no difficulty to convey the livelieft ideas of them to others. This is what we call painting in poetry; by which not only the general natures of things are defcribed, and their more obvious appearances shadowed forth; but every fingle property marked, and the poet's own image fet in diftinct relief before the view of his reader.

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If this glow of imagery, refulting from clear and bright preceptions in the poet, be not a certain character of genius, it will be difficult, I believe, to fay what is: I mean fo far as defcriptive poetry, which we are now confidering, is concerned. The fame general appearances must be copied by all poets; the fame particular circumftances will frequently occur to all. But to give life and colour to the selected circumftance, and imprint it on the imagination with diftinctnefs and vivacity, this is the proper office of true genius. An ordinary writer may, by dint of industry, and a careful study of the best models, fometimes fucceed in this work of painting; that is, having ftolen a ray of celeftial matter, he may now and then direct it fo happily, as to animate and enkindle his own earthly lump;

but

but to fucceed conftantly in this art of description, to be able, on all occasions, to exhibit what the Greek Rhetoricians call DANTAZIAN; which is, as Longinus well expreffes it, when" the poet, from his "own vivid and enthufiaftic conception, "feems to have the object, he defcribes, "in actual view, and prefents it, almoft, "to the eyes of the reader [g];" this can be accomplished by nothing lefs, than the genuine plastic powers of original creation.

2. If, from this vaft theatre of fenfible and extraneous beauty, the poet turn his attention. to what paffes within, he immediately difcovers a new world, invifible indeed and intellectual; but which is equally capable of being represented to the internal fenfe of others. This arises from that fimilarity of mind, if I may fo fpeak, which, like that of outward form and make, by the wife provifion of nature, runs through the whole fpecies. We are all furnished with the fame original properties and affections, as with the fame stock of perceptions and ideas;

[3] Ὅταν ἃ λέγης, ὑπ' ἐνθεσιασμᾶ καὶ πάθες βλέπειν δο κῆς, καὶ ὑπ' ὄψιν τιθῇς ἀκέεσιν. [ΠΕΡ. ΥΨ. § xv. whence

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whence it is, that our intimate consciousness of what we carry about in ourselves, be comes, as it were, the interpreter of the poet's thought; and makes us readily enter into all his descriptions of the human nature. These defcriptions are of two kinds; either, 1. fuch as exprefs that tumult and diforder of the mind, which we feel in ourfelves from the disturbance of any natural affection: or, 2. that more quiet ftate, which gives birth to calmer fentiments and reflexions. The former divifion takes in all the workings of PASSION. The latter, comprehends our MANNERS and SENTIMENTS. Both are equally the objects of poetry; and of poetry only, which triumphs without a rival, in this moft fublime and interesting of all the modes of imitation. Painting, we know, can exprefs the material universe; and, as will be seen hereafter, can evidence the internal movements of the foul by fenible marks and Symbols; but it is poetry alone, which delineates the mind itself, and opens the receffes of the heart to us.

EFFERT ANIMI MOTUS INTERPRETE LINGUA.

Now

Now the 'poet, as I faid, in addreffing himself to this province of his art, hath only to confult with his own conscious reflexion. Whatever be the fituation of the perfons, whom he would make known to us, let him but take counfel of his own heart [b], and it will very faithfully suggest the fittest and most natural expreffions of their character. No man can defcribe of others further than he hath felt himself. And what he hath thus known from his own feeling is fo confonant to the experience of all others, that his defcription muft needs be true; that is, be the very fame, which à careful attention to fuch experience must have dictated to every other. So that, instead of asking one's felf (as an admired antient advised to do) on any attempt to excel in compofition "how this or that celebra"ted author would have written on the oc"cafion;" the furer way, perhaps, is to in

[b] What is here faid of poetical fiction, Quinctilian hath applied to oratorial narration; the credibility of which will depend on the obfervance of this rule. Credibilis erit narratio antè omnia, fi priùs confuluerimus noftrum ANIMUM, nequid naturae dicamus adverfum. [L. iv. 2.]

quire of ourselves "how we have felt or "thought in fuch a conjuncture, what fen fations or reflexions the like circumstances "have actually excited in us.". For the answer to these queries will undoubtedly fet us in the direct road of nature and common fense. And, whatever is thus taken from the life, will, we may be fure, affect other minds, in proportion to the vigour of our conception and expreffion of it. In fum, To catch the manners living, as they rife,

I mean, from our own internal frame and conftitution, is the fole way of writing naturally and juftly of human life. And every fuch description of ourselves (the great exemplar of moral imitation) will be as unavoidably fimilar to any description copied on the like occafion, by other poets; as pictures of the natural world by different hands, are, and must be, to each other, as being all derived from the archetype of one common original.

1. Let us take fome mafter-piece of a great poet, most famed for his original invention, in which he has fuccessfully revealed

the