66 
Dr. Bnrr.es on Poetry. 
in foftnefs, delicacy, and refinement. But thefe 
ar t feeble graces. The mind Toon tires, with the 
perpetual chime of fmooth verification, and 
with the unvaried flow of gentle and unimpaf- 
fioned fentiment. The burfts of honefl: nature, 
the glow of animated feeling, the imagery, the 
enthufiafm —Pheje are the charming properties, 
which will for ever exalt the poems, in which 
they are found, to the firft order of poetic ex¬ 
cellence. For thefe, no appendages of art can be 
deemed an adequate compenfation. 
A writer, whom I cannot mention without 
great refpefl, notwithfianding our difference 
of opinion upon fome interefting fubjetts, 
feems not to have fettled accurately his own 
idea of poetic eflence. Dr. Johnfon, many of 
whofe criticifms upon the Englifh Poets in¬ 
dicate the ftrength of judgment, and fome, the 
elegance of tafte, fays, in his life of Milton, 
“ Poetry is the art of uniting pleafure with truth, 
by calling imagination to the aid of reafon.” He 
then mentions the different fciences, of which the 
Poet fhould be a mafter; hiftory, morality, 
policy, the knowledge of thepaflions, phyflology. 
“ To put thefe materials to poetical ufe, is re¬ 
quired, an imagination capable of painting nature* 
and realizing fiftion. Nor can he yet be a Poet, till 
he has obtained the whole expanfion of his lan¬ 
guage, diftinguifhed all the delicacies of phrafe, 
and all the colours of words, and learned to adjuft 
all 
