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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 ifrange to fay that the Principle is precifely of the fame kind
in 'em all. We are ufed to
confider it, in the two firf, as Conffitution ; in the latter as Difeafe
: In the one 'tis perpetual; in the other only
occasional: In the one, arbitrary and uncontroulable; in the other, limited
and refrained. 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 the Wind favourable and the Voyage defirable. But all
this amounts to little more than a
difference in Degree, between the Fidions of the Poet and the Lunatic: The
moving Principle is the fame
in both, tho its Effeds be various. If the 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 direft the
Helm or not.-
SOME People give more ear to Authority than to Reafon: to fuch it may not
be amifs to obfervej
that this Docrine is countenanc'd by the Antients; who, in fome refpeas,
feem to have had clearer and
jufter Notions than the Moderns; as being lefs embarafs'd with the Jargon,
and Refinements of the fcho-
laMick Learning. Philofophy, 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 Phiedrus, afferts, "
That Enthujiaj/m and Mania are one and the
"s fame thing ;" and has a long, and cogent Difcourfe, to prove
that it muft be fo: And among the feveral Spe-
cies of Enthufiafm, he exprefly ranks Poetry. In effe&, nornzx' and Mzr{izr,
make two of the principal
Branches in his Divifion of Enthufiafm, or Infpiration. And Plutarch *, rho
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 likewife t."  Add, that fpeaking of the Orators, he does not
fcruple to ufe nvitj.A OrwIiaWrv, as fynony-
mous with Mavla.---But this Point will be confider'd more fully hereafter.
T HE 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, Architefture, 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 Effefds, we mean Na-
ture does fo. The Poet's Imagination may be confidered as a Field, wherein
the Author of all Things fhews his
Handy-work, by the Produdtion of a Set of Objedts 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 fingle old one.
T HE Fadfive Arts, as fome love to call 'em, i. e. thofe from which permanent
Effeds arife, may be confider'd
as fo many fecondary or derivative Natures, rais'd by Engraftment from the
old Stock, and fpreading or
projedting out from this, or that part thereof.---Here, at firif 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 Produdfions. Nature, that
is, the Power or Principle of A6tion and Motion to which we owe this vifible
Frame and all the Appearances
and Alterations therein, ads by fixed Laws, which neceffarily produce different
Effedts, 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, attradts Bodies, &c. i. e. is a
hot, luminous, eledrical 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, inftantly blazes up, and
fmokes, with Noife; perhaps burfis
a Rock, or drives a Ball, in a parabolic Diredfion, 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, fhall 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 effed there muff 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
Circumfriances as are neceffary
to bring 'em under this or that Law, or to make this or that refpedive Law
take effe&. And this we call Art;
and by this means we can produce a number of things, or bring 'em into adt,
which otherwise would have
remained in eternal Non-entity, or barely in Potentia.  Man may be faid to
create 'em, but no otherwife
than the Apothecary creates the Blifter, or the Gardner the Apple; i. e.
thofe Effedts would neceffarily have
arifen, upon the fame Porition of the Cantharides and the Cutis, or the Scion
and Stock, if there never had
been Apothecary or Gardner in the World.
WE may define the Works or Producions of Art, therefore, to be all thofe
Phxnomena or Effedsf which
would not have arofe without the Agency or Intervention of Man. Now Man can
only be faid to aft or inter-
vene, fo far as what he does is of his own Source or Principle, without being
moved or direfted by any efta-
blifhed Law of Nature, i. e. fo far as he is exempted from the Influences
of any neceffary Laws of Nature con-
curring, however remotely, to fuch Effedt. So that if, as fomePhilofophershave
maintained, Man were not reallyand
truly a free Agent; there would be no fuch thing as Art, in the Senfe here
underifood: but Art would only be
a name given to that Syffem or Series of Effedfs, to which Man is made by
Nature, and in her hands, fubfervient;
and might with equal reaton be attributed to fuch Effeds as any other natural
Produdtion, e. g. a Plant, or Mine-
ral, is fubfervient.
HAD it not been for the infpired Writers, we fhould not have known but that
the whole Syftem of our
World is a Produdtion of Art; the Refult of a new Application of Things made
by fome created Being, in
virtue or confequence of fome pre-eftablifh'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 firif. Thus there might be an infinite
Series or Subordination of Syftems
of Nature, each more univerfal, extensive, and, as we call it, more metaphysical,
i. e. nearer the Source of
Power and Adtion, than other.
S0METTHING        like this, we adually fee in our own little Syfltem: The
Mineral World is fubfer-
vient 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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