On the Machinery • &V. 99 



parents than a penetrating view of truth and 

 nature are many systems indebted for their ex- 

 istence, are in the habit of requiring an im-. 

 plicit obedience ; they preoccupy the early 

 mind, before it is fitted for individual exertion ; 

 their rules become a law, without enquiry into 

 the, truth and reason of the law ; iiiteJiect sub- 

 mits to the law; her native freedom is fettered; 

 and genius, naturally capable of originality 

 and specific character, is stilled by -this domi- 

 nant prejudice, and creeps along through ages 

 in the dull walk of conformity to rules, where 

 luiture perhaps would allow of a generous lati- 

 tude.— More than two thousand years have 

 passed since the days of Aristotle, but the 

 system of Aristotle is still an imperial law, and 

 is an interdict on genius in the walk of Epic 

 Poetry ; for believing from a tame submission 

 to authority, that every thing in the epic of 

 Homer, from whom the system of Aristotle is 

 altogether derived, is to be admired as the 

 standard of excellence, we can neither bear 

 with an epic production, which is original in 

 its manner, and disdains the trammels of 

 Homer and Aristotle ; nor can we bear with 

 an imitation, for this is frigid and tasteless to 

 us, because we have acquired another taste, 

 which we can sacrifice only to Homer, or to 

 Virgil. These a venerable antiquity has equally 

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