Pleasure and terror are indeed the genuine sources of poetry; but poetical pleasure must be such as human imagination can at least conceive, and poetical terror such as human strength and fortitude may combat. Ibid. In every work one part must be for the sake of others; a palace must have its passages; a poem must have transitions. It is no more to be required that wit should be always blazing, than that the sun should stand at noon. In a great work there is a vicissitude of luminous and opaque parts, as there is in the world a succession of day and night. Ibid. The occasional poet is circumscribed by the narrowness of his subject. Whatever can happen to a man has happened so often, that little remains for fancy and invention. Not only matter, but time is wanting. The poem must not be delayed till the occasion is forgotten. Occasional compositions may, however, secure to a writer the praise both of learning and facility; for they cannot be the effect of long study, and must be furnished immediately from the treasures of the mind. Life of Dryden, Knowledge of the subject is to a poet what materials are to the architect. Ibid. Local poetry is a species of composition, of which the fundamental subject is some particular landscape to be poetically described, with the addition of such embellishments as may be supplied by historical retrospection, or incidental medita tion. Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill appears, to claim the originality of this kind of poetry among us. Life of Denham. A poem frigidly didactic, without rhyme, is so near to prose, that the reader only scorns it for pretending to be verse. 1 Life of Rofcommon. Those performances which strike with wonder, are combinations of skilful genius with happy casualty. Life of Pope. As men are often esteemed who cannot be loved, so the poetry of some writers may sometimes extort praise when it gives little pleasure. Life of Collins. For the same reason that pastoral poetry was the first employment of the human imagination, it is generally the first literary amusement of our minds. Rambler, vol. 1, p. 218. The occasions on which pastoral poetry can be properly produced, are few, and general. The state of a man confined to the employments and pleasures of the country, is so little diversified, are exposed to so few of those accidents which produce perplexities, terrors, and surprises, in more complicated transactions, that he can be shown but seldom in such circumstances as attract curiosity. His ambition is without policy, and his love without intrigue. He has no complaints to make of his rival, but that he is richer than himself; nor any disasters to lament, but a cruel mistress, or a bad harvest. Ibid. p. 220. If we search the writings of Virgil, for the true definition of a pastoral, it will be found," A poem in which action or passion is represented by its effects upon a country life." Ibid. p. 224. Every other power by which the understanding is enlightened, or the imagination enchanted, may be exercised in prose. But the poet has this peculiar superiority, that, to all the powers which the perfection of every other composition can require, he adds the faculty of joining music with reason, and of acting at once upon the senses and the passions. Ibid, vol. 2, p. 184. Easy poetry is that in which natural thoughts are expressed, without violence to the language.. Any epithet which can be ejected without diminution of the sense, any curious iteration of the same word, and all unusual, though not ungrammatical, structure of speech, destroy the grace of easy poetry. Idler, vol. 2, p. 136. . It is the prerogative of easy poetry, to be understood as long as the language lasts: but modes of speech, which owe their prevalence only to modish folly, or to the eminence of those that use them, die away with their, inventors; and their meaning, in a few years, is no longer known. Ibid. p. 139. Easy poetry, though it excludes pomp, will admit greatness.. Ibid... The The poets, from the time of Dryden, have gradually advanced in embellishment, and, consequently, departed from simplicitly and ease. Ibid. p. 140. POVERTY. Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances. It is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow. Prince of Abyssinia, p. 151. It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy unenvied, to be healthful without physic, and secure without a guard. To obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of artists, and the attendance of flatterers and spies. Rambler, vol. 4, p. 229. There are natural reasons why poverty does not easily conciliate. He that has been confined from his infancy to the conversation of the lowest classes of mankind, must necessarily want those accomplishments which are the usual means of attracting favour; and though truth, fortitude, and probity, give an indisputable right to reverence and kindness, they will not be distinguished by common eyes, unless they are brightened by elegance of manners, but are cast aside, like unpolished gems, of which none but the artist knows the intrinsic value, till their asperities are smoothed and their incrustations rubbed away. Ibid. p. 35. Nature Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities. Idler, vol. 1, p. 208. In a long continuance of poverty, it cannot weil be expected that any character should be exactly uniform. There is a degree of want, by which the freedom of agency is almost destroyed; and long associations with fortuitous companions, will, at last, relax the strictness of truth, and abate the fervour of sincerity.-Of such a man, it is surely some degree of praise to say, that he preserved the source of action unpolluted; that his principles were never shaken; that his distinctions of right and wrong were never confounded, and that his faults had nothing of malignity, or design, but proceeded from some unexpected pressure, or casual temptation. A man doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote enquiries. Life of Collins. The poor are insensible of many little vexations which sometimes imbitter the possessions and pollute the enjoyments of the rich. They are not pained by casual incivility, or mortified by the mutilation of a compliment; but this happiness is like that of a malefactor, who ceases to feel the cords that bind him when the pincers are tearing his flesh. Review of the Origin of Evil, p. 10. Some men are poor by their own faults; some by the fault of others. Life of Roger Ascham, p. 252, Many |