The P & S F A C E> ji
Were all divinely infpir'd, in fome degree : which he illuftrates in the Cafe of a Needle touch'd by a Magnet which communicates an attractive Property to another Needle ; that* to a third ; and fo on, with a continual Di- minution. — Nor does the Effect end here, but the Profeffors of other Arts, as Sculpture, Criticifm, and even Pln- lofophy it felf, borrow their Flame and Infpiration from this Fire. Thus Phidias declared he was infpired to make that wonderful Statue of Jupiter Olympus, by the reading of Homer ; And thus Ariftotle may be faid to have been infpired by the fame Poet, to compofe his immortal Poeticls : The like is faid of Lominus : that he was infpired by the Mufes, or with the Fire of a Poet *.
BUT after Poetry, Rhetorick comes neareft, and fhares mod of the Spirit thereof, even more than CritU cifm. Accordingly, Plato, in his Dialogue infcribed Menon, allows that " as we fay Pythians, Prophets, and " Poets are divinely agitated ; fo we do Orators." Elfewhere he adds, " That they are certainly infpir'd " of God, and plainly poffefs'd." So Dion. Halicamajfeus | relates, that " Demoftbenes did plainly «8«7w." And adds, that the Diftemper caught fo among his Audience, that " they were poffefs'd at fecond hand, " and brought to do many things againft their own Reafon, and Judgment :" And Alfchines, his profeffed Enemy and Antagonift allows as much. I need not fay that Plutarch relates the like of Cicero, in the Inftance of his Oration to Ciefar, for Ligarius.
SOMETHING like this has been obferved, even in the Cafe of Prayer to God: Several Hereticks are on record for poffeffing their Hearers that way. Racket, executed for Blafphemy under Queen Elizabeth, is laid, by the Hiftorian, " to have ravifh'd all that heard him at his Devotions ; and converted many in fpite of their " Teeth :" And Sarravia relates, the People were perfuaded that " God directed his Tongue." St. Baftl. even affirms t, " that our Prayers are never right or acceptable, till the Ardor thereof carry us out of our felves, fo «' that God poffefs us in fome extraordinary manner." And hence the learned and pious Cafaubon eftablifhes a new kind of Enthufiafm, which he calls Supplicative, or Precatory ; as he does divers others, as MufjCal Enthu- fiafm, Mechanical Enthufiafm, fcfr. To fay no more, the Author laft mentioned makes no fcruple to make even " the ordinary Delights and Benefits Men receive from the Harangues of Orators, Sophifts, Preachers,^. " the Effeft of Enthufiafm and Infpiration ; as being what could never arife from mere Reafon." And Plu- ■tarch, and others, make that Ardor which the Soldier feels in Battle, of the fame kind with that which infpir'd the Prophet, Orator, and Poet **.
WE have here little lefs than a Syftem, fufficient to account for moft of the Phenomena in the Animal World, on Principles of Enthufiafm. Reafon, it may be obferv'd, has here little to do ; and it mould feem, that Man ought rather to be defined, Animal Enthujiafticum, than Animal Rationale. And yet this is- only a few, out of infinite Inftances, of the immediate Agency and Infpiration of the Deity. We find the fam<* Principle in every Art, every Invention, every Difcovery, where no natural and neceffary Connection is perceiv'd between the Difco- very, and fomething known before, ;'. e. where the Reafon of fuch Difcovery, is not apprehended by any intuitive Knowledge. What has no immediate Dependance eidier on what we perceive by Senfation or Reafort, comes by the Vehicle of Infpiration, i. e. of Imagination or Invention, for there it ends. The Imagination may be called the Medium of Art, as Senfe is of Science. The Faculty of Reafon, can make no great Difcoveries ; it can only ad- vance from one Step to another, which muft be ready laid to its Hand ; and if thefe be any where interrupted or difcontinued, there it is at a Stand. 'Tis, in fine, a limited Principle, fubject to very narrow Bounds ; whereas the Imagination i feems to be indefinite, and ftill kept in the Creator's Hand, to be occafionally made ufe of for the Conduct of Mankind. '
THE Truth is, when we fay, fuch a Thing is the Effect of Enthufiafm, or Infpiration; fpeaking I mean of profane Matters ; (the Infpiration, for inftance, of Scripture, being Matter of a very different Confideration' and quite befide our prefent Purpofe) this does not remove it out of the ordinary Courfe of Things : It does not put it on any other Principle, different from that whereby Caufes and Effects fucceed each other in the phyfical World. We can account for the Phenomena of the Imagination, as well as thofe of Senfation. They have their refpective Laws, like other things ; which they are fubject to ; and to which we have Arts, and Procefles appropria- ted. In effeft, all the Infpiration here fpoke of, may be produced without any great Conjuration.- If the Rea- der will not take Offence at this novel Philofophy, he may be convine'd of it. And i°, in the Inftance of the Mujical Kind.
