740 POE POE 
fubordinate caufes is fattened to Jupiter’s chair, iignifies Greece and the bottom of Pontus are poetically converted 
that Almighty God governs and direfits fubordinate caufes into thofe fiery bulls. Ralegh . 
and effefits. Hale. POET'ICS f. The dofitrine of poetry, or the laws and 
With courage guard, and beauty warm, our age, r . u ' e ® con dufiting pieces or compofitions of poetry..— 
And lovers fill with like poctick rage. Waller. ^iftotie s Poetics is a work very highly valued; and 
' M. Dacter s comment upon it is one or his beft pieces. 
Poetical Justice, is chiefly ufed in refpefit to the Horace, Vieta, Vofiius, and Scaliger, have Jikewife pub- 
drama, to denote a diftribution of rewards and punifh- 1 ifired Poetics in Latin; the duke of Buckingham in 
ments to the fevera! perfons at the cataftrophe or clofe of Englifh; and Menardiere, Hedelin, and Defpreaux, in 
the piece, anfwerable to the feveral charafiters in which French. Chambers. 
they have appeared. To PO'ETIZE, v. n. To write like a poet.—I verfify 
POET'ICALLY, adv. With the qualities of poetry; the truth, not poetize. Donne. 
by the fifition of poetry.—The criticks have concluded, PO'ETRESS,/. A fire-poet; a poetefs : 
that the manners of the heroes are poetically good, if of a Mott peerlefs poetrefs, 
piece. Dryden. —The many rocks in the palfage between The true Pandora of all heavenly graces. Spencer. 
POETRY. 
PO'ETRY, /. [irona, I make, frame, or invent.] Me¬ 
trical compofltion ; the art or practice of writing poems.— 
Although in poetry it be neceflary that the unites of time, 
place, and afition, fliould be explained, there is ftill fome- 
thing that gives a greatnefs of mind to the reader, which 
few of the criticks have confidered. Addifon's Spe 6 t. 
Strike the beft invention dead 
Till baffled poetry hangs down the head. Cleaveland. 
Poems; poetical pieces: 
She taketh molt delight, 
In muflck, inftruments, and poetry. Shahefpeare. 
INTRODUCTORY HISTORY. 
The definition of this word, which appears to us the 
beft, both with reference to its etymology and its prefent 
acceptation, is as follows : “ Poetry confifts of the work¬ 
ings of the imagination exprefled in melodious language.” 
The imagination has to do with all the matter or thought 
of a poem 5 the language, or verfe, with its manner. The 
nature then of imagination, the ttrufiture of verfe, and 
the harmony which exifts between the two, form the firft 
fubjefits we propofe to difcufs. 
Poetry! beauteous creation ! how delightful, yet over¬ 
whelming, is the converfe we have to hold with thee! 
How fweet, after the long and wearifome labours which 
we have undergone in this our vaft hiftory of the fciences, 
to glide jocundly along amid ft the flowers and fragrance 
of thy fairy land! But who fhall defcribe thee, or thy pow¬ 
ers ? Thine was the hand, that in the rudeand barbarous 
ages, upreared the ftandards of juftice and of law. In thy 
fweet precepts man learned alike to cure bodily infirmity 
and mental ill. Thy words, delivered by thy fervant 
Mufic, fubdued the rough barbarian who was blind to 
reafon’s truth ; and lent philofophy the fparks whence file 
lights her eternal fires. Alike the iolace of man in all 
degrees, thy fong cheers the beggar, infpires the foldier, 
melts the fair, enwraps the devotee. Thou art the After 
of Religion, and haft protected her infancy. The Maker 
and the Saviour of mankind have fpoken by thy mouth, 
O eternal voice of the fouls of the departed ! 
L Of the Nature of the Imagination. 
The Imagination is a faculty which occupies itfelf 
with remembering, combining, and forming, gratifying 
thoughts. By the word gratifying, we do not mean fuch 
as are merely pleafing, but likewife whatever in any 
way moves or interefts us. To inveftigate the nature of 
thofe thoughts, whence all the pleafures of this world 
arife, is an arduous tafk. We cannot attempt to perform 
it here in a finiftied manner; we can only fketch its out¬ 
line. 
In tracing the fources of our pleafures, it is beft to begin 
with the fimpleft elements. The five fenfes, as they fur- 
mifli us with the materials of all thoughts, fo do they fur- 
nifh us with the chief materials of our pleafures. What¬ 
ever delights us in nature or art, mult proceed from fome- 
thing we obferve by their means. They give us the pri¬ 
mary and common feelings of pleafure ; but then, under 
the influence of the imagination, (bon light up all the joys 
of the mind. The feveral feelings, confidered alone, are few 
and unimportant. The organ of touch delights in foft- 
nefs and fmoothnefs; the eye, within certain limits, in a 
ftrong light; the ear in a dulcet found ; the noftrils in 
a feries of fmells. What feeble fources for the many and 
great delights we enjoy on this earth ! But let us fee how 
the imagination multiplies the fen'ations and enlarges 
their boundaries ; and how this faculty is capable, when 
once roufed by their ftimulus, of creating for itfelf unut¬ 
terable pleafures. 
The procefs by which this is accomplifhed is called 
ajjbeiation. It confifts merely of adding to the objefits we 
perceive by the fenfes, (fay for example trees or buil¬ 
dings,) certain previoufly-acquired thoughts; certain old 
(and in our opinion excellent) ideas that caufe us to call 
them trees or buildings, beautiful or fublime, or by what¬ 
ever other names we choofe to ufe, to fay they are agreea¬ 
ble to us. Much eloquence and found argument has been 
ufed byAddifon, in his excellent obfervations on “ Tafte,'’ 
to convince us that there is no real beauty in anything 
we perceive by the fenfes ; and that external objefits are 
only called beautiful, when they are alTociated with fome 
faculty of our own minds, when they pofiefs fome analogy 
or fimilitude to our feelings. Though we cannot admit 
this opinion entirely, it will be obferved that we have 
confined feveral pleafures in fuch narrow limits, that to 
mention it is to defcribe it. Still we mutt contend that the 
fenfes have joys in themfelves, and that their joys are ca¬ 
pable of cultivation and improvement, by continually 
a fifing on the joys of the mind ; they acquire afilual en¬ 
joyments which they would never have attained but by 
fuch inference^ Mufic, if it a filed by aflbeiation alone, 
could give no pleafure beyond fimple words, tending to 
excite feelings fuch as mufic exprefles; nor would verifi¬ 
cation (which is partly mufic) be fuperior to profe. We 
muft not defpife the fenfes; for they are linked with 
thought, with joy, and with morality. Let it be remem¬ 
bered, that our Creator has united the higheft intellefifual 
communion (the ftate of marriage) with a coarfe fenfual 
pleafure. 
Having difmifled the fenfes, let us return to aflbeiation. 
We have faid that this procefs is the mere a fit of adding 
fome previoufly-acquired thoughts to the objefits before 
us. How does this procefs account for the delight na¬ 
ture infpires us with ? Will any train of affectations 
caufe pleafure? If we ajjociate a plane and a faw with a 
large building, is a fenfeof architefifttral beauty produced? 
No. Then the affeciations which lead to pleafure muft 
be of fome particular nature or kind; and the queftion 
is, What is this? The multitudinous grateful conceptions 
we 
