Vol. HI.J 
tempting to define infpiration, or that 
glow of fancy, or effufion of foul, which 
a poet feels while in his fit; a fenfation 
fo firong, that they exprefs it oly by eX- 
_ clamations, adjurings, and rapture.’ 
*¢ On common occafions, a fentiment 
of this kind, coming, as it were, é¢ cathe- 
dré, would ‘perhaps. be faficiene te pre- 
vent any further examination. But asit 
is not the habit of our fociety to conform 
to déia, which ought to be prepared 
with a degree of care proportionate to 
the weight they are likely to have ; or 
even to require finished difcourfes from 
thofe that are ae to open the con- 
verfation; but merely a few Jeading ideas 
which may ferve as beacons to direét us in 
eur courfe : perhaps I may be excuted if 
I prefume to proceed a little farther. E/# 
quodam prodive tenus finon datur ultra: and, 
J think, we may fafely fay, that poetry 
is an art. 
“We have heard much indeed of 
the maxim podta najcitur, not fit, which 
may appear to contradict this pofition. 
It will perhaps be leading us afiray from 
the fubject, to enquire how far this doc- 
trine is true; how much of the poet’s 
excellence is to be attributed to the 
s¢ facred bias of the foul ;” and how much 
to the effeéts of culture ? Granting that 
much depends upon the former, fill we 
mult reckon poetry qm one the arts. For 
in what does art confift? Let us confult 
the acute Mr. Harris, who, after a mi- 
nute inveitigation, defines art as confift- 
ng in “an habitual power in man of 
becoming the cau‘e of fome effect accord- 
ing. to a fyftem: of well-approved pre- 
cepts, operating for the fake of fome 
good, unattainable by his natural and un- 
inftructed faculties.”’ 
Bur arts may be divided into two oie: : 
thofe that conduce to “ ‘mere being’ (if 
we may borrow the ufe of a term very 
familiar to the writer juft mentioned) 
and thofe that are fubfervient to ‘* well 
being.” The former, fuch as agriculture 
and ar chitecture, in their rudeft fate, 
carry their energies no fartherthan barely 
to the {upporting man in exiftence. The 
latter f{weeten the cup of life; and give 
birth to innumerable pleatures. Thefe 
are jJufily ftyled ornamental, thofe ne- 
‘eeffary, and, at a certain period of their 
-progrefs, ufeful arts.—Now though when 
ave come to the extremities when the 
charateriftics of neceflary and ufefud 
end, and that of ornamental begins ; 
and. thot igh much has been {aid of the 
utility of poetry, yet, as we can eafily 
conceive that mankind could much better 
«* 
On the Charaéteriftics of Poetry, 
539 
fpare the art of {pinning verfes than the 
art of {pinning wool, we fhall perhaps 
agree in numbering poetry among the 
ornamental arts. 
“ Whenever Ariftotle, direétly or in-_ 
directly, treats of poetry, he conftantly 
ftyles ic a mimetic or imitative art. In 
this he feems to be juftified ; for does 
not the principle of imitation pervade all 
its branches? When we open—I had 
almott faid, the facred volume of the blind 
Ionian, what do-we behold but a lively 
reprefentation of the aéiions and fpeeches 
of heroes and demi-gods—a picture fo 
exquifitely drawn that we may almoft 
miftake it for reality. We can, in a 
manner, /ee the humble Calchas fupphi- 
antly- bending before the Atride—the 
haughty monarch of Ar gos fternly repei- 
ling from his prefence the peaceful prieit: 
We mark the folitary mourner wander- 
ing by the fhore of the pogmne fea, and 
lifting up his hands to Apollo.. We be- 
hold the god defcending ‘¢ wrapt in thick 
glooms.”” We fee him take his fiation, 
and hear the dire twanging of his filver 
bow. What are the dramas of Shak- 
fpeare, or Efchylus, but (to ufe the ex- 
preffion of Cowper) “a map of bufy 
life??? When Tibullus pours his piain- 
tive fong, what does he but Gea) e. 
fore us the tablet of his heart, where we 
can trace his feelings and fympathize 
with him in his doubts and fears? In 
what confifts the beauty of didactic poe- 
try, but in calling the vivid colouring of 
picturefque reprefentation to the aid of 
the uninterefting {quares and circles of 
precept ? 
“‘ Virgil introduces you to his fwain— 
you follow the pEperel ot his labours. 
With him you mark the rufiling of the 
leaves of the foreft, hear the roaring of 
the fea, view the cormorant rifing from 
the waters, and the hern foaring above 
the clouds, and all the other progyoltics 

that ferebode the coming form. 
“© And when Akenfide developes the 
fecret wonders of the mind of man— 
“‘ Lightning fires the arch of heay’n, 
and thunders rock the ground !> and 
Ocean, groaning from: his lowe ved; 
heaves his tempe ‘tuous billows to the fky 
amid.the mighty uproar, while-~ below 
the nations tremble. Shakipeare ivoks 
abroad from fome tail cliff fuperior, and 
enjoys the elernental war.’ 
<¢ Bat amidf thefe beauries we dite 
wander for ever. Let us quit them, 
however reluctantly, having gathered, as 
the fruit of our excurfion, that, inafnuch 
as poetry impecfies Ho our minds the 
yivid | 
