Tiers, to pals. over which, 
280 
he was aétually alone, converfing with 
himfelf, and marking the impreffion 
which nature made on his own heart. 
If, during thefe facred moments, the 
idea of fome departed friend,’ fome ten- 
der recolleéiion, when the foul was moft 
alive to tendernefs, intruded unawares 
into his mind, the forrow which it pro- 
duces is artlefsly, but poetically, ex- 
prefled; and who can avoid fympa- 
thizing ? 
Love of man leads to devotion. Grand 
and fublime images ftrike the imagina- 
tion. God is feen in every floating 
cloud, and comes from the mifty moun- 
tain to receive the nobleft homage of an 
intelligent creature---praife. How fa- 
Iemn js the moment, when all affections 
and remembrances fade before the 
fublime admiration which the wifdom 
‘and goodnefs of God in{pires, when he 
is worfhipped in a temple not made with 
hands, and the world feems to contain 
only the mind that formed and contem- 
plates ir. Thefe are not the weak re- 
{ponfes of ceremonial devotion ; nor to 
exprefs them would the poet need an- 
ether poet’s aid. No: his heart burns 
within him, and he fpeaks the language 
ef truth and nature, with refiftlefs 
energy. 
Inequalities, of courfe, are obfervable 
in his effufions ; and a les vigorous ima- 
gination, with more tafte, would have 
produced more elegance and uniformity. 
But as paflages are {oftened or expunged, 
during the cooler moments of refiection, 
the underftanding is gratified at the ex- 
pence of thofe involuntary fenfations 
which, like the beauteous tints of an 
évening fky, are fo evanefcent, that they 
melt into new forms before they can be 
analyfed. For, however eloquently we 
may boaft of our reafon, man muft often 
be delighted he cannot tell why, or his 
blunt feelings are not made to relifh the 
beauties which nature, poetry, or any 
ef the imitative arts afford. 
The imagery of the ancients appears 
naturally to have been borrowed from 
the furrounding objeéts, and ~ their 
mythology. When a hero is to be 
tranfported from one place to another 
acrofs pathlefs waftes, is any vehicle fo 
natural as one of the fleecy clouds, on 
which he has often gazed, {carcely con- 
f{eious that he withed to make it his cha- 
riot. Again; when nature feems to 
prefent obftacles 10 his progrefs at 
almoft every fiep, when the tangled 
foreft and fteep mountain ftand as bar- 
the -mind 
On Artificial Lafte. 3 
f April, 
longs for fupernatural aid; an inter- 
pofing deity, created by love or fear, 
who walks on the waves, and rules the 
ftorm, feverely felt in the firft attempts 
to cultivate a country, will receive from 
the impaffioned fancy a loca] habitation 
and a name. 
It would be a philofophical enquiry, 
and throw fome light on the hiftory of 
the human mind, to trace, as far as our 
information wt!l allow us, the fpontane- 
ous feelings and ideas which have pro- 
duced the images that now frequently 
appear unnatural, becaufe they are 
remote, and difgufting, becaufe they 
have been fervilely copied by poets, 
whofe habits of thinking and views of 
nature muft have been different; for 
the underftanding feldom difturbs the 
current of our prefent feelings, without 
dilfipating the gay clouds which fancy 
has been embracing; yet, it filently 
gives the colour to the whole tenor of 
them, and the reverie is over when 
truth is grofsly violated, or imagery in- 
troduced, feleéted from books, and not 
from local manners, or popular preju- 
dices. 
Ina more advanced ftate of civilization, 
a poet is rather a creature of art than 
nature; the books that he perufes in his 
youth, become a hot-bed, im which arti- 
ficial fruits:are produced, beautiful to 
a common eye, though they want the 
true hue and flavour. His images do 
not flow from his imagination, but are 
fervile copies; and, like the works of 
the painters who copy ancjent ftatues 
Avhen they draw men and women of 
their own times, we acknowledge that 
the features are fine, the proportions juft, 
fill they are men of ftone: infipid 
figures, that never convey to the mind 
the idea of a portrait taken from the 
hfe, where the foul gives f{pirit and 
homogeneity to° the whole form. The 
filken wings of fancy are fhrivelled by 
rules, and a defire of attaining elegance 
of diétion occafions an attention to 
words, incompatible with fublime im- 
paffioned thoughts. 
A boy of abilities, who has been 
taught the ftructure of verfe at fchool, 
and been roufed by emulation to com- 
pofe rhymes whilft he was reading 
works of genius, may, by praétice, pro- 
duce pretty verfes, and even become 
what is often termed an _ elegant 
poet; though his readers, without 
knowing well where the fault lies, do 
not find themfelves warmly interefted. 
In the productions of the poets who 
faften 
