PREFACE. 



Defcriptive poetry is flill more indebted to 

 natural knowlege, than either painting or 

 fculpture : the poet has the whole creation 

 for his range ; nor can his art exift without 

 borrowing metaphors, allufions, or defcrip- 

 tions from the face of nature, which is the 

 only fund of great ideas. The depths of the 

 feas, the internal caverns of the earth, and 

 the planetary fyftem are out of the painter's 

 reach ; but can fupply the poet w^ith the 

 fublimeft conceptions : nor is the knowlege 

 of animals and vegetables lefs requilite, while 

 his creative pen adds life and motion to every 

 objecfl. 



From hence it may be eafily inferred, that ' 

 an acquaintance with the works of nature is 

 equally necelTary to form a genuine and cor- 

 recft tafte for any of the above mentioned 

 arts. Tafte is no more than a quick fenfibi- 

 lity of imagination refined by judgemeat, 

 and corrected by experience ; but experience 

 is another term for knowlege*, and to judge 

 of natural images, we muft acquire the fame ^ 

 knowlege, and by the fame means as the 

 painter, the poet, or the fculptor. 



* See the EfTay on the origin of our ideas of the fublime 

 and be^iutiful. 



Thus 



