thus have expreffed it, as they fay, to the life. And I cannot help obferving that the greatest beauty in poetry is moral painting; every thing elfe almost may be reduced to mechanical rules. Our poets therefore are to endeavour to get a view of virtue in her own fhape, and admire her lovely form; and from this knowledge they should animate every image and defcription. As far forth as affections, causes, events, &c. participate of this primary and original fource of perfection, they are lovely and beautiful; when loft to this, they become horrid and deformed. Some writers there are, who seek for beauty from other fources; Hobbs fairly gives us his opinion in his Leviathan. "In a good poem both judgment and fancy are required: but the fancy must be more eminent; because they please for the extrava gancy; but ought not to displease by indif"cretion." Hobbs had a ftrange way of expreffing himself; if extravagancy bears fuch a fway in poetry, then is Taffo a better poet than Virgil, and Ariosto than either of them. But 'tis truth, or it's refemblance, that gives the pleasure and hence arifes the chief beauty of that figure called by the rhetoricians, ПPON ПопOIIA. Instances of this Shakespeare abounds 5 Part I, ch. viii. with : with fuch are, the duke's reflection on LIFE, in Measure for Meafure: the queen, in K. Ri-, chard II. calling HOPE a cozening flatterer, a parafite, &c. Wolfey, in K. Henry VIII, reflecting on the state of man: Vain POMP and GLORY of this world, I hate ye. Othello conscious of his mifery exclaims, Farewell CONTENT! And O you MORTAL ENGINES, whofe rude throats Th' immortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone. Thus every thing in poetry should have manners and paffion and the moral should shine perfpicuous in whatever aims at the fublime. And thus he enriches with moral all his fublime paffages; as in Profpero's reflections on the tranfitory state of human grandeur. Isabella's moralizing on men in power abusing their authority. Lear's reflection, when it thunders, on the ingratitude of his daughters. With many more of the like nature. Defcriptions without moral or manners, however defigned by the poet to raise the paffion of wonder and astonishment, are not inftances of the true fublime. The vast jumps that Juno's steeds take in ' Homer, is an example of that pompous and aftonishing kind of the fublime, which is calculated to raise admiration in vulgar minds; for in poetry the vulgar are to be fometimes confidered, as well as philofophers. How careful then should the poet be, to check all childish admiration in himself, though he may be allowed, with fome reserve, to raise it in his readers? Confider first, that great Or bright infers not excellence. And furely that cannot be great, which 'tis great for a man to defpife. Hence the eye is to be turned from the diftinctions of custom and fashion, to those of nature and truth. The dignity of Socrates and Brutus is to be recognized, before that of Caefar. With what contempt then should that distinction of high and low life, introduced by our modern comic poets, be treated? For in what other fenfe can this fantastical diftinction be allowed, than as the monkey, that climbs to the top of the tree, is 6. II... 770. See Longinus, fect. IX. 7 Τὸ δὲ ῥᾷσον καταδελάσεται ὁ δῆμον δεῖται γὰς τερατείας. Synefius. 8 Milton, VIII, 90, a higher a higher creature, than the generous horfe that ftands grafing below? So that after all were I to fhew the reader inftances of the true fublime, I should make choice of fuch as thefe : Aude bofpes contemnere opes, et te quoque dignum Finge deo. Virg. Aen. VIII, 369. And in Milton. V, 350. "Mean while our primitive great fire, to meet "His godlike gueft, walks forth without 66 more train : "Accompanied than with his own compleat "Perfections; in himself was all his ftate : "More folemn than the tedious pomp that waits "On princes, when their rich retinue long "Of horses led, and grooms befmear'd with gold Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all 9 agape." 9 Kexpores. Virg. Aen. VII, 813. Turbaque miratur matrum, et profpectat euntem, Servius, INHIANS, ftupore quodam in ore patefacto. B SECT. XII. UT to return. What manners are to the fable, fuch are fentiments to manners; and G 4 1 fen fentiments properly exprefs the manners. In the fentiments, truth, nature, probability, and likelihood, are entirely to be regarded. * Refpicere exemplar vitae morumque jubebo Doctum imitatorem, et veras hinc ducere voces. Poetic truth, and likelihood, Horace means; fuch fentiments, as exhibit the truth of characters, the nature and dispositions of mankind. In this light Shakespeare is most admirable. 1 The perfons must not only have manners, but sentiments conformable to thofe manners. Sentiment (fays Ariftotle) is difcoverable in all thofe parts of our converfation, where we either prove any thing, or lay down fome maxim or general truth. διάνοιαν δὲ, ἐν ὅσοις λέγοντες ἀποδεικ νύεσι τι, ἢ καὶ ἀποφαίνονται γνώμην. Ariftot. περὶ ποιητ. κεφ. n s. And prefently after, Διάνοια δὲ, ἐν οἷς ἀποδεικνύεσί τι ὡς ἰσὶν, ἢ ὡς ἐκ ἐσὶν, ἢ καθόλυ τι αποφαίνονται. Again, Κεφ. εθ. Ἔτι δὲ κατὰ τὴν διάνοιαν ταῦτα, [lege τοιαῦτα,] ὅσα ὑπὸ τῶ λόγε δεῖ παρασκευασθῆναι· μέρη δὲ τέτων, τό, τε ἀποδεικνῦναι, καὶ τὸ λύειν, καὶ τὸ πάθη παρασκευάζειν· οἷον, ἔλεον, ἢ φόβον, ἢ ὀργὴν, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, καὶ ἔτι μέγεθΘ. καὶ σμικρότητα. Now all thofe things have reference to fentiments, which are the peculiar bufinefs of speech or difcourfe: their parts are to demonftrate, to folve, and to raise the paffions, as pity, fear, anger, and the like; and to encrease and diminish. 2 Hor. art. poet. 317. Dr. Bentley, not reflecting how to feparate historical from poetical truth, has altered this paffage in his edition; he reads, Et vivas bine ducere voces, Can |