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POETRY.

oetry. THE difficulty of giving a clear and succinct definition
of the Art of Poetry is proportioned to the almost
distin- universal nature of its subjects. In common with the
studies of Theology, Ethics, Oratory, History, and of
Legislation, so far as it is connected with the broad
Principles of Ethics, it is obviously distinguished from
those Sciences conversant either with the Physical wants,
or the speculative curiosity of Mankind, its proper field
being our Moral, Social, and Reflective nature. Again,
it differs from the rest of the Sciences thus conversant
with a common material, as professing neither the office of
persuasion nor of instruction. Its province, in the em-
ployment of the common medium of Language, is imi-
tative and expressive, and its end is Pleasure; of a
refined and intellectual nature it is true, and capable of
promoting the highest Moral ends, but still exclusively
Pleasure, as in the kindred Arts of Music and Painting.
It is certain that Historical Truth, Moral instruction, or
Oratorical persuasion, may be embodied in Poetry; but
thus also do History, Ethics, and Rhetoric in their turn
appeal to the Imagination by those graces and ornaments
which belong more peculiarly to Poetry. It is the
respective end sought by each Science, which must deter-
mine both its nature and the rules defining its peculiar

excellences.

That Pleasure is the exclusive end of Poetry, does not sively necessarily compromise either its dignity or usefulness. ure, of As Mental Pleasure is the indication and the test of the formation of those Moral habits on which it is attendant, an Art productive of this result from the representation of Moral sentiments, and the actions arising from them, must be guided by those rules which It will be in fact found, that determine their merit. with very few exceptions, Poetry has adapted itself to the highest tone of Morality prevalent in the Country or Age wherein it has flourished. Mankind are obviously more Moral in theory than in practice, reprobating the imaginary picture of vices even to which themselves are prone, and delighting in the highest imaginary model of such virtues as themselves possess in a minor degree; and the fallacy of the vicious man arises not so much from a denial of the Principles of Right and Wrong, as from a refusal to adapt them to his own case. Thus the difference between a man's real Moral merit, and his own conception of it, will generally measure the superiority of the tone of popular Poetry over the existing standard of average Morality, regard being had to the spirit and Religious creed of the Age. The Greek and Roman Poets accordingly dwell strongly on Justice, Patriotism, Reverence to the Gods, to old age, to the Laws of our Country, in short on all those duties which cement the Social compact. The Scalds, on the contrary, so far as we can judge from the relics of their rude rhymes, strove to give the most exalted tone to what were considered as the highest virtues among a Nation of Pirates, whose very Gods were fabled as living in a perpetual state of battle and mutual destruction, to be brought to a more perfect crisis by the coming of Lok. Their precepts are inhuman, simply because public opinion then recognised Moral excellence as consisting in qualities the very reverse of humanity. Here we see Poetry adapting itself respectively to the highest, and to

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the most dangerously brutalized degree of the light of Poetry.
Nature, but in both instances inculcating the loftiest
Principles of Ethics which its hearers had derived from
that light. In spite therefore of the denunciations of
Plato against Poets, as corrupters of his imaginary Re-
public, it may be safely affirmed that their province is
rather to second the efforts of the Moralist and Legis-
rupt, it is only a proof that the existing standard of
lator, and that when the tone of National Poetry is cor-
Morality is so also in a double degree.

Her track, where'er the Goddess roves,
Glory pursue, generous Shame,

and

Th' unconquerable Mind, and Freedom's holy flame.*

amenable to the laws of

Nor again can it be properly said that Truth is one of How far the objects of Poetry, further than as that probability, which the Poet is bound not to violate, is founded on a Truth. the Moral or Visible World. The subject of his Art is not general induction from facts as they really take place in that which is in any particular instance, but that which or prove any specific matter of fact; and even in Didacgenerally may be. In no case does he attempt to assert tic and Reflective Poetry, which may be considered as a mixed branch, he seldom aims at more than to shadow perfect Tragedy or Epic Poem may not necessarily conout pleasurably certain general Principles. The most tain a word of Truth in it, any more than the dreams which madmen often form with the most ingenious coherency on an assumed hypothesis; and in both cases the Mind has acquired as to the connection of causes there is a sound basis consisting in the experience which and circumstances. Thus, assume that Ulysses was a person really existing, of the rank and character described by Homer, and meeting with the persons and adventures and says is admirably consistent with the inductive view exhibited in the Odyssey, and every thing which he does Again, the wildest dreams of of Human Nature which the reader's previous experience enables him to take. Poetry cannot come home to the fancy with much pleasure, unless they are founded on something analogous to or recollection which has impressed itself previously on Truth and Experience, or to some home-bred prejudice Midsummer Night's Dream act and speak in a manner the Mind with the force of reality. The Fairies in the exactly conformable to the notions which superstition has gravely promulgated of such half-human elves, and which the playful legends of the ingle-nook and the the imaginations of our ancestors. Nay even in the marvellously original creation of the monster Caliban, it greenwood tree made" familiar as household words" to is the Metaphysical Truth which renders palatable a fiction which our sober judgments directly pronounce imand Savage, and according to the distinct ideas existing in our Minds respecting these, their actions and language possible. Once suppose a Being compounded of Demon character of "the poisonous slave, got by the Devil himwould mingle just in the proportion exhibited in the self." Suppose also a spark of Divine benevolence infused into a Spirit moulded from the essence of wild flowers and zephyrs, tempering and humanizing the Fairy sportiveness which we should associate with such

