AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE ON POETRY. 77 



And now, my young friends, it behoves me to point out a short 

 and easy method of perfecting yourselves in an art which has been time 

 out of mind, designated divine. For this purpose, it will not be ne- 

 cessary that I should recommend to you the study of ancient and 

 modern history that I should exhort you to make yourselves ac- 

 quainted with the most approved moral, philosophical, and meta- 

 physical works ; that I should impress upon you the importance of 

 becoming imbued with the spirit of the older poets that, above all, 

 as some crazy enthusiasts would direct you, I should implore you to 

 gaze with universal ken upon the harassing, puzzling, contrarious 

 aspects of nature whether external or inherent. These studies, 

 believe me, are not requisite to the formation of a modern poet. 



No draughts from nature are now required no vulgar common- 

 sense the cheesemonger's quality, is now in request uncommon 

 nonsense is far better you start, but it is so; you need not entail 

 upon yourselves the gratuitous trouble of forming new moral combi- 

 nations of seeking after ideas which are much more easily sought 

 than caught of clothing your naked facts in appropriate language, 

 or of concealing your bald common-places under the blossoms of ori- 

 ginal imagery. Of original and leading ideas there are few, and 

 their combinations are by this time well nigh exhausted of words 

 there are many, and their combinations are inexhaustible. " Words, 

 words, words," as Hamlet says, are your staple commodity ; and 

 your true no-meaning not only puzzles more than wit, but goes 

 further in the long run. 



I must beg to differ toto ccelo, my young friends, from a poet of 

 more than a century ago, who seems, in one of his ingenious effusions 

 to intimate that same preparatory study is indispensable ere the poeti- 

 cal tyro can be permitted to burst his leading-strings ; to plume the 

 wings of his Pegasus, or in common and intelligible language to set 

 up on his own account. I shall recite to you the passage entire, in 

 order that you may perceive how far the present enlightened age has 

 progressed; and that forasmuch as " poeta nascitur, non jit" the 

 recent growth of bards has been much more extensive than the 

 modern manufacture. Listen ! 



" For as young children, who are tried in 

 Go-carts, to keep their steps from sliding ; 

 When members knit, and legs grow stronger, 

 Make use of such machine no longer, 

 But leap pro libitu, and scout 

 On horse call'd hobby, or without : 

 So when at school we first declaim, 

 Old Biisbey walks us in a theme, 

 Whose props support our infant vein, 

 And help the rickets in the brain ; 

 But when our souls their force dilate, 

 And thoughts grow up to wit's estate, 

 In verse or prose, we write or chat, 

 Not sixpence matter upon what." 



This, you need not be told, was the old system, repudiated with 

 scorn by the present generation ; and, with due deference for the 



