with the reflecting upon Dangers that are past, or in looking on a Precipice at a distance, which would fill us with a different kind of Horrour, if we faw it hanging over our Heads.

IN the like manner, when we read of Torments, Wounds, Deaths, and the Hike difmal Accidents, our Pleasure does not flow fo properly from the Grief which fuch melancholy Defcriptions give us, as from the fecret Comparison which we make between our felves and the Perfon who suffers. Such Representations teach us to fet a juft Value upon our own Condition, and make us prize our good Fortune which exempts us from the like Calamities. This is, however, fuch a kind of Pleasure as we are not capable of receiving, when we see a Perfon actually lying under the Tortures that we meet with in a Defcription; becaufe, in this Cafe, the Object preffes too close upon our Senfes, and bears fo hard upon us, that it does not give us Time or Leifure to reflect on our felves. Our Thoughts are fo intent upon the Miferies of the Sufferer, that we cannot turn them upon our own Happiness. Whereas, on the contrary, we confider the Misfortunes we read in Hiftory or Poetry, either as paft, or as fictitious, fo that the Reflection upon our felves rifes in us infenfibly, and over-bears the Sorrow we conceive for the Sufferings of the Afflicted.

BUT because the Mind of Man requires fomething more perfect in Matter, than what it finds there, and can never meet with any Sight in Nature which fufficiently answers its higheft Ideas of Pleasantnefs; or, in other Words, because the Imagination can fancy to it felf Things more Great, Strange, or Beautiful, than the Eye ever faw, and is ftill fenfible of fome Defect in what it has feen; on this Account it is the Part of a Poet to humour the Imagination in its own No

tions, by mending and perfecting Nature where he defcribes a Reality, and by adding greater Beauties than are put together in Nature, where he defcribes a Fiction.

HE is not obliged to attend her in the flow Advances which the makes from one Seafon to another, or to obferve her Conduct, in the fucceffive Production of Plants and Flowers. He may draw into his Defcription all the Beauties of the Spring and Autumn, and make the whole Year contribute fomething to render it the more agreeable. His Rofe-trees, Wood-bines, and Jeffamines, may flower together, and his Beds be covered at the fame time with Lillies, Violets, and Amaranths. His Soil is not reftrained to any particular Sett of Plants, but is proper either for Oaks or Myrtles, and adapts it self to the Products of every Climate. Oranges may grow wild in it; Myrrh may be met with in every Hedge, and if he thinks it proper to have a Grove of Spices, he can quickly command Sun enough to raife it. If all this will not furnish out an agreeable Scene, he can make feveral new Species of Flowers, with richer Scents and higher Colours, than any that grow in the Gardens of Nature. His Conforts of Birds may be as full and harmonious, and his Woods as thick and gloomy as he pleafes. He is at no more expence in a long Vilta than a fhort one, and can as eafily throw his' Cafcades from a Precipice of half a Mile high, as from one of twenty Yards. He has his Choice of the Winds, and can turn the Course of his Rivers in all the Variety of Meanders, that are most delightful to the Reader's Imagination. In a Word, he has the modelling of Nature in his own Hands, and may give her what Charms he pleases, provided he does not reform her too much, and run into Abfurdities, by endeavouring to ex땅 Tuesday,

cel.

TH

Tuesday, July 1.

mentis gratiffimus Error.

'HERE is a kind of Writing, wherein the Poet quite lofes Sight of Nature, and entertains his Reader's Imagination with the Characters and Actions of fuch Perfons as have many of them no Existence, but what he bestows on them. Such are Fairies, Witches, Magicians, Demons, and departed Spirits. This Mr. Dryden calls the Fairy way of Writing, which is, indeed, more difficult than any other that depends on the Poet's Fancy, because he has noPattern to follow in it, and must work altogether out of his own Invention.

