ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 63 



not that grandeur which satisfies the mind, poetry steps in and 

 feigns more heroical actions. And as real history gives us not 

 the success of things according to the deserts of virtue and vice, 

 poetry corrects it, and presents us with the fates and fortunes of 

 persons rewarded or punished according to merit. And as 

 real history disgusts us with a familiar and constant similitude 

 of things, poetry relieves us by unexpected turns and changes, 

 and thus not only delights, but inculcates morality and noble- 

 ness of soul. Whence it may be justly esteemed of a Divine 

 nature, as it raises the mind, by accommodating the images of 

 things to our desires, and not, like history and reason, subject- 

 ing the mind to things. And by these its charms, and con- 

 gruity to the mind, with the assistance also of music, which con- 

 veys it the sweeter, it makes its own way, so as to have been in 

 high esteem in the most ignorant ages, and among the most bar- 

 barous people, whilst other kinds of learning were utterly ex- 

 cluded. 



Dramatic poetry, which has the theatre for its world, would 

 be of excellent use if it were sound ; for the discipline and cor- 

 ruption of the theatre are of very great consequence. And the 

 corruptions of this kind are numerous in our times, but the 

 regulation quite neglected. The action of the theatre, though 

 modern states esteem it but ludicrous, unless it be satirical and 

 biting, was carefully watched by the ancients, that it might 

 improve mankind in virtue: and indeed many wise men and 

 great philosophers have thought it to the mind as the bow to 

 the fiddle ; and certain it is, though a great secret in nature, that 

 the minds of men in company are more open to affections and 

 impressions than when alone. 



But allegorical poetry excels the others, and appears a solemn 

 sacred thing, which religion itself generally makes use of, to 

 preserve an intercourse between divine and human things ; yet 

 this, also, is corrupted by a levity and indulgence of genius 

 towards allegory. Its use is ambiguous, and made to serve 

 contrary purposes; for it envelops as well as illustrates the 

 first seeming to endeavor at an art of concealment, and the 

 other at a method of instructing, much used by the ancients. 

 For when the discoveries and conclusions of reason, though 

 now common, were new, and first known, the human capacity 

 could scarce admit them in their subtile state, or till they were 

 brought nearer to sense, by such kind of imagery and examples ; 



