Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/23

 x The 9 R E F A C &

Subftances wife. Under other Circumftances, the fame Matters become fubjeft to other Laws, (i. e. other Actions of the Creator, for Laws are no other) and return the way they came ; Animals into Plants, and thefe into Minerals. — Nothing can be more fimple and uniform than the whole Difpenfation : A Body is only what it is, in virtue of a Law of Nature, i. e. of the Will of the Creator ; and confequendy 'tis this alone can alter it. Hence, a piece of Matter, under the different Circumftances of Motion or Reft, Contiguity with this or with that "Body, falling in with new Laws ; by the Concurrence and Activity thereof, becomes a Means of exhibiting different Phenomena : on occafion whereof we give it a different Denomination, and range it under a different Clafs of natural Things : And to the Means whereby thofe Circumftances are deter- min'd, we give the Names of Generation, Corruption, Putrefaclion, Fermentation, Vegetation, Animation, Affimilation, Accretion, &c. which are all accountable for on the fame Principle. 'Tis no more wonderful, a Fungus, with all its Furniture of Flowers, Seed, (3c. mould arife from a Mixture of Earth and Dung ; than to behold fo wonderful a Body as Flame, arife from a cafual Collifion of Flint and Steel ; or Air from the mere Diffo- lution of a Metal.

WE fee then, how far Man is concern'd in the Productions or Art. Our Endeavours are contriv'd by Nature to 'be Means acceffory to the Law's taking place, from whence the Effects are to arife. We are part of the Chain whereby the Effect is connected to the Caufe. The Circumftances are in our Power on which fuch, and fuch Laws depend ; and thus far we may be faid to be ASive, in the Cafe of Art : fuppofing that there is nothing higher, or further ; and that the Chain ends with us ; in a word, that our Agency is not fub- ordinate, but collateral to that of the Almighty. But if there be other fuperior Laws which refpect. thofe fame Circumftances, and which are not in our Power, i. e. if the Circumftances neceffary to the former Law, be themfelves fuppofed neceffary Laws, and the immediate Work of Nature ; our Agency will dwindle into nothing. The utmoft that can be faid of us in fuch cafe, is, That we are Active in refpect of the one, and Paf-

five in that of the other ; which to moft People may appear a kind of Contradiction. The Statue can't

be form'd, unlefs our Defire or Inclination concur thereto ; fo far its Exiftence depends on us : But are our Defires and Inclinations with refpect thereto of our own growth •, or do they arife naturally, in confequence of an Apprehenfion of Good, and Advantage in the Subject ? That is, does any thing appear good and ad- vantageous to us abfolutely and of it felf ; or only what the Creator represents to us as fo ? And do we defire or purfue this feeming Good, from any Principle or Tendency that is in us, other than what we owe to his Laws ? The Difficulty feems to amount to this ; whether between our Faculties of apprehending and

willing, and their refpeftive Objects, there be any Relation which he did not create or eftablifh ? If any

alledge, that 'tis fuch Relation conftitutes the Faculty ; and therefore that the Queftion ends in this, Whe- ther our Faculties are from God or our felves : i. e. whether they can be the Caufes of themfelves ? I mould fufpeft fome Sophifm in the Cafe, which at prefent I have not leifure to detect.

BUT having traced the Agency of Man thus far, we muft be obliged here to defift ; and from the Fac- tive Arts refume the Confideration of the Atli-ve ones ; i. e. pafs from what Art does out of us, to what it is in us : or rather, from the Arts whofe Source is fuppofed in our felves, and which proceed outwards ; to thofe whofe Source feems without us, and tend inwards : That is, from thofe which arife from our Obfer- vation and Reafon, directing us how to minifter Occafions to the Laws which obtain in the external World ; to thofe which flow into our Imagination, and furnifh Occafions to the Laws which obtain in the internal World, — An Inquiry which may perhaps carry us where the Reader little imagines ; but which will afford an ample Difcuffion of the Principle above eftablifh'd ; and a further Might into the Origin and Caufe of Science and Art ; and the Nature and Meafure of our Agency and Paffion therein.

