The pleasures of imagination: A poem. In three books.

Table of contents

- [halftitle]

- [titlepage]

- The DESIGN.

- THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. BOOK the FIRST.

- THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. BOOK the SECOND. THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. BOOK the SECOND.

- THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. BOOK the THIRD. THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION. BOOK the THIRD.

- The Beginning of next Month will be Publish'd, In Ten neat POCKET VOLUMES, A SELECT COLLECTION of Fifty OLD PLAYS. VIZ.

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

A POEM.

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

A POEM. IN THREE BOOKS.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
EPICT. apud Arrian. II. 23.

〈…〉 sculp.

LONDON: Printed for R. DODSLEY at Tully's-Head in Pall-Mall. M.DCC.XLIV.

The DESIGN.

THERE are certain powers in human nature which seem to hold a middle place between the organs of bodily sense and the faculties of moral perception: They have been call'd by a very general name, THE POWERS OF IMAGINATION. Like the external senses, they relate to matter and motion; and at the same time, give the mind ideas analogous to those of moral approbation and dislike. As they are the inlets of some of the most exquisite pleasures we are acquainted with, men of warm and sensible tempers have sought means to recall the delightful perceptions they afford, independent of the objects which originally produc'd them. This gave rise to the imitative or designing arts; some of which, as painting and sculpture, directly copy the external appearances which were admir'd in nature; others, as music and poetry, bring them back to remembrance by signs universally establish'd and understood.

But these arts, as they grew more correct and deliberate, were naturally led to extend their imitation beyond the peculiar objects of the imaginative powers; especially poetry, which making use of language as the instrument by which it imitates, is consequently become an unlimited representative of every species and mode of being. Yet as their primary intention was only to express the objects of imagination, and as they still abound chiefly in ideas of that class, they of course retain their original character, and all the different pleasures they excite, are term'd, in general, PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.

The Design of the following poem is to give a view of these, in the largest acceptation of the term; so that whatever our imagination feels from the agreeable appearances of nature, and all the various entertainment we meet with either in poetry, painting, music, or any of the elegant arts, might be deducible from one or other of those principles in the constitution of the human mind, which are here establish'd and explain'd.

In executing this general plan it was necessary first of all to distinguish the imagination from our other faculties, and then to characterize those original forms or properties of being about which it is conversant, and which are by nature adapted to it, as light is to the eyes, or truth to the understanding. These properties Mr. Addison had reduc'd to the three general classes of greatness, novelty, and beauty; and into these we may analyse every object, however complex, which, properly speaking, is delightful to the imagination. But such an object may also include many other sources of pleasure, and its beauty, or novelty, or grandeur, will make a stronger impression by reason of this concurrence. Besides this, the imitative arts, especially poetry, owe much of their effect to a similar exhibition of properties quite foreign to the imagination; insomuch that in every line of the most applauded poems, we meet with either ideas drawn from the external senses, or truths discover'd to the understanding, or illustrations of contrivance and final causes, or above all the rest, with circumstances proper to awaken and ingage the passions. It was therefore necessary to enumerate and exemplify these different species of pleasure; especially that from the passions, which as it is supreme in the noblest works of human genius, so being in some particulars not a little surprizing, gave an opportunity to inliven the didactic turn of the poem, by introducing a piece of machinery to account for the appearance.

After these parts of the subject which hold chiefly of admiration, or naturally warm and interest the mind, a pleasure of a very different nature, that which arises from ridicule, came next to be consider'd. As this is the foundation of the comic manner in all the arts, and has been but very imperfectly treated by moral writers, it was thought proper to give it a particular illustration, and to distinguish the general sources from which the ridicule of characters is deriv'd. Here too a change of stile became necessary; such a one as might yet be consistent, if possible, with the general taste of composition in the serious parts of the subject: nor is it an easy task to give any tolerable force to images of this kind, without running either into the gigantic expressions of the mock-heroic, or the familiar and pointed raillery of profess'd satire; neither of which would have been proper here.

The materials of all imitation being thus laid open, nothing now remain'd but to illustrate some particular pleasures which arise either from the relations of different objects one to another, or from the nature of imitation itself. Of the first kind is that various and complicated resemblance existing between several parts of the material and immaterial worlds, which is the foundation of metaphor and wit. As it seems in a great measure to depend on the early associations of our ideas, and as this habit of associating is the source of many pleasures and pains in life, and on that account bears a great share in the influence of poetry and the other arts, it is therefore mention'd here and its effects describ'd. Then follows a general account of the production of these elegant arts, and the secondary pleasure, as it is call'd, arising from the resemblance of their imitations to the original appearances of nature. After which, the design is clos'd with some reflections on the general conduct of the powers of imagination, and on their natural and moral usefulness in life.

Concerning the manner or turn of composition which prevails in this piece, little can be said with propriety by the author. He had two models; that antient and simple one of the first Graecian poets, as it is refin'd by Virgil in the Georgics, and the familiar epistolary way of Horace. This latter has several advantages. It admits of a greater variety of stile; it more readily ingages the generality of readers, as partaking more of the air of conversation; and especially with the assistance of rhyme, leads to a closer and more concise expression. Add to this the example of the most perfect of modern poets, who has so happily applied this manner to the noblest parts of philosophy, that the public taste is in a great measure form'd to it alone. Yet, after all, the subject before us tending almost constantly to admiration and enthusiasm, seem'd rather to demand a more open, pathetic and figur'd stile. This too appear'd more natural, as the author's aim was not so much to give formal precepts, or enter into the way of direct argumentation, as by exhibiting the most ingaging prospects of nature, to enlarge and harmonize the imagination, and by that means insensibly dispose the minds of men to the same dignity of taste in religion, morals, and civil life. 'Tis on this account that he is so careful to point out the benevolent intention of the author of nature in every principle of the human constitution here insisted on; and also to unite the moral excellencies of life in the same point of view with the meer external objects of good taste; thus recommending them in common to our natural propenstiy for admiring what is beautiful and lovely. The same views have also led him to introduce some sentiments which may perhaps be look'd upon as not quite direct to the subject; but since they bear an obvious relation to it, the authority of Virgil, the faultless model of didactic poetry, will best support him in this particular. For the sentiments themselves he makes no apology.

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
BOOK the FIRST.

ARGUMENT of the FIRST BOOK.

THE subject propos'd; verse 1, to 30. Difficulty of treating it poetically; v. 45. The ideas of the divine mind, the origin of every quality pleasing to the imagination; v. 56, to 78. The natural variety of constitution in the minds of men, with its final cause; to v. 96. The ideas of a fine imagination, and the state of the mind in the enjoyment of those pleasures which it affords; v. 100, to 132. All the primary pleasures of imagination result from the perception of greatness, or wonderfulness, or beauty in objects; v. 145. The pleasure from greatness, with its final cause; v. 151, to 221. Pleasures from novelty or wonderfulness, with its final cause; v. 222. to 270. Pleasure from beauty, with its final cavse; v. 275, to 372. The connection of beauty with truth and good, applied to the conduct of life; v. 384. Invitation to the study of moral philosophy; to v. 428. The different degrees of beauty in different species of objects; v. 448. Colour; shape; natural concretes; vegetables; animals; the mind; v. 445, to 475. The sublime, the fair, the wonderful of the mind; v. 497, to 526. The connection of the imagination and the moral faculty; 557. Conclusion.

WITH what attractive charms this goodly frame

Of nature touches the consenting hearts

Of mortal men; and what the pleasing stores

Which beauteous imitation thence derives

To deck the poet's, or the painter's toil;

My verse unfolds. Attend, ye gentle POW'RS

OF MUSICAL DELIGHT! and while I sing

Your gifts, your honours, dance around my strain.

Thou, smiling queen of every tuneful breast,

Indulgent FANCY! from the fruitful banks

Of Avon, whence thy rosy fingers cull

Fresh flow'rs and dews to sprinkle on the turf

Where Shakespeare lies, be present: and with thee

Let FICTION come, upon her vagrant wings

Wafting ten thousand colours thro' the air,

And, by the glances of her magic eye,

Combining each in endless, fairy forms,

Her wild creation. Goddess of the lyre

Which rules the accents of the moving sphere,

Wilt thou, eternal HARMONY! descend,

And join this festive train? for with thee comes

The guide, the guardian of their lovely sports,

Majestic TRUTH; and where TRUTH deigns to come,

Her sister LIBERTY will not be far.

Be present all ye GENII who conduct

The wand'ring footsteps of the youthful bard,

New to your springs and shades: who touch his ear

With finer sounds: who heighten to his eye

The bloom of nature, and before him turn

The gayest, happiest attitudes of things.

Oft have the laws of each poetic strain

The critic-verse imploy'd; yet still unsung

Lay this prime subject, tho' importing most

A poet's name: for fruitless is th' attempt

By dull obedience and the curb of rules,

For creeping toil to climb the hard ascent

Of high Parnassus. Nature's kindling breath

Must fire the chosen genius; nature's hand

Must point the path, and imp his eagle-wings

Exulting o'er the painful steep to soar

High as the summit: there to breathe at large

Aethereal air; with bards and sages old,

Immortal sons of praise. These flatt'ring scenes

To this neglected labour court my song;

Yet not unconscious what a doubtful task[1]

To paint the finest features of the mind,

And to the most subtile and mysterious things

Give colour, strength and motion. But the love

Of nature and the muses bids explore,

Thro' secret paths erewhile untrod by man,

The fair poetic region, to detect

Untasted springs, to drink inspiring draughts;

And shade my temples with unfading flow'rs

Cull'd from the laureate vale's profound recess,

Where never poet gain'd a wreath before.

From heav'n my strains begin; from heaven descends

The flame of genius to the human breast,

And love and beauty, and poetic joy

And inspiration. Ere the radiant sun

Sprung from the east, or 'mid the vault of night

The moon suspended her serener lamp;

Ere mountains, woods, or streams adorn'd the globe;

Or wisdom taught the sons of men her lore;

Then liv'd th' eternal ONE: then deep-retir'd

In his unfathom'd essence, view'd at large

The uncreated images of things;

The radiant sun, the moon's nocturnal lamp,

The mountains, woods and streams, the rolling globe,

And wisdom's form coelestial. From the first

Of days, on them his love divine he fix'd,

His admiration: till in time compleat,

What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile

Unfolded into being. Hence the breath

Of life informing each organic frame,

Hence the green earth, and wild resounding waves;

Hence light and shade alternate; warmth and cold;

And clear autumnal skies and vernal show'rs,

And all the fair variety of things.

But not alike to every mortal eye

Is this great scene unveil'd. For since the claims

Of social life, to diff'rent labours urge

The active pow'rs of man; with wise intent

The hand of nature on peculiar minds

Imprints a diff'rent byass, and to each

Decrees its province in the common toil.

To some she taught the fabric of the sphere,

The changeful moon, the circuit of the starrs,

The golden zones of heav'n: to some she gave

To weigh the moment of eternal things,

Of time, and space, and fate's unbroken chain,

And will's quick impulse: others by the hand

She led o'er vales and mountains, to explore

What healing virtue swells the tender veins

Of herbs and flow'rs; or what the beams of morn

Draw forth, distilling from the clifted rind

In balmy tears. But some, to higher hopes

Were destin'd; some within a finer mould

She wrought, and temper'd with a purer flame.

To these the sire omnipotent unfolds

The world's harmonious volume, there to read

The transcript of himself. On every part

They trace the bright impressions of his hand:

In earth or air, the meadow's purple stores,

The moon's mild radiance, or the virgin's form

Blooming with rosy smiles, they see portray'd

That uncreated beauty, which delights

The mind supreme. They also feel her charms,

Enamour'd; they partake th' eternal joy.

As Memnon's marble harp, renown'd of old[2]

By fabling Nilus, to the quivering touch

Of Titan's ray, with each repulsive string

Consenting, sounded thro' the warbling air

Unbidden strains; ev'n so did nature's hand

To certain species of external things,

Attune the finer organs of the mind:

So the glad impulse of congenial pow'rs,

Or of sweet sound, or fair-proportion'd form,

The grace of motion, or the bloom of light,

Thrills thro' imagination's tender frame,

From nerve to nerve: all naked and alive

They catch the spreading rays: till now the soul

At length discloses every tuneful spring,

To that harmonious movement from without,

Responsive. Then the inexpressive strain

Diffuses its inchantment: fancy dreams

Of sacred fountains and Elysian groves,

And vales of bliss: the intellectual pow'r

Bends from his awful throne a wond'ring ear,

And smiles: the passions gently sooth'd away,

Sink to divine repose, and love and joy

Alone are waking; love and joy, serene

As airs that fan the summer. O! attend,

Whoe'er thou art whom these delights can touch,

Whose candid bosom the refining love

Of nature warms, O! listen to my song;

And I will guide thee to her fav'rite walks,

And teach thy solitude her voice to hear,

And point her loveliest features to thy view.

Know then, whate'er of nature's pregnant stores,

Whate'er of mimic art's reflected forms

With love and admiration thus inflame

The pow'rs of fancy, her delighted sons

To three illustrious orders have referr'd;

Three sister-graces, whom the painter's hand,

The poet's tongue confesses; the sublime,

The wonderful, the fair. I see them dawn!

I see the radiant visions, where they rise,

More lovely than when Lucifer displays

His beaming forehead thro' the gates of morn,

To lead the train of Phoebus and the spring.

