refemblance, which differs according to the nature of the Art: and the nature of the Art, depends upon the Materials and Inftrument employed. Imitation is either direct or proper, or indirect and improper and to difcriminate its nature and extent in each of the elegant Arts, as well as in the different provinces of the fame, is an

ffert piece of the most refined philosophy.

In Sculpture and in Painting the Imitation, from the nature of the means and materials they employ, is direct and proper, and the refemblance between the ftatue or picture and what they reprefent, is both immediate and obvious. Words are the means or materials of Poetry: But Words, though as founds they may fometimes directly refemble founds, are not the natural reprefentatives of ideas, in which poetry confifts; they are only their arbitrary figns, and do not, therefore, admit

of

any imitation fo proper and direct. That part of poetry, in which the poet perfonates another, and employs his very words and Speeches,

fpeeches, is, so far as that perfonification goes, directly imitative. But, with regard to the effects which it produces, poetical imitation is indirect in a greater or lefs degree. The fimpleft and leaft indirect mode of this Imitation, is that representation of fenfible objects, which is called poetical Defcription. From this Poetry advances to a sublimer operation in the reprefentation of mental objects, of all the paffions, emotions, movements and fenfations of the mind;" which it performs

"Porro ut vehementioribus animæ Affectibus originem fuam debet poefis, ita in Affectibus exprimendis vim fuam præcipue exerit, et Affectus concitando finem fuum optime confequitur.

Imitatione conftare dicitur Poefis: quicquid humana mens cogitatione complectitur, id omne imitatur; res, loca, imagines vel naturæ vel artis, actiones, mores, affectus : et cum omni imitatione magnopere delectatur mens humana, fieri vix poteft, quin illam et delectet maxime et percellat ea imitatio, quæ ei fuam ipfius imaginem exhibet, omnefque eos impulfus, flexiones, perturbationes, motufque fecretos exprimit, quos in fe agnofcit fentitque. Commendat imprimis hanc imitationem ipfius rei fubtilitas et difficultas habet magnam admirationem, cum cernimus id effectum dari, quod omnino vix effici poffe judicamus, Cæterarum rerum defcriptiones accuratas elle et nature congruere, memoriæ fubfidio ac veluti per medium quoddam, mens tardius intelligit; cum exprimitur Affectus ali

two different ways-either by representing these mental emotions as they are internally felt, and fucceed each other in the mind— or by representing them as they appear in their fenfible and external effects: And these les direct modes conftitute poetical Expreffion. In all which mental imitations the effect is often extended and enlarged by Association of ideas; and wonderfully heightened by Sympathy, that lovely and fublime affection, which gives poetry such a powerful ascendant over the heart of man.

Another mode of poetical imitation is that of Fiction, which reprefents facts, characters, actions, manners, and events, in feigned and

quis, rem ipfam quafi nude intuetur; ipfa per fe conscia eft et fui et fuorum motuum, nec rem perfpicit folum, fed et vel idem vel fimile quiddam ftatim patitur. Hinc fit, quod ea Sublimitatis fpecies, quæ ex vehementi Affectuum impulfu eorumque imitatione oritur, apud animum humanum multo maximam vim habet: quicquid ei extrinfecus exhibetur, utcunque grande et magnificum, minus eum ut par eft commovet, quam quod intus percipit' cujus magnitudinem et impetum et vehementiam ipfe apud fe perfentit.

Utque Imitatio Affectuum poefeos perfectiffimum eft opus, ita per eorundum Concitationem maxime ad finem fuum et effectum perducitur. Lowth Poet. Præl. xvii.

general

n

general ftory, as History does in real and particular narrative, adding to the Fiction Reprefentation: Thefe more indirect Imitations conftitute Epic and Dramatic poetry, into which every other fpecies is introduced.

And to these is to be added another kind of Imitation ftill more indirect, which conveys the thoughts and ideas of the mind through the external objects of fenfe: This is Parabolical and Allufive poetry."

But, although the Imitations of Poetry be lefs direct and proper than those of the other arts, they furpafs them greatly in their extent and operation upon the mind. Poetry, which from this fuperiority has priated the general name, is the mirrour of all Truth, by which every part of Nature,

appro

* Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ποίησις μᾶλλον τὰ καθόλε, ἡ δ ̓ ἱςορία τὰ καθ ̓ ἕκασον λέγει. Ἔτι δὲ καθόλα μὲν, τῷ ποίῳ τὰ ποῖ ̓ ἅπα συμβαίνει λέγειν, ἢ πράτ]ειν κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς, ἢ τὸ ἀναγκαῖον, * τοχάζεται ἡ ποίησις, ὀνόματα ἐπιτιθεμένη· τὰ δὲ καθ ̓ ἔσον, τί ̓Αλκιβιάδης ἔπραξεν, ἢ τί ἔπαθεν. Αrift. Poet. c. 9.

• At poefis parabolica, inter reliquas eminet, et tanquam res facra videtur et augufta; cum præfertim religio ipfa ejus opera plerunque utatur, et per eam commercia divino

rum cum humanis exerceat.

corporeal

corporeal and mental, is reflected and improved. It is Phyfics, Facts, Actions and Hiftory feigned at pleasure; and represented, by the different modes of its Imitation, in a Language raised above the common use, and which is peculiarly appropriated to itself." And, whilft it exhibits a beautiful picture of every fpecies of truth, it foftens the labour which attends their acquifition by affording the mind that refined and elegant recreation, which the most rigid philofopher need not

aceoff blush to take.'

P Cum nihil aliud fit, quam hiftoriæ imitatio ad placitum. Baconus De Augm. Sc. lib. ii. cap. 13.

Poefis eft genus doctrinæ verbis plerumque adftriétum, rebus folutum et licentiofum. Ibid.

Ea eft omnis Poefeos indoles ut a vulgari fermonis usu maxime abhorreat, atque verborum non folum delectu, fed et conftructione proprium quoddam et exquifitius dicendi genus affectet. Lowth Poet. Præl. iv.

Equidem præclare nobis confuluiffe videtur natura, quæ cum nos ad veri cognitionem longe a nobis remotam, nec fine magnis laboribus affequendam, vehementer impelleret, hæc nobis invenit et paravit oblectamenta, ut haberet mens noftra, quo defatigata identidem confugeret; ubi conquiefcere, omnemque illum languorem et moleftiam deponeret. Lowth Poet. Præl. 1.

THUS