it is philosophically accounted for by Bacon; nor is Locke's opinion either inexplicable or irrefutable. The
great
ideas of poetry are accounted for in one short sentence: He knew nothing about the matter. An extract from his correspondence with Mr. Molyneux, and a citation from one of his treatises, shall demonstrate the truth of this assertion.
- Molyneux writes to Locke:
"Mr Churchill favoured me with the present of Sir R. Blackmore's K. Arthur. I had read Pr. Arthur before, and read it with admiration, which is not at all lessened by this second piece. All our English poets (except Milton) have been mere ballad-makers, in comparison to him. Upon the publication of his first poem, I intimated to him, through Mr. Churchill's hands, how excellently I thought he might perform a philosophic poem, from many touches he gave in his Pr. Arthur, particularly from Mopas's song. And I perceive by his preface to K. Arthur he has had the like intimations from others, but rejects them, as being an enemy to all philosophic hypotheses."
- Mr. Locke answers:
"I shall, when I see Sir R. Blackmore, discourse him as you desire. There is, I with pleasure find, a strange harmony throughout, between your thoughts and mine."
- Molyneux replies:
"I perceive you are so happy as to be acquainted with Sir Rich. Blackmore; he is an extraordinary person, and I admire his two prefaces as much as I do any parts of his books: The first, where he exposes "the licentiousness and immorality of our late poetry," is incomparable; and the second, wherein he prosecutes the same subject, and delivers his thoughts concerning hypotheses, is no
less judicious; and I am wholly of his opinion relating to the latter. However, the history and phænomena of nature we may venture at; and this is what I propose to be the subject of a philosophic
poem. Sir R. Blackmore has exquisite touches of this kind. dispersed in many places of his books; (to pass over Mopas's song) I'll instance one particular in the most profound speculations of Mr.
Newton's philosophy, thus curiously touched in King Arthur, Book IX. p. 243.