ENTHUSIASM is defined, in an antient Author ft, to be " when a Perfon engaged in fome Office of " Religion ; and hearing the Sound of Drums, Trumpets, Cymbals, tiff, becomes alienated, or tranfported out " of himfelf, and fees Things unfeen to others." And what is here called Enthufiafm, is more fignificantly call'd by another t, Mfxhvm y.*.,U, Madnefs occafioned by the Sound of brazen Inftruments : which coincides with the Furor Corybanticus, fo much fpoke of among the Antients.
NOW, as we do not know any immediate Correfpondence or Connexion between any one Spund, and any Idea ; 'tis no more ftrange that one Idea fhould be excited by it, than another. There is a Law of the Crea- tor, whereby a certain Order and Succeffion of Vibrations of the Air, is arbitrarily made the Occafion of a certain Perception in our Minds ; and as the Circumftances of this Vibration are alter'd, a different Idea arifes : i. e. to every different Combination of fuch Circumftances, a different Idea is attach'd •, to ufual and ordinary Combina- tions, ordinary Ideas ; and to unufual and extraordinary, extraordinary Ideas. And hence there is, perhaps, no Idea, no Image whatever, but may be raifed by means of Sound. Now, I do not know what Common Senfe is, unlefs it be, the having common Ideas. Juft fo far as new Perceptions are rais'd in us, in Exclufion of the old ones s we may be faid to be removed out of our felves, i. e. we are fo far got into another Syftem ; the Phenomena which n0W u P, a e n themfe,ves t0 us > beln g f° &r different, from what they were before, and even from what they would ftill be, to another Perfon in the fame Place, but under other Circumftances. On this Principle, we fhall fcarce find any thing but might be produced by Mufick; efpecially, when to the Force of well-adjufted Inftruments, which the Antients feem to have ftudy'd more, and underftood better, than we ; was added to the Solemnity of a Temple, the fuppofed Refidence of a God, whofe Statue there flood before 'em ; with the awful Rites of Invo- cation ; accompanied with furious Gefticulations, Dancings, and all the Devices that could be thought of, to unhinge the natural Senfe, and Reafon, which we find is but frail and precarious at beft, and apt to play us falfe when moft duly looked to. Few People are able to ftand up againft mere Mufick; which, unaffiftcd with any thing elfe, has been made to produce, and remove fettled Madnefs; cure Fevers tt ; drivfPerfons to kill themfelves, or their Friends. 'Tis not long fince the Italian died, who had reduced the turning of People mad by his Mufick, into a regular Art ; which he could depend on at any time II. — -The Reader that has a mind to fee further on this Head, may confult the Articles, Sound, Musics, Tarantula, fit, in the Body of the Book.
Jj.'*»C««./». f nsaf t« AII//.JS-: % Apud.CalMib. ubifupra, p.
« m 7m tt °Oh " CMill. of Med. Defin. tferiied tt> Galen.' *f Epigr. in Anthol. Grac.
■h- nui. as i Acad. R. des Scien. An. 1708, & 1718. || Niewentiit, Rel. Philofoph. Tom. I. Contetnp. 14.
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