the more illustrious effects of the ruder pasfions the chief are contentions and wars regum & populorum aeftus; which, by reafon of the grandeur of the fubject, and its important confequences, fo fitted to strike the thought, and fire the affections of the reader, poetry, I mean the highest and subTimeft fpecies of it, chufes principally to defcribe. In the conduct of such description, fome difference will arife from the inftruments in use for annoyance of the enemy, and, in general, the ftate of art military; but the actuating paffions of rage, ambition, emulation, thirst of honour, revenge, &c. are invariably the fame, and are constantly evidenced by the fame external marks or characters. The shocks of armies, fingle combats; the chances and fingularities of either; wounds, deaths, fratagems, and the other attendants on battle, which furnish out the ftate and magnificence of the epic mufe, are, all of them, fixed, determinate objects; which leave their impreffions on the mind of the poet, in as diftinct and uniform characters, as the great conftituent parts of the material univerfe itself. He hath only to look abroad into life and action for the mo

5

del

del of all fuch reprefentations. On which account we can rarely be certain, that the picture is not from nature, though an exact. resemblance give to superficial and unthinking obfervers the fufpicion of art.

The fame reafoning extends to all the phaenomena of human life, which are the effects or confequences of strong affections, and which fet mankind before us in geftures, looks, or actions, declarative of the inward fuggeftions of the heart. It can feldom be affirmed with confidence, in fuch cafes, on the score of any fimilarity, that one reprefentation imitates another; fince an ordinary attention to the fame common original, fufficiently accounts for both. The reader, if he fees fit, will apply these remarks to the battles, games, travels, &c. of a great poet; the fuppofed fterility of whofe genius hath been charged with serving itself pretty freely of the copious, inexhaufted ftores of Homer. In fum;

Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Gaudia, &c.

Whatever be the actuating paffion, it cannot, but be thought unfair to suspect the artist E2

of

of imitation; where nothing more is pretended than a refemblance in the draught of fimilar effects, which it is not poffible to avoid.

2. If this be comprehended, I fhall need to fay the lefs of the MANNERS; which are not less constant in their effects, than the PASSIONS. When the character of any per-. fon hath been fignified, and his fituation described, it is not wonderful, that twenty different writers fhould hit on the fame attitudes, or employ him in the fame manner. When Mercury is fent to command the departure of Ulyffes from Calypfo, our previous acquaintance with the hero's character, makes us expect to find him in the precife attitude, given to him by the poet, "fitting "in folitude on the fea-fhore, and cafting a "wifhful eye towards Ithaca." Or, when, in the Iliad, an embaffy is dispatched to treat with the refentful and vindictive, but brave Achilles, nothing could be more obvious, than to draw the pupil of Chiron in his tent," foothing his angry foul with his

"Th' immortal deeds of heroes and of kings."

It

It was the like attention to nature, which led Milton to difpofe of his fallen angels after the manner, described in the fecond book of Paradife loft.

To multiply inftances, when every poet in every page is at hand to furnish them, were egregious trifling. In all cafes of this fort, the known character, in conjunction with the circumstances of the person defcribed, determines the particular action or employment, for the most part, fo abfolutely, that it requires fome industry to mistake it. In faying which, I do not forget, what many have, perhaps, been ready to object to me long fince," that what is natural is not there"fore of neceffity obvious: All the amazing flights of Homer's or Shakespeare's "fancy are found agreeable to nature, when contemplated by the capable reader; but who will fay, that, therefore, they must "have prefented themselves to the genera-. lity of writers? The office of judgment is

66

one thing; and of invention, another." Properly fpeaking, what we call invention in poetry is, in respect of the matter of it, fimply, obfervation. And it is in the arrangement, ufe, and application of his ma

terials, not in the investigation of them, that the exercise of the poet's genius principally confifts. In the case of immediate and direct imagery, which is the fubject at present, nothing more is requifite, than to paint truly, what nature prefents to the eye, or, common fenfe fuggefts to the mind of the writer. A vivacity of thought will, indeed, be neceffary to run over the feveral circumftances of any appearance, and a just dif cernment will be wanting, out of a number, to felect fuch peculiar circumftances, as are moft adapted to ftrike the imagination. It is not therefore pretended, that the fame images must occur to all. Sluggish, unactive understandings, which feldom look abroad into living nature, or, when they do, have not curiofity or vigour enough to direct their attention to the nicer particularities of her beauties, will unavoidably overlook the commoneft appearances: Or, wanting that juft perception of what is beautiful, which we call tafte, will as often mistake in the choice of thofe circumftances, which they may have happened to contemplate. But quick, perceptive, intelligent minds (and of fuch only I can be thought to speak)

will