* Gray, Progress of Poesy.

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a compound, and we have a Being answering to the Familiar Spirit Ariel, whose lineaments and passions the Poet has, with great judgment, indicated in a less distinct manner than those of his grosser counterpart. Thus is Poetry amenable to Truth as an ultimate, though not an immediate test; and therefore cannot be said to profess or absolutely to violate it.

The definition of Poetry recognised by the Ancients, as an Art imitative of Human manners, is obviously too extensive to meet our modern ideas, inasmuch as it equally applies to Prose fiction, an important branch of Literature almost peculiar to modern times.. Nor again does it seem sufficiently extensive to include those many varieties of metrical composition, equally common to ancient and present times, which cannot be called imitative in any other sense than Oratory or spontaneous Language can be so denominated; where, for instance, some Moral Truth is inculcated by the Poet, or some feeling congenial to the Mind of his readers is expressed by him in his own person. These are the sole elements of composition in Goldsmith's Poem of The Traveller, full as it is of dignity, high feeling, and a Poetical spirit which never flags. And to instance a still higher style of composition, Milton's Hymn to the Deity, though introduced as a part of his imitative fiction, is a composition complete in itself, as the exalted expression of a Religious feeling adapted to all times and situations, and is rather expressive of the sensations which the grand phenomena of Nature are adapted to create in a well-constituted Mind, than imitative of the objects which it invokes. It is equally perfect without the assumption of any person or circumstance, though placed with great dignity and propriety in the mouth of Adam during his state of in

nocence.

The same distinction may be laid down as to Elegy and Satire, and also as to Lyrical Poetry when not mingled with the legends and narrative descriptions in which Pindar delights; in short, as to all branches of composition in which the Poet addresses the reader in his own proper character, and without the intervention of any fictitious personages or things. Here the office of Poetry may be styled chiefly expressive, and no further imitative than as it employs sounds and metre adapted to strengthen the image of the thing described. It is most completely imitative in that branch which seems to have dwelt more peculiarly on the mind of Aristotle in forming his definition, viz.-the Drama; where the imitation is strengthened by the additional aid of vocal utterance, personification, painting, and expressive music.

The distinction of Poetical fiction from Imaginative Prose is obvious enough, although the bounds which divide their departments are but small, and consist chiefly in circumstances belonging rather to manner than to matter, connected with Poetry rather as inseparable accidents than as essential parts. We mean that metrical form which is the only visible sign distinguishing indifferent Poetry from Prose, while it is a necessary feature in that of a superior sort; as well as those ornaments of figure and diction which increase the force of metrical composition, but in Prose would seem bombastic and extravagant.

Fulgores nunc terrificos, sonitumque, metumque
Miscebant operi, flummisque sequacibus iras.

Of these we shall treat in their place, as connected with the external parts of Poetry, belonging as they do to the Art in every branch, and distinguishing it from Roman

tic Prose; which in respect to its matter and its end, has Poetry every feature in common with Poetry as an inventive and imitative Art, and admits mostly of the same rules as a test of its excellence.

form.

