CHAP. III.

The neceffity of the Bathos phyfically confidered.

F

ARTHERMORE, it were great cruelty and injustice, if all fuch authors as cannot write in the other way, were prohibited from writing at all. Against this I draw an argument from what feems to me an undoubted physical maxim, That poetry is a natural or morbid fecretion from the brain. As I would not suddenly stop a cold in the head, or dry up my neighbour's iffue, I would 'as little hinder him from neceffary writing. It may be affirmed with great truth, that there is hardly any human creature past childhood, but at one time or other has had fome poetical evacuation, and, no question, was much the better for it in his health; fo true is the faying, Nafcimur Poeta. Therefore is the defire of writing properly termed pruritus, the "titillation of the generative faculty of the brain," and the perfon is faid to conceive; now, fuch as conceive must bring forth. I have known a man thoughtful, melancholy, and raving for divers days, who forthwith grew wonderfully easy, lightfome, and cheerful, upon a discharge of the peccant humour, in exceeding purulent metre. Nor can I queftion, but abundance of untimely deaths are occafioned for want of this laudable vent of unruly paffions: yea, perhaps, in poor wretches, (which is very lamentable), for mere want of pen, ink, and paper! From hence it follows, that a fuppreffion of the very worst poetry is of dangerous Confequence to the ftate. We find by experience, E6

that

that the fame humours which vent themselves in fummer in ballads and fonnets, are condensed by the winter's cold into pamphlets and fpeeches for and against the minifter: nay, I know not but many times a piece of poetry may be the most innocent compofition of a minifter himself.

It is therefore manifeft that mediocrity ought to be allowed, yea, indulged, to the good fubjects of England. Nor can I conceive how the world has fwallowed the contrary as a maxim, upon the fingle authority of that of Horace. Why fhould the golden mean, and quinteffence of all virtues, be deemed fo offenfive in this art? or coolness or mediocrity be fo amiable a quality in a man, and fo deteftable in a poet?

However, far be it from me to compare these writers with thofe great fpirits, who are born with a vivacite de pefanieur, or (as an English author calls it) analacrity of finking;" and who by ftrength of nature alone can excel. All I mean is, to evince the neceflity of rules to thefe leffer geniuses, as well as the usefulness of them to the greater.

CHAP. IV.

That there is an Art of the Bathos, or Profound.

WE

E come now to prove, that there is an art of finking in poetry. Is there not an ar chitecture of vaults and cellars, as well as of lofty domes and pyramids? Is there not as much fkill *Mediocribus effe poetis Non dii, non homines, c.

and

and labour in making dikes, as in raifing mounts Is there not an art of diving, as well as of flying? And will any fober practitioner affirm, that a diving engine is not of fingular ufe in making him longwinded, affisting his fight, and furnishing him with other ingenious means of keeping under water?

If we fearch the authors of antiquity, we shall find as few to have been diftinguished in the true Profound, as in the true Sublime. And the very fame thing (as it appears from Longinus) had been imagined of that, as now of this, namely, that it was entirely the gift of Nature. I grant that to excel in the Bathos a genius is requifite; yet the rules of art must be allowed fo far ufeful, as to add weight, or, as I may fay, hang on lead, to facilitate and enforce our defcent, to guide us to the most advantageous declivities, and habituate our imagination to a depth of thinking. Many there are that can fall, but few can arrive at the felicity of falling gracefully; much more for a man who is amongst the loweft of the creation, at the very bottom of the atmosphere, to defcend beneath himself, is not so easy a tafk, unless he calls in art to his affiftance. It is with the Bathos as with fmall beer, which is indeed vapid and infipid, if left at large, and let abroad; but being by our rules confined and well ftopt, nothing grows fo frothy, pert, and bouncing.

The fublime of nature is the sky, the fun, moon, ftars, c. the profound of nature is gold, pearls, precious ftones, and the treafures of the deep, which are ineftimable as unknown. But all that lies between thefe, as corn, dówers, fruits, animals, and things for the mere use of man, are of

mean

mean price, and fo common. as not to be greatly efteemed by the curious: It being certain that any thing, of which we know the true ufe, cannot be invaluable; which affords a folution, why common sense hath either been totally despised, or held in fmall repute by the greatest modern critics and authors.

1

CHAP. V.

Of the true Genius of the Profound, and by what it is conftituted.

ND I will venture to lay it down, as the first

A maxim and corner tone of this our art, That

whoever would excel therein, must ftudiously a-. void, detest, and turn his head from all the ideas, ways, and workings of that peftilent foe to wit, and destroyer of fine figures, which is known by the name of common fenfe. His business must be to contract the true gout de travers; and to acquire a most happy, uncommon, unaccountable way of

thinking.

He is to confider himself as a grotefque painter, whose works would be spoiled by an imitation of nature, or uniformity of defign. He is to mingle bits of the most various, or discordant kinds, landfcape, hiftory, portraits, animals, and connect them with a great deal of flourishing, by heads or tails, as it fhall please his imagination, and contribute to his principal end, which is to glare by ftrong op pofitions of colours, and furprife by contrariety of images.

Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni. HoR.

His

His defign ought to be like a labyrinth, out of which no body can get clear but himself. And fince the great art of all poetry is to mix truth with fiction, in order to join the credible with the furprifing; our author fhall produce the Credible, by painting nature in her loweft fimplicity, and the Surprising by contradicting common opinion. In the very manners he will affect the marvellous ; he will draw Achilles with the patience of Job; a prince talking like a jack-pudding; a maid of ho nour felling bargains; a footman fpeaking like a philofopher; and a fine gentleman like a scholar. Whoever is converfant in modern plays, may make a most noble collection of this kind, and, at the fame time, form a complete body of modern ethics and morality.

Nothing feemed more plain to our great authors, than that the world had long been weary of natural things. How much the contrary are formed to please, is evident from the universal applaufe daily given to the admirable entertainments of harlequins and magicians on our stage. When an audience behold a coach turned into a wheelbarrow, a conjurer into an old woman, or a man's head where his heels fhould be, how are they ftruck with transport and delight? which can only be imputed to this cause, that each object is changed into that which hath been fuggefted to them by their own low ideas before.

He ought therefore to render himself master of this happy and antinatural way of thinking to fuch a degree, as to be able, on the appearance of any object, to furnish his imagination with ideas infinitely below it; and his eyes fhould be like unto

the