49 



maturity, between the fall grown majesty of the author of 

 the ^neid, and the crude imbecility of that Virgil, 



*' Qui modo Culicem fleverat ore rudi." Mart. 



If then we are to conclude that the productions of a poet 

 are thus improved by time, not only in correctness but in 

 imagination, (and such a conclusion may be drawn without 

 much apprehension of error) and if it cannot be attributed 

 to an encrease in the warmth of his feelings, or in his sensi- 

 bility with regard to the beauties of external Nature, the 

 only remaining method of accounting for it is to ascribe it 

 altogether to the augmentation of his intellectual wealth by 

 the rich and varied offerings that philosophy presents. 



The sciences assist the imagination not only by encreasing 

 the opportunities of combination, but also in a manner still 

 more important for the purposes of poetry, by raising a sus- 

 ceptible mind to such a fervor of enthusiasm as can scarcely 

 ever be excited by the impulse of unassisted sense. " Every 

 * accession of knowledge in itself is pleasant, and affecting. 

 Even mathematical truths, which have the least intercourse 

 with human passions, are not received with cold indifference 

 when considered as purely speculative, without any attention 

 to their use or application ; we are delighted with them, nay 

 sometimes even transported by what metaphysical critics call 

 the beauty of theorem." 



• Leland on Eloquence, p, 3. 



yoL. XII. u , ' 