Say, why was man so eminently rais'd[3]

Amid the vast creation; why ordain'd

Thro' life and death to dart his piercing eye,

With thoughts beyond the limit of his frame;

But that th' Omnipotent might send him forth

In sight of mortal and immortal pow'rs,

As on a boundless theatre, to run

The great career of justice; to exalt

His gen'rous aim to all diviner deeds;

To shake each partial purpose from his breast;

And thro' the mists of passion and of sense,

And thro' the tossing tide of chance and pain

To hold his course unfalt'ring, while the voice

Of truth and virtue, up the steep ascent

Of nature, calls him to his high reward,

Th' applauding smile of heav'n? Else wherefore burns

In mortal bosoms, this unquenched hope

That breathes from day to day sublimer things,

And mocks possession? wherefore darts the mind,

With such resistless ardor to embrace

Majestic forms? impatient to be free,

Spurning the gross controul of wilful might;

Proud of the strong contention of her toils;

Proud to be daring? Who but rather turns

To heav'n's broad fire his unconstrained view,

Than to the glimm'ring of a waxen flame?

Who that, from Alpine heights, his lab'ring eye

Shoots round the wide horizon to survey

The Nile or Ganges rowl his wasteful tide

Thro' mountains, plains, thro' empires black with shade,

And continents of sand; will turn his gaze

To mark the windings of a scanty rill

That murmurs at his feet? The high-born soul

Disdains to rest her heav'n-aspiring wing

Beneath its native quarry. Tir'd of earth

And this diurnal scene, she springs aloft

Thro' fields of air; pursues the flying storm;

Rides on the volley'd lightning thro' the heav'ns;

Or yok'd with whirlwinds and the northern blast,

Sweeps the long tract of day. Then high she soars

The blue profound, and hovering o'er the sun,

Beholds him pouring the redundant stream

Of light; beholds his unrelenting sway

Bend the reluctant planets to absolve

The fated rounds of time. Thence far effus'd

She darts her swiftness up the long career

Of devious comets; thro' its burning signs

Exulting circles the perennial wheel

Of nature, and looks back on all the starrs,

Whose blended light, as with a milky zone,

Invests the orient. Now amaz'd she views

Th' empyreal waste, where happy spirits hold,[4]

Beyond this concave heav'n, their calm abode;

And fields of radiance, whose unfading light[5]

Has travell'd the profound six thousand years,

Nor yet arrives in sight of mortal things.

Ev'n on the barriers of the world untir'd

She meditates th' eternal depth below;

Till, half recoiling, down the headlong steep

She plunges; soon o'erwhelm'd and swallow'd up

In that immense of being. There her hopes

Rest at the fated goal. For from the birth

Of mortal man, the sov'reign Maker said,

That not in humble or in brief delight,

Not in the fading echoes of renown,

Pow'rs purple robes, or pleasure's flow'ry lap,

The soul should find injoyment: but from these

Turning disdainful to an equal good,

Thro' all th' ascent of things inlarge her view,

Till every bound at length should disappear,

And infinite perfection close the scene.

Call now to mind what high, capacious pow'rs

Lie folded up in man; how far beyond

The praise of mortals, may th' eternal growth

Of nature to perfection half divine,

Expand the blooming soul? What pity then

Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to earth

Her tender blossom; choak the streams of life,

And blast her spring! Far otherwise design'd

Almighty wisdom; nature's happy cares

Th'obedient heart far otherwise incline.

Witness the sprightly joy when aught unknown

Strikes the quick sense, and wakes each active pow'r

To brisker measures: witness the neglect

Of all familiar prospects, tho' beheld[6]

With transport once; the fond, attentive gaze

Of young astonishment; the sober zeal

Of age, commenting on prodigious things.

For such the bounteous providence of heav'n,

In every breast implanting this desire

Of objects new and strange, to urge us on[7]

With unremitted labour to pursue

Those sacred stores that wait the ripening soul,

In truth's exhaustless bosom. What need words

To paint its pow'r? For this, the daring youth

Breaks from his weeping mother's anxious arms,

In foreign climes to rove: the pensive sage

Heedless of sleep, or midnight's harmful damp,

Hangs o'er the sickly taper; and untir'd

The virgin follows, with inchanted step,

The mazes of some wild and wond'rous tale,

From morn to eve; unmindful of her form,

Unmindful of the happy dress that stole

The wishes of the youth, when every maid

With envy pin'd. Hence finally, by night

The village-matron, round the blazing hearth,

Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,

Breathing astonishment! of witching rhymes,

And evil spirits; of the death-bed call

To him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd

The orphan's portion; of unquiet souls

Ris'n from the grave to ease the heavy guilt

Of deeds in life conceal'd; of shapes that walk

At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave

The torch of hell around the murd'rer's bed.

At every solemn pause the croud recoil

Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd

With shiv'ring sighs: till eager for th' event,

Around the beldame all arrect they hang,

Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd.

But lo! disclos'd in all her smiling pomp,

Where BEAUTY onward moving claims the verse

Her charms inspire: the freely-flowing verse

In thy immortal praise, O form divine,

Smooths her mellifluent stream. Thee, BEAUTY, thee

The regal dome, and thy enlivening ray

The mossy roofs adore: thou, better sun!

For ever beamest on th' inchanted heart

Love, and harmonious wonder, and delight

Poetic. Brightest progeny of heav'n!

How shall I trace thy features? where select

The roseate hues to emulate thy bloom?

Haste then, my song, thro' nature's wide expanse,

Haste then, and gather all her comeliest wealth,

Whate'er bright spoils the florid earth contains,

Whate'er the waters, or the liquid air,

To deck thy lovely labour. Wilt thou fly

With laughing Autumn to th'Atlantic isles,[8]

And range with him th'Hesperian field, and see,

Where'er his fingers touch the fruitful grove,

The branches shoot with gold; where'er his step

Marks the glad soil, the tender clusters glow

With purple ripeness, and invest each hill

As with the blushes of an evening sky?

Or wilt thou rather stoop thy vagrant plume,

Where, gliding thro' his daughter's honour'd shades,[9]

The smooth Penéus from his glassy flood

Reflects purpureal Tempe's pleasant scene?

Fair Tempe! haunt belov'd of fylvan pow'rs,

Of nymphs and fauns; where in the golden age

They play'd in secret on the shady brink

With ancient Pan: while round their choral steps

Young hours and genial gales with constant hand

Show'r'd blossoms, odours, show'r'd ambrosial dews,

And spring's Elysian bloom. Her flow'ry store

To thee nor Tempe shall refuse; nor watch

Of winged Hydra guard Hesperian fruits

From thy free spoil. O bear then, unreprov'd,

Thy smiling treasures to the green recess

Where young Dione stays. With sweetest airs

Intice her forth to lend her angel-form

For beauty's honour'd image. Hither turn

Thy graceful footsteps; hither, gentle maid,

Incline thy polish'd forehead: let thy eyes

Effuse the mildness of their azure dawn;

And may the fanning breezes waft aside

Thy radiant locks, disclosing as it bends

With airy softness from the marble neck

The cheek fair-blooming, and the rosy lip

Where winning smiles and pleasure sweet as love,

With sanctity and wisdom, temp'ring blend

Their soft allurement. Then the pleasing force

Of nature, and her kind parental care,

Worthier I'd sing: then all th' enamour'd youth,

With each admiring virgin to my lyre

Should throng attentive, while I point on high

Where beauty's living image, like the morn

That wakes in Zephyr's arms the blushing May,

Moves onward; or as Venus, when she stood

Effulgent on the pearly car, and smil'd,

Fresh from the deep, and conscious of her form,

To see the Tritons tune their vocal shells,

And each coerulean sister of the flood

With fond acclaim attend her o'er the waves,

To seek th' Idalian bow'r. Ye smiling band

Of youths and virgins, who thro' all the maze

Of young desire with rival-steps pursue

This charm of beauty; if the pleasing toil

Can yield a moment's respite, hither turn

Your favourable ear, and trust my words.

I do not mean to wake the gloomy form

Of superstition drest in wisdom's garb,

To damp your tender hopes; I do not mean

To bid the jealous thund'rer fire the heav'ns,

Or shapes infernal rend the groaning earth

To fright you from your joys: my chearful song

With better omens calls you to the field,

Pleas'd with your gen'rous ardour in the chace,

And warm as you. Then tell me, for you know,

Does beauty ever deign to dwell where health

And active use are strangers? Is her charm

Confess'd in aught, whose most peculiar ends

Are lame and fruitless? Or did nature mean

This awful stamp the herald of a lye;

To hide the shame of discord and disease,

And catch with fair hypocrisy the heart

Of idle faith? O no! with better cares,

Th' indulgent mother, conscious how infirm

Her offspring tread the paths of good and ill,

By this illustrious image, in each kind

Still most illustrious where the object holds

Its native pow'rs most perfect, she by this

Illumes the headlong impulse of desire,

And sanctifies his choice. The generous glebe

Whose bosom smiles with verdure, the clear tract

Of streams delicious to the thirsty soul,

The bloom of nectar'd fruitage ripe to sense,

And every charm of animated things,

Are only pledges of a state sincere,

Th' integrity and order of their frame,

When all is well within, and every end

Accomplish'd. Thus was beauty sent from heav'n,

The lovely ministress of truth and good

In this dark world: for truth and good are one,

And beauty dwells in them, and they in her,[10]

With like participation. Wherefore then,

O sons of earth! would you dissolve the tye?

O wherefore, with a rash, imperfect aim,

Seek you those flow'ry joys with which the hand

Of lavish fancy paints each flatt'ring scene

Where beauty seems to dwell, nor once inquire

Where is the sanction of eternal truth,

Or where the seal of undeceitful good,

To save your search from folly? Wanting these,

Lo! beauty withers in your void imbrace,

And with the glitt'ring of an idiot's toy

Did fancy mock your vows. Nor let the gleam

Of youthful hope that shines upon your hearts,

Be chill'd or clouded at this awful task

To learn the lore of undeceitful good,

And truth eternal. Tho' the pois'nous charms

Of baleful superstition, guide the feet

Of servile numbers, thro' a dreary way

To their abode, thro' desarts, thorns and mire;

And leave the wretched pilgrim all forlorn

To muse, at last, amid the ghostly gloom

Of graves, and hoary vaults, and cloister'd cells;

To walk with spectres thro' the midnight shade,

And to the screaming owl's accursed song

Attune the dreadful workings of his heart;

Yet be not you dismay'd. A gentler star

Your lovely search illumines. From the grove

Where wisdom talk'd with her Athenian sons,

Could my ambitious hand intwine a wreath

Of PLATO'S olive with the Mantuan bay,

Then should my pow'rful voice at once dispel

These monkish horrors: then in light divine

Disclose th' Elysian prospect, where the steps

Of those whom nature charms, thro' blooming walks,

Thro' fragrant mountains and poetic streams,

Amid the train of sages, heroes, bards,

Led by their winged Genius and the choir

Of laurell'd science and harmonious art,

Proceed exulting to th' eternal shrine,

Where truth inthron'd with her coelestial twins,

The undivided part'ners of her sway,

With good and beauty reigns. O let not us,

Lull'd by luxurious pleasure's languid strain,

Or crouching to the frowns of bigot-rage,

O let not us a moment pause to join

The god-like band. And if the gracious pow'r

That first awaken'd my untutor'd song,

Will to my invocation breathe anew

The tuneful spirit; then thro' all our paths,

Ne'er shall the sound of this devoted lyre

Be wanting; whether on the rosy mead,

When summer smiles, to warn the melting heart

Of luxury's allurement; whether firm

Against the torrent and the stubborn hill

To urge bold virtue's unremitted nerve,

And wake the strong divinity of soul

That conquers chance and fate; or whether struck

For sounds of triumph, to proclaim her toils

Upon the lofty summit, round her brow

To twine the wreathe of incorruptive praise;

To trace her hallow'd light thro' future worlds,

And bless heav'n's image in the heart of man.

Thus with a faithful aim have we presum'd,

Advent'rous, to delineate nature's form;

Whether in vast, majestic pomp array'd,

Or drest for pleasing wonder, or serene

In beauty's rosy smile. It now remains,

Thro' various being's fair-proportion'd scale,

To trace the rising lustre of her charms,

From their first twilight, shining forth at length

To full meridian splendour. Of degree

The least and lowliest, in th'effusive warmth

Of colours mingling with a random blaze,

Doth beauty dwell. Then higher in the line

And variation of determin'd shape,

Where truth's eternal measures mark the bound

Of circle, cube, or sphere. The third ascent

Unites this varied symmetry of parts

With colour's bland allurement; as the pearl

Shines in the concave of its azure bed,

And painted shells indent their speckled wreathe.

Then more attractive rise the blooming forms

Thro' which the breath of nature has infus'd

Her genial pow'r to draw with pregnant veins

Nutritious moisture from the bounteous earth,

In fruit and seed prolific: thus the flow'rs

Their purple honours with the spring resume;

And such the stately tree which autumn bends

With blushing treasures. But more lovely still

Is nature's charm, where to the full consent

Of complicated members, to the bloom

Of colour, and the vital change of growth,

Life's holy flame and piercing sense are giv'n,

And active motion speaks the temper'd soul:

So moves the bird of Juno; so the steed

With rival ardour beats the dusty plain,

And faithful dogs with eager airs of joy

Salute their fellows. Thus doth beauty dwell

There most conspicuous, ev'n in outward shape,

Where dawns the high expression of a mind:

By steps conducting our inraptur'd search

To that eternal origin, whose pow'r,

Thro' all th' unbounded symmetry of things,

Like rays effulging from the parent sun,

This endless mixture of her charms diffus'd.

