CHAP. could not have been unknown to him. But, as an able defender and elegant expounder of Of Imagina- those rules has observed, "The most ingenious tion. "( way of becoming foolish is by a system and "the surest method to prevent good sense is to set up something in the room of it *." He, who either writes or acts according to the impulse of natural feeling and common sense, will, unless very perversely organized, be right sometimes but he, who does either by system, may stand a chance of being uniformly and unvariably wrong. 127. It is said that a learned and eminent Greek professor, who, by a long course of study, had made himself completely master, in theory, of the whole art of war, once delivered a very eloquent and elaborate lecture upon that art in the presence of Hannibal; who, instead of expressing any of that rapture of applause, with which the rest of the audience received it, observed coldly that he had met with many prating old fools in his time, but never with so silly a prater as this †. * Lord Shaftesbury, Adv. to Authors, p. iii. f. 1. + "Locutus esse dicitur homo copiosus aliquot horas de imperatoris officio, et de omni re militari. Tum, cum cæteri, qui illum audierant, vehementer essent delectati, quærebant ab Annibale, quidnam ipse de illo philosopho judicaret: hic Poenus non optime Græce, sed tamen libere respondisse fertur, multos se deliros senes sæpe vidisse, sed qui magis, quam Phormio, deliraret, vidisse neminem." Cic. de Orat. 1. ii. Probably, were the author of the Iliad to hear the learned and elaborate discourses, which the theoretical professors and teachers of his art, both ancient and modern, have delivered in their respective schools and colleges, so much to the edification of the public at large, as well as of their own pupils, he would pronounce nearly the same judgment; from which the author of the present inquiry would scarcely venture to claim an exemption. Yet, so important and indispensable does the art, which we profess, appear to us all, that for any one to attempt to understand poetry without having diligently digested Aristotle's treatise upon the subject, has been pronounced to be as absurd as to pretend to a skill in geometry without having studied Euclid *. Nevertheless Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Sophocles, Euripedes, &c. &c. who may surely be allowed to have known something of their art, lived long before this treatise or any of the kind was written or thought of; and the whole history of literature obliges us to acknowledge that, in proportion as criticism has become systematic, and critics numerous, the powers of composition and purity of taste have, in all ages and countries gradually decayed. The case is that men's minds become cramped and fettered, so that * Warton on Pope's Essay on Criticism, p. 645. CHAP. 11. Of Imagina tion. CHAP. they look to the authority of rules and their propounders instead of to nature—" magistrum Of Imagina- respicientes naturam ducem sequi desierunt *" tion. -and as this authority is frequently usurped for a time by those who have no other title to it than trick of style and froth of eloquence employed to re echo the voice of a popular or triumphant party in politics, religion, or philosophy, its decisions are as capricious as its laws are imperfect; whence public opinion is misled, taste perverted, and the general style of composition corrupted and depraved. How far this effect is produced by those societies or bands of critics, whose labours issue monthly from the press, I shall leave to others to inquire; only observing that, whatever may be their effects upon taste, they contribute much to the diffusion of general, though of superficial knowledge; and, if conducted with the ability and impartiality, which have, in most cases, distinguished some publications of this kind, might contribute to the improvement as much as to the extension of science. Others have assumed * Quinctill. Inst. 1. v. c. x. "Verum ego hanc vim intelligo esse in præceptis omnibus, non ut ea secuti oratores eloquentiæ laudem sint adepti, sed quæ sua sponte homines eloquentes facerent ea quosdam observasse, atque id egisse: sic esse non eloquentiam ex artificio, sed artificium ex eloquentia natum.” CIC. de Orat. lib. i. the office without any better apparent qualification than a sort of flippant confidence, which, while it dazzles and overawes the ignorant, enables them to pronounce the most peremptory decisions upon the most abstruse points of learning without understanding even its first elements. The following instance from a publication of this kind, the authors of which proclaim themselves to be among the first critics and scholars of the age; and have, perhaps, obtained as extensive a circulation of their work as if they really were so, may serve as an illustration. After reviewing and criticising with much. solemnity the different Greek translations of Gray's Elegy, and bestowing with due deliberation the palm of superiority upon the Etonian Nestor, they produce the following specimen of what the splendid imagery, and genuine grandeur of diction exhibited in his immortal poem "The Bard" might be in the language best adapted to do them justice. Όσσε κυλινδόμενος δεινως ώμωξεν ὁ μανίες, CHAP. Of Imagina tion. CHAP. II. What degree of justice is done them here, or whether this be any language at all, I shall now Of Imagina- take the liberty to examine. tion. oσe xuλdoμevos, if it means any thing, means tumbling the eyes or rolling them out of the sockets; and μακρον γενειον is rather a long chin than a long beard, which is, Ca‡us πwywv, or badɛa ye γειας. Jews wμwev, cried out terribly, is quite ludicrous; and μaris, with the article, and without any explanatory adjunct, can only signify an augur or professional foreteller of events; a person very different from the hero of the ode. MEGATOIOS signifies a person half grey, or verging upon old age: but I don't believe that the epithet can be applied to Tpixes; which is not otherwise the proper word to express the long flowing hair of the venerable bard. It should have been κομαι, χαιται oι εθειραι. xoμτns in a philosophical treatise on the subject, where the context would remove all ambiguity, might stand alone for αστηρ κομήτης, and signify a comet: but as used here it signifies literally a shaggy, hairy, and metaphorically, a very impudent fellow. The use of the verb Tearow is so general that it may possibly be applied to an; but it is a sort of expression that should not be employed |