Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 1.djvu/25

 x ii The T R E F A C E.

2° THE Infpiration of Poetry is of a ftiller, and purer Kind ; and needs lefs Artifice and Apparatus to pro- duce' it in an Imagination naturally difpofed for it. The attentive Confideration of fome interefting Objeft, ufually fuffices to fet it agoing. And the Gentlemen of that Faculty have all Nature to chufe out of: The fineft Seafons, the moft agreeable Scenes, and the moft moving Objects. Hence it is, that they are continu- ally harping on " Groves, and Shades, and Gods, and Nymphs, and Darts, and Flames." How do they

riot in " Meadows trim with Daifies pied ; fhallow Brooks, and Rivers wide : Towers and Battlements they " fee bofomed hi°h in tufted Trees." Sometimes, they raife up " Knights, and Squires, and Maids " forlorn ; or, Lover pendant on a Willow Tree, or Lady wandring by a River's Side." Then, " Tilts " and Tournaments, and Feats of Arms : Pomp, and Feaft, and Revelry, with Mafque and antique Pageantry : " Stories of Thebes or Pelops Line ; or the Tale of Troy divine : Of Arthur and Cambufean bold ; of Cambal

" and of Algarfife, and who took Canacc to Wife." If thefe fail, they have all that is gloomy, and folemn,

and terrible in Nature at their Beck ; we may now expect to fee " the red Bolt, or forked Lightning glare." Earthquakes and Tempefts feldom roar in vain : if by chance they do, the " ill-boding Raven's Croke" is ready at hand ; or elfe " the far-off Curfew founds, o'er fome wide watery Shore, fwinging (low with folemn roar." And now for " baleful Ebon Shades, and ragged "low brow'd Rocks :" Next enter " horrid Shapes, and " Shrieks and Sights unholy : Gorgons, and Hydra's, and Chimera's dire." Images of things moft mo- ving to Senfe, readily alarm and raife a Commotion in the Imagination. And the new Ideas thus procured, coming to be mixed, and combined in the Imagination, with others there before ; new Effects arife from 'em, in confequence of the Laws of the Creator : much as intelligibly as Fire and Flame, upon mixing two chy- mical Liquors.

SCALIGER, in his Poetics, makes two Kinds of eumikm, or Poets divinely infpired. The firft, thofe on whom the Infpiration falls, as it were, from Heaven ; without any thought or feeking, or at lead by means of Prayer and Invocation. The fecond, thofe in whom it is procured by the Fumes of Wine.

ALL that is required to the firft, is only a delicate, pregnant Imagination ; fufceptible of any feeble Impref- fions that may happen to be made in the Courfe of Things ; and ready to take fire at the leaft Spark. The Surfaces of the finer Fluids, we find, are kept in continual motion by the bare Tremor of the Atmofphere, tho to us infenfible : And thus the Air is never fo ftill, but that the Afpin Leaf feels its Impulfe, and bends and trembles to it ; when others require a ruder Guft to move 'em : Yet thefe, too, give way in a general Storm ; whole Forefts then totter indifferently : even the Trunks of fturdieft Oaks, now yield like the reft.

And, accordingly, we read, in antient Hiftory, of whole Nations. being at once feiz'd with the poetical

Fury. Few of the Cities of Greece, not even Athens it felf, with all its Philofophy, but has one time or other labour'd under thefe epidemical Enthufiafms.

WE have already obferv'd, that Invention is the Principle, or Source of Poetry. An excellent modern Poet adds *, that 'tis this which furnifhes Art with all its materials -, and that without it, Judgment it felf

can, at beft, but fteal wifely. Now, this Faculty of Invention it felf, is ufually no other than a Delicacy, or

Readinefs of taking Hints : but even at moft, what we are faid to invent, is only what refults, or arifes from fomething already in us. There is no new Matter got by inventing : that can only come by the way of Senfe and Obfervation : All that paffes in the other Cafe, is, that from the Memory of certain Things, i. e. the Com- prefence of certain Ideas to the Mind ; certain new Ideas arife, according to the Order of Things. The fpright- ly Imagination is led, on various Occafions, to compound its Ideas, and many of 'em fo oddly and boldly, that we take its Productions for new Things ; and thus think we invent 'em, becaufe they did not exift in us before in that form -, tho the Matter or Elements thereof did. There is no more real Invention in the Poet, than in the Tapeftry or Mofaic Worker, who ranges and combines the various colour'd Materials furnilh'd to his Hand, fo as to make an Affemblage or Picture, which before had no Exiftence.