MIND, MIND alone, bear witness, earth and heav'n!

The living fountains in itself contains

Of beauteous and sublime: here hand in hand,

Sit paramount the Graces; here inthron'd,

Coelestial Venus, with divinest airs,

Invites the soul to never-fading joy.

Looks then abroad thro' nature, to the range

Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres

Wheeling unshaken thro' the void immense;

And speak, O man! does this capacious scene

With half that kindling majesty dilate

Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose[12]

Refulgent from the stroke of Caesar's fate,

Amid the croud of patriots; and his arm

Aloft extending, like eternal Jove

When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud

On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,

And bade the father of his country, hail!

For lo! the tyrant prostrate on the dust,

And Rome again is free?—Is aught so fair

In all the dewy landscapes of the spring,

In the bright eye of Hesper or the morn,

In nature's fairest forms, is aught so fair

As virtuous friendship? as the candid blush

Of him who strives with fortune to be just?

The graceful tear that streams for other's woes?

Or the mild majesty of private life,

Where peace with ever-blooming olive crowns,

The gate; where honour's liberal hands effuse

Unenvy'd treasures, and the snowy wings

Of innocence and love protect the scene?

Once more search, undismay'd, the dark profound

Where nature works in secret; view the beds

Of min'ral treasure, and th' eternal vault

That bounds the hoary ocean; trace the forms

Of atoms moving with incessant change

Their elemental round; behold the seeds

Of being, and the energy of life

Kindling the mass with ever-active flame:

Then to the secrets of the working mind

Attentive turn; from dim oblivion call

Her fleet, ideal band; and bid them, go!

Break thro' time's barrier, and o'ertake the hour

That saw the heav'ns created: then declare

If aught were found in those external scenes

To move thy wonder now. For what are all

The forms which brute, unconscious matter wears,

Greatness of bulk, or symmetry of parts?

Not reaching to the heart, soon feeble grows

The superficial impulse; dull their charms,

And satiate soon, and pall the languid eye.

Not so the moral species, or the pow'rs

Of genius and design; th' ambitious mind

There sees herself: by these congenial forms

Touch'd and awaken'd, with intenser act

She bends each nerve, and meditates well-pleas'd

Her features in the mirror. For of all

Th' inhabitants of earth, to man alone

Creative wisdom gave to lift his eye

To truth's eternal measures; thence to frame

The sacred laws of action and of will,

Discerning justice from unequal deeds,

And temperance from folly. But beyond

This energy of truth, whose dictates bind

Assenting reason, the benignant •ire,

To deck the honour'd paths of just and good,

Has added bright imagination's rays:

Where virtue rising from the awful depth

Of truth's mysterious bosom, doth forsake[13]

The unadorn'd condition of her birth;

And dress'd by fancy in ten thousand hues,

Assumes a various feature, to attract,

With charms responsive to each gazer's eye,

The hearts of men. Amid his rural walk,

Th' ingenuous youth whom solitude inspires

With purest wishes, from the pensive shade

Beholds her moving, like a virgin-muse

That wakes her lyre to some indulgent theme

Of harmony and wonder: while among

The herd of servile minds, her strenuous form

Indignant flashes on the patriot's eye,

And thro' the rolls of memory appeals

To ancient honour; or in act serene,

Yet watchful, raises the majestic sword

Of public pow'r, from dark ambition's reach

To guard the sacred volume of the laws.

Genius of ancient Greece! whose faithful steps

Well-pleas'd I follow thro' the sacred paths

Of nature and of science; nurse divine

Of all heroic deeds and fair desires!

O! let the breath of thy extended praise

Inspire my kindling bosom to the height

Of this untemper'd theme. Nor be my thoughts

Presumptuous counted, if, amid the calm

That sooths this vernal evening into smiles,

I steal impatient from the sordid haunts

Of strife and low ambition, to attend

Thy sacred presence in the sylvan shade,

By their malignant footsteps ne'er profan'd.

Descend, propitious! to my favour'd eye;

Such in thy mien, thy warm, exalted air,

As when the Persian tyrant, foil'd and stung

With shame and desperation, gnash'd his teeth

To see thee rend the pageants of his throne;

And at the lightning of thy lifted spear

Crouch'd like a slave. Bring all thy martial spoils,

Thy palms, thy laurels, thy triumphal songs,

Thy smiling band of arts, thy godlike sires

Of civil wisdom, thy heroic youth

Warm from the schools of glory. Guide my way

Thro' fair Lycéum's[14] walk, the green retreats

Of Academus,[15] and the thymy vale,

Where oft inchanted with Socratic sounds,

Ilissus[16] pure devolv'd his tuneful stream

In gentler murmurs. From the blooming store

Of these auspicious fields, may I unblam'd

Transplant some living blossoms to adorn

My native clime: while far above the flight

Of fancy's plume aspiring, I unlock

The springs of ancient wisdom; while I join

Thy name, thrice honour'd! with th'immortal praise

Of nature; while to my compatriot youth

I point the high example of thy sons,

And tune to Attic themes the British lyre.

End of the FIRST BOOK.

Notes

1

Yet not unconscious.]

Lucret. l. 2. v. 921.

Nec me animi fallit quam sint obscura, sed acri

Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor,

Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem

Musarum; quo nunc instinctus mente vigenti

Avia Piëridum peragro loca, nullius ante

Trita solo: juvat integros accedere fonteis,

Atque haurire: juvatque novos discerpere flores;

Insignem meo capiti petere inde coronam,

Unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae.

↵

2

As Memnon's marble harp.]

The statue of Memnon, so famous in antiquity, stood in the temple of Serapis at Thebes, one of the great cities of old Egypt. It was of a very hard, iron-like stone, and, according to Juvenal, held in its hand a lyre, which being touch'd by the sun-beams, emitted a distinct and agreeable sound. Tacitus mentions it as one of the principal curiosities which Germanicus took notice of in his journey through Egypt,; and Strabo affirms that he, with many others, heard it.

↵

3

Say, why was man, &c.]

In apologizing for the frequent negligence of the sublimest authors of Greece,
Those god-like geniuses, says Longinus, were wellassured that nature had not intended man for a low-spirited or ignoble being: but bringing us into life and the midst of this wide universe, as before a multitude assembled at some heroic solemnity that we might be spectators of all her magnificence, and candidates high in emulation for the prize of glory; she has therefore implanted in our souls an inextinguishable love of every thing great and exalted, of every thing which appears divine beyond our comprehension. Whence it comes to pass, that even the whole world is not an object sufficient for the depth and rapidity of human imagination, which often sallies forth beyond the limits of all that surrounds us. Let any man cast his eye through the whole circle of our existence, and consider how especially it abounds in excellent and grand objects, he will soon acknowledge for what injoyments and pursuits we were destined. Thus by the very propensity of nature we are led to admire, not little springs or shallow rivulets, however clear and delicious, but the Nile, the Rhine, the Danube, and much more than all, the ocean, &c. Dionys. Longin. de Sublim. §. xxxiv.

↵

4

Th' empyreal waste.]

Ne se peut-il point qu'il y a un grand espace audelà de la region des etoiles? Que ce soit le ciel empyreé, ou non, toûjours cet espace immense qui environne toute cette region, pourra être rempli de bonheur & de gloire. Il pourre être conçu comme l'ocean, où se rendent les fleuves de toutes les creatures bienheureuses, quand elles seront venues à leur perfection dans le systême des etoiles. Leibnitz dans la Theodicee, part. i. §. 19.

↵

5

Whose unfading light, &c.]

It was a notion of the great M. Huygens, that there may be fix'd stars at such a distance from our solar system, as that their light shall not have had time to reach us, even from the creation of the world to this day.

↵

6

—the neglect

Of all familiar prospects, &c.]

It is here said, that in consequence of the love of novelty, objects which at first were highly delightful to the mind, lose that effect by repeated attention to them. But the instance of habit is oppos'd to this observation; for there, objects at first distasteful are in time render'd intirely agreeable by repeated attention.

The difficulty in this case will be remov'd, if we consider, that when objects at first agreeable, lose that influence by frequently recurring, the mind is wholly passive and the perception involuntary; but habit, on the other hand. generally supposes choice and activity accompanying it: so that the pleasure arises here not from the object, but from the mind's conscious determination of its own activity; and consequently increases in proportion to the frequency of that determination.

It will still be urged perhaps, that a familiarity with disagreeable objects renders them at length acceptable, even when there is no room for the mind to resolve or act at all. In this case, the appearance must be accounted for, one of these ways.

The pleasure from habit may be meerly negative. The object at first gave uneasiness: this uneasinest gradually wears off as the object grows familiar; and the mind finding it at last intirely removed, reckons its situation really pleasurable, compar'd with what it had experienced before.

The dislike conceiv'd of the object at first, might be owing to prejudice or want of attention. Consequently the mind being necessitated to review it often, may at length perceive its own mistake, and be reconcil'd to what it had look'd on with aversion. In which case, a sort of instinctive justice naturally leads it to make amends for the injury, by running toward th e other extreme of fondness and attachment.

Or lastly, tho' the object itself should always continue disagreeable, yet circumstances of pleasure or good fortune may occur along with it. Thus an association may arise in the mind, and the object never be remember'd without those pleasing circumstances attending it; by which means the disagreeable impression it at first occasion'd will in time be quite obliterated.

↵

7

—this desire

Of objects new and strange—]

These two ideas are oft confounded; tho' it is evident the meer novelty of an object makes it agreeable, even where the mind is not affected with the least degree of wonder: whereas wonder indeed always implies novelty, being never excited by common or well-known appearances. But the pleasure in both cases is explicable from the same final cause, the acquisition of knowledge and inlargement of our views of nature: and on this account it is natural to treat of them together.

↵

8

Atlantic isles.]

By these islands, which were also called the Fortunate, the ancients are now generally supposed to have meant the Canaries. They were celebrated by the poets for the mildness and fertility of the climate; for the gardens of the daughters of Hesperus, the brother of Atlas; and the dragon which constantly watched their golden fruit, till it was slain by the Tyrian Hercules.

↵

9

Where gliding thro' his daughter's honour'd shades.]

Daphne, the daughter of Penéus, transformed into a laurel.

↵

10

—Truth and good are one,

And beauty dwells in them, &c.]

Do you imagine, says Socrates to his libertine disciple, that what is good is not also beautiful? Have you not observ'd that these appearances always co-incide? Virtue, for instance, in the same respect as to which we call it good, is ever acknowledg'd to be beautiful also. In the characters of men we always [†] join the two denominations together. The beauty of human bodies corresponds, in like manner, with that oeconomy of parts which constitutes them good; and in all the circumstances which occurr in life, the same object is constantly accounted both beautiful and good, inasmuch as it answers the purposes for which it was design'd. Xenophont. memorab. Socrat. 1. 3. c. 8.

This excellent observation has been illustrated and extended by the noble restorer of ancient philosophy; see the Characteristicks, vol. 2. p. 399. & 422. & vol. 3. p. 181. And his most ingenious disciple has particularly shewn, that it holds in the general laws of nature, in the works of art, and the conduct of the sciences. Inquiry into the original of our ideas of beauty and virtue; Treat. 1. §. 8. As to the connection between beauty and truth, there are two opinions concerning it. Some philosophers assert an independent and invariable law in nature, in consequence of which all rational beings must alike perceive beauty in some certain proportions, and deformity in the contrary. And this necessity being supposed the same with that which commands the assent or dissent of the understanding, it follows of course that beauty is founded on the universal and unchangeable law of truth.

But others there are who believe beauty to be meerly a relative and arbitrary thing; that indeed it was a benevolent design in nature to annex so delightful a sensation to those objects which are best and most perfect in themselves, that so we might be ingaged to the choice of them at once and without staying to infer their usefulness from their structure and effects; but that it is not impossible, in a physical sense, that two beings, of equal capacities for truth, should perceive, one of them beauty, and the other deformity, in the same relations. And upon this supposition, by that truth which is always connected with beauty, nothing more can be meant than the conformity of any object to those proportions upon which, after careful examination, the beauty of that species is found to depend. Polycletus for instance, the famous sculptor of Sicyon, from an accurate mensuration of the several parts of the most perfect human bodies, deduced a canon or system of proportions, which was the rule of all succeeding artists. Suppose a statue modell'd according to this canon. A man of meer natural taste, upon looking at it, without entering into its proportions, confesses and admires its beauty; whereas a professor of the art applies his measures to the head, the neck, or the hand, and, without attending to its beauty, pronounces the workmanship to be just and true.

↵

†
This the Athenians did in a peculiar manner by the words
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
.

↵

12

As when Brutus rose, &c.]

Cicero himself describes this fact—
Caesare interfecto—statim cruentum altè extollens M. Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit, atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus. Cic. Philipp. 2. 12.

↵

13

Where virtue rising from the awful depth.

Of truth's mysterious bosom, &c.]

According to the opinion of those who assert moral obligation to be founded on an immutable and universal law, and that pathetic feeling which is usually call'd the moral sense, to be determin'd by the peculiar temper of the imagination and the earliest associations of ideas.

