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person who fuffers. Such reprefentations teach us to fet a just value upon our own condition, and make us prize our good fortune, which exempts us from the like calamities. This is, however, fuch a kind of pleasure as we are not capable of receiving, when we fee a perfon actually lying under the tortures that we meet with in a defcription; because in this cafe, the object preffes too close upon our fenfes, and bears fo hard upon us, that it does not give us time or leifure to reflect on ourselves. Our thoughts are fo intent upon the miferies of the fufferer, that we cannot turn them upon our own happinefs. Whereas, on the contrary, we confider the miffortunes we read in history or poetry, either as past, or as fictitious, fo that the reflexion upon ourfelves rifes in us infenfibly, and overbears the forrow we conceive for the fufferings of the afflicted.

But because the mind of man requires fomething more perfect in matter, than what it finds there, and can never meet with any fight in nature which fufficiently anfwers its highest ideas of pleasantnefs; or, in other words, because the imagination can fancy to itfelf things more great, ftrange, or beautiful, than the eye ever faw, and is ftill fenfible of fome defect in what it has feen; on this account it is the part of a poet to humour the imagination in our own notions, by mending and perfecting nature where he describes a reality, and by adding greater beauties than are put together in nature, where he defcribes a fiction.

He is not obliged to attend her in the flow advances which the makes from one feason to another, or to obferve her conduct in the fucceffive production of plants and flowers. He may draw into his defcription all the beauties of the fpring and autumn, and make the whole year contribute fomething to render it the more agreeable. His rofe trees, wood- bines and jeffamines may flower together, and his beds be cover'd at the fame time with lilies, violets and amaranths. His foil is not restrained to any particular fet of plants, but is proper either for oaks or myrtles, and adapts itself to the products every climate. Oranges may grow wild in it; myrrh may be met with in every hedge, and if he thinks it proper to have a grove of spices, he can quickly com

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mand fun enough to raise it. If all this will not furnish out an agreeable fcene, he can make feveral new fpecies of flowers, with richer fcents and higher colours than any that grow in the gardens of Nature. His conforts of birds may be as full and harmonious, and his woods as thick and gloomy as he pleafes. He is at no more expence in a long vifta, than a fhort one, and can as eafily. throw his cafcades from a precipice of half a mile high, as from one of twenty yards. He has his choice of the winds, and can turn the courfe of his rivers in all the variety of meanders, that are moft delightful to the reader's imagination. In a word, he has the modelling of nature in his own hands, and may give her what charmg he pleafes, provided he does not reform her too much) and run into abfurdities, by endeavouring to excel.

N° 419

Tuesday, July 1.

―mentis gratiffimus error.

Hor. Ep. 2.1 2. v. 140.

In pleafing error loft, and charmingly deceiv'd.

T

HERE is a kind of writing, wherein the poet quite lofes fight of Nature, and entertains his reader's imagination with the characters and actions of fuch perfons as have many of them no existence, but what he beftows on them. Such are fairies, witches, magicians, demons, and departed spirits. This Mr. Dryden calls The fairy way of writing, which is, indeed, more difficult than any other that depends on the poet's fancy, because he has no pattern to follow in it, and muft work altogether out of his own invention.

There is a very odd turn of thought required for this fort of writing, and it is impoffible for a poet to fucceed in it, who has not a particular caft of fancy, and an imagination naturally fruitful and fuperftitious. Befides this, he ought to be very well verfed in legends and fables, antiquated romances, and the traditions of nurses

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and old women, that he may fall in with our natural prejudices, and humour thofe notions which we have imbibed in our infancy. For otherwise he will be apt to make his fairies talk like people of his own fpecies, and not like other fets of beings, who converfe with different objects, and think in a different manner from that of mankind.

Sylvis deducli caveant, me judice, fauni,
Ne velut innati triviis, ac penè forenfes,
Aut nimiùm teneris juvenentur verfibus.

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 244.

A fatyr, that comes ftaring from the woods,
Muft not at firft speak like an orator.

I do not fay, with Mr. Bays in the Rehearsal, that fpirits must not be confined to speak fenfe, but it is certain their sense ought to be a little difcoloured, that it may feem particular, and proper to the perfon and condition of the fpeaker.

