39 



iiiitTht be found in other persons of any other assignable pro- 

 fession, and conscquentl}' could not be retained in a repre- 

 sentation which was intended to be characteristic. But this, 

 which in itself appears to be a more delicate operation than 

 that required in the former case, is only the beginning; then 

 follow the collection of all the characteristic features re- 

 ally existing among the diflerent individuals of the class, 

 and the addition of such farther decorations as seem consist- 

 ent with verisimilitude. When Augustus Caesar committed 

 the imperfect xEneid to the hands of some of the greatest 

 geniuses of his day, he allowed them only to correct by re- 

 trenching what was redundant, he did'not suffer them to add 

 a single line, or even to complete a broken one; how much 

 would the difficulty have been augmented, had he qom- 

 manded them to give distinct characters to the " fortis Gyas 

 fortisque Cleanthus," and raise each of them to the elevated 

 rank of poetical genera ? If from the consideration of these 

 lighter species of composition, we now turn to others of a 

 more sublime and dignified nature, it will appear evident at 

 first sight, that for such productions as Paradise Lost, the 

 Essay on Man, the Pleasures of Imagination, or the Anti 

 Lucretius, the judgment cannot be too correct, the under- 

 standing too assiduously cultivated. Here it is necessary for 

 the soul to put forth all its energies, and nothing that ap- 

 pears, even in the slightest degree, likely to contribute 

 to its strength or support, should be neglected. The old 

 alchy mists pretended tq extract gold from every sort of me- 