↵

14

Lycéum.]

The school of Aristotle,

↵

15

Academus.]

The school of Plato.

↵

16

Ilissus.]

One of the rivers on which Athens was situated. Plato, in some of his finest dialogues, lays the scene of the conversation with Socrates on its banks.

↵

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
BOOK the SECOND.
THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
BOOK the SECOND.

ARGUMENT of the SECOND BOOK.

THE separation of the works of imagination from philosophy, the cause of their abuse among the moderns; to verse 41. Prospect of their re-union under the influence of public liberty; to v. 61. Enumeration of accidental pleasures, which increase the effect of objects delightful to the imagination. The pleasures of sense; v. 73. Particular circumstances of the mind; v. 84. Discovery of truth; v. 97. Perception of contrivance and design; v. 121. Emotions of the passions; v. 136. All the natural passions partake of a pleasing sensation, with the final cause of this constitution illustrated by an allegorical vision, and exemplified in sorrow, pity, terror and indignation; from v. 155 to the end.

WHEN shall the laurel and the vocal string

Resume their honours? When shall we behold

The tuneful tongue, the Promethéan hand

Aspire to ancient praise? Alas! how faint,

How slow the dawn of beauty and of truth

Breaks the reluctant shades of Gothic night

Which yet involve the nations! Long they groan'd

Beneath the furies of rapacious force;

Oft as the gloomy north, with iron-swarms

Tempestuous pouring from her frozen caves,

Blasted th' Italian shore, and swept the works

Of liberty and wisdom down the gulph

Of all-devouring night. As long immur'd

In noontide darkness by th' glimm'ring lamp,

Each muse and each fair science pin'd away

The sordid hours: while foul, barbarian hands

Their mysteries profan'd, unstrung the lyre,

And chain'd the soaring pinion down to earth.

At last the Muses rose, and spurn'd their bonds,[17]

And wildly warbling scatter'd, as they flew,

Their blooming wreaths from fair Valclusa's[18] bow'rs

To Arno's[19] myrtle border from the shore

Of soft Parthenope.[20] But still the rage

Of dire ambition and gigantic pow'r,[21]

From public aims and from the busy walk

Of civil commerce, drove the bolder train

Of penetrating science to the cells,

Where studious ease consumes the silent hour

In shadowy searches and unfruitful care.

Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts[22]

Of mimic fancy and harmonious joy,

To priestly domination and the lust

Of lawless courts, their amiable toil

For three inglorious ages have resign'd,

In vain reluctant: and Torquato's tongue

Was tun'd for slavish paeans at the throne

Of tinsel pomp; and Raphael's magic hand

Effus'd its fair creation to inchant

The fond adoring herd in Latian fanes

To bind belief; while on their prostrate necks

The sable tyrant plants his heel secure.

But now behold! the radiant aera dawns,

When freedom's ample fabric, fix'd at length

For endless years on Albion's happy shore

In full proportion, once more shall extend

To all the kindred pow'rs of social bliss

A common mansion, a parental roof.

There shall the Virtues, there shall Wisdom's train,

Their long-lost friends rejoining, as of old,

Imbrace the smiling family of arts,

The Muses and the Graces. Then no more

Shall vice, distracting their delicious gifts

To aims abhorr'd, with high distaste and scorn

Turn from their charms the philosophic eye,

The patriot-bosom: then no more the paths

Of public care or intellectual toil,

Alone by footsteps haughty and severe

In gloomy state be trod: th' harmonious Muse

And her persuasive sisters then shall plant

Their sheltring laurels o'er the bleak ascent,

And shed their flow'rs along the rugged way.

Arm'd with the lyre, already have we dar'd

To pierce divine philosophy's retreats,

And teach the Muse her lore; already strove

Their long-divided honours to unite,

While temp'ring this deep argument we sang

Of truth and beauty. Now the same task

Impends; now urging our ambitious toil,

We hasten to recount the various springs

Of adventitious pleasure, which adjoin

Their grateful influence to the prime effect

Of objects grand or beauteous, and inlarge

The complicated joy. The sweets of sense,

Do they not oft with kind accession flow,

To raise harmonious fancy's native charm?

So while we taste the fragrance of the rose,

Glows not her blush the fairer? While we view

Amid the noontide walk a limpid rill

Gush thro' the trickling herbage, to the thirst

Of summer yielding the delicious draught

Of cool refreshment; o'er the mossy brink

Shines not the surface clearer, and the waves

With sweeter music murmur as they flow?

Nor this alone; the various lot of life

Oft from external circumstance assumes

A moment's disposition to rejoice

In those delights which at a different hour

Would pass unheeded. Fair the face of spring,

When rural songs and odours wake the morn,

To every eye; but how much more to his

Round whom the bed of sickness long diffus'd

Its melancholy gloom! how doubly fair,

When first with fresh-born vigour he inhales

The balmy breeze, and feels the blessed sun

Warm at his bosom, from the springs of life

Chasing oppressive damps and languid pain!

Or shall I mention, where coelestial truth

Her awful light discloses, to effuse

A more majestic pomp on beauty's frame?

For man loves knowledge, and the beams of truth

More welcome touch his understanding's eye,

Than all the blandishments of sound, his ear,

Than all of taste his tongue. Nor ever yet

The melting rainbow's vernal-tinctur'd hues

To me have shone so pleasing, as when first

The hand of science pointed out the path

In which the sun-beams gleaming from the west

Fall on the watry cloud, whose darksome veil

Involves the orient; and that trickling show'r

Piercing thro' every crystalline convex

Of clust'ring dew-drops to their flight oppos'd,

Recoil at length where concave all behind

Th' internal surface of each glassy orb

Repells their forward passage into air;

That thence direct they seek the radiant goal

From which their course began; and, as they strike

In diff'rent lines the gazer's obvious eye,

Assume a diff'rent lustre, thro' the brede

Of colours changing from the splendid rose

To the pale violet's dejected hue.

Or shall we touch that kind access of joy,

That springs to each fair object, while we trace,

Thro' all its fabric, wisdom's artful aim

Disposing every part, and gaining still

By means proportion'd her benignant end?

Speak, ye, the pure delight, whose favour'd steps

The lamp of science thro' the jealous maze

Of nature guides, when haply you reveal

Her secret honours: whether in the sky,

The beauteous laws of light, the central pow'rs

That wheel the pensile planets round the year;

Whether in wonders of the rowling deep,

Or smiling fruits of pleasure-pregnant earth,

Or fine-adjusted springs of life and sense,

You scan the counsels of their author's hand.

What, when to raise the meditated scene,

The flame of passion, thro' the struggling soul

Deep-kindled, shows across that sudden blaze

The object of its rapture, vast of size,

With fiercer colours and a night of shade?

What? like a storm from their capacious bed

The sounding seas o'erwhelming, when the might

Of these eruptions, working from the depth

Of man's strong apprehension, shakes his frame

Ev'n to the base; from every naked sense

Of pain or pleasure dissipating all

Opinion's feeble cov'rings, and the veil

Spun from the cobweb-fashion of the times

To hide the feeling heart? Then nature speaks

Her genuine language, and the words of men,

Big with the very motion of their souls,

Declare with what accumulated force,

Th' impetuous nerve of passion urges on

The native weight and energy of things.

Yet more; her honours where nor beauty claims,

Nor shews of good the thirsty sense allure,

From passion's pow'r alone our nature holds[23]

Essential pleasure. Passion's fierce illapse

Rouzes the mind's whole fabric; with supplies

Of daily impulse keeps th' elastic pow'rs

Intensely poiz'd, and polishes anew

By that collision all the fine machine:

Else rust would rise, and foulness, by degrees

Incumb'ring, choak at last what heav'n design'd

For ceaseless motion and a round of toil.

—But say, does every passion men endure

Thus minister delight? That name indeed

Becomes the rosy breath of love; becomes

The radiant smiles of joy, th' applauding hand

Of admiration: but the bitter show'r

That sorrow sheds upon a brother's grave,

But the dumb palsy of nocturnal fear,

Or those consuming fires that gnaw the heart

Of panting indignation, find we there

To move delight?—Then listen, while my tongue

Th' unalter'd will of heav'n with faithful awe

Reveals; what old Harmodious wont to teach

My early age; Harmodius, who had weigh'd

Within his learned mind whate'er the schools

Of wisdom, or thy lonely-whisp'ring voice,

O faithful nature! dictate of the laws

Which govern and support this mighty frame

Of universal being. Oft the hours

From morn to eve have stole unmark'd away,

While mute attention hung upon his lips,

As thus the sage his awful tale began.

'Twas in the windings of an ancient wood,

When spotless youth with solitude resigns

To sweet philosophy the studious day,

What time pale autumn shades the silent eve,

Musing I rov'd. Of good and evil much,

And much of mortal man my thought revolv'd;

When starting full on fancy's gushing eye,

The mournful image of Parthenia's fate,

That hour, O long belov'd and long deplor'd!

When blooming youth, nor gentlest wisdom's arts,

Nor Hymen's honours gather'd for thy brow,

Nor all thy lover's, all thy father's tears

Avail'd to snatch thee from the cruel grave;

Thy agonizing looks, thy last farewel

Struck to the inmost feeling of my soul

As with the hand death. At once the shade

More horrid nodded o'er me, and the winds

With hoarser murm'ring shook the branches. Dark

As midnight storms, the scene of human things

Appear'd before me; desarts, burning sands,

Where the parch'd adder dies; the frozen south,

And desolation blasting all the west

With rapine and with murder: tyrant-pow'r

Here sits inthron'd in blood; the baleful charms

Of superstition there infect the skies,

And turn the sun to horror. Gracious heav'n!

What is the life of man? Or cannot these,

Not these portents thy awful will suffice?

That propagated thus beyond their scope,

They rise to act their cruelties anew

In my afflicted bosom, thus decreed

The universal sensitive of pain,

The wretched heir of evils not its own!

Thus I, impatient; when at once effus'd,

A flashing torrent of coelestial day

Burst thro' the shadowy void. With slow descent

A purple cloud came floating thro' the sky,

And pois'd at length within the circling trees,

Hung obvious to my view: till opening wide

Its lucid orb, a more than human form

Emerging lean'd majestic o'er my head,

And instant thunder shook the conscious grove.

Then melted into air the liquid cloud,

And all the shining vision stood reveal'd.

A wreath of palm his ample forehead bound,

And o'er his shoulder, mantling to his knee,

Flow'd the transparent robe, around his waist

Collected with a radiant zone of gold

Aethereal: there in mystic signs ingrav'd,

I read his office high and sacred name,

Genius of human kind. Appall'd I gaz'd

The godlike presence; for athwart his brow

Displeasure, temper'd with a mild concern,

Look'd down reluctant on me, and his words

Like distant thunders broke the murm'ring air.

Vain are thy thoughts, O child of mortal birth,

And impotent thy tongue. Is thy short span

Capacious of this universal frame?

Thy wisdom all-sufficient? Thou, alas!

Dost thou aspire to judge between the lord

Of nature and his works? to lift thy voice

Against the sov'reign order he decreed

All good and lovely? to blaspheme the bands

Of tenderness innate and social love,

Holiest of things! by which the general orb

Of being, as with adamantine links,

Was drawn to perfect union and sustain'd

From everlasting? Hast thou felt the pangs

Of soft'ning sorrow, of indignant zeal

So grievous to the soul, as thence to wish

The ties of nature broken from thy frame;

That so thy selfish, unrelenting heart

May cease to mourn its lot, no longer then

The wretched heir of evils not its own?

O fair benevolence of gen'rous minds!

O man by nature form'd for all mankind!

He spoke; abash'd and silent I remain'd,

As conscious of my lips' offence, and aw'd

Before his presence, tho' my secret soul

Disdain'd the imputation. On the ground

I fix'd my eyes; till from his airy couch

He stoop'd sublime, and touching with his hand

My dazzled forehead, Raise thy sight, he cry'd,

And let thy sense convince thy erring tongue.

I look'd, and lo! the former scene was chang'd;

For verdant alleys and surrounding trees,

A solitary prospect, wide and wild,

Rush'd on my senses. 'Twas a horrid pile

Of hills with many a shaggy forest mix'd,

With many a sable cliff and glitt'ring stream.

Aloft recumbent o'er the hanging ridge,

The brown woods wav'd, while ever-trickling springs

Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine,

The crumbling soil; and still at every fall

Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock,

Remurm'ring rush'd the congregated floods

With hoarser inundation; till at last

They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts

Of that high desart spread her verdant lap,

And drank the gushing moisture, where confin'd

In one smooth current, o'er the lilied vale

Clearer than glass it flow'd. Autumnal spoils

Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn,

Blush'd o'er the cliffs, whose half-incircling mound

As in a sylvan theatre inclos'd

That flow'ry level. On the river's brink

I spy'd a fair pavilion, which diffus'd

Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade

Of osiers. Now the western sun reveal'd

Between two parting cliffs his golden orb,

And pour'd across the shadow of the hills,

On rocks and floods, a yellow stream of light

That chear'd the solemn scene. My list'ning pow'rs

Were aw'd, and every thought in silence hung,

And wond'ring expectation. Then the voice

Of that coelestial pow'r, the mystic show

Declaring, thus my deep attention call'd.

