Now the poet, as I faid, in addrefling himself to this province of his art, hath only to confult with his own confcious reflexion. Whatever be the fituation of the perfons, whom he would make known to us, let him but take counfel of his own heart [b], and it will very faithfully fuggeft the fittest and most natural expreffions of their character. No man can defcribe of others further than he hath felt himfelf. And what he hath thus known from his own feeling is fo confonant to the experience of all others, that his defeription must needs be true; that is, be the very fame, which fa careful attention to fuch experience muft have dictated to every other. So that, inftead of afking one's felf (as an admired antient advised to do) on any attempt to excel in compofition how this or that celebrated author would have written on the oc cafion," the furer way, perhaps, is to in [b] What is here faid of poetical fiction, Quinctilian hath applied to oratorial narration; the credibility of which will depend on the obfervance of this rule. Credibilis erit narratio antè omnia, fi priùs confuluerimus noftrum ANIMUM, nequid naturae dicamûs adverfum. [L. iv. z.] quire of ourselves "how we have felt or 66 thought in fuch a conjuncture, what fenf "ations or reflexions the like circumstances have actually excited in us." For the anfwer to these queries will undoubtedly. fet us in the direct road of nature and common fenfe. And, whatever is thus taken from the life, will, we may be fure, affect other minds, in proportion to the vigour of our conception and expreffion of it. In fum, To catch the manners living, as they rife, I mean, from our own internal frame and conftitution, is the fole way of writing naturally and justly of human life. And every fuch defcription of ourselves (the great exemplar of moral imitation) will be as unavoidably fimilar to any defcription copied on the like occafion, by other poets; as pictures of the natural world by different hands, are, and must be, to each other, as being all derived from the archetype of one common original. 1. Let us take fome mafter-piece of a great poet, moft famed for his original invention, in which he has fuccefsfully reveal ed ed the fecret internal workings of any PASSION. What does he make known of these mysterious powers, but what he feels? And whence comes the impreffion, his defcription makes on others, but from its agreement to their feelings? [i] To inftance, in the expreffion of grief on the murder of children, relations, friends, &c. a paffion, which poe try hath ever taken a fond pleasure to paint in all its diftreffes, and which our common nature obliges all readers to enter into with an exquisite fenfibility. What are the tender touches which most affect us on these occafions? Are they not fuch as thefe: complaints of untimely death: of unnatural cru [] So the great philofopher, yàp wefì irías ouμβαίνει πάθω ψυχὰς ἰσχυρῶς, τῦτο ἐν πάσαις ὑπάρχει. τῷ δὲ ἦτον διαφέρει, καὶ τῷ μᾶλλον. ΠΟΛΙΤ. Θ. Whence our Hobbes seems to have taken his aphorifm, which he makes the corner-ftone of his philofophy, That "for the fimilitude of the thoughts and paffions of "one man to the thoughts and paffions of another, "whofoever looketh into himself, and confidereth "what he doth, when he does think, opine, reafon, " hope, fear, &c. and upon what grounds; he shall "thereby read and know, what are the thoughts, and paffions of all other men, upon the like occa-, fions." LEVIATHAN, Introd. p. 2. fol. London. 1651. elty elty in the murderer: imprecations of vengeance: weariness and contempt of life: expoftulations with heaven: fond recollections of the virtues and good qualities of the deeeafed; and of the different expectations, raifed by them? These were the dictates of nature to the father of poets, when he had to draw the diftreffes of Priam's family, forrowing for the death of Hector. Yet.nothing, it seems, but fervile imitation could fupply his fons, the Greek and Roman poet's in after-times, with fuch pathetic lamentations. It may be fo. They were all nou rifhed by his ftreams. But what shall we fay of one, who affuredly never drank at his fountains? -My heart will burst, and if I speak on The reader, alfo, may consult that wonderful scene, in which MACDUFF laments the murder of his wife and children, [MAC BETH.] 2. It is not different with the MANNERS; I mean thofe fentiments, which mark and diftinguish characters. These refult immediately from the fuggeftions of nature; which is fo uniform in her working's, and offers herfelf fo openly to common infpection, that nothing but a perverfe and studied affectation can frequently hinder the exacteft fimilarity of reprefentation in different writers. This is fo true, that, from knowing the general character, intended to be kept up, we can guess, beforehand, how a perfon will act, or what fentiments he will entertain, on any occafion. And the critic even ventures to prescribe, by the authority of rule, the particular properties and attributes, required to fuftain it. And no wonder. Every man, as he can make himfelf the fubject of all paffions, fo he becomes, in a manner, the Aggregate of all characters. Nature may have inclined him most powerfully to one set of manners; just as one paffion is, always, predominant in him. But he finds in himself the feeds of all others. This consciousness, as before, furnishes the characteristic fentiments, which constitute the manners. And it were full as די ftrange |