is concerned, REASON is concerned; particularly where certain Caufes, whatever they may be, are employed to produce certain Effects, and where certain Means are adapted to certain Ends. So that there is no part of learning in which Reafon and Judgment have more various employment, or in which they perform a more delicate tafk, than in their application to the Imitative Arts,

When Effects are produced upon the Internal Feeling by objects or events as they occur in the ordinary courfe of things, which is the foundation of Poetical Imitation, we may, perhaps, be either too deeply interested in them, or too much involved in their contemplation, to think about their Causes yet there are Causes, and these rational and intelligent, which are uniform and confiftent in their operation, fo long as the prefent fyftem of nature and constitution of the human mind remain the fame. In con

λίγο αληθῆς ποιητικὴ ἐσιν· ἡ δ ̓ ἀτεχνία, τεναντίον μετα λόγα ψευδῆς ποιητικὴ ἕξις, περὶ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον ἄλλως ἔχειν. Eth. Nicom. lib. vi. cap. 4.

fequence of this inattention to them, and other concurrent circumstances, as their frequency, their variety, and complexity, and above all their familiarity, they are not, perhaps, fo diftinctly to be afcertained, or fo eafily generalized, as thofe which are productive of truth in the provinces of the Will and Intellect. They have, however, in nature a permanent exiftence, and are more or lefs recognized and refponded to by all, though in a higher degree by fenfible minds. The Poet or Artift remarks these Caufes as they affect his own feelings, and as he observes their operation on thofe of others: and thus, from fentiment and obfervation often repeated, he fupplies himself with a large and various flock of poetical ideas generalized and remembered;' from which as from a genuine treasure he draws all the refources of his Art, to

i

· Γίγνεται δ ̓ ἐκ τῆς μνήμης ἐμπειρία τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, αἱ γὰρ πολλαὶ μνῆμαι τῇ αὐτῇ πραγματο, μιᾶς ἐμπειρίας δύναμιν ἀποτελᾶσι· καὶ δοκεῖ σχεδὸν ἐπισήμῃ καὶ τέχνη ὅμοιον εἴται ἡ ἐμπειρία. ἀποβαίνει δ ̓ ἐπισήμη καὶ τέχνη τῆς ἐμπειρίας τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἐμπειρία, τέχνην ἐποίησεν, ὥς φησι Πῶλος, ὀρθῶς λέγων· ἡ δ ̓ ἀπειρία, τύπ χην. γίνεται δὲ τέχνη, ὅταν ἐκ πολλῶν τῆς ἐμπειρίας έννοι

η

μάτων,

be employed in all the different acts of Imitation. All this, however logical, he does in fact, though it is generally performed by the filent and almost infenfible operation of his mind, without the phlegmatic process of a formal logic.

But, however infenfibly performed, the REASONING may be clearly analyzed; and from thence the truth produced may be critically afcertained.

The truth of both Facts and History results from the apprehenfion or investigation of particulars, independently of their causes; whereas that of Poetry fprings from the application of causes, and these general ones. The first act of Reasoning is, therefore, from a number of particulars, by collateral judgments of effects produced by them upon the internal Feeling, to collect these General Causes; and the fecond, to apply them, by the different modes of Imitation, in order to

μάτων, καθόλου μία γένηται περὶ τὸν τῶν ὁμοίων ὑπόληψις. Ariftot. Metaph. lib. i. cap. I.

* Ἡ μὲν ἐμπειρία τῶν καθέκαςα ἐςι γνῶσις, ἡ δὲ τέχνη Sóλoυ. Ibid. lib. i. cap. I. T 4

produce

produce the poetical Effect. Hence Poetry is faid to be more philofophical.' Experience is the foundation, Induction is the first, and a judicous application of Generals, is the fecond, act. And if thefe generals are well formed in the first place, and well applied in the fecond, the poetical truth will discover itself in the effect by a proportionable operation on the fenfibility of all according to its powers.

Thus POETRY ftands high in the eye of Philofophy. It is founded in Abstraction which is the fublimeft operation of the mind, by which its ideas are not only generalized, but corrected and improved by an act of intellect, and rendered more perfect and complete than the archetypes themselves. These are the materials with which the Imagination works, and which it moulds into forms of beauty fuperior to any that appear in the face of nature. And hence it is, that the Imitative Arts, derive that excellence and fuperiority in which they glory. As by this

· Διὸ καὶ φιλοσοφώτερον καὶ σπουδαιότερον ποίησις 150ρίας ἐςίν. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ποίησις μᾶλλον τὰ καθόλ8, ἡ δ ισορία τὰ καθ ̓ ἕκασον λέγει. Ibid De Poet. cap. 9.

power

power of Abstraction the Mathematician conceives the idea of a perfect circle or a perfect fphere, which in nature has no exiftence; and the Moralift that of a faultlefs

character: so from archetypes that exist inte

nature, the Artift derives ideas fo corrected and fublimed, that they become tranfcendent, that is above, though not contrary to, na

ture.

Particulars and Individuals, with all their deformities and imperfections are, indeed, often applied by Imitation to the production of poetical effect: but, to arrive at the fummit of his profeffion, the Artist should employ none but general ideas, with all the advantages which arrangement, difpofition, and fituation can give them: as did the intelligent ftatuary, to whofe poetical genius the world has been indebted for the Venus de

Medicis, or the Apollo Belvidere.

BUT the Imitation, by which these poetical ideas are employed in Art, according to good Tafte (which is only another word for Judgment,) is of different kinds, and the juft

diftinction