BOOK the SECOND. Of Poetry. HE subject we are now upon would require a T whole work of itself, were we to give it its juft extent. But as my defign is confined only to the inftruction of youth, or at moft to the information of young tutors, I am obliged to more narrow bounds. I fhall first make some general reflections upon Poetry, confidered in itself; and then I fhall defcend to particulars, and lay down fome rules concerning verfification, and the manner of reading the Poets. CHAP. I, Of Poetry in general. THE reflections I have to make upon Poetry in general will turn, upon an enquiry into the nature and origin of Poetry, by what degrees it has degenerated from its primitive purity, whether the profane poets may be allowed to be read in Chriftian schools; and laftly, whether the use of the names and miniftration of the Pagan divinities be allowable amongft Chriftians. I ARTICLE the FIRST. Of the Nature and Original of Poetry. F we trace poetry back to its origin, I think we cannot queftion, but it had its rife from the vy fource of human nature, and was no other art at first than than the voice and expreffion of the heart of man, when ravished and transported with the view of the fole object deferving to be loved, and alone capable of making him happy. Full of the idea of this object, which was at the fame time his joy and glory, 'twas natural that he fhould ardently endeavour to exprefs his fenfe of its grandeur and benevolence, and not being able to contain himself, that he should borrow the affiftance of the voice, and words falling fhort of his inward fentiments, that he should fupply their want by the found of inftruments, fuch as drums, cymbals, and harps, which the hands touched and made loudly to refound; that the feet alfo fhould have their part, and exprefs in their manner, with motions directed by harmony, the transports he felt. When these confused and inarticulate founds become clear and distinct, and form words which carry diftinct ideas of the fentiments the foul is filled with, the common and vulgar language is looked upon with difdain. An ordinary and familiar ftyle appears too low and mean. It rifes to the grand and the sublime, in order to attain to the grandeur and beauty of the object which charms it. The most noble thoughts and expreffions are explored; the boldeft figures collected; the most lively images and comparisons multiplied. Nature is run over, and its riches exhaufted, to image the fentiments, and give an high idea of them. And then the mind delights to add to its words the numbers, measure, and cadence, which had been expreffed by the action of the hands in playing on the inftruments, and the motion of the feet in dancing. This is properly the original of poetry, and herein its effence principally confifts. Hence arife the enthusiasm of the poets, the fruitfulness of invention, the nobleness of fentiments and ideas, the fallies of imagination, the magnificence and boldness of terms, the love of what is grand, fublime, and marvelous. And hence by a neceffary confequence arife the har mony mony of verfe, the mufick of rhymes, the fearch after ornaments, the inclination to diffuse graces and charms throughout the whole. For the fovereign good being alfo the fovereign beauty, 'tis natural for love to seek to embillish and fet off whatever it loves, and to represent fuch objects, as are pleafing, under an agreeable figure. 'Tis eafy to difcern all thefe characters of Poetry, if we go backward to the earliest ages, where it was pure and unmixed, and examine the most ancient pieces we have of this kind, fuch as the famous fong of Mofes upon the paffage through the Red-fea. The prophet, with Aaron, Mary, and the other spiritual Ifraelites, discovering in that great event the deliverance from the tyranny of the Devil, which Jefus Chrift was to procure to the people of God, and carrying their views forwards to the perfect liberty, which will be granted to the church at the end of the world, when it shall be tranflated from the miseries of this banishment to the happiness of an heavenly country, gave a loose to the tranfports of a joy, which the hopes of eternal felicity inspired. And for the carnal Ifraelites, whofe thoughts were confined to earth, they faw in this deliverance, which the ruin of the Ægyptians rendered certain, as perfect an happiness as the fenfes could form. And therefore it was natural for both to exprefs aloud the excess of their joy in fongs and poetry, P as they did, and to join their hands in the concert by playing upon timbrels, and their feet in the dance. The same characters may be observed in the fong of Deborah, in thofe of Ifaiah, and in the Pfalms of David, who to his fongs of joy and thanksgiving, adds almost always the found of the lute and harp • Cantantes canticum Moyfin, fervi Dei. Apocal. xiii. 3. P And Miriam the prophetefs, the fifter of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the Lord, &c. Ex. XV. 20, 21. with leaping and dancing. He calls upon all his hearers to join with him, and fet the example himself, when he removed the ark, at which time abandoning himself wholly to the impulfe of his joy, he played upon the harp, and danced with all his might. From what we have faid, it may be concluded, that the right ufe of poetry appertains to religion, which alone proposes his real good to man, and fhews it to be only in God. And thus amongft his own people it was fet apart for religious ufes, and employed in finging the praises of the Creator, in extolling the divine attributes, and celebrating his benefits and even the commendation of great men, which it fometimes introduced into its fongs, had always fome reference to God. This alfo among the idolatrous ancients was the chief fubject of their poefy. Of this nature were the hymns they fung at their facrifices, and the feafts enfuing them; fuch were the odes of Pindar, and the other lyrick poets; and fuch the theogony of Hefiod. From the gods, by little and little, poetry defcended to demigods, heroes, founders of cities, and the deliverers of their country, and extended to all wha were esteemed authors of the publick happiness, and guardians of the commonwealth. The Pagans, who proftituted the divinity to whatever bore the character of a goodness fufficiently powerful to procure fuch advantages as were fuperior to the ordinary capacity of men, thought it reafonable to divide the praises of their gods with fuch, as fhared with them the glory of procuring mankind the greatest good they knew, and the fole happiness they defired. The poets could not treat these fublime subjects without entring into the praises of virtue, as the most beautiful attendant upon the divinity, and the principal inftrument by which great men rofe to the glory 9 And David danced before the Lord with all his might. 2 Sam. vi. 14. Vol. I. L they they admired in them. From the natural inclination; implanted in us, of embellishing whatever we love, and would render amiable to others, they applied them felves in difplaying the beauty of virtue in the most lively colours, and in adorning their maxims and precepts with all the charms and graces imaginable, in order to make them the more grateful to mankind. But this was not from the motive of a fincere love to virtue in itself, as they buried all the obscure virtues in a profound filence, though often more folid, and always more necessary in the ordinary commerce of the world, and referved their whole praises for fuch as attracted popular applause, and made a more fplendid figure in the eyes of pride and ambition. A mitive Purity. up S men entirely plunged in fenfuality placed their whole happiness in it, and gave themselves without restraint to the pleasures of eating and drinking, and the allurements of carnal defire, it naturally followed, that looking upon the gods as fupremely happy from the nature of their exiftence, they fhould afcribe to them the moft perfect felicity, they had the experience and idea of in themselves; that they fhould represent them as paffing their time in feafting and pleasures, and add to these the ordinary confequences, and vices, which they thought infeparable from them. This principle of their theology foon taught them to make it a religious duty to confecrate all the paf The drunkennefs of Bacchus and Silenus, the jefts of Momus, the function of Hebe the cup bearer, the nectar and ambrofia, &c. The marriages, jealoufies, divorces, adulteries, incefts, &c. |