by words, as God, angels, devils, hea
ven and hell, all of which have how-
ever a great influence over the paffions.
Thirdly; by words we have it in our
power to make fuch combinations as we
cannot poffibly do otherwife. By this
power of combining we are able, by the
addition of well-chofen circumstances, to
give a new life and force to the fimple
object. In painting we may represent any
fine figure we please; but we never can
give it those enlivening touches which it
may receive from words. To reprefent
an angel in a picture, you can only draw
a beautiful young man winged; but what
painting can furnish out any thing so
grand as the addition of one word, "the
"angel of the Lord?" It is true, I have
here no clear idea, but these words affect
the mind more than the fenfible image
did, which is all I contend for. A pic-
ture of Priam dragged to the altar's foot,
and there murdered, if it were well exe-

cuted

CU

in

C

P

cuted would undoubtedly be very moving but there are very aggravating circumstances, which it could never represent.

Sanguine fœdantem quos ipfe facraverat ignes.

As a further inftance, let us confider thofe lines of Milton, where he describes the travels of the fallen angels through their dismal habitation;

-O'er many a dark and dreary vale

They pass'd, and many a region dolorous ;
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp;

Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and shades of death,
A univerfe of death.

Here is displayed the force of union in

Rocks, caves, lakes, dens, bogs, fens and shades;

which yet would lose the greatest part of their effect, if they were not the

Qua caput e cœli regionibus oftendebat

Horribili defuper vifu mortalibus inftans;

Primus Graius bomo mortales tollere contra
Eft oculos aufus.

What idea do you derive from fo excellent a picture? none at all most certainly; neither has the poet faid a fingle word which might in the least serve to mark a fingle limb or feature of the phantom, which he intended to represent in all the horrors imagination can conceive. In reality poetry and rhetoric do not fucceed in exact defcription fo well as painting does; their business is to affect rather by fympathy than imitation; to display rather the effect of things on the mind of the speaker, or of others, than to present a clear idea of the things themselves. This is their most extenfive province, and that in which they fucceed the best.

SECT.

SECT. VI.

POETRY not strictly an imitative art.

H

ENCE we may obferve that

poe

try, taken in its most general sense, cannot with strict propriety be called an art of imitation. It is indeed an imitation fo far as it defcribes the manners and paffions of men which their words can exprefs; where animi motus effert interprete lingua. There it is strictly imitation; and all merely dramatic poetry is of this fort. But defcriptive poetry operates chiefly by fubftitution; by the means of founds, which by custom have the effect of realities. Nothing is an imitation further than as it resembles fome other thing; and words undoubtedly have no fort of resemblance to the ideas for which they stand.

SECT.

SE C T. VÍ.

How WORDS influence the paffions.

Now,

OW, as words affect, not by any original power, but by representation, it might be fuppofed, that their influence over the paffions should be but light; yet it is quite otherwife; for wè find by experience that eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable of making deep and lively impreffions than any other arts, and even than nature itself in very many cafes. And this arifes chiefly from thefe three causes. First, that we take an extraordinary part in the paffions of others, and that we are eafily affected and brought into sympathy by any tokens which are shewn of them; and there are no tokens which can express all the circuniftances of moft paffions fo fully as words; fo that if a

perfon