PRERE AGE 
Defcriptive poetry is {till more indebted to 
natural knowlege, than either painting or 
-feulpture: 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 with the 
fublimeft conceptions: nor is the knowlege 
of animals and vegetables lefs requifite, while 
his creative pen adds life and motion to every 
object. i 
_ From hence it may be eafily inferred, that 
an acquaintance with the works of nature is 
equally neceffary to form a genuine and cor- 
rect tafte for any of the above mentioned 
arts. ‘Tafte is no more than a quick fenfibi- 
lity of imagination refined by judgement, 
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 Eflay on the origin of our ideas of the fablime 
and beautiful. 
Thus 
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