It should appear then that we may define Poetry as Definition an Art aiming at Moral and Intellectual Pleasure as its of Porty. sole object, and promoting that Pleasure through the medium of metrical language, by the imitation of such things or events as affect the feelings and imagination, or by the expression of the sensations which they produce. Its origin, as inseparably connected with Metre, Origin of appears to us to have arisen from causes intimately its Meta allied with Human Nature even in the rudest stages of Society. It is in public that mankind instinctively seek to give vent to those emotions which arise from common subjects of interest; such as the worship of the Deity, the commemoration of public benefactors, or of political events; a victory, or a reverse. In small and rude States contending for very existence, such causes of emotion would be most intensely felt. Every individual in an assembled crowd would seek to join in the expres sion of gratitude or deprecation to his Divinity, of honour to his chieftain, or of defiance to the common enemy; and that in a manner expressive of his sympathy with those around him. The most discordant shout bears thus as distinct a meaning as a war-cry, or the solemn assent to the supplication of the Priest, of which we have preserved a remnant in our Christian worship. These were probably the earliest modes in which the voice, the natural organ of emotion, sought to express itself in a great assembly; accompanied, perhaps, on some occasions by such rough and primitive instruments of Music as were known to earlier times. Nothing possesses in itself so imposing an effect on the imagination as a mighty and overpowering sound, such as that of thunder or a stormy sea; and when expressive of the unanimous feeling of the Many, the Moral grandeur superadded thereby renders it doubly animating. The observance of this effect, and the improvement of the rude drum or horn into instruments harmonizing with the natural modulations of the human voice, would naturally lead inventive spirits to devise some means by which human and artificial sound could be so blended as to express more copiously and connectedly the common feelings of large assemblies. It is obvious that this end could not be effected without something in the shape of Metrical arrangement, analogous to those means by which multitudes must learn to execute any common bodily movement in concert, and without confusion, and adapted to assist the retentive powers of the Memory and the ear. Thus, probably, rude war-cries and shouts of victory were gradually blended into Triumphal choruses, and the Religious responses of the populace became connected Hymns; the Bard or Priest acting as the Coryphæus, and regulating the voices of the singers as the file-leaders would arrange the march of an army. In progress of time, the success and popularity of these first rude invocations to Gods and Heroes would naturally lead their composers to enlarge gradually the sphere of their efforts, according to their different bents of Mind. The legends relative to Heroes of elder date, and the fabled adventures and transmigrations of their Gods, would afford a wide field for the first attempts at Narrative Poetry, to some of this privileged class; others of a more meditative turn would, like Orpheus, embody precepts of Ethics and Legislation in a form adapted to impress itself on the Memory, and, as it were, conse

Poetry. crated by its connection with Divine subjects; while those of a more enthusiastic and mystical frame of Mind would proclaim through the same medium the results of their auguries and fancied inspirations, to a people prepared to listen and flatter them in their belief of Divine revelation. Hence was it in all likelihood, that the names of Poet and Prophet became synonymous in the Classic Languages, by a sort of ancient prescription. Nay, it should seem that, even in the worship of the true God, the same correspondence in name and vocation prevailed, if, as has been conjectured with apparent truth, the Schools of the Hebrew Prophets were Institutions for the instruction of youths in the studies of Eloquence and Sacred Poetry, as chosen vessels upon some one of whom the Divine gift of Prophecy might descend for some special purpose.

adual

The Art of Song being thus familiarized among Manension of kind as the expression of the greater and more sublime subjects. emotions of the Mind, would in process of time be gradually applied to other subjects of engrossing interest. The love of our Country, of fame, of woman, of kindred, of sylvan nature, or of manly sports; all passionate re-. trospects to the past, or anticipations of the future; these form the continual day-dreams of ardent Minds when not engaged in positive action. It is partly from the desire to mark the eras of Life and Thought formed by such feelings as these, and partly from the shrinking sensation with which the extinction of that Life and Thought is contemplated, that almost in every stage of Society, Mankind have sought to embody in as lasting a shape as possible, the records of their ruling emotions. The same yearning after human sympathy and posthumous identity which prompts the shipwrecked seaman, or the captive, to trace their names on their dungeon-wall or solitary rock, or the traveller to inscribe a record of his adventures in the mountain hospice; which even, unconsciously to himself, impelled the misanthrope Timon to utter his last defiance to Mankind in his Epitaph ;-inspires the Poet with the desire to perpetuate his own feelings and recollections, and to rescue from oblivion the name of his friend, his mistress, or his benefactor; blending as it does with the hope and stimulus of posthumous fame.

