All the Elegant Arts are IMITATIONS, by which they are principally distinguished from the Manual, and which differ from each other, according to the Means or Materials which they respectively employ. Marble is generally the material of the Statuary, and his inftrument the chiffel: thofe of the Painter are his colours, and his inftrument the pencil: thofe of the Musician are the different founds, and his inftruments of various kinds: those of the Poet are words, and the pen his inftru

ment.

SECT. I.

Of the Poetical PRINCIPLE.

HE Soure from which the Imitative

TH

Arts originally derive their energy, is that Internal Feeling or Senfibility, which, by a fpontaneous operation, recognizes a wonderful variety of different fentiments, emotions, and affections, according to all the modes and diverfities

diversities of Pleasure and Pain, excited in the mind by the different objects, actions, and/m events which occur in all the various fcenes of human life.

This native Senfibility is, therefore, the FIRST PRINCIPLE of Poetic Art, without which Genius would neither know what to imitate in order to produce the Effect defigned, nor would the mind be enabled to

nize that Effect produced.

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However different from the External and Moral Senfes, we may obferve a general analogy fubfifting between them. As the different kinds of Good and Evil, as they are diftinguished by the Moral Principle, form all the different claffes and varieties of moral Action; fo the different modes of Pleafure and Pain as recognized by the Poetical Principle, give all their diftinctive colours and varieties to the elegant Arts: and, fuch is the general confiftency and uniformity of things, that, as we obferve the External Senfes more perfect and the Moral more acute, from their natural formation, in fome perfons than in others; fo we remark this other Principle

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Principle to prevail in different minds with greater and lefs degrees of delicacy and refinement. And, as the two former are liable to be injured in their exercife, and perverted in their use by habit or accident, and capable of being corrected by an act of reason; so is Coll this Poetical Senfe fubject to be corrupted by

habit, and to be corrected by reafon.

The higher degrees of this Poetic Feeling are the rare and peculiar gift of nature; when accompanied with the imitative talent, the happy combination is diftinguished by the name of Genius; and, when conducted by found judgment, the refult is called Tafte: which endowments are more partially and capriciously bestowed than the other mental faculties, as it is neceffary there should be many Moralists and Philofophers, whilst a few Poets will fuffice for all the purposes of life, provided they be the best.

SECT.

BUT

SECT. II.

Of Poetical REASONING.

T, in the name of Apollo and the Mufes, what has REASONING, it may be faid, to do with Genius and Tafte? What has a dry and fombrous LOGIC to do in the wild and luxuriant fields of Imagination? An able philofopher and philologist shall give the answer. Every thing really elegant or 'fublime in compofition, is ultimately referable to the Principles of found Logic; those Principles, when readers little think of them, have ftill a latent force, and may be traced, 'if fought after, even in the politeft of 'Writers. By reasoning of this kind an im'portant Union is established; the Union 'between TASTE and TRUTH. 'Tis this is 'that fplendid Union which produces the Claffics of pure Antiquity; which produced, ' in times less remote, the Claffics of modern days; and which those who now write, ought to cultivate with attention, if they ' with

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⚫ wish to survive in the eftimation of pofterity. TASTE is in fact but a fpecies of inferior • TRUTH. Tis the Truth of Elegance, of Decoration, and of Grace; which, as all • Truth is fimilar and congenial, coincides as it were spontaneously with the more fevere and • logical; but which, whenever defitute of that • more folid support, refembles fome fair but languid Body; a Body, fpecious in feature, but deficient in nerve; a Body, where we • seek in vain for that natural and just perfection, which arifes from the pleafing harmony of Strength and Beauty affociated."

Ariftotle defines Poetic Art in general to be a Habit conducted by Reason to the pro⚫duction of a true Effect:" and wherever Truth

Harris's Philofophical Arrangements, p. 458.

ἔτε γὰρ τῶν

Ἕξις μετὰ λόγε ἀληθῆς ποιητική. ἔτι δὲ τέχνη πᾶσα περὶ γένεσιν, καὶ τὸ τεχνάζειν, καὶ θεωρεῖν, ὅπως ἂν γένηταί τι τῶν ἐνδεχομένων καὶ εἶναι, καὶ μὴ εἶναι· καὶ ὧν ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐν τῷ ποιῶντι, ἀλλὰ μὴ ἐν τῷ ποιεμένῳ. ἐξ ανάγκης ὄντων, ἢ γινομένων, ἡ τέχνη ἐςὶν, φύσιν· ἐν αὐτοῖς γὰρ ἔχεσι ταῦτα τὴν ἀρχήν. σις καὶ πρᾶξις ἕτερον, ἀνάγκη τὴν τέχνην ποιάσεως, ἀλλ ̓ ἐ πράξεως εἶναι. ἡ μὲν ἔν τέχνη, ὥσπερ εἴρηται, ἕξίς τις μετὰ

ἔτε τῶν κατὰ

ἐπεὶ δὲ ποίησ

λόγο