feen. Hence it is evident that, according to the ⚫ different habits and education of individuals; according to the liveliness of their conceptions, and according to the creative power of their imaginations, the fame words will produce very different effects on different minds. When a person who has received his education in the country, reads a defcription of a rural retirement; the house, the river, the woods, to which he was firft accustomed, present themselves fpontaneously to his conception, accompanied, perhaps, with the recollection of his early friendships, and all thofe pleafing ideas which are commonly affociated with the fcenes of childhood. and of youth. How different is the effect of the defeription upon his mind, from what it would produce on one who has paffed his tender years at a distance from the beauties of nature, and whofe infant fports are connected in his memory with the gloomy alleys of a commercial city!

But it is not only in interpreting the particular words of a defcription, that the powers of Imagination and Conception are employed. They are farther neceffary for filling up the different parts of that picture, of which the moft minute defcriber can only trace the outline. In the best description, there is much left to the reader to fupply; and the effect which it produces on his mind will depend, in a confiderable degree, on the invention and tafte with which the picture is finished. It is therefore poffible, on the one hand, that the happieft efforts of poetical genius may be perused with perfect indifference by a man of found judgment, and not deftitute of natural fenfibility; and on the other hand, that a cold and common-place defcription may be the means of awakening, in a rich and glowing imagination, a degree of enthufiafm unknown to the author.

Gog

All the different arts which I have hitherto mentioned as taking their rife from the imagination, have this in common, that their primary object is to please. This obfervation applies to the art of Poetry, no less than to the others; nay, it is this circum. ftance which characterifes Poetry, and diftinguishes it from all the other claffes of literary compofition. The object of the Philofopher is to inform and enlighten mankind; that of the Orator, to acquire an afcendant over the will of others, by bending to his own purposes their judgments, their imaginations, and their paffions: but the primary and the diftinguishing aim of the Poet is to please; and the principal refource which he poffeffes for this purpose, is by addreffing the imagination. Sometimes, indeed, he may seem to encroach on the province of the Philofopher or of the Orator; but, in thefe inftances, he only borrows from them the means by which he accomplishes his end. If he attempts to enlighten and to inform, he addreffes the understanding only as a vehicle of pleasure if he makes an appeal to the passions, it is only to paffions which it is pleafing to indulge. The Philofopher, in like manner, in order to accomplish his end of inftruction, may find it expedient, occafionally, to amuse the imagination, or to make an appeal to the paffions: the Orator may, at one time, itate to his hearers a process of reasoning; at another, a calm narrative of facts; and, at a third, he may give the reins to poetical fancy. But ftill the ultimate end of the Philofopher is to inftruct, and of the Orator to perfuade; and whatever means they make use of, which are not subservient to this purpose, are out of place, and obftruct the effect of their labors.

The measured composition in which the Poet expreffes himself, is only one of the means which he employs to please. As the delight which he conveys to the imagination, is heightened by the other

agreeable impreffions which he can unite in the mind at the fame time; he ftudies to beftow, upon the medium of communication which he employs, all the various beauties of which it is fufceptible. Among these beauties, the harmony of numbers is not the least powerful; for its effect is constant, and does not interfere with any of the other pleas ures which language produces. A fucceffion of agreeable perceptions is kept up by the organical effect of words upon the ear; while they inform the understanding by their perfpicuity and precision, or please the imagination by the pictures they fuggeft, or touch the heart by the affociations they awaken. Of all these charms of language, the Poet may avail himself; and they are all fo many inftruments of his art. To the Philofopher and the Orator they may occafionally be of use; and to both they must be conStantly fo far an object of attention, that nothing may occur in their compofitions, which may distract the thoughts, by offending either the ear or the taste; but the Poet muft not reft fatisfied with this negative praise. Pleasure is the end of his art; and the more numerous the fources of it which he can open, the greater will be the effect produced by the efforts of his genius.

The province of the poet is limited only by the variety of human enjoyments. Whatever is in the reality fubfervient to our happiness, is a fource of pleasure, when prefented to our conceptions, and may fometimes derive from the heightenings of imagination, a momentary charm, which we exchange with reluctance for the fubftantial gratifications of the fenfes. The province of the painter, and of the ftatuary, is confined to the imitation of visible objects and to the exhibition of fuch intellectual and moral qualities, as the human body is fitted to exprefs. In ornamental architecture, and in ornamental gardening, the fole aim of the artist is to give pleasure to

the eye, by the beauty or fublimity of material forms. But to the poet all the glories of external nature; all that is amiable or interefting, or refpectable in human character; all that excites and engages our benevolent affections: all thofe truths which make the heart feel itself better and more happy all these supply materials, out of which he forms and peoples a world of his own, where no inconvenien. ces damp our enjoyments, and where no clouds darken our profpects.

That the pleasures of poetry arise chiefly from the agreeable feelings which it conveys to the mind, by awakening the imagination, is a propofition which may seem too obvious to stand in need of proof. As tke ingenious Inquirer, however, into "The Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful," has difputed the common notions upon this fubject, I fhall confider fome of the principal arguments by which he has fupported his opinion.

The leading principle of the theory which I am now to examine is, "That the common effect of poetry is not to raise ideas of things;" or, as I would rather chufe to exprefs it, its common effect is not to give exercise to the powers of conception and imagination. That I may not be accused of mifreprefentation, I fhall ftate the doctrine at length in the words of the author. "If words have all their pof"fible extent of power, three effects arife in the

mind of the hearer. The firft is the found; the "fecond, the picture, or representation of the thing "fignified by the found; the third is, the affection "of the foul produced by one or by both of the fore

going. Compounded abstract words, (honor, juf "tice, liberty, and the like,) produce the first and "the laft of thefe effects, but not the fecond. Sim"ple abstracts are ufed to fignify fome one fimple "idea, without much adverting to others which may chance to attend it; as blue, green, hot, cold,

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"and the like: thefe are capable of effecting all "three of the purpofes of words; as the aggregate "words, man, caftle, horfe, &c. are in a yet higher "degree. But I am of opinion, that the most "general effect even of these words, does not arife "from their forming pictures of the feveral things they would reprefent in the imagination; be"caufe, on a very diligent examination of my "own mind, and getting others to consider theirs, "I do not find that once in twenty times any "fuch picture is formed; and when it is, there is "most commonly a particular effort of the imagina"tion for that purpose. But the aggregate words "operate, as I faid of the compound abstracts, not " by presenting any image to the mind, but by hav. "ing from use the fame effect on being mentioned, "that their original has when it is feen. Suppofe "we were to treat a paffage to this effect:

"The

river Danube rifes in a moift and mountainous "foil in the heart of Germany, where, winding to "and fro, it waters feveral principalities, until turn

ing into Auftria, and leaving the walls of Vienna, "it paffes into Hungary; there with a vaft flood, "augmented by the Saave and the Drave, it quits "Chriftendom, and rolling through the barbarous "countries which border on Tartary, it enters by "many mouths into the Black Sea." In this defcrip ❝tion many things are mentioned; as mountains, "rivers, cities, the fea, &c. But let any body exam"ine himself, and fee whether he has had impreffed "on his imagination any pictures of a river, moun"tain, watery foil, Germany, &c. Indeed, it is impof"fible, in the rapidity and quick fucceffion of words " in converfation, to have ideas both of the found of "the word, and of the thing represented; befides, "fome words expreffing real effences, are fo mixed "with others of a general and nominal import that "it is impracticable to jump from sense to thought,