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In the system of Heathen Polytheism, also, there was Fostered by hardly a spot which had not its Local Genius, and scarcely theism of a Principle of Human Nature which was not embodied in the imaginary shape of some one God or Goddess. cients. Hence the pride felt in an Art difficult of acquirement in its first technical steps, was additionally flattered by the supposition of a Divine influence felt through every branch of it; and the ardour of composition (a feeling so peculiar that it was honoured with a distinct name, Awen, among the Welsh Bards) was readily imagined by the Heathens to arise from this influence. Thus the invocation of the Muse, which nothing short of the genius of Milton can in modern times make otherwise than a trite and solemn farce, bears in the mouth of Homer the semblance of fervour and truth.

The early prevalence of Satiric Poetry, which should Origin of seem at first more congenial to periods of higher refine- Satire. ment, may be traced according to the records left us, to the natural rivalry between the professors of an admired and highly privileged Art, a rivalry which in modern times is kept within bounds by public opinion and good breeding; but which in a rude state of Society would break into open feud. Among the Welsh Bards, who in addition to their national temperament, often combined the character of Warrior with that of Poet and Historian, it is recorded in some instances to have ended in single combat and death. The early Wits of Greece, such as Archilochus, Hipponax, and others of the Iambic School, not being bound by the Gothic law of honour, seem to have resorted to the more safe and characteristic weapon of the pen, and in one case, it is said, with equally fatal effect. Nor were they probably backward in turning to more general account a method of annoyance, whose efficacy they had proved on the persons of their rivals.

Our preceding observations on the Origin of Poetry in general, will, if correct, apply to the Epic, the Didactic, the Elegiac, and indeed to all the leading branches of the Art. Among the Greeks, to whom it is needless to say that we are indebted for the most perfect early specimens of all its essential departments, the Public Games and National institutions contributed to draw forth Poetic genius in every branch, more peculiarly in the Epic, Heroic, and Lyrical. It should seem that the public taste had been to a great degree developed in these respects, before the Drama received much improvement Improvefrom its rude and primitive state. If the early records ment of the which we possess on this subject are interpreted by simple common sense, they strip it of the fictitious importance which some are disposed to annex to it. From the name and history of both its branches, we know that the prize given to the successful candidate in the one was the most carrion of domestic animals, and that the other probably consisted of a string of such local jests as might be more favourably received at the joyous seasons of the vintage and the harvest-home. Thespis himself and his contemporaries, declaiming from a cart, and

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Drama.

Poetry. painted with lees of wine, appear very much on a footing with the itinerant buffoons who still exhibit their red and party-coloured visages on similar occasions; and even the second character, introduced by them to complete their interludes, was probably of no higher caste than the Clown or Merryman, who is to serve as the butt of his principal's wit, and hardly on a footing with Arlequin, Jocrisse, Sganarelle, and the joculators by prescription on the stage of the modern Continent. The lively postures and gesticulations, however, which are natural to Southern people, and the obvious advantages of Dialogue and personification even in their rudest form, must soon have naturally suggested to Eschylus and the real founders of Tragedy, the possibility of applying successfully such aids to graver subjects. Thus is it the privilege of Genius to avail itself of materials at first sight discordant with its object.

Components of Poetical Genius.

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It is not, however, so much our purpose to define or minutely to descant on the different styles of Poetry, as to state to the best of our power the general Principles applicable to the Art in all its branches, by an adherence to which its end as a source of intellectual pleasure will be obtained.

That Fancy and Judgment are respectively the moving and the regulating powers of the Poet's Mind, it is unnecessary to demonstrate. The former strikes out the material, or draws it by a sort of Chemical attraction from every source within its ken; the latter directs its use. Most persons, even the most illiterate, can generally describe with accuracy and strong feeling any thing which has interested themselves individually, so as to convey a very lively impression of it to the Minds of others. Here, however, the powers of the World in general stop short. A man is not a portrait-painter because he can convey in person a more faithful impression of his own features than can be given by the pencil of a Lawrence or a Reynolds. To transmit to the Minds of others a clear conception of circumstances, and characters foreign alike to the personal experience of the author and reader, to invest the meagre outlines of History, and the abstract creations of Fable, with colouring, speech, and motion,-to place familiar ideas in a new, striking, and dignified point of view,-to give a faithful image of some uncommon combination of passions and motives,―to draw the veil from before those manifestations of the real man, which the restraints of Society seldom allow to be witnessed,-this is the privilege of real genius alone; a power only to be matched by that of the fabled Dervise, who could infuse his spirit into dead matter, and personate the bearing, actions, and thoughts of its original tenant. It may be safely asserted that this power, when it once exists, implies a facility in all the less difficult attainments of the Art. Judgment and Experience are necessary to control its exercise, and Study to enlarge its field, but they cannot impart the faculty itself. It should seem to consist in a certain Metaphysical instinct, analogous to the wonderful powers of animals in accomplishing their own limited objects; bearing the same reference to the effects of Study, as the instinct of the Bee does to the Science of the Architect, and probably accompanied by great sensitiveness of organs and feelings, enabling the Poet to conceive and retain simple impressions in the clearest and liveliest manner. This natural gift, if accompanied by a meditative turn of Mind, a keen relish of the beauties of simple Nature, an acuteness in distinguishing essential properties from accidental in the Moral and

