OF THE PASSIONS. 521 



cessary to iook back to nations of a very remote antiquity, and who culti- 

 vated such attempts as a national pursuit. Surely if the erroneous and 

 extf avagant mythologies and superstitions of ancient Greece possessed in- 

 terest enough to concentrate equally the fond attention of the poets and 

 the people, and to be laid hold of as the standard theme of odes, dramas, 

 and epopees ; if the sacred fictions of Isis and Osiris, of Ormuzd and 

 Ahriman, of Brahma and Pracriti, were deemed the noblest subjects for 

 song in Egypt, Persia, and Hindostan ; and song, too, composed by the 

 most learned hierophants and the most celebrated bards of their day, in 

 colleges expressly founded for the occasion ; what ought we not to look 

 for in countries of coeval antiquity, preternaturally illuminated with the 

 principles of genuine religion, and where colleges also were founded of 

 the same mixed kind for the same lofty purpose ? What ought we not to 

 expect from the rapt patriarchs of Idumasa, or the inspired prophets of 

 Salem ; from the magnificent schools of Dedan and Theman, or those of 

 Naioth and Mount Zion ? From the two latter, more especially, since 

 one of their chief, and certainly one of their most pleasing duties was to 

 compose a regular series of sacred odes and other canticles to the praise 

 of the great (^reator, and to sing them daily to the skilful sound of psal- 

 tery, tabret, and harp, in sweet, alternate concert ; and accompanied with 

 the symphoneous movements of solemn attitudes and sacred dance. We 

 iiave not time for examples, pleasant as the task would be, to introduce 

 them ; but the question seems to be unanswerably settled, by the general 

 and well-known history of these countries, and the exquisite specimens of 

 their sacred lyrics which have descended to our own day ; and which 

 prove unequivocally that the language of the passions, of hope and fear, 

 of joy and sorrow, of compunction and triumph, are directly fitted to be- 

 come the language of devotion ; and that the purest and sublimest religion 

 is capable of giving rise to the purest and subhmest poetry. The Bible 

 indeed, which is the first book we should prize, and the last we should 

 part with, is as much superior to all other books, whether of ancient or 

 modern times, in its figurative and attractive dress, as it is in its weighty 

 and oracular doctrines ; in the hopes it enkindles and the fears it arrays. 

 In its exterior as in its interior, in its little as in its great, it displays ahke 

 Its divine original. 



LECTURE XV. 



ON TASTE, GENIUS, AND IMAGINATION. 



l^EFORE we close our analysis of the faculties of the mind, there are 

 yet three powers, that have a larger claim upon our attention than we 

 have hitherto been able to give them. These are the faculties of taste, 

 GENIUS, and imagination ; the alliance between which is so close, that 

 many philosophers have conceived they are produced a|; the same moment, 

 and cannot exist separately. This, however, is an err^tieous opinion pro- 

 ceeding from a want of clear ideas as to their respectivife characters — cha-< 

 racters which do not appear to have been at any time very accurately de- 

 fined : and the peculiar limits and distinctions of which I shall take leave« 