Inhabitant of earth, to whom is giv'n[24]

The gracious ways of providence to learn,

Receive my sayings with a stedfast ear—

Know then, the sov'reign spirit of the world,

Tho' self-collected from eternal time,

Within his own deep essence he beheld

The circling bounds of happiness unite;

Yet by immense benignity inclin'd

To spread around him that primaeval joy

Which fill'd himself, he rais'd his plastic arm,

And sounded thro' the hollow depth of space

The strong, creative mandate. Strait arose

These heav'nly orbs, the glad abodes of life

Effusive kindled by his breath divine

Thro' endless forms of being. Each inhal'd

From him its portion of the vital flame,

In measure such, that from the wide complex

Of coexistent orders, one might rise,

One order, all-involving and intire.[25]

He too beholding in the sacred light

Of his essential reason, all the shapes

Of swift contingence, all successives ties

Of action propagated thro' the sum

Of possible existence, he at once,

Down the long series of eventful time,

So fix'd the dates of being, so dispos'd,

To every living soul of every kind,

The field of motion and the hour of rest,

That all conspir'd to his supreme design,

To universal good: with full accord

Answ'ring the mighty model he had chose,

The best and fairest of unnumber'd worlds[26]

That lay from everlasting in the store

Of his divine conceptions. Nor content,

By one exertion of creating pow'r

His goodness to reveal; thro' every age,

Thro' every moment up the tract of time,

His parent-hand with ever-new increase

Of happiness and virtue has adorn'd

The vast harmonious frame: his parent-hand,

From mute shell-fish gasping on the shore,

To men, to angels, to coelestial minds,

For ever leads the generations on

To higher scenes of being; while supply'd

From day to day by his enlivening breath,

Inferior orders in succession rise

To fill the void below. As flame ascends,[27]

As bodies to their proper center move,

As the poiz'd ocean to th' attracting moon

Obedient swells, and every headlong stream

Devolves its winding waters to the main;

So all things which have life aspire to GOD,

The sun of being, boundless, unimpair'd,

Center of souls! Nor does the faithful voice

Of nature cease to prompt their eager steps

Aright; nor is the care of heav'n witheld

From granting to the task proportion'd aid;

That in their stations all may persevere

To climb th' ascent of being, and approach

For ever nearer to the life divine.

That rocky pile thou see'st, that verdant lawn

Fresh-water'd from the mountains. Let the scene

Paint in thy fancy the primaeval seat

Of man, and where the will supreme ordain'd

His mansion, that pavilion fair-diffus'd

Along the shady brink, in this recess

To wear th' appointed season of his youth;

Till riper hours should open to his toil

The high communion of superior minds,

Of consecrated heroes and of gods.

Nor did the sire omnipotent forget

His tender bloom to cherish; nor witheld

Coelestial footsteps from his green abode.

Oft from the radiant honours of his throne,

He sent whom most he lov'd, the sov'reign fair,

The effluence of his glory, whom he plac'd

Before his eyes for ever to behold;

The goddess from whose inspiration flows

The toil of patriots, the delight of friends;

Without whose work divine, in heav'n or earth,

Nought lovely, nought propitious comes to pass,

Nor hope, nor praise, nor honour. Her the sire

Gave it in charge to rear the blooming mind,

The folded pow'rs to open, to direct

The growth luxuriant of his young desires,

And from the laws of this majestic world

To teach him what was good. As thus the nymph

Her daily care attended, by her side

With constant steps her gay companion stay'd,

The fair Euphrosyné, the gentle queen

Of smiles, and graceful gladness, and delights

That chear alike the hearts of mortal men

And pow'rs immortal. See the shining pair!

Behold, where from his dwelling now disclos'd,

They quit their youthful charge and seek the skies.

I look'd, and on the flow'ry turf there stood,

Between two radiant forms, a smiling youth

Whose tender cheeks display'd the vernal flow'r

Of beauty; sweetest innocence illum'd

His bashful eyes, and on his polish'd brow

Sate young simplicity. With fond regard

He view'd th' associates, as their steps they mov'd;

The younger chief his ardent eyes detain'd,

With mild regret invoking her return.

Bright as the star of evening she appear'd

Amid the dusky scene. Eternal youth

O'er all her form its glowing honours breath'd;

And smiles eternal, from her candid eyes,

Flow'd like the dewy lustre of the morn

Effusive trembling on the placid waves.

The spring of heav'n had shed its blushing spoils

To bind her sable tresses: full diffus'd

Her yellow mantle floated in the breeze;

And in her hand she wav'd a living branch

Rich with immortal fruits, of pow'r to calm

The wrathful heart, and from the bright'ning eyes

To chase the cloud of sadness. More sublime

The heav'nly part'ner mov'd. The prime of age

Compos'd her steps. The presence of a god,

High on the circle of her brow inthron'd,

From each majestic motion darted awe,

Devoted awe! till, cherish'd by her looks

Benevolent and meek, confiding love

To filial rapture soften'd all the soul.

Free in her graceful hand she poiz'd the sword

Of chaste dominion. An heroic crown

Display'd the old simplicity of pomp

Around her honour'd head. A matron's robe,

White as the sunshine streams thro' vernal clouds,

Her stately form invested. Hand in hand

Th' immortal pair forsook th' enamell'd green,

Ascending slowly. Rays of limpid light

Gleam'd round their path; coelestial sounds were heard,

And thro' the fragrant air aethereal dews

Distill'd around them; till at once the clouds

Disparting wide in midway sky, withdrew

Their airy veil, and left a bright expanse

Of empyréan flame, where spent and drown'd,

Afflicted vision plung'd in vain to scan

What object it involv'd. My feeble eyes

Indur'd not. Bending down to earth I stood,

With dumb attention. Soon a female voice,

As watry murmurs sweet, or warbling shades,

With sacred invocation thus began.

Father of gods and mortals! whose right arm

With reins eternal guides the moving heav'ns,

Bend thy propitious ear. Behold well-pleas'd

I seek to finish thy divine decree.

With frequent steps I visit yonder seat

Of man, thy offspring; from the tender seeds

Of justice and of wisdom, to evolve

The latent honours of his generous frame;

Till thy conducting hand shall raise his lot

From earth's dim scene to these aethereal walks,

The temple of thy glory. But not me,

Not my directing voice he oft requires,

Or hears delighted: this inchanting maid,

Th' associate thou hast giv'n me, her alone

He loves, O father! absent, her he craves;

And but for her glad presence ever join'd,

Rejoices not in mine: that all my hopes

This thy benignant purpose to fulfil,

I deem uncertain; and my daily cares

Unfruitful all and vain, unless by thee

Still farther aided in the work divine.

She ceas'd; a voice more awful thus reply'd.

O thou! in whom for ever I delight,

Fairer than all th' inhabitants of heaven,

Best image of thy author! far from thee

Be disappointment, or distaste, or blame;

Who soon or late shalt every work fulfil,

And no resistance find. Is man refuse

To hearken to thy dictates; or allur'd

By meaner joys, to any other pow'r

Transfer the honours due to thee alone;

That joy which he pursues he ne'er shall taste,

That pow'r in whom delighteth ne'er behold.

Go then once more, and happy be thy toil;

Go then! but let not this thy smiling friend

Partake thy footsteps. In her stead, behold!

With thee the son of Nemesis I send;

The fiend abhorr'd! whose vengeance takes account

Of sacred order's violated laws.

See where he calls thee, burning to be gone,

Fierce to exhaust the tempest of his wrath

On yon devoted head. But thou, my child,

Controul his cruel frenzy, and protect

Thy tender charge. That when despair shall grasp

His agonizing bosom, he may learn,

Then he may learn to love the gracious hand

Alone sufficient in that hour of ill,

To save his feeble spirit; then confess

Thy genuine honours, O excelling fair!

When all the plagues that wait the deadly will

Of this avenging daemon, all the storms

Of night infernal, serve but to display

The energy of thy superior charms

With mildest awe triumphant o'er his rage,

And shining clearer in the horrid gloom.

Here ceas'd that awful voice, and soon I felt

The cloudy curtain of refreshing eve

Was clos'd once more, from that immortal fire

Shelt'ring my eye-lids. Looking up, I view'd

A vast gigantic spectre striding on

Thro' murm'ring thunders and a waste of clouds,

With dreadful action. Black as night his brow

Relentless frowns involv'd. His savage limbs

With sharp impatience violent he writh'd,

As thro' convulsive anguish; and his hand

Arm'd with a scorpion-lash, full oft he rais'd

In madness to his bosom; while his eyes

Rain'd bitter tears, and bellowing loud he shook

The void with horror. Silent by his side

The virgin came. No discomposure stirr'd

Her features. From the glooms which hung around,

No stain of darkness mingled with the beam

Of her divine effulgence. Now they stoop

Upon the river-bank; and now to hail

His wonted guests, with eager steps advanc'd

The unsuspecting inmate of the shade.

As when a famish'd wolf, that all night long

Had rang'd the Alpine snows, by chance at morn

Sees from a cliff incumbent o'er the smoke

Of some lone village, a neglected kid

That strays along the wild for herb or spring;

Down from the winding ridge he sweeps amain,

And thinks he tears him: so with tenfold rage,

The monster sprung remorseless on his prey.

Amaz'd the stripling stood; with panting breast

Feebly he pour'd the lamentable wail

Of helpless consternation, struck at once,

And rooted to the ground. The queen beheld

His terror, and with looks of tend'rest care

Advanc'd to save him. Soon the tyrant felt

Her awful pow'r. His keen, tempestuous arm

Hung nerveless, nor descended where his rage

Had aim'd the deadly blow: then dumb retir'd

With sullen rancour. Lo! the sov'reign maid

Folds with a mother's arms the fainting boy,

Till life rekindles in his rosy cheek;

Then grasps his hand, and chears him with her tongue.

O wake thee, rouze thy spirit! Shall the spite

Of yon tormentor thus appall thy heart,

While I, thy friend and guardian, am at hand

To rescue and to heal? O let thy soul

Remember, what the will of heav'n ordains

Is ever good for all; and if for all,

Then good for thee. Nor only by the warmth

And soothing sunshine of delightful things,

Do minds grow up and flourish. Oft misled

By that blind light, the young unpractis'd views

Of reason wander thro' a fatal road,

Far from their native aim: as if to lye

Inglorious in the fragrant shade, and wait

The soft access of ever-circling joys,

Were all the end of being. Ask thyself,

This pleasing error did it never lull

Thy wishes? Has thy constant heart refus'd

The silken fetters of delicious ease?

Or when divine Euphrosyné appear'd

Within this dwelling, did not thy desires

Hang far below that measure of thy fate,

Which I reveal'd before thee? and thy eyes,

Impatient of my counsels, turn away

To drink the soft effusion of her smiles?

Know then, for this the everlasting •…ire

Deprives thee of her presence, and instead,

O wise and still benevolent! ordains

This horrid visage hither to pursue

My steps; that so thy nature may discern

Its real good, and what alone can save

Thy feeble spirit in this hour of ill

From folly and despair. O yet belov'd!

Let not this headlong terror quite o'erwhelm

Thy scatter'd pow'rs; nor fatal deem the rage

Of this tormentor, nor his proud assault,

While I am here to vindicate thy toil,

Above the generous question of thy arm.

Brave by thy fears, and in thy weakness strong,

This hour he triumphs; but confront his might,

And dare him to the combat, then with ease

Disarm'd and quell'd, his fierceness he resigns

To bondage and to scorn: while thus inur'd

By watchful danger, by unceasing toil,

Th' immortal mind, superior to his fate,

Amid the outrage of external things,

Firm as the solid base of this great world,

Rests on his own foundations. Blow, ye winds!

Ye waves! ye thunders! rowl your tempest on;

Shake, ye old pillars of the marble sky!

Till all its orbs and all its worlds of fire

Be loosen'd from their seats; yet still serene,

Th' unconquer'd mind looks down upon the wreck,

And ever stronger as the storms advance,

Firm thro' the closing ruin holds his way,

Where nature calls him to the destin'd goal.

So spake the goddess; while thro' all her frame

Coelestial raptures flow'd, in every word,

In ev'ry motion kindling wrath divine

To seize who listen'd. Vehement and swift

As light'ning fires the aromatic shade

In Aethiopian fields, the stripling felt

Her inspiration catch his fervid soul,

And starting from his languor thus exclaim'd.

Then let the trial come! and witness thou,

If terror be upon me; if I shrink

To meet the storm, or faulter in my strength

When hardest it besets me. Do not think

That I am fearful and infirm of soul,

As late thy eyes beheld: for thou hast chang'd

My nature; thy commanding voice has wak'd

My languid pow'rs to bear me boldly on,

Where'er the will divine my path ordains

Thro' toil or peril: only do not thou

Forsake me; O be thou for ever near,

That I may listen to thy sacred voice,

And guide by thy decrees my constant feet.

But say, for ever are my eyes bereft?

Say, shall the fair Euphrosyné not once

Appear again to charm me? Thou, in heav'n!

O thou eternal arbiter of things!

Be thy great bidding done: for who am I

To question thy appointment? Let the frowns

Of this avenger every morn o'ercast

The chearful dawn, and every evening damp

With double night my dwelling; I will learn

To hail them both, and unrepining bear

His hateful presence: but permit my tongue

One glad request, and if my deeds may find

Thy awful eye propitious, O restore

The rosy-featur'd maid; again to chear

This lonely seat, and bless me with her smiles.

