11 INTRODUCTION 
would suit his purpose better ; where they are to 
be found ; how they may be procured, and how sup- 
ported ; the qualitiesof the soil which he cultivates,, 
and the means of managing and of improving it ; 
the nature of the grain which he raises ; and 
whether he might not, with advantage, substitute 
a different species, instead of that which hath 
been in common use. Even the meanest mechanic 
must have a pretty accurate knowledge of many 
of the qualities of those natural objects with which 
his art is connected. The line arts, though usually 
considered as the peculiar province of imagination, 
depend greatly upon natural, history. Both in 
music and painting, the study of nature alone can 
ensure success. In the writings of the poets, 
many images are introduced from external nature ; 
and allusions are frequently made to the manners 
and economy of animals. And as modern poets 
have not the same machinery of gods and goddesses ; 
of nymphs, fawns, and satyrs, which were so ser- 
viceable to the heathen poets of antiquity ; as they 
cannot employ elves, witches, ghosts, or the won- 
ders of enchantment, with so much advantage as 
the writers of the old romances ; let them, there- 
fore, be more industrious in studying the scenes of 
nature : these are so endlessly diversified, that they 
must always continue to afford abundance of the 
richest materials for the poet's art -materials 
which have this advantage over allegory and fic- 
tion, that they are durable as the present constitu- 
tion of things. By attending to this principle, 
Thomson, while he led the ‘way to others, pro-* 
