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fcription at all the lefs upon this account.

What

is faid of Helen by Priam and the old men of his council, is generally thought to give us the highest poffible idea of that fatal beauty.

Ου νεμεσις Τρωας και ευκνήμιδας Αχαιες,
Τοιηδ' αμφι γυναικι πολυν χρονον αλγεα πάσχειν
Αινώς δ' αθαναλησι θεης εις ωπα εοικεν,

They cry'd, no wonder fuch celestial charms
For nine long years have fet the world in arms;
What winning graces! what majestick mien!
She moves a goddess, and fhe looks a queen.

POPE.

Here is not one word faid of the particulars of her beauty; nothing which can in the least help us to any precife idea of her perfon; but yet we are much more touched by this manner of mentioning her than by those long and laboured descriptions of Helen, whether handed down by tradition, or formed by fancy, which are to be met with in fome authors. I am fure it affects me much more than the minute defcription which Spenfer has given of Belphebe; though I own that there are, parts in that defcription, as there are in all the descriptions of that excellent writer, extremely fine and poetical. The terrible picture which Lucretius has drawn of religion, in order to display

the

the magnanimity of his philofophical hero in oppofing her, is thought to be defigned with great boldnefs and fpirit:

Humana ante oculos fœdè cum vita jaceret,
In terris, oppreffa gravi fub religione,
Quæ caput e cæli regionibus oftendebat
Horribili fuper afpectu mortalibus inftans;
Primus Graius homo mortales tollere contra
Eft oculos aufus.-—

What idea do you derive from so excellent a picture? none at all, moft certainly; neither has the poet faid a single word which might in the leaft serve to mark a single limb or feature of the phantom, which he intended to represent in all the horrours imagination can conceive. In reality poetry and rhetorick do not fucceed in exact description fo well as painting does; their business is, to affect rather by fympathy than imitation; to display rather the effect of things on the mind of the speaker, or of others, than to present a clear idea of the things themselves. This is their moft extenfive province, and that in which they fucceed the beft.

1

SECT.

SECT. VI.

POETRY NOT STRICTLY AN IMITATIVE ART.'

HENCE we may obferve that poetry, taken in its moft general fenfe, cannot with strict propriety be called an art of imitation. It is indeed an imitation fo far as it defcribes the manners and paffions of men which their words can exprefs; where animi motus effert interprete lingua. There it is strictly imitation; and all merely dramatick poetry is of this fort. But defcriptive poetry operates chiefly by fubftitution; by means of founds, which by cuftom have the effect of realities. Nothing is an imitation further than as it resembles fome other thing; and words undoubtedly have no fort of refemblance to the ideas for which they ftand.

SECT. VII.

HOW WORDS INFLUENCE THE PASSIONS.

NOW, as words affect, not by any original power, but by reprefentation, it might be fuppofed, that their influence over the paffions fhould be but light; yet it is quite otherwife; for we find by experience that eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable, of making deep and lively impreffions than any other

arts,

arts, and even than nature itfelf in very many cafes. And this arifes chiefly from these three caufes. First, that we take an extraordinary part in the paffions of others, and that we are easily affected and brought into fympathy by any tokens which are fhewn of them; and there are no tokens which can exprefs all the circumftances of most paffions fo fully as words; fo that if a perfon fpeaks upon any fubject, he can not only convey the fubject to you, but likewife the manner in which he is himself affected by it. Certain it is, that the influence of moft things on our paflions is not fo much from the things themfelves, as from our opinions concerning them; and thefe again depend very much on the opinions of other men, conveyable for the most part by words only. Secondly, there are many things of a very affecting nature, which can feldom occur in the reality, but the words which reprefent them often do; and thus they have an opportunity of making a deep impreffion and taking root in the mind, whilst the idea of the reality was tranfient; and to fome perhaps never really occurred in any shape, to whom it is notwithstanding very affecting, as war, death, famine, &c. Befides many ideas have never been at all presented to the senses of any men but by words, as God, angels, devils, heaven, and hell, all of which have however a great influence over the paffions. Thirdly, by words we

have it in our power to make fuch combinations as we cannot poffibly do otherwise. By this power of combining we are able, by the addition of wellchofen circumftances, to give a new life and force to the fimple object. In painting we may repre fent any fine figure we please; but we never can give it those enlivening touches which it may receive from words. To reprefent an angel in a picture, you can only draw a beautiful young man winged: but what painting can furnish any thing fo grand as the addition of one word, “ the angel "of the Lord?" It is true, I have here no clear idea; but these words affect the mind more than the fenfible image did; which is all I contend for. A picture of Priam dragged to the altar's foot, and there murdered, if it were well executed, would undoubtedly be very moving; but there are very aggravating circumstances, which it could never represent:

Sanguine fædantem quos ipfe facraverat ignes.

As a further inftance, let us confider thofe lines of Milton, where he describes the travels of the fallen angels through their difmal habitation:

-O'er many a dark and dreary vale
They pafs'd, and many a region dolorous;
O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp;

Rocks,

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