Thele defcriptions raife a pleafing kind of horror in the mind of the reader, and amuse his imagination with the ftrangeness and novelty of the perfons who are represented in them. They bring up into our memory the ftories we have heard in our childhood, and favour thofe fecret terrors and apprehenfions to which the mind of man is naturally fubject. We are pleafed with furveying the different habits and behaviours of foreign countries; how much more muft we be delighted and furprised when we are led, as it were, into a new creation, and fee the perfons and manners of another fpecies? Men of cold fancies, and philofophical difpofitions, object to this kind of poetry, that it has not probability enough to affect the imagination. But to this it may be answered, that we are fure, in general, there are many intellectual beings in the world befides ourselves, and several species of fpirits, who are fubject to different laws and oeconomies from those of mankind; when we fee, therefore, any of thefe reprefented naturally, we cannot look upon the reprefentation as altogether impoffible; nay, many are prepoffeft with fuch falfe opi

nions, as difpofe them to believe these particular delufions ; at least we have all heard fo many pleafing rela tions in favour of them, that we do not care for seeing through the falfhood, and willingly give ourselves up to fo agreeable an impofture.

The ancients have not much of this poetry among them; for, indeed, almost the whole fubftance of it owes its original to the darkness and superstition of later ages, when pious frauds were made ufe of to amuse mankind, and frighten them into a sense of their duty. Our forefathers looked upon nature with more reverence and horror, before the world was enlightned by learning and philofophy, and loved to aftonish themselves with the apprehenfions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms and inchantments. There was not a village in England that had not a ghoft in it, the churchyards were all haunted, every large common had a circle of fairies belonging to it, and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not feen a spirit.

Among all the poets of this kind our English are much the best, by what I have yet feen; whether it be that we abound with more ftories of this nature, or that the genius of our country is fitter for this fort of poetry. For the English are naturally fanciful, and very often difpofed by that gloominefs and melancholy of temper, which is fo frequent in our nation, to many wild notions and vifions, to which others are not fo liable.

Among the English, Shakespear has incomparably excelled all others. That noble extravagance of fancy, which he had in fo great perfection, thoroughly qualified him to touch this weak fuperftitious part of his reader's imagination; and made him capable of fucceeding, where he had nothing to support him befides the strength of his own genius. There is fomething fo wild and yet fo folemn in his fpeeches of his ghofts, fairies, witches and the like imaginary perfons, that we cannot forbear thinking them natural, tho' we have no rule by which to judge of them, and muft confefs, if there are fuch beings in the world, it looks highly probable they should talk and act as he has reprefented them.

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There is another fort cf imaginary beings, that we fometimes meet with among the poets, when the author represents any paffion, appetite, virtue or vice, under a vifible fhape, and makes it a perfon or an actor in his poem. Of this nature are the defcriptions of Hunger and Envy in Ovid, of Fame in Virgil, and of Sin and Death in Milton. We find a whole creation of the like shadowy perfons in Spenser, who had an admirable talent in reprefentations of this kind. I have difcourfed of thefe emblematical perfons in former papers, and fhall therefore only mention them in this place. Thus we fee how many ways poetry addreffes itself to the imagination, as it has not only the whole circle of nature for its province, but makes new worlds of its own, fhews us perfons who are not to be found in being, and reprefents even the faculties of the foul, with the several virtues and vices, ›in a fenfible fhape and character.

I fhall, in my two following papers, confider in gene- . ral, how other kinds of writing are qualified to please the imagination, with which I intend to conclude this effay.

N° 420

Wednesday, July 2.

-Quòcunque volunt mentem auditoris agunto.

Hor. Ars Poet. v. 100.

And raife mens paffions to what height they will.

A

ROSCOMMON.

S the writers in poetry and fiction borrow their feveral materials from outward objects, and join them together at their own pleasure, there are others who are obliged to follow nature more closely, and to take intire fcenes out of her. Such are hiftorians, natural philofophers, travellers, geographers, and in a word, all who defcribe visible objects of a real existence.

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