been considered not as allies faithfully and perseveringly 

 united in the dispensation of tlx? blessings of civilisation and 

 refinement, but as rivals, each jealous of the other's ascend- 

 ancy, and punishing any particular attention paid to her 

 competitor by manifest indications of coldness and neglect. 



In order to answer this objection, there wilJ be no occasion 

 to enter into a. minute historical account of their connection 

 in their origin, progress, and decline in each country, where 

 their happy influence has been felt : it will be sufficient at 

 present to mention a few leading facts, from which it may be 

 seen, that the two pursuits are not in their own nature irre- 

 concileably averse to each other; and to enumerate some cir- 

 cumstances, from which we may easily account for their 

 comparative states in ancient and modern times, without 

 ' having recourse to such a bold and unwarranted hypothesis. 

 In that twilight state of human existence,, which inter- 

 venes between the dreary gloom of savage solitude, and the 

 chearful lustre of civilised society, the poets were the first 

 who, from their superior elevation of soul, were enabled to 

 catch the first partial rays of knowledge, as they struggled 

 through the clouded atmosphere of error and the mists of 

 superstition. It must, indeed, be confessed that the light, 

 which they thus contributed to diffuse over the yet unex- 

 plored paths of learning, was in some degree diverted from 

 the direct line of philosophical accuracy, and tinged with 

 the lively and variegated hues of poetry ; their knowledge of 

 a new star was announced by the deifi^cation of some cele 



