'if 



draws between wit and judgment, the one ctynsista more irt 

 forming pleasant pictures to amuse the fancy, by assembling^ 

 those ideas that have the least resemblance, the other on the 

 contrary is exercised in separating those that have the least! 

 difference. This distinction, however, i« not to be consi- 

 dered complete. For although it must be confessed, that as- 

 imitation is the principal object of poetry, that faculty whose 

 province is the discovery of similitudes claims the chief at- 

 tention ; still it is requisite that we should examine, whether 

 the coincidence be perfect or not, and if not, determine acn 

 curately the extent of their parallelism, and precisely mark 

 out the points where they begin to diverge. To have a can- 

 fused general perception of the resemblance is by no means- 

 sufficient, if those features of the picture which are evidently 

 unlike their archetypes be as strongly delineated and highly 

 coloured, as those in which the mind is delighted with the^ 

 correspondence. Thii*dly, a philosophical talent requires the 

 most obstinate patience, and caution approaching to timi- 

 dity ; " a philosopher," says Bacoii', *' must always be sus- 

 picious of his own natural disposition, aud be continually On 

 the watcli, lest it lead him into error ;" it is incumbent oil 

 him as much as possible to stop the natural current of his 

 ideas, and fix his thoughts imumtably on one subject ; where-' 

 as a poet succeeds best by giving loose reins to his imagina- 

 tion, by following the impulse of passion, and indulging him- 

 self in that train of thought into which the mind is almost 

 imperceptibly led by the observation of some particular ob" 



VOL. XII. I 