THE Reader who has any doubt about this, need only take the firft piece of Poetry that comes in his way, to be convinced, that all that is new and moving in it, is no other than new Compofition or Combi- nation of fenfible Ideas. In the // Allegro and II Penjerofo, for inftance, two of the moft poetical Pieces in our, or perhaps any other Language ; how eafy is it to refolve all that is fo magical and ravifhing, to the new, uncouth, and frequently wild and romantick Affemblages of Imagery. Indeed, who can contain himfelf

at " Sport which wrinkled-Care derides, and Laughter holding both his Sides. Cynthia peeping thro' a

" Cloud, while rocking Winds are piping loud. To hear the Lark begin her Flight, and finging ftartle the

" dull Night : Or the Cock with lively Din, fcatter the Rear of Darknefs thin : Or liften how the Hound and

" Horn, loudly roufe the (lumbering Morn. Or, fee glowing Embers thro' the Room, teach Light to

" counterfeit a Gloom. Or ftoried Windows richly dight, calling a dim religious Light. Or hear Orpheus

" ling fuch Notes as warbled to the String, drew Iron Tears down Pluto's Cheek. Or Verfe with many a

" winding Bout, of linked Sweetnefs long drawn out, with wanton Heed and giddy Cunning, the melting Voice " thro' Mazes running ; untwifting all the Chains that tie the hidden Soul of Harmony."

PERSONIFICATION, which is of that Extent and Importance that it is ufually held the Life and Effence of Poetry ; is a vaft Source of new Imagery. By this, not only different Objects, but different Syftems and Worlds, are combined and blended together ; and what belongs to one Kind of Beings, Man, is attributed to every other : each Object, either of Senfe or Imagination, being occafionally inverted with all the Characters and Pro- perties belonging to the human Kind. Thus, an Arrow grows impatient, and tbirfis to drink the Blood of a Foe ; or loiters and ftops half way, loth to carry Death, &c. So an Action of the Body, Laughter, is above reprefented as it felf laughing, ready to burft its Sides. And in the fame Piece we have one of the Planets, the Moon, repre- fented as trick'd up and frounced ; and again, as kerchief d, and in a decent Undrefs, and thus going a Hunting. To tell us, that a fine Spring Morning, attended with a gentle Gale of Wind, is very pleafant ; prefently, — " Zephyr " with Aurora playing, as he met her once a Maying, on a Bed of Violets blue, and frelh blown Roles dipt " in Dew, fill'd her with a Daughter fair, yclep'd in Heaven Euphrofyne, and Mirth on Earth." How con- fident with the Nature of Things, that a Breath of Air fhould lay an early Hour of the Day down ; and that from a green Gown thus given, a PalEon of the Mind fhould in time be brought forth ? In effect, the Infpiration of the Poet amounts to little more than relating things that are naturally incongruous. He pre- fents new Objects, new Worlds, but 'tis only by differently combining the Parts of the old one. He does not make any thing, he only patches : He does not invent, he only tranfpofes : Nor has he the leaft Power to move, other than what he derives from the Novelty and Strangenefs of his Combinations ; to which nothing exifts

in the ordinary Syftem, any thing conformable. To fay no more, if Invention furnifh Art ; Memory furnifhes

the Invention ; and Senfation the Memory, where all Knowledge originally commences. And the whole Pro- cefs is nothing but the Action, or Operation of the Deity in a Courfe of Laws.

A S to the fecond Kind of Poets, in whom the Infpiration is promoted or excited by means of Wine s Ca- faubon is perfectly frighted at it ; judging it the higheft Strain of Impiety, to fuppofe a Man may be divinely


 * Pope i» Pre/, to Homer.

V infpir'd