He spoke; when instant, thro' the sable glooms

With which that furious presence had involv'd

The ambient air, a flood of radiance came

Swift as the light'ning-flash; the melting clouds

Flew diverse, and amid the blue serene

Euphrosyné appear'd. With sprightly step

The nymph alighted on th' irriguous lawn,

And to her wond'ring audience thus begun.

Lo! I am here to answer to your vows,

And be the meeting fortunate! I come

With joyful tidings; we shall part no more—

Hark! how the gentle Echo from her cell

Talks thro' the cliffs, and murm'ring o'er the stream

Repeats the accent; we shall part no more.

O my delightful friends! well-pleas'd on high

The father has beheld you, while the might

Of that stern foe with bitter trial prov'd

Your equal doings: then for ever spake

The high decree: that thou, coelestial maid!

Howe'er that griesly phantom on thy steps

May sometimes dare intrude, yet never more

Shalt thou descending to th' abode of man,

Alone indure the rancour of his arm,

Or leave thy lov'd Euphrosyné behind.

She ended; and the whole romantic scene

Immediate vanish'd: rocks, and woods, and rills,

The mantling tent, and each mysterious form

Flew like the pictures of a morning dream,

When sun-shine fills the bed. A while I stood

Perplex'd and giddy; till the radiant pow'r

Who bade the visionary landscape rise,

As up to him I turn'd, with gentlest looks

Preventing my inquiry, thus began.

There let thy soul acknowledge its complaint

How blind, how impious! There behold the ways

Of heav'n's eternal destiny to man,

For ever just, benevolent and wise:

That VIRTUE'S awful steps, howe'er pursued

By vexing fortune and intrusive PAIN,

Should never be divided from her chast,

Her fair attendant, PLEASURE. Need I urge

Thy tardy thought thro' all the various round

Of this existence, that thy soft'ning soul

At length may learn what energy the hand

Of virtue mingles in the bitter tide

Of passion swelling with distress and pain,

To mitigate the sharp with gracious drops

Of cordial pleasure? Ask the faithful youth,

Why the cold urn of her whom long he lov'd

So often fills his arms; so often draws

His lonely footsteps at the silent hour,

To pay the mournful tribute of his tears?

O! he will tell thee, that the wealth of worlds

Should ne'er seduce his bosom to forego

That sacred hour, when stealing from the noise

Of care and envy, sweet remembrance sooths

With virtue's kindest looks his aking breast,

And turns his tears to rapture—Ask the croud

Which flies impatient from the village-walk

To climb the neighb'ring cliffs, when far below

The cruel winds have hurl'd upon the coast

Some helpless bark; while sacred pity melts

The general eye, or terror's icy hand

Smites their distorted limbs and horrent hair;

While every mother closer to her breast

Catches her child, and pointing where the waves

Foam thro' the shatter'd vessel, shrieks aloud

As one poor wretch that spreads his piteous arms

For succour, swallow'd by the roaring surge,

As now another, dash'd against the rock,

Drops lifeless down: O deemest thou indeed

No kind indearment here by nature giv'n

To mutual terror and compassion's tears?

No sweetly-melting softness which attracts,

O'er all that edge of pain, the social pow'rs

To this their proper action and their end?

—Ask thy own heart; when at the midnight hour,

Slow thro' that studious gloom thy pausing eye

Led by the glimm'ring taper moves around

The sacred volumes of the dead: the songs

Of Graecian bards, and records wrote by fame

For Graecian heroes, where the present pow'r

Of heav'n and earth surveys th' immortal page,

Ev'n as a father blessing, while he reads,

The praises of his son. If then thy soul,

Spurning the yoke of these inglorious days,

Mix in their deeds and kindle with their flame;

Say, when the prospect blackens on thy view,

When rooted from the base, heroic states

Mourn in the dust and tremble at the frown

Of curst ambition; when the pious band[28]

Of youths who fought for freedom and their sires,

Lie side by side in gore; when ruffian-pride

Usurps the throne of justice, turns the pomp

Of public pow'r, the majesty of rule,

The sword, the laurel, and the purple robe,

To slavish empty pageants, to adorn

A tyrant's walk, and glitter in the eyes

Of such as bow the knee; when honour'd urns

Of patriots and of chiefs, the awful bust

And storied arch, to glut the coward-rage

Of regal envy, strew the public way

With hallow'd ruins; when the muse's haunt,

The marble porch where wisdom wont to talk

With Socrates or Tully, hears no more,

Save the hoarse jargon of contentious monks,

Or female superstition's midnight pray'r;

When ruthless rapine from the hand of time

Tears the destroying scythe, with surer blow

To sweep the works of glory from their base;

Till desolation o'er the grass-grown street

Expands his raven-wings, and up the wall,

Where senates once the price of monarchs doom'd,

Hisses the gliding snake thro' hoary weeds

That clasp the mould'ring column; thus defac'd,

Thus widely mournful when the prospect thrills

Thy beating bosom, when the patriot's tear

Starts from thine eye, and thy extended arm

In fancy hurls the thunderbolt of Jove

To fire the impious wreath on Philip's[29] brow,

Or dash Octavius from the trophied car;

Say, does thy secret soul repine to taste

The big distress? Or would'st thou then exchange

Those heart-ennobling sorrows for the lot

Of him who sits amid the gaudy herd

Of mute barbarians bending to his nod,

And bears aloft his gold-invested front,

And says within himself, "I am a king,

" And wherefore should the clam'rous voice of woe

" Intrude upon mine ear?—The baleful dreggs

Of these late ages, this inglorious draught

Of servitude and folly, have not yet,

Blest be th' eternal ruler of the world!

Defil'd to such a depth of sordid shame

The native honours of the human soul,

Nor so effac'd the image of its sire.

End of the SECOND BOOK.

Notes

17

At last the Muses rose, &c.]

About the age of Hugh Capet, the founder of the third race of French kings, the poets of Provence were in high reputation; a sort of stroling bards or rhapsodists, who went about the courts of princes and noblemen, entertaining them at festivals with music and poetry. They attempted both the epic ode and satire, and abounded in a wild and fantastic vein of fable, partly allegorical, and partly founded on traditionary legends of the Saracen wars. These were the rudiments of the Italian poetry. But their taste and composition must have been extremely barbarous, as we may judge by those who followed the turn of their fable in much politer times; such as Boiardo, Bernardo Tasso, Ariosto, &c.

↵

18

Valclusa.]

The famous retreat of Francesco Petrarcha, the father of Italian poetry, and his mistress Laura, a lady of Avignon.

↵

19

Arno.]

The river which runs by Florence, the birth-place of Dante and Boccacio.

↵

20

Parthenope.]

Or Naples, the birth-place of Sannazaro. The great Torquato Tasso was born at Sorrento in the kingdom of Naples.

↵

21

—the rage

Of dire ambition, &c.]

This relates to the cruel wars among the republics of Italy, and the abominable politics of its little princes, about the the fifteenth century. These at last, in conjunction with the papal power, intirely extinguished the spirit of liberty in that country, and establish'd that abuse of the fine arts which has since been propagated over all Europe.

↵

22

Thus from their guardians torn, the tender arts, &c.]

Nor were they only losers by the separation. For philosophy itself, to use the words of a noble philosopher, being thus sever'd from the sprightly arts and sciences, must consequently grow dronish, insipid, pedantic, useless, and directly opposite to the real knowledge and practice of the world. Insomuch, that a gentleman, says another excellent writer, cannot easily bring himself to like so austere and ungainly a form: so greatly is it changed from what was once the delight of the finest gentlemen of antiquity, and their recreation after the hurry of public affairs! From this condition it cannot be recovered but by uniting it once more with the works of imagination; and we have had the pleasure of observing a very great progress made towards their union in England within these few years. It is hardly possible to conceive them at a greater distance from each other than at the revolution, when Locke stood at the head of one party, and Dryden of the other. But the general spirit of liberty, which has ever since been growing, naturally invited our men of wit and genius to improve that influence which the arts of persuasion give them with the people, by applying them to subjects of importance to society. Thus poetry and eloquence became considerable; and philosophy is now of course obliged to borrow of their imbellishments, in order even to gain audience with the public.

↵

23

From passion's power alone, &c.]

This very mysterious kind of pleasure which is often found in the exercise of passions generally counted painful, has been taken taken notice of by several authors. Lucretius resolves it into self-love,
Suave mari magno, &c.
lib. II. 1.

As if a man was never pleas'd in being moved at the distress of a tragedy, without a cool reflection that tho' these fictitious personages were so unhappy, yet he himself was perfectly at ease and in safety. The ingenious and candid author of the reflexions critiques sur la poesie & sur la peinture, accounts for it by the general delight which the mind takes in its own activity, and the abhorrence it feels of an indolent and unattentive state: And this, join'd with the moral applause of its own temper, which attends these emotions when natural and just, is certainly the true foundation of the pleasure, which as it is the origin and basis of tragedy and epic, deserved a very particular consideration in this poem.

↵

24

Inhabitant of earth, &c.]

The account of the oeconomy of providence here introduced, as the most proper to calm and satisfy the mind, when under the compunction of private evils, seems to have come originally from the Pythagorean school: but of all the ancient philosophers, Plato has most largely insisted upon it, has established it with all the strength of his capacious understanding, and ennobled it with all the magnificence of his divine imagination. He has one passage so full and clear on the head, that I am persuaded the reader will be pleased to see it here, tho' somewhat long. Addressing himself to such as are not satisfied concerning divine providence,
The being who presides over the whole, says he, has dispos'd and complicated all things for the happiness and virtue of the whole, every part of which, according to the extent of its influence, does and suffers what is fit and proper. One of these parts is yours, O unhappy man! which tho' in itself most inconsiderable and minute, yet being connected with the universe, ever seeks to co-operate with that supreme order. You in the mean time are ignorant of the very end for which all particular natures are brought into existence, that the all-comprehending nature of the whole may be perfect and happy; existing, as it does, not for your sake, but the cause and reason of your existence, which, as in the symmetry of every artificial work, must of necessity concur with the general design of the artist, and be subservient to the whole of which it is a part. Your complaint therefore is ignorant and groundless; since according to the various energy of creation, and the common laws of nature, there is a constant provision of that which is best at the same time for you and for the whole.—For the governing intelligence clearly beholding all the actions of animated and selfmoving creatures, and that mixture of good and evil which diversifies them, considering first of all by what disposition of things, and what situation of each individual in the general system, vice might be depressed and subdued, and virtue made secure of victory and happiness with the greatest facility and in the highest degree possible. In this manner he order'd thro' the entire circle of being, the internal constitution of every mind, where should be its station in the universal fabric, and thro' what variety of circumstances it should proceed in the whole tenour of its existence. He goes on in his sublime manner to assert a future state of retribution, as well for those who, by the exercise of good dispositions being harmonized and assimilated to the divine virtue, are consequently removed to a place of unblemish'd sanctity and happiness; as of those who by the most flagitious arts have arisen from contemptible beginnings to the greatest affluence and power, and whom therefore you look upon as unanswerable instances of negligence in the Gods, because you are ignorant of the purposes to which they are subservient, and in what manner they contribute to that supreme intention of good to the whole. Plato de Leg. x. 16.

This theory has been deliver'd of late, especially abroad, in a manner which subverts the freedom of human actions; whereas Plato appears very careful to preserve it, and has been in that respect imitated by the best of his followers.

↵

25

—one might rise,

One order, &c.]

See the meditations of Antoninus, and the characteristics, passim.

↵

26

The best and fairest, &c.]

This opinion is so old, that Timaeus Locrus calls the supreme being, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the artificer of that which is best ; and represents him as resolving in the beginning to produce the most excellent work, and as copying the world most exactly from his own intelligible and essential idea; so that it yet remains, as it was at first, perfect in beauty, and will never stand in need of any correction or improvement. There is no room for a cauiton here, to understand these expressions not of any particular circumstances of human life separately consider'd, but of the sum or universal system of life and being. See also the vision at the end of the Theodicée of Leibnitz.

↵

27

As flame ascends, &c.

] This opinion, tho' not held by Plato or any of the ancients, is yet a very natural consequence of his principles. But the disquisition is too complex and extensive to be enter'd upon here.

↵

28

—when the pious band, &c.]

The reader will here naturally recollect the fate of the sacred battalion of Thebes, which at the battle of Chaeronéa was utterly destroy'd, every man being found lying dead by his friend.

↵

29

Philip.]

The Macedonian.

↵

THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
BOOK the THIRD.
THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION.
BOOK the THIRD.

ARGUMENT of the THIRD BOOK.

PLEASURE in observing the tempers and manners of men, even where vicious or absurd; v. 1. to 14. The origin of vice, from false representations of the fancy, producing false opinions concerning good and evil; v. 14. to 62. Inquiry into ridicule; v. 73. The general sources of ridicule in the minds and characters of men, enumerated; v. 14. to 240. Final cause of the sense of ridicule; v. 263. The resemblance of certain aspects of inanimate things to the sensations and properties of the mind; v. 282, to 311. The operations of the mind in the production of the works of imagination, described; v. 358, to 414. The secondary pleasure from imitation; to v. 436. The benevolent order of the world illustrated in the arbitrary connection of these pleasures with the objects which excite them; v. 458, to 514. The nature and conduct of taste; v. 515, to 567. Concluding with an account of the natural and moral advantages resulting from a sensible and well-form'd imagination.

