The analogy of the arts of ftatuary and painting, may be of ufe in illuftrating these remarks. The influence of antient times has extended to these, as well as to the art of writing; and in this cafe, no lefs than in the other, the tranfcendant power of genius has established a propriety of choice in matters of indifference, and has, perhaps, confecrated, in the opinion of mankind, fome of its own caprices. Many of the ornaments of art," (says Sir Joshua Reynolds,)" those at least for which no reason can "be given, are tranfmitted to us, are adopted, and acquire their confequence, from the company in "which we have been used to see them. As Greece re ઃઃ 66 and Rome are the fountains from whence have "flowed all kinds of excellence, to that veneration "which they have a right to claim for the pleasure "and knowledge which they have afforded us, we "voluntarily add our approbation of every orna"ment and every cuftom that belonged to them, " even to the fashion of their drefs. For it may be "obferved, that, not fatisfied with them in their "own place, we make no difficulty of dreffing ftat"utes of modern heroes or fenators in the fafhion " of the Roman armour, or peaceful robe; and e"ven go fo far as hardly to bear a statue in any oth"er drapery." "The figures of the great men of those nations "have come down to us in fculpture. In fculpture "remain almost all the excellent fpecimens of ancient ❝art. We have fo far affociated perfonal dignity "to the persons thus reprefented, and the truth of "art to their manner of reprefentation, that it is not "in our power any longer to feparate them. This " is not fo in painting: becaufe, having no excellent "ancient portraits, that connection was never form"ed. Indeed, we could no more venture to paint "a general officer in a Roman military habit, than "we could make a statue in the prefent uniform. "But fince we have no ancient portraits, to fhew "how ready we are to adopt thofe kind of prejudi"ces, we make the beft authority among the mod"erns ferve the fame purpose. The great variety of "excellent portraits with which Vandyke has en"riched this nation, we are not content to admire "for their real excellence, but extend our approba"tion even to the drefs which happened to be the "fashion of that age. By this means, it must be " acknowledged, very ordinary pictures acquired "fomething of the air and effect of the works of "Vandyke, and appeared therefore, at first fight, "better pictures than they really were. They appeared fo however, to thofe only who had the "means of making this affociation."* 66 The influence of affociation on our notions concerning language, is ftill more ftrongly exemplified in poetry than in profe. As it is one great object of the poet, in his ferious productions, to elevate the imagination of his readers above the groffness of fenfible objects, and the vulgarity of common life, it becomes peculiarly neceffary for him to reject the use of all words and phrases which are trivial and hackneyed. Among thofe which are equally pure and equally perfpicuous, he, in general, finds it expedient to adopt that which is the leaft common. Milton prefers the words Rhene and Danaw, to the more common words Rhine aud Danube. "A multitude, like which the populous North In the following line, "Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme," REYNOLD'S Discourses, p. 313, et seq. Paradise Lost, book i. l. 351. how much more fuitable to the poetical ftyle does the expreffion appear, than if the author had faid, "Things unattempted yet in prose or verse." In another paffage, where, for the fake of variety, he has made use of the laft phrase, he adds an epithet, to remove it a little from the familiarity of ordinary discourse, -"in prose or numerous verse."* In confequence of this circumftance, there arifes gradually in every language a poetical diction, which differs widely from the common diction of profe. It is much less fubject to the viciffitudes of fashion, than the polite modes of expreffion in familiar converfation; because, when it has once been adopted by the poet, it is avoided by good profe writers, as being too elevated for that fpecies of compofition. It may therefore retain its charm, as long as the language exifts; nay, the charm may increase, as the language grows older. Indeed, the charm of poetical diction must increase to a certain degree, as polite literature advances. For when once a fet of words has been confecrated to poetry, the very found of them, independently of the ideas they convey, awakens, every time we hear it, the agreeable impreffions which were connected with it when we met with them in the performances of our favorite authors. Even when ftrung together in fentences which convey no meaning, they produce fome effect on the mind of a reader of fenfibility: an effect, at least, extremely different from that of an unmeaning fentence in profe. Languages differ from each other widely in the copiouinefs of their poetical diction. Our own pof * Paradise Lost, book i. 1. 150. See Newton's Edit. feffes, in this refpect, important advantages over the French not that, in this language, there are no words appropriated to poetry, but because their number is, comparatively speaking, extremely limited. The fcantinefs of the French poetical diction is, probably, attended with the lefs inconvenience, that the phrafes which occur in good profe writing are lefs degraded by vulgar application than in English, in confequence of the line being more distinctly and more ftrongly drawn between polite and low expreffions in that language than in ours. Our poets, indeed, by having a language appropriated to their own purposes, not only can preferve a dignity of expreffion, but can connect with the perufal of their compofitions, the pleafing impreffions which have been produced by thofe of their predeceffors. And hence, in the higher forts of poetry where their object is to kindle, as much as poffible, the enthufiafm of their readers, they not only avoid, ftudioufly, all expreffions which are vulgar, but all fuch as are borrowed from fashionable life. This certainly cannot be done in an equal degree by a poet who writes in the French language. In English, the poetical diction is fo extremely copious, that it is liable to be abused; as it puts it in the power of authors of genius, merely by ringing changes on the poetical vocabulary, to give a certain degree of currency to the moft unmeaning compofitions. In Pope's Song by a Perfon of Quality, the incoherence of ideas is fcarcely greater than what is to be found in fome admired paffages of our fashionable poetry. Nor is it merely by a difference of words, that the language of poetry is diftinguifhed from that of profe. When a poetical arrangement of words has once been established by authors of reputation, the most common expreffions, by being prefented in this confecrated order, may serve to excite poetical affociations. On the other hand, nothing more completely destroys the charm of poetry, than a ftring of words which the cuftom of ordinary difcourfe has arranged in fo invariable an order, that the whole phrase may be anticipated from hearing its commencement. A fingle word frequently ftrikes us as flat and profaic, in confequence of its familiarity; but two fuch words coupled together in the order of converfation can scarcely be introduced into serious poetry without appearing ludicrous. No poet in our language has fhewn fo ftrikingly as Milton, the wonderful elevation which style may derive from an arrangement of words, which, while it is perfectly intelligible, departs widely from that to which we are in general accuftomed. Many of his moft fublime periods, when the order of the words is altered, are reduced nearly to the level of profe. To copy this artifice with fuccefs, is a much more difficult attainment than is commonly imagined; and, of confequence, when it is acquired, it fecures an author, to a great degree, from that crowd of imitators who spoil the effect of whatever is not beyond their reach. To the poet who uses blank verfe, it is an acquifition of ftill more effential confequence than to him who expreffes himself in rhyme; for the more that the ftructure of the verfe approaches to profe, the more it is neceffary to give novelty and dignity to the compofition. And accordingly, among our magazine poets, ten thousand catch the ftructure of Pope's verfification, for one who approaches to the manner of Milton, or of Thomson. The facility, however, of this imitation, like every other, increases with the number of thofe who have ftudied it with fuccefs; for the more numerous the authors who have employed their genius in any one direction, the more copious are the materi TT |