cause of improving Comedy into a general mirror, held forth to reflect the various follies and foibles incident to Human Nature; a fpecies of writing called the New Comedy, introduced by Diphilus and Menander, of whofe works nothing but a few frag

ments remain.

ESSAY XV.

HAVING communicated our fentiments touching
the origin of Poetry, by tracing Tragedy and
Comedy to their common fource, we fhall now en-
deavour to point out the criteria, by which Poetry
is diftinguished from every other fpecies of writing.
In common with other arts, fuch as Statuary and
Painting, it comprehends imitation, invention, com-
pofition, and enthufiafm. Imitation is indeed
the bafis of all the liberal arts: invention and en-
thufiafm conftitute Genius, in whatever manner it
may be difplayed. Eloquence of all forts admits of
Enthufiafm. Tully fays, an orator fhould be vehe-
mens ut procella, excitatus ut torrens, incenfus ut ful-
men; ionat, fulgurat, et rapidis Eloquentiæ fluctibus
cuncta proruit et proturbat. "Violent as a tempest,
impetuous as a torrent, and glowing intense like
the red bolt of heaven, he thunders, lightens, over-
throws, and bears down all before him, by the ir-
refiftible tide of Eloquence." This is the mens di-
vinior atque os magna fonaturum of Horace. This is the
talent,

Meum qui pectus inaniter angit,
Irritat, mulcet, falfis terroribus implet,
Ut magus.

With paffions not my own who fires my heart;
Who with unreal terrors fills my breaft,

As with a magic influence poffefs'd.

We are told, that Michael Angelo Buonaroti used to work at his ftatues in a fit of enthufiafm, during which he made the fragments of the ftone fly about him with surprising violence. The celebrated Lully being one day blamed for fetting nothing to mufic but the languid verfes of Quinault, was animated with the reproach, and running in a fit of enthusiasm to his harpfichord, fung in recitative and accompanied four pathetic lines from the Iphigenia of Racine with fuch expreffion, as filled the hearers with aftonishment and horror.

;

Though Verfification be one of the criteria that diftinguifh Poetry from Profe, yet it is not the fole mark of diftinction. Were the Hiftories of Polybius and Livy fimply turned into verfe, they would not become Poems; because they would be deftitute of those figures, embellishments, and flights of imagination, which difplay the Poet's Art and Invention. On the other hand, we have many productions that juftly lay claim to the title of Poetry, without having the advantage of verfification witness the Pfalms of David, the Song of Solomon, with many beautiful hymns, defcriptions, and rhapfodies, to be found in different parts of the Old Teftainent; fome of them the immediate production of divine infpiration : witness the Celtic fragments, which have lately appeared in the English language, and are certainly replete with poetical merit. though good verfification alone will not constitute Poetry, bad verfification alone will certainly degrade and render difguftful the fublimeft fentiments and finest flowers of imagination. This humiliating power of bad verfe appears in many tranflations of the antient poets; in Ogilby's Homer, Trapp's Vir-

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But

gil

gil, and frequently in Creech's Horace. This laft indeed is not wholly devoid of spirit, but it seldom rifes above mediocrity; and as Horace fays,

·Mediocribus effe poetis

Non homines, non Di, non conceffere columnæ.

But God and man and letter'd poft denies
That Poets ever are of middling fize.

How is that beautiful Ode, beginning with " Juftum & tenacem propofiti virum," chilled and tamed by the following translation :

He who by principle is fway'd,
In truth and juftice ftill the fame,
Is neither of the crowd afraid,

Tho' civil broils the ftate inflame;

Nor to a haughty tyrant's frown will stoop,
Nor to a raging ftorm, when all the winds are up.

Should Nature with convulfions shake,

Struck with the fiery bolts of Jove,
The final doom and dreadful crack
Cannot his conftant courage move.