Material World, and an impartial spirit of candour and Poetry, good faith in entering into the different motives of Mankind by turns, is, as far as we can judge, that which constitutes a really great Poet, as distinct from the aids which may be acquired by Study and Experience. Homer and Shakspeare appear to have been the persons most distinguished for this gift of mother-wit; the latter, indeed, in a high and remarkable degree. How he soared from the Visible World to more subtle and immaterial conceptions, is intelligibly shadowed out in the passage from his Works which has been too often quoted and repeated to need any repetition; and in spite of the day-dreams of the more mystical and fanciful Critics, who would refine away common sense, we conceive that there is nothing implied in such a process beyond those acute powers of conception and intellect which we have attempted to analyze. It is true that there are many points relative to the nature of Mind, and to its connection with Matter, which if fully explained, might throw a light on the subject of Poetical genius and invention. Such are the association of ideas, the state of the Mind during dreams, the recurrence, at long intervals of time, of particular trains of thought, bringing back the visible form and colouring of spots forgotten, and passing vividly for an instant like a momentary gleam of sunshine on a distant object in a landscape; these, however, are rather to be explained by Psychologists, to whom they have long served as stumbling blocks. It is perhaps sufficient for our own purpose to assert that there is no subject of Poetry which has not its basis either in the passions of Mankind, or in the impressions conveyed to their different organs by the visible and tangible creation around them. These materials, it is true, will be more various and abundant in proportion to the acuteness of different Minds and temperaments, and for the same reason will be handled with different degrees of power and selection; but in any case they must remain in substance the same.

Much also of what is called Poetic Inspiration may be traced to the natural causes of familiarity and use; the acquired pleasure superadded by these to that arising from a natural bias in favour of the subject adopted, and the facility which they confer in the exercise of this and all other Arts. And without entering into any fanciful question as to the supposed analogies between words and things, it is obvious that a greater clearness of thought is both acquired and communicated by practice in Poetical diction, and study of the indefinable shades between one synonyme and another, answering to the different ways in which the same thing may affect the feelings and associations. On this part of the subject, it is our purpose to remark, when we treat of Diction, the importance of which in Poetry is perhaps rendered more forcible, by the consideration that even in real life and business, the impressions of things depend on the most minute differences between words. The most fatal misunderstandings and contests have arisen in real fact, from the injudicious use of synoymes in the discussion of points of political jealousy or private honour. Much more necessary, therefore, is their study, when the impression of the moment is the only result sought.

A strong and vivid Memory is of necessity implied in the Poetical temperament above described. Perhaps, however, its importance is felt in nothing more than in retaining a lively impression of those feelings of childhood, which when brought back to the Mind of the

Poetry. grown man, present, as it were, a Fairy vista of pure Poetry. In childhood, when passed under circumstances favourable to the Mind and the Body, the former creates its own Paradise in a manner which has occasioned the beautiful, though somewhat fanciful, speculation of Wordsworth, summed up with

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Heaven lies around us in our infancy.

Without adopting the entire theory of this amiable and original author, it may fairly be asserted, that our own early recollections, and the formation of ideas in the Minds of children are not more beneath the study of a real Poet, than the process of blowing air bubbles was inconclusive in establishing a point in the discoveries of a New ton. If we could convey to our own imaginations the exact impressions formed in the mind of a lively child, basking in apparent idleness on a green bank in June, amid the hum of bees and the song of birds, they might be found to contain much of the real substance of what we admire

tions of all outward objects, and the feelings immediately when expressed by Spenser or Theocritus. The percepresulting from them, possess at that age a clearness, a strength, and a simplicity, akin to that mood in which we most readily resign ourselves to Poetical illusions; and the perfect leisure from more serious thoughts and projects then enjoyed, leads to a hundred vague and undefinable musings, which, if they could be caught and treasured up for future years, would form an iuexhaustible fund from which to refresh the imagination, but which are generally effaced by the discipline of active or argumentative life.