WHAT wonder therefore, since th'indearing ties

Of passion link the universal kind

Of man so close, what wonder if to search

This common nature thro' the various change

Of sex, and age, and fortune, and the frame

Of each peculiar, draw the busy mind

With unresisted charms? The spacious west,

And all the teeming regions of the south

Hold not a quarry, to the curious flight

Of knowledge, half so tempting or so fair,

As man to man. Nor only where the smiles

Of love invite; nor only where th' applause

Of cordial honour turns th' attentive eye

On virtue's graceful deeds. For since the course

Of things external acts in different ways

On human apprehensions, as the hand

Of nature temper'd to a different frame

Peculiar minds; so haply where the pow'rs

Of fancy neither lessen nor enlarge[30]

The images of things, but paint in all

Their genuine hues, the features which they wore

In nature; there opinion will be true,

And action right. For action treads the path

In which opinion says he follows good,

Or flies from evil; and opinion gives

Report of good or evil, as the scene

Was drawn by fancy, lovely or deform'd:

Thus her report can never there be true,

Where fancy cheats the intellectual eye,

With glaring colours and distorted lines.

Is there a man, who at the sound of death,

Sees ghastly shapes of terror conjur'd up,

And black before him; nought but death-bed groans,

And fearful pray'rs, and plunging from the brink

Of light and being, down the gloomy air,

An unknown depth? Alas! in such a mind,

If no bright forms of excellence attend

The image of his country; nor the pomp

Of sacred senates, nor the guardian voice

Of justice on her throne, nor aught that wakes

The conscious bosom with a patriot's flame;

Will not opinion tell him, that to die,

Or stand the hazard, is a greater ill

Than to betray his country? And in act

Will he not chuse to be a wretch and live?

Here vice begins then. From th' inchanting cup

Which fancy holds to all, th' unwary thirst

Of youth oft swallows a Circaean draught,

That sheds a baleful tincture o'er the eye

Of reason, till no longer he discerns,

And only guides to err. Then revel forth

A furious band that spurn him from the throne;

And all is uproar. Thus ambition grasps

The empire of the soul: thus pale revenge

Unsheaths her murd'rous dagger; and the hands

Of lust and rapine, with unholy arts,

Watch to o'erturn the barrier of the laws

That keeps them from their prey: thus all the plagues

The wicked bear, or o'er the trembling scene

The tragic muse discloses, under shapes

Of honour, safety, pleasure, ease or pomp,

Stole first into the mind. Yet not by all

Those lying forms which fancy in the brain

Engenders, are the kindling passions driv'n

To guilty deeds; nor reason bound in chains,

That vice alone may lord it: oft adorn'd

With solemn pageants, folly mounts his throne,

And plays her ideot-anticks, like a queen.

A thousand garbs she wears; a thousand ways

She wheels her giddy empire.—Lo! thus far

With bold adventure, to the Mantuan lyre

I sing of nature's charms, and touch well-pleas'd

A stricter note: now haply must my song

Unbend her serious measure, and reveal

In lighter strains, how folly's aukward arts[31]

Excite impetuous laughter's gay rebuke;

The sportive province of the comic muse.

See! in what crouds the uncouth forms advance,

Each would outstrip the other, each prevent

Our careful search, and offer to your gaze,

Unask'd, his motley features. Wait awhile,

My curious friends! and let us first arrange

In proper orders your promiscuous throng.

Behold the foremost band; of slender thought,[32]

And easy faith; whom flatt'ring fancy sooths

With lying spectres, in themselves to view

Illustrious forms of excellence and good,

That scorn the mansion. With exulting hearts

They spread their spurious treasures to the sun;

And bid the world admire! but chief the glance

Of wishful envy draws their joy-bright eyes,

And lists with self-applause each lordly brow.

In number boundless as the blooms of spring,

Behold their glaring idols, empty shades

By fancy gilded o'er, and then set up

For adoration. Some in learning's garb,

With formal band and sable-cinctur'd gown,

And rags of mouldy volumes. Some elate

With martial splendour, steely pikes, and swords

Of costly frame, and gay Phoenician robes

Inwrought with flow'ring gold, assume the port

Of stately valour: list'ning by his side

There stands a female form; to her, with looks

Of earnest import, pregnant with amaze,

He talks of deadly deeds, of breaches, storms,

And sulph'rous mines, and ambush: then at once

Breaks off, and smiles to see her look so pale,

And asks some wond'ring question of her fears.

Others of graver mien; behold, adorn'd

With holy ensigns, how sublime they move,

And bending oft their sanctimonious eyes,

Take homage of the simple-minded throng;

Ambassadors of heav'n! Nor much unlike

Is he whose visage, in the lazy mist

That mantles every feature, hides a brood

Of politic conceits; of whispers, nods,

And hints deep-omen'd with unwieldy schemes,

And dark portents of state. Ten thousand more,

Prodigious habits and tumultuous tongues,

Pour dauntless in and swell the boastful band.

Then comes the second order; all who seek[33]

The debt of praise, where watchful unbelief

Darts thro' the thin pretence her squinting eye

On some retir'd appearance which belies

The boasted virtue, or annulls th' applause

That justice else would pay. Here side by side

I see two leaders of the solemn train,

Approaching: one a female, old and grey,

With eyes demure and wrinkle-furrow'd brow,

Pale as the cheeks of death; yet still she stuns

The sickning audience with a nauseous tale;

How many youths her myrtle chains have worn,

How many virgins at her triumphs pin'd!

Yet how resolv'd she guards her cautious heart;

Such is her terror at the risques of love,

And man's seducing tongue! The other seems

A bearded sage, ungentle in his mien,

And sordid all his habit; peevish want

Grins at his heels, while down the gazing throng

He stalks, resounding in magnific phrase

The vanity of riches, the contempt

Of pomp and pow'r. Be prudent in your zeal,

Ye grave associates! let the silent grace

Of her who blushes at the fond regard

Her charms inspire, more eloquent unfold

The praise of spotless honour: let the man

Whose eye regards not his illustrious pomp

And ample store, but as indulgent streams

To chear the barren soil and spread the fruits

Of joy, let him by juster measure fix

The price of riches and the end of pow'r.

Another tribe succeeds; deluded long[34]

By fancy's dazzling optics, these behold

The images of some peculiar things

With brighter hues resplendent, and portray'd

With features nobler far than e'er adorn'd

Their genuine objects. Hence the fever'd heart

Pants with delirious hope for tinsel charms;

Hence oft obtrusive on the eye of scorn,

Untimely zeal her witless pride betrays;

And serious manhood, from the tow'ring aim

Of wisdom, stoops to emulate the boast

Of childish toil. Behold yon mystic form,

Bedeck'd with feathers, insects, weeds and shells!

Not with intenser brow the Samian sage

Bent his fix'd eye on heav'n's eternal fires,

When first the order of that radiant scene

Swell'd his exulting thought, than this surveys

A muckworm's entrails or a spider's fang.

Next him a youth, with flow'rs and myrtles crown'd,

Attends that virgin form, and blushing kneels,

With fondest gesture and a suppliant's tongue,

To win her coy regard: adieu, for him,

The dull ingagements of the bustling world!

Adieu the sick impertinence of praise!

And hope, and action! for with her alone,

By streams and shades, to steal the sighing hours,

Is all he asks, and all that fate can give!

Thee too, facetious Momion, wandring here,

Thee, dreaded censor! oft have I beheld

Bewilder'd unawares: alas! too long

Flush'd with thy comic triumphs and the spoils

Of sly derision! till on every side

Hurling thy random bolts, offended truth

Assign'd thee here thy station with the slaves

Of folly. Thy once formidable name

Shall grace her humble records, and be heard

In scoffs and mock'ry bandied from the lips

Of all the vengeful brotherhood around,

So oft the patient victims of thy scorn.

But now, ye gay! to whom indulgent fate,[35]

Of all the muse's empire hath assign'd

The fields of folly, hither each advance

Your sickles; here the teeming soil affords

Its richest growth. A fav'rite brood appears;

In whom the daemon, with a mother's joy,

Views all her charms reflected, all her cares

At full repay'd. Ye most illustrious band!

Who scorning reason's tame, pedantic rules,

And order's vulgar bondage, never meant

For souls sublime as yours, with generous zeal

Pay vice the rev'rence virtue long usurp'd,

And yield deformity the fond applause

Which beauty wont to claim; forgive my song,

That for the blushing diffidence of youth,

It shuns the unequal province of your praise.

Thus far triumphant in the pleasing guile[36]

Of bland imagination, folly's train

Have dar'd our search: but now a dastard-kind

Advance reluctant, and with fault'ring feet

Shrink from the gazer's eye: infeebled hearts,

Whom fancy chills with visionary fears,

Or bends to servile tameness with conceits

Of shame, of evil, or of base defect,

Fantastic and delusive. Here the slave

Who droops abash'd when sullen pomp surveys

His humbler habit: here the trembling wretch

Unnerv'd and froze with terror's icy bolts

Spent in weak wailings, drown'd in shameful tears,

At every dream of danger: here subdued

By frontless laughter and the hardy scorn

Of old, unfeeling vice, the abject soul

Who blushing half resigns the candid praise

Of temperance and honour; half disowns

A freeman's hatred of tyrannic pride;

And hears with sickly smiles the venal mouth

With foulest licence mock the patriot's name.

Last of the motley bands on whom the pow'r[37]

Of gay derision bends her hostile aim,

Is that where shameful ignorance presides.

Beneath her sordid banners, lo! they march,

Like blind and lame. Whate'er their doubtful hands

Attempt, confusion strait appears behind,

And troubles all the work. Thro' many a maze,

Perplex'd they struggle, changing every path,

O'erturning every purpose; then at last

Sit down dismay'd, and leave th'entangled scene

For scorn to sport with. Such then is th'abode

Of folly in the mind; and such the shapes

In which she governs her obsequious train.

Tho' every scene of ridicule in things

To lead the tenour of my devious lay;

Thro' every swift occasion, which the hand

Of laughter points at, when the mirthful sting

Distends her sallying nerves and choaks her tongue;

What were it but to count each crystal drop

Which morning's dewy fingers on the blooms

Of May distill? Suffice it to have said,[38]

Where'er the pow'r of ridicule displays

Her quaint-ey'd visage, some incongruous form,

Some stubborn dissonance of things combin'd,

Strikes on the quick observer: whether pomp,

Or praise, or beauty mix their partial claim

Where sordid fashions, where ignoble deeds,

Where foul deformity are wont to dwell,

Or whether these with violation loath'd,

Invade resplendent pomp's imperious mien,

The charms of beauty, or the boast of praise.

Ask we for what fair end,[39] th' almighty sire

In mortal bosoms wakes this gay contempt,

These grateful stings of laughter, from disgust

Educing pleasure? Wherefore, but to aid

The tardy steps of reason, and at once

By this prompt impulse urge us to depress

The giddy aims of folly? Tho' the light

Of truth slow-dawning on th' inquiring mind,

At length unfolds, thro' many a subtile tie,

How these uncouth disorders end at last

In public evil; yet benignant heav'n

Conscious how dim the dawn of truth appears

To thousands; conscious what a scanty pause

From labours and from care, the wider lot

Of humble life affords for studious thought

To scan the maze of nature; therefore stampt

The glaring scenes with characters of scorn,

As broad, as obvious to the passing clown,

As to the letter'd sage's curious eye.

Such are the various aspects of the mind—

Some heav'nly genius, whose unclouded thoughts

Attain that secret harmony which blends

Th' aethereal spirit with its mold of clay;

O! teach me to reveal the grateful charm

That searchless nature o'er the sense of man

Diffuses, to behold, in lifeless things,

The inexpressive semblance[40] of himself,

Of thought and passion. Mark the sable woods

That shade sublime yon mountain's nodding brow;

With what religious awe the solemn scene

Commands your steps! as if the reverend form

Of Minos or of Numa should forsake

Th' Elysian seats, and down th' imbow'ring glade

Move to your pausing eye! Behold th' expanse

Of yon gay landscape, where the silver clouds

Flit o'er the heav'ns before the sprightly breeze:

Now their grey cincture skirts the doubtful sun;

Now streams of splendor, thro' their opening veil

Effulgent, sweep from off the gilded lawn

Th' aerial shadows; on the curling brook,

And on the shady margin's quiv'ring leaves

With quickest lustre glancing: while you view

The prospect, say, within your chearful breast

Plays not the lively sense of winning mirth

With clouds and sunshine chequer'd, while the round

Of social converse, to th' inspiring tongue

Of some gay nymph amid her subject-train,

Moves all obsequious? Whence is this effect,

This kindred pow'r of such discordant things?

Or flows their semblance from that mystic tone

To which the new-born mind's harmonious pow'rs

At first were strung? Or rather from the links

Which artful custom twines around her frame?

For when the diff'rent images of things

By chance combin'd, have struck th' attentive soul

With deeper impulse, or connected long,

Have drawn her frequent eye; howe'er distinct

Th' external scenes, yet oft th' ideas gain

From that conjunction an eternal tie,

And sympathy unbroken. Let the mind

Recall one partner of the various league,

Immediate, lo! the firm confed'rates rise,

And each his former station strait resumes:

One movement governs the consenting throng,

And all at once with rosy pleasure shine,

Or all are sadden'd with the glooms of care.

