ftrange for two poets, who had taken in hand fuch a character, as that of Achilles, to differ materially in their expreffion of it; as for two painters, drawing from the fame object, to avoid a ftriking conformity in the defign and attitude of their pictures..

Those who are fond of hunting after parallels, might, I doubt not, with great ease, confront almost every fentiment, which, in, the Greek tragedians, is made expreffive of particular characters, with fimilar paffages in other poets; more efpecially (for I must often refer to his authority) in the various living pourtraitures of Shakespeare. Yet he, who after taking this learned pains, fhould chufe to urge fuch parallels, when found,: for proofs of his imitation of the ancients, would only run the hazard of being reputed, by men of fenfe, as poor a critic of human nature, as of his author.

I fay this with confidence, because I fay it on a great authority. "Tout eft dit (fays: "an exquifite writer on the fubject of man"ners) et l'on vient trop tard depuis plus

66

66

de fept mille ans qu'il y a des hommes, et

qui penfent, Sur ce qui concerne les "MOEURS, le plus beau et le meilleur eft,

«

66

enlevé; l'on ne fait que glaner après les anciens, & les habiles d'entre les mo"dernes [k]."

Thus far indeed, the cafe is almost too plain to be difputed. Strong affections, and constitutional characters, will be allowed to act powerfully and steadily upon us. The violence and rapidity of their movements render all disguise impoffible. And we find ourselves determined, by a kind of neceffity, to think and fpeak, in given circumstances, after much the fame manner. But what fhall we fay of our cooler reafonings; the fentiments, which the mind, at pleasure, revolves, and applies, as it fees fit, to various occafions? "Fancy and humour, it will be "thought, have fo great an influence in di

recting thefe operations of our mental fa"culties, as to make it altogether incre"dible, that any remarkable coincidence of fentiment, in different perfons, should re"fult from them."

To think of reducing the thoughts of man, which are "more than the fands, and wider than the ocean," into claffes, were,

[k] M. DE LA BRUYERE, Tom. 1. p. 91. Amft.

1701.

perhaps,

perhaps, a wild attempt. Yet the most confiderable of thofe, which enter into works of poetry (befides fuch as refult from fixed characters or predominant paffions) may be included in the divifion of 1. Religious, 2. Moral, and 3. Oeconomical fentiments; understanding by this laft (for I know of no fitter term to exprefs my meaning) all thofe reafonings, which take their rife from particular conjunctures of ordinary life, and are any way relative to our conduct

in it.

1. The apprehenfion of fome invisible power, as fuperintending the universe, tho' not connate with the mind, yet, from the experience of all ages, is found infeparable from the first and rudeft exertions of its powers. And the feveral reflexions, which religion derives from this idea, are altoge ther as neceffary. It is eafy to conceive, how unavoidably, almost, the mind awakened by certain conjunctures of diftress, and working on the ground of this original im- 1 preffion, turns itself to awful views of deity, and feeks relief in those foothing contem plations of providence, which we find fo frequent in the epic and tragic poets. And

whoever

whoever fhall give himself the trouble of examining those noble hymns, which the lyric mufe, in her graveft humours, chaunted to the popular gods of paganism, will hardly find a fingle trace of a devotional fentiment, which hath not been common, at all times, to all religionists. Their power, and fovereign difpofal of all events; their care of the good, and averfion to the wicked; the bleffings, they derive on their worshippers, and the terrors, they infix in the breasts of the profane; they are the usual topics of their meditations; the folemn fentiments, that confecrate these addreffes to their local, gentilitial deities. In listening to thefe divine ftrains every one feels, from his own confcioufnefs, how necessary fuch reflexions are to human nature; more particularly, when to the fimple apprehenfion of deity, a warm fancy and strong affections join their combined powers, to push the mind forward into enthufiaftic raptures. All the faculties of the foul being then upon the stretch, natural ability holds the place, and, in fome fort, doth the office, of divine fuggeftion. And, bating the impure mixture of their fond and fenfelefs tradi

tions,

tions, one is not furprized to find a strong resemblance, oftentimes, in point of fenti ment, betwixt these pagan odes, and the genuine infpirations of heaven. Let not the reader be fcandalized at this bold comparifon. It affirms no more, than what the graveft uthors have frequently fhewn, a manifest analogy between the facred and prophane poets; and which fuppofes only, that heaven, when it infufes its own light into the breafts of men, doth not extinguish that, which nature and reafon had before kindled up in them. It follows, that either fucceeding poets are not neceffarily to be accused of stealing their religious fentiments from their elder brethren, or that ORPHEUS, HOMER, and CALLIMACHUS may be as reasonably charged with plundering the facred treafures of DAVID, and the other Hebrew prophets.

It is much the fame with the illufions of corrupt religion. The fawns and nymphs of the ancients, holding their refidence in fhadowy groves or caverns, and the frightful fpeâtres of their Larvae: to which we may oppofe the modern vifions of fairies; and of ghots, gliding through church-yards,

and