THERE is a very odd Turn of Thought required for this fort of Writing, and it is impoffible for a Poet to fucceed in it, who has not a particular Caft of Fancy, and an Imagination naturally fruitful and fuperftitious. Befides this, he ought to be very well verfed in Legends and Fables, antiquated Romances, and the Traditions of Nurfes and old Women, that he may fall in with our natural Prejudices, and humour those Notions which we have imbibed in our Infancy. For, otherwife, he will be apt to make his Fairies talk like People of his own Species, and not like other Setts of Beings, who converse with different Objects, and think in a different Manner from that of Mankind;

Sylvis deducti caveant, me Judice, Fauni
Ne velut innati triviis ac pæne forenfes

Aut nimium teneris juvenentur verfibus- Hor. I do not fay with Mr. Bays in the Rehearsal, that Spirits must not be confined to fpeak Senfe, but it is certain their Senfe ought to be a little difcoloured, that it may feem particular, and pro

per

1

per to the Perfon and the Condition of the Speaker.

THESE Defcriptions raise a pleafing kind of Horrour in the Mind of the Reader, and amuse his Imagination with the Strangeness and Novelty of the Perfons who are reprefented in them. They bring up into our Memory the Stories we have heard in our Childhood, and favour thofe fecret Terrours and Apprehenfions to which the Mind of Man is naturally Subject. We are pleased with furveying the different Habits and Behaviours of Foreign Countries, how much more muft we be delighted, and furprised when we are led, as it were, into a new Creation, and fee the Perfons and Manners of another Species? Men of cold Fancies, and Philofophical Difpofitions, object to this kind of Poetry, that it has not Probability enough to affect the Imagination. But to this it may be answered, that we are fure, in general, there are many intellectual Beings in the World befides our felves, and feveral Species of Spirits, who are fubject to different Laws and Oeconomies from thofe of Mankind; when we fee, therefore, any of thefe reprefented, naturally, we cannot look upon the Representation as altogether impoffible; nay, many are prepoffeft with fuch falfe Opinions, as difpofe them to be-, lieve these particular Delufions; at leaft, we have all heard fo many pleafing Relations in favour of them, that we do not care for feeing through the Falfhood, and willingly give our felves up to fo agreeable an Impofture.

THE Ancients have not much of this Poetry among them, for indeed almoft the whole Substance of it owes its Original to the Darkness and Superftition of latter Ages, when pious Frauds were made ufe of to amufe Mankind, and frighten, them into a Sense of their Duty. Our Forefathers

looked

looked upon Nature with more Reverence and Horrour, before the World was enlightned by Learning and Philofophy, and loved to astonish themselves with the Apprehenfions of Witchcraft, Prodigies, Charms and Enchantments. There was not a Village in England, that had not a Ghost in it, the Church-yards were all haunted, every large Common had a circle of Fairies belonging to it, and there was fcarce a Shepherd to be met with who had not feen a Spirit.

AMONG all the Poets of this Kind, our English are much the best, by what I have yet feen, whether it be that we abound with more Stories, of this Nature, or that the Genius of our Country is fitter for this fort of Poetry. For the English are naturally Fanciful, and very often difpofed by that Gloominefs and Melancholy of Temper, which is fo frequent in our Nation, to many wild Notions and Visions, to which others. are not fo liable."

AMONG the English, Shakespear has incomparably excelled all others. That noble Extravagance of Fancy, which he had in fo great Perfection, throughly qualified him to touch this weak fuperftitious Part of his Reader's Imagination; and made him capable of fucceeding, where he had nothing to fupport him befides the Strength of his own Genius. There is fomething fo wild and yet fo folemn in the Speeches of his Ghofts, Fairies, Witches, and the like Imaginary Perfons, that we cannot forbear thinking them natural, tho' we have no Rule by which to judge of them, and must confefs, if there are fuch Beings in the World, it looks highly probable they fhould talk and act as he has reprefented them.

THERE is another fort of Imaginary Beings, that we fometimes meet with among the Poets, when the Author represents any Paffion, Appe