The P R M F A C &
to all Men in a greater or lefs degree : Philofophers have a little of it, the Poets a great deal, but the Lunaticks fcarce any thing elfe.
IT may look ftrange to fay that the Principle is precifely of the fame kind in 'em all. We are ufed to confider it, in the two firft, as Conftitution; in the latter as Difeafe : In the one 'tis perpetual j in the other only occafional : In the one, arbitrary and uncontroulable; in the other, limited and reftrained. The Barque in the one cafe, drives of neceffity, as wanting Cable and Anchor to hold her; and in the other, fails out of choice, as finding die Wind favourable and the Voyage defirable. But all this amounts to little more than a difference in Degree, between the Fictions of the Poet and the Lunatic : The moving Principle is the fame in both, tho its Effects be various. If die proper Balance and Adjuftment between the Powers of Reafon and Imagination be wanting, yet they ftill retain their Nature; as the Wind is the fame whether the Pilot direct the Helm or not.
SOME People give more ear to Authority than to Reafon: to fuch it may not be amifs to obferve that this Doctrine is countenanced by the Antients; who, in fome refpects, feem to have had clearer and jufter Notions than the Moderns; as being lefs embarafs'd with the Jargon, and Refinements of the fcho- laftick Learning. Plnlofophy, with them, was one degree more fimple, and obvious than among us. Nature was not yet cover'd and conceal'd under fo much Elucidation, but afforded more frequent and nearer Views of her-felf. — Accordingly, the Divine Plato, in his Phadrus, afferts, " That Enthufeafm and Mania are one and the " fame thing;" and has a long, and cogent Difcourfe, to prove that it mult be fo : And among the feveral Spe- cies of Enthufiafm, he exprefly ranks Poetry. In effect, Tharmit and Kama,, make two of the principal Branches in his Divifion of Enthufiafm, or Infpiration. And Plutarch *, tho he divide Enthufiafm fomewhat differently from Plato; yet clearly agrees with him in making Poetry a Species of it. Nay, the moft referved of all the antient Criticks, Longinus, declares, that " the Poet is poffefs'd with a kind of Enthufiafm; that he " believes he really fees what he fpeaks; and reprefents it fo to others that they catch the Enthufiafm, and " fee it hkewife t." Add, that fpeaking of the Orators, he does not fcruple to ufe Waiiu. tfatuant,, as fynony- mous with Mwi«. — But this Point will be confider'd more fully hereafter.
THE Principle then of the Art of Poetry is fomething other than Reafon; and I know of no Art that has more of the Nature and Effence of an Art, than Poetry : Nothing that can fafhion, build, produce things, &c.
at that rate : Sculpture, Architecture, Agriculture, &c. are Arts, but in a much inferiour Degree. And yet,
turning another fide of Things forward, Poetry will fcarce appear to have any thing of an Art in it, but rather to be all the Work of Nature; wherein human Thought and Study have the leaft hand. It is produ- ced by a Principle fuperiour to that of Reafon, i. e. a more immediate Action of the Author of Nature. — But the fame may be faid of moft of the other Arts -, and when we fay that Art produces Effects, we mean Na- ture does fo. The Poet's Imagination may be confidered as a Field, wherein the Author of all Things ihews his Handy-work, by the Production of a Set of Objeas which exifted not before : New Images arife here, like new Plants, according to the fettled Laws of the Creator; fo fruitful is the Womb of Nature! New Worlds innumerable arife out of a Tingle old one.
THE Fadive Arts, as fome love to call 'em, i. e. thofe from which permanent Effects arife, may be confider'd as fo many fecondary or derivative Natures, rais'd by Engraftment from the old Stock, and fpreadin<* or
projecting out from this, or that part thereof. Here, at firft fight, Man appears fomewhat in quality of
Creator; the Potter's power over his Clay has been made a Shadow or Similitude of that of the Deity over his Works : and yet the Potter, at beft, is only acceffary or occafional to his own Produftions. Nature, that is, the Power or Principle of Action and Motion to which we owe this vifible Frame and all the Appearances and Alterations therein, ads by fixed Laws, which neceffarily produce different Effects, according to the dif- ferent Circumftances of Things : Thus a glafs Globe being fwifdy revolved about its Axis, and a Hand applied to its Surface; feels hot, emits Light, attracts Bodies, &fc. i. 'e. is a hot, luminous, electrical Body, tho without thefe Conditions it has none of thofe Properties. So Gunpowder, otherwife a Mafs of dark, inert, motionlefs Matter; being only touched with a lighted Brand, initantly blazes up, and fmokes, with Noife; perhaps burfts a Rock, or drives a Ball, in a parabolic Direction, and levels a Tower, or other Work. Now, nothing arifes here but in confequence of pre-eftablifh'd Laws, which import that the Globe and the Powder, whenever by any means they come under thefe or t'other Circumftances, ihall have thefe or t'other Effeds. There are no two Bodies in Nature more different than the fame is from it-felf, under the different Circumftances of Contiguity or Non-contiguity with this or the other Body, e. g. a Spark of Fire. But both States are equally natu- ral; and in effect there muft be a Law of Nature for the one, as well as the other. — Now the Agency of Man amounts to this, that he has it in his power to put Bodies in fuch Circumftances as are neceffary to bring 'cm under this or that Law, or to make this or that refpedive Law take effect. And this we call Art; and by this means we can produce a number of things, or bring 'em into act, which otherwife would have remained in eternal Non-entity, or barely in Potenlia. Man may be faid to create 'em, but no otherwife than the Apothecary creates the Blifter, or the Gardner the Apple; :'. e. thofe Effects would neceffarily have arifen, upon the fame Pofition of the Candiarides and the Cutis, or the Scion and Stock, if there never had been Apothecary or Gardner in the World.
W E may define the Works or Productions of Art, therefore, to be all thofe Phenomena or Effects which would not have arofe without the Agency or Intervention of Man. Now Man can only be faid to act or inter- vene, fo far as what he does is of his own Source or Principle, without being moved or directed by any efta- bhftied Law or Nature, i. e. fo far as he is exempted from the Influences of any neceffary Laws of Nature con- curring, however remotely, to fuch Effect. So that if, as fomePhilofophershave maintained, Man were not really and truly a free Agent; there would be no fuch thing as Art, in the Senfe here underftood : but Art would only be a name given to that Syftem or Series of Effects, to which Man is made by Nature, and in her hands, fubfervient; and might with equal reafon be attributed to fuch Effects as any other natural Production, e. g. a Plant, or Mine- ral, is fubfervient.
_. I7 HAD a not been for rhe infpired Writers, we mould not have known but that the whole Syftem of our World is a Production of Art; the Refult of a new Application of Things made by fome created Being, in virtue or confequence of fome pre-eftabli(h'd Laws of the Almighty. Our general Laws of Nature, and Motion, might only be particular Cafes of fome more univerfal one; fpecial Inftances, emerging out of fome more general one which it-felf was not perhaps the firft. Thus there might be an infinite Series or Subordination of Syltems of Nature, each more univerfal, extenfive, and, as we call it, more metaphyfical, i. e. nearer the Source of Power and Action, than other.
SOMETHING like this, we adually fee in our own litde Syftem: The Mineral World is fubfer- Vlent to the Vegetable; and this to the Animal. Mineral Matters, under certain Conditions which bring them under the Laws of Vegetation, pafs into Plants; and from particular Applications of Parcels of Plants, Animal
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