WE have already fpoke fomcthing concerning Poetry ; not for its own fake, but as a proper Inftance to illu- ftrate the Nature of Art in. It makes the loweft Article in our Analyfis ; which, in reality, is the higheft in the Scale of Art ; there being a fort of progreffive Rifing from the Beginning of the Analyfis to the End. It begins with the firft Matter of Knowledge, the common Objects of our Senfcs ; and proceeds thro' the various Modifications they undergo by the other Faculties of Imagination and Reafon, till thofe fenfible Objects be- come fo much our own, are fo affimilated to us, and as it were humaniz'd ; that they are part of our felves, and obey and take Directions from our Will, and minifter to all our Views and Purpofes : of which, this of producing Images and making Fables, is in one Senfe the higheft ; inafmuch as the greateft Effects here arife from the flendcreft Means and Endeavours. The Poet ftirs but little in the Matter -, but Nature co-operates fa ftrongly with him, that this little fuffkes, even to make new Worlds. In effect, the Poet feems, as it were, to fit nearer the Spring of Action than other Men ; and to have only to do with the general and higher Principles

thereof, which command and direct a Number of other fubordinate ones, that he himfelf is not aware of What

we fhall fay of Poetry, therefore, will hold proportionally of all the other Arts ; and we have only kept to that, becaufe the Influence or Infpiration is here confeffedly the pureft, and the neareft to Heaven of all others *. The Principle or Spirit of Poetry, may be faid to be that of Art in general ; and hence many f Authors make no fcruple to make all Arts the Invention of Poets : Thus it is Homer is often complimented with being the Father of all Arts. — This has, indeed, an Appearance of Truth ; but 'tis only an Appearance : For Homer, fuppofing him the Inventor of Poetry, or at leaft the beft Poet ; has no other Title to the Invention of other Arts, than what he derives either from a greater Share of the Spirit whereby they are produe'd, than other People ; or from his having communicated that Spirit, by the Force of his Poems, thro' other People, where it has generated, and brought forth other Arts ; or from the Seeds and Principles of Arts and Inventions which his Imagination was fo pregnant withal, and which he diffeminated over the World, where many of 'em, by due Cultivation, have fprung up into the Form and Maturity we now fee 'em.

THE Mind is allowed to be paffive in refpect of the Matter of the Art of Poetry. We need not quote the Poets to prove it : No true Poet ever queftion'd his Infpiration : Every body knows that their whole Syftem is built on the Suppofition. And hence the Stories of Apollo and the Mufes, of Helicon and Parnajjiis ; the Dreams of Pindus and the Aonian Maids : with a thoufand other Reveries %. But the Philofophers, and Criticks alfo, give 'em their Suffrages, and atteft their Infpiration, in the ftrongeft Terms. Plato has already been cited to this Purpofe : He contends, at large, that all Poetry is " by immediate divine Infpiration, in the proper, and literal Senfe of the Word ||." Arijlotle confirms it: " Ufat ine'iitm, Poetry comes by divine Infpiration **." And Plutarch fays as much of all the Branches of Enthufiafm ; Poetical, Divinatory, Bacchical or Corybantical, Martial, and Erotick : to all which, he afferts, the Appellation, 'Erittiatair, or 'KtSttK-mie «•**©• t*> equally agrees.— -And not only fo, but they hold the Enthufiafm communicable from one to another. It arifes from the Poet, as its Centre, and is diffus'd, in Orbem ; in a lefs degree of intenfenefs, the further it recedes from him. Plato afferts, that the 'p*4Woi, or thofe who fung and rehears'd the Poets Works on the publick Theatres s nay, and the Spectators themfelves


 * Cafaul). of Entbiif. t Vid. Rapin. Reflex. Dacier't Homtr, in Pre/. Max. Tyrius. Porphyry n«a*

r~f '0//SJ8 tfihwvpix;. % Vid. Perf. in Prol. ad Satyr, i. || In Dial. Ion. or «fei T m IhtiW.


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