That long Alexandrine-" Nor to a raging storm, when all the winds are up," is drawling, feeble, fwoln with a pleonafm or tautology, as well as deficient in the rhyme; and as for "the dreadful crack" in the next ftanza, instead of exciting terror, it conveys a low and ludicrous idea. How much more elegant and energetic is this paraphase of the fame Ode, inferted in one of the volumes of Hume's Hiftory of England!

The man whofe mind, on virtue bent,
Pursues fome greatly good intent

With undiverted aim,

Serene beholds the angry crowd;

Nor can their clamours fierce and loud
His ftubborn honour tame.

Nor the proud tyrant's fierceft threat,

Nor ftorms that from their dark retreat

The

The lawless furges wake;

Nor Jove's dread bolt that shakes the pole
The firmer purpose of his foul

With all its power can thake.

Should Nature's frame in ruins fall,
And Chaos o'er the finking ball
Refume primeval fway,

His courage Chance and Fate defies,
Nor feels the wreck of earth and fkies
Obftru&t its deftin'd way.

If Poetry exifts independent of verfification, it will naturally be asked, how then is it to be distinguished? Undoubtedly by its own peculiar expreffion it has a language of its own, which speaks fo feelingly to the heart, and so pleasingly to the imagination, that its meaning cannot poffibly be mifunderftood by any perfon of delicate fenfations. It is a fpecies of painting with words, in which the figures are happily conceived, ingenioufly arranged, affectingly expreffed, and recommended with all the warmth and harmony of colouring: it confifts of imagery, defcription, metaphors, fimiles, and fentiments, adapted with propriety to the fubject, fo contrived and executed as to footh the ear, furprise and delight the fancy, mend and melt the heart, elevate the mind, and pleafe the understanding. According to Flaccus :

Aut prodeffe volunt, aut delectare poetæ ;
Aut fimul jucunda & idonea dicere vitæ.

Poets would profit or delight mankind,
And with th'amufing thow th' inftructive join'd.

Omne tulit punctum, qui mifcuit utile dulci,
Lectorem delectando, pariterque monendo.

Profit and pleasure mingled thus with art
To footh the fancy and improve the heart.—

Trophies and figures are likewife liberally used in Rhetoric; and fome of the moft celebrated orators have owned themfelves much indebted to the Poets. Theophraftus

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Theophraftus expreffly recommends the Poets for this purpose. From their fource the fpirit and energy, the pathetic, the fublime, and the beautiful, are derived *. But these figures must be more fparingly used in Rhetoric than in Poetry, and even then mingled with argumentation, and a detail of facts altogether different from poetical narration. The Poet, inftead of fimply relating the incident, ftrikes off a glowing picture of the scene, and exhibits it in the moft lively colours to the eye of the imagination. "It is reported that Homer was blind (fays Tully in his Tufculan Queftions), yet his Poetry is no other than Painting. What country, what climate, what ideas, battles, commotions, and contefts of men, as well as of wild beafts, has he not painted in fuch a manner as to bring before our eyes thofe very scenes, which he himself could not behold!" We cannot therefore fubfcribe to the opinion of fome ingenious critics, who have blamed Mr. Pope for deviating in fome inftances from the fimplicity of Homer, in his tranflation of the Iliad and Odyffey. For example, the Grecian bard fays fimply, the fun rofe; and his Tranflator gives us a beautiful picture of the fun rifing. Homer mentions a person who played upon the lyre; the Tranfla tor fets him before us warbling to the filver ftrings. If this be a deviation, it is at the fame time an improvement. Homer himself, as Cicero obferves above, is full of this kind of painting, and particularly fond of defcription, even in fituations where the action feems to require hafte. Neptune, obferving

* Namque ab his (fcilicet poetis) et in rebus fpiritus, et in verbis fublimitas, et in affectibus motus omnis, et in perfonis decor petitur. QUINTILIAN, 1. x.

+ Quæ regio, quæ ora, quæ fpecies formæ, quæ pugna, qui malus hominum, qui ferarum, non ita expictus eft, ut quæ ipfe non viderit, nos ut videremus, effecerit!

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