...language exceedingly picturesque. Hence, as Macaulay has pointed out, early ages are the most poetical : "Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted for his purpose in it8 rudest state. Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular...

..."Caledonian" rationalism: "We think that as civilization advances, poetry almost necessarily declines. . . . Language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted...an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical. ... In proportion as men know more and think more, they look less...

...science. Language, Macaulay wrote, is best fitted for the poet in its rudest state, because nations 'first perceive, and then abstract. They advance from particular images to general terms.' This is a change by which science gains and poetry loses. Generalization is necessary to the advancement...

...reflection that after all 'we cannot all be poets'.3 Maybe; but that very circum1 Essay onMilton, p. 3. 'Nations, like individuals, first perceive and then...an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilized people is poetical". It is clear that Macaulay is here using the word 'perceive' in...

...necessarily declines".s1 To him language in its rudest state is best fitted for the purpose of the poet. "Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then...is philosophical, that of a halfcivilised people is poetical".s2 Barfield in his book on Poetic Diction states that the tendency of poetry to develop from...

...reflection. As Macaulay expressed it, "Nations, like individuals, first perceive, and then abstract. ... the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilised people is practical."33 Hegel had a profound appreciation of these factors when he wrote in the penultimate paragraph...

...which are necessary to the mechanical operations of the musician, the sculptor, and the painter. But language, the machine of the poet, is best fitted...then abstract. They advance from particular images 10 to general terms. Hence the vocabulary of an enlightened society is philosophical, that of a half-civilised...