^m . 



30 



of a prospect in general, without being able to point out 

 those particular objects which had principally contributed 

 to call forth his admiration. No one will say, that the study 

 of philosophical criticism is a pursuit calculated to injure the 

 imagination ; to say that a man can attain to a high rank in 

 poetical reputation, without learning what to avoid or what 

 to imitate, or why the former should be rejected, and tlie 

 latter adopted, would be absurdity too gross for '.refutation. 

 In order to succeed in a composition of your own, you must 

 have investigated the principles, and searched into human 

 nature for the causes of that success in others ; you should 

 not be content with a few fruits, that chance might present 

 or desultory observation procure, you should endeavour to 

 get possession of the parent stock, from which all the scions 

 shoot forth, and from which issues the vital principle that is 

 necessary for the preservation, the beauty and the strength 

 of the whole body. This taste which is thus necessary for a 

 poet is nothing else but a refined judgment ; they are not two 

 distinct powers of the mind, but different species of the same 

 faculty ; that, which when employed on scientific subjects is 

 called reason, in matters of critical enquiry, will receive the^ 

 appellation of taste; the objects with which the mind is en- 

 gaged vary, but it is the same understanding that is exercised 

 in both cases. " If then," it may be urged, " these two are 

 really not essentially different from each other; if it be the 

 same judgment that is exercised in both enquiries, where is 

 the occasion for mathematical study of which a poet or ora- 



