Page:Monsieur Bossu's Treatise of the epick poem - Le Bossu (1695).djvu/334

 by a kind of Light, which they impart almost equally to all those whom they possess. There is a certain Penetration, certain Ideas, which, without any regard to the difference of the Minds, are always found in Men in whatever concerns and affects them. But these Passions, at the same time that they in a manner inform the Mind of all Men alike, do not enable them to speak equally well. Those whose Mind is more refin'd, more capacious and more improv'd by Study or Conversation do, while they express their Sentiments, and something that hath the air of a Reflection, and that is not inspir'd by the Passion alone; whereas the others speak their Minds more simply, and add, in a manner, nothing that's foreign: Any ordinary Man will easily say; I so Passionately desir'd that my Mistress might be faithful, that I believ'd her such; but it only belongs to a refin'd Wit, as the Duke de la Rochefoucaut to say, My understanding was fool'd by my Will, or, My Reason was cully'd by my Desire; [l' Esprita eté en moy la Dupe du Coeur:] The Sence is the same, the penetration equal, but the Expression is so different, that one would almost think 'tis no more the same thing.

We take no less Pleasure in finding a Sentiment exprest simply, than in a more thought-like and elaborate Manner, provided it be always equally fine: Nay the simple way of expressing it ought to please more, because it occasions a kind of a gentle surprise, and a small admiration. We are amaz'd to find something that is fine and delicate in common and unaffected Terms; and on that account the more the thing is fine, without ceasing to be Natural; and the Expression common, without being low, the deeper we ought to be struck.

Admiration and surprise are so powerful that they can even raise the value of Things beyond their Intrinsick worth. All Paris has lavish'd Exclamations of Admiration on the Siamese Embassadors for their Ingenious sayings; Now had some Spanish or English Embassadors spoken the same Things, no body would have minded it. This happen'd because we wrongfully suppos'd that some Men who came from the remotest Part of the World, of a tawny Complexion, drest otherwise than we are, and till then esteem'd Barbarians by those of Europe, were not to be endow'd with common Sense; and we were very much surpris'd to find they had it; So that the least thing they said fill'd us with admiration, an Admiration which after all was Injurious enough to those Gentlemen.

The same happens of our Shepherds; for, we are the more pleasingly struck with finding them thinking finely in their simple Style, because we the least expected it.

Another Thing that suits with the Pastoral Stile is to run only on Actions, and never almost on Reflections. Those who have a middling share of Wit, or a Wit but little improv'd by a Converse with polite Books or Persons, use to discourse only of those particu-