Next, as to the subjects properly adapted for the exercise of the Poetical talent. These, if we may be allowed somewhat to extend the definition of Aristotle, are exclusively Human fortunes, actions, and passions, of a sort familiar to the reader: as well as those imaginary circumstances bearing a recognised resemblance to them, and those Moral and Physical causes which influence them immediately. For from sources directly or indirectly connected with our own mental habits must be derived, in every case, the Pleasure which it is the office of Poetry to afford. When this Pleasure is not felt, the fault must arise either from the nature of the subject, or from the defective mode of treating it. It is probable that were the highest powers of Poetry exhausted on such subjects as the Monkish dogma of the Immaculate conception, or the demonstration of Euclid's XLVIIth Problem, they would fail in producing any effect; for although both subjects have respectively influenced Human life for Evil and Good, they possess nothing in themselves to affect the Moral and Sensitive parts of our natures. Again, the subject of the Universe, as appealing to our highest conceptions of the Sublime and Beautiful, and our loftiest feelings of veneration and gratitude, presents a task to be grasped, like the bow of Ulysses, only by a master hand of the first order, and that with a nicety of judgment which genius does not always possess. Milton, accordingly, in the Hymn already quoted, which perhaps may be said to exceed all Human Poetry in true grandeur, has embodied all these feelings and conceptions in comparatively a few lines, taking his station like the Archangel between Heaven and Earth, above all associations exclusively Human. If, on the contrary, we may guess from obscure tradition, it should seem that the long Poem of Empedocles on the same subject led by its ill success to his suicide, probably because his superior Physical knowledge led

him to load and mystify his theme with details fitter for Poetry. a Scientific Work in Prose.

Again, in the treatment of those subjects recognised by our definition as fitted for Poetry, regard must be had to the influence of climate, habits, hereditary associations, and all those circumstances which contribute to form as it were the mental idiosyncrasy of the reader.

ment.

The skilful versification of Sir William Jones and Influence of other Oriental translators has been exerted in vain to National awaken any interest in the ingenious conceits and temperavoluptuous images which form the essence of Persian Poetry, and which, if we may judge from their effects on a cultivated and imaginative People, were probably treated in a masterly manner by their Bards. And even the favourite legends of Classic authors, familiar as they are in most cases to our early recollections, are in some respects a sealed book. The stories of Atys, of Adonis, of Pentheus, and the Bacchæ, which education and of interest to a modern reader. How then, it may be Religious prejudice appear to have rendered fascinating and even affecting subjects to the Greeks, convey no sort asked, do we derive that interest from sources apparently no less foreign to our daily habits and ideas, and as totally unconnected with our own History? The answer is plain. The Argonautic expedition exactly recalls the adventures, on field and flood, of the "mighty and unconquered Goths," the Vikingr and the Berserkir, who with all their ferocity and lawlessness, claim a considerable share in our ancestry. The Siege of Troy in almost every respect touches on our chivalrous associations, as well as on the home-felt passions common to every Age and climate. Hector, Diomede, Patroclus, and Sarpedon, in no wise differ from the true Knights of Charlemagne or the Round Table,

Sweet in manners, fair in favour,

Mild in temper, fierce in fight.

And even Achilles himself, both in his faults and his virtues, bears a strong likeness to the fiery and imperious Norman Baron, or the Grandee of the days of Don Pelayo. The labours of Hercules and Theseus are precisely those of good Knights-errant, and Seyron and Polyphemus are in every particular the discourteous Giants of a Fairy Tale.

As to the interest which arises from Imaginary Beings, Interest in unconnected as they may seem at first with Human for- Imaginary Beings. tunes and feelings, the question is in some degree answered already with reference to Shakspeare, whose forcible conceptions of the Immaterial, and whose intuitive knowledge of all the links of Thought and Association, are acknowledged as unrivalled. His Fairies were, long before the reign of Elizabeth, installed by household superstition as the Dryads and Penates of our Island; and even Ariel and Caliban seem founded on the traditionary conceptions of the friendly Brownie and the malignant Duergar. Nor is it too much to assert that in every instance, the Poet, even when launching into the remotest flights of fancy, in order to attain the end of his Art, must adhere to those subjects which directly or indirectly come home to the "business and bosoms" of his readers.

tion is a

It must be granted that the Pleasure communicated How far by Poetry arises in a subordinate degree, but no incon- mere Imita. siderable one, from the skilful imitation of things not source of necessarily interesting in themselves. Hence the whole Poetical merit of the Art has by some been conceived to exist in Pleasure.

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