'Twas thus, if ancient fame the truth unfold,

Two faithful needles, from th' informing touch[41]

Of the same parent-stone, together drew

Its mystic virtue, and at first conspir'd

With fatal impulse quiv'ring to the pole;

Then, tho' disjoin'd by kingdoms, tho' the main

Rowl'd its broad surge betwixt, and diff'rent stars

Beheld their wakeful motions, yet preserv'd

The former friendship, and remember'd still

Th' alliance of their birth: whate'er the line

Which one possess'd, nor pause, nor quiet knew

The sure associate, ere with trembling speed

He found its path and fix'd unerring there.

Such is the secret union, when we feel

A song, a flow'r, a name at once restore

Those long-connected scenes where first they mov'd

Th' attention; backward thro' her mazy walks

Guiding the wanton fancy to her scope,

To temples, courts or fields; with all the band

Of painted forms, of passions and designs

Attendant: whence, if pleasing in itself,

The prospect from that sweet accession gains

Redoubled influence o'er the list'ning mind.

By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r[42]

Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves

Intire; or when they would elude her watch,

Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste

Of dark oblivion; thus collecting all

The various forms of being to present,

Before the curious aim of mimic art,

Their largest choice: like spring's unfolded blooms

Exhaling sweetness, that the skillful bee

May taste at will, from their selected spoils

To work her dulcet food. For not th' expanse

Of living lakes in summer's noontide calm,

Reflects the bord'ring shade and sun-bright heav'ns

With fairer semblance; not the sculptur'd gold

More faithful keeps the graver's lively trace,

Than he whose birth the sister-pow'rs of art

Propitious view'd, and from his genial star

Shed influence to the seeds of fancy kind;

Than his attemper'd bosom must preserve

The seal of nature. There alone unchang'd,

Her form remains. The balmy walks of May

There breathe perennial sweets: the trembling chord

Resounds for ever in th' abstracted ear,

Melodious; and the virgin's radiant eye,

Superior to disease, to grief, and time,

Shines with unbating lustre. Thus at length

Indow'd with all that nature can bestow,

The child of fancy oft in silence bends

O'er these mix'd treasures of his pregnant breast,

With conscious pride. From them he oft resolves

To frame he knows not what excelling things;

And win he knows not what sublime reward

Of praise and wonder. By degrees the mind

Feels her young nerves dilate: the plastic pow'rs

Labour for action: blind emotions heave

His bosom; and with loveliest frenzy caught,

From earth to heav'n he rolls his daring eye,

From heav'n to earth. Anon ten thousand shapes,

Like spectres trooping to the wisard's call,

Fleet swift before him. From the womb of earth

From ocean's bed they come: th' eternal heav'ns

Disclose their splendors, and the dark abyss

Pours out her births unknown. With fixed gaze

He marks the rising phantoms. Now compares

Their diff'rent forms; now blends them, now divides;

Inlarges and extenuates by turns;

Opposes, ranges in fantastic bands,

And infinitely varies. Hither now,

Now thither fluctuates his inconstant aim,

With endless choice perplex'd. At length his plan

Begins to open. Lucid order dawns;

And as from Chaos old the jarring seeds

Of nature at the voice divine repair'd

Each to its place, till rosy earth unveil'd

Her fragrant bosom, and the joyful sun

Sprung up the blue serene; by swift degrees

Thus disentangled, his entire design

Emerges. Colours mingle, features join,

And lines converge: the fainter parts retire;

The fairer eminent in light advance;

And every image on its neighbour smiles.

A while he stands, and with a father's joy

Contemplates. Then with Promethéan art,

Into its proper vehicle he breathes[43]

The fair conception; which imbodied thus,

And permanent, becomes to eyes or ears

An object ascertain'd: while thus inform'd,

The various organs of his mimic skill,

The consonance of sounds, the featur'd rock,

The shadowy picture and impassion'd verse,

Beyond their proper pow'rs attract the soul

By that expressive semblance, while in sight

Of nature's great original we scan

The lively child of art; while line by line,

And feature after feature we refer

To that sublime exemplar whence it stole

Those animating charms. Thus beauty's palm

Betwixt 'em wav'ring hangs: applauding love

Doubts where to chuse; and mortal man aspires

To tempt creative praise. As when a cloud

Of gath'ring hail with limpid crusts of ice

Inclos'd and obvious to the beaming sun,

Collects his large effulgence; strait the heav'ns

With equal flames present on either hand

The radiant visage: Persia stands at gaze,

Appall'd; and on the brink of Ganges waits

The snowy-vested seer, in Mithra's name,

To which the fragrance of the south shall burn,

To which his warbled orisons ascend.

Such various bliss the well-tun'd heart injoys,

Favour'd of heav'n! While plung'd in sordid cares,

Th' unfeeling vulgar mocks the boon divine:

And harsh austerity, from whose rebuke

Young love and smiling wonder shrink away,

Abash'd and chill of heart, with sager frowns

Condemns the fair inchantment. On, my strain,

Perhaps ev'n now some cold, fastidious judge

Casts a disdainful eye; and calls my toil,

And calls the love and beauty which I sing,

The dream of folly. Thou grave censor! say,

Is beauty then a dream, because the glooms

Of dullness hang too heavy on thy sense

To let her shine upon thee? So the man

Whose eye ne'er open'd on the light of heav'n,

Might smile with scorn while raptur'd vision tells

Of the gay, colour'd radiance flushing bright

O'er all creation. From the wise be far

Such gross, unhallow'd pride; nor needs my song

Descend so low; but rather now unfold,

If human thought could reach, or words unfold,

By what mysterious fabric of the mind,

The deep-felt joys and harmony of sound

Result from airy motion; and from shape

The lovely phantoms of sublime and fair.

By what fine ties hath GOD connected things

When present in the mind; which in themselves

Have no connection? Sure the rising sun,

O'er the caerulean convex of the sea,

With equal brightness and with equal warmth

Might rowl his fiery orb; nor yet the soul

Thus feel her frame expanded, and her pow'rs

Exulting in the splendor she beholds;

Like a young conqu'ror moving thro' the pomp

Of some triumphal day. When join'd at eve,

Soft-murm'ring streams and gales of gentlest breath

Melodious Philomela's wakeful strain

Attemper, could not man's discerning ear

Thro' all its tones the symphony pursue;

Nor yet this breath divine of nameless joy

Steal thro' his veins and fan th'awaken'd heart,

Mild as the breeze, yet rapt'rous as the song?

But were not nature still indow'd at large

With all which life requires, tho' unadorn'd

With such inchantment? Wherefore then her form

So exquisitely fair? her breath perfum'd

With such aethereal sweetness? Whence her voice

Inform'd at will to raise or to depress

Th' impassion'd soul? and whence the robes of light

Which thus invest her with more lovely pomp

Than fancy can describe? Whence but from thee,

O source divine of ever-flowing love,

And thy unmeasur'd goodness? Not content

With every food of life to nourish man,

By kind illusions of the wond'ring sense

Thou mak'st all nature beauty to his eye,

Or music to his ear: well-pleas'd he scans

The goodly prospect; and with inward smiles

Treads the gay verdure of the painted plain;

Beholds the azure canopy of heav'n,

And living lamps that over-arch his head

With more than regal splendor; bends his ears

To the full choir of water, air, and earth;

Nor heeds the pleasing error of his thought,

Nor doubts the painted green or azure arch,

Nor questions more the music's mingling sounds

Than space, or motion, or eternal time:

So sweet he feels their influence to attract

The fixed soul; to brighten the dull glooms

Of care, and make the destin'd road of life

Delightful to his feet. So fables tell,

Th' advent'rous heroe, bound on hard exploits,

Beholds with glad surprize, by secret spells

Of some kind sage, the patron of his toils,

A visionary paradise disclos'd

Amid the dubious wild: with streams, and shades,

And airy songs, th' enchanted landscape smiles,

Chears his long labours and renews his frame.

What then is taste, but these internal pow'rs

Active, and strong, and feelingly alive

To each fine impulse? a discerning sense

Of decent and sublime, with quick disgust

From things deform'd, or disarrang'd, or gross

In species? This, nor gems, nor stores of gold,

Nor purple state, nor culture can bestow;

But GOD alone, when first his active hand

Imprints the secret byass of the soul.

He, mighty parent! wise and just in all,

Free as the vital breeze or light of heav'n,

Reveals the charms of nature. Ask the swain

Who journeys homeward from a summer day's

Long labour, why, forgetful of his toils

And due repose, he loiters to behold

The sunshine gleaming as thro' amber clouds,

O'er all the western sky; full soon, I ween,

His rude expression and untutor'd airs,

Beyond the pow'r of language, will unfold

The form of beauty smiling at his heart,

How lovely! how commanding! But tho' heav'n

In every breast hath sown these early seeds

Of love and admiration, yet in vain,

Without fair culture's kind parental aid,

Without inlivening suns, and genial show'rs,

And shelter from the blast, in vain we hope

The tender plant should rear its blooming head,

Or yield the harvest promis'd in its spring.

Nor yet will every soil with equal stores

Repay the tiller's labour; or attend

His will, obsequious, whether to produce

The olive or the laurel. Diff'rent minds

Incline to different objects: one pursues

The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild;[44]

Another sighs for harmony, and grace,

And gentlest beauty. Hence when lightning fires

The arch of heav'n, and thunders rock the ground;

When furious whirlwinds rend the howling air,

And ocean, groaning from the lowest bed,

Heaves his tempestuous billows to the sky;

Amid the mighty uproar, while below

The nations tremble, Shakespear looks abroad

From some high cliff, superior, and enjoys

The elemental war. But Waller longs,[45]

All on the margin of some flow'ry stream

To spread his careless limbs amid the cool

Of plantane shades, and to the list'ning deer,

The tale of slighted vows and love's disdain

Resound soft-warbling all the live-long day:

Consenting Zephyr sighs; the weeping rill

Joins in his plaint, melodious; mute the groves;

And hill and dale with all their echoes mourn.

Such and so various are the tastes of men.

Oh! blest of heav'n, whom not the languid songs

Of luxury, the Siren! not the bribes

Of sordid wealth, nor all the gaudy spoils

Of pageant honour can seduce to leave

Those ever-blooming sweets, which from the store

Of nature fair imagination culls

To charm th' inliven'd soul! What tho' not all

Of mortal offspring can attain the heights

Of envied life; tho' only few possess

Patrician treasures or imperial state;

Yet nature's care, to all her children just,

With richer treasures and an ampler state

Indows at large whatever happy man

Will deign to use them. His the city's pomp,

The rural honours his. Whate'er adorns

The princely dome, the column and the arch,

The breathing marbles and the sculptur'd gold,

Beyond the proud possessor's narrow claim,

His tuneful breast injoys. For him, the spring

Distills her dews, and from the silken gem

Its lucid leaves unfolds: for him, the hand

Of autumn tinges every fertile branch

With blooming gold and blushes like the morn.

Each passing hour sheds tribute from her wings;

And still new beauties meet his lonely walk;

And loves unfelt attract him. Not a breeze[46]

Flies o'er the meadow, not a cloud imbibes

The setting sun's effulgence, not a strain

From all the tenants of the warbling shade

Ascends, but whence his bosom can partake

Fresh pleasure, unreprov'd. Nor thence partakes

Fresh pleasure only: for th' attentive mind,

By this harmonious action on her pow'rs,

Becomes herself harmonious: wont so long

In outward things to meditate the charm

Of sacred order, soon she seeks at home

To find a kindred order, to exert

Within herself this elegance of love,

This fair-inspir'd delight: her temper'd pow'rs

Refine at length, and every passion wears

A chaster, milder, more attractive mien.

But if to ampler prospects, if to gaze

On nature's form where negligent of all

These lesser graces, she assumes the port

Of that eternal majesty that weigh'd

The world's foundations, if to these the mind

Exalt her daring eye; then mightier far

Will be the change, and nobler. Would the forms

Of servile custom cramp her generous pow'rs?

Would sordid policies, the barb'rous growth

Of ignorance and rapine, bow her down

To tame pursuits, to indolence and fear?

Lo! she appeals to nature, to the winds

And rowling waves, the sun's unwearied course,

The elements and seasons: all declare

For what th' eternal maker has ordain'd

The pow'rs of man: we feel within ourselves

His energy divine: he tells the heart,

He meant, he made us to behold and love

What he beholds and loves, the general orb

Of life and being; to be great like him,

Beneficent and active. Thus the men

Whom nature's works can charm, with GOD himself

Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day,

With his conceptions; act upon his plan;

And form to his, the relish of their souls.

FINIS.

Notes

30

—where the pow'rs

Of fancy, &c.]

The influence of the imagination on the conduct of life is one of the most important points in moral philosophy. It were easy by an induction of facts to prove that the imagination directs almost all the passions, and mixes with almost every circumstance of action or pleasure. Let any man, even of the coldest head and soberest industry, analyse the idea of what he calls his interest; he will find that it consists chiefly of certain images of decency, beauty and order, variously combined into one system, the idol which he seeks to injoy by labour, hazard, and self-denial. It is on this account of the last consequence to regulate these images by the standard of nature and the general good; otherwise the imagination, by heightening some objects beyond their real excellence and beauty, or by representing others in a more odious or terrible shape than they deserve, may of course engage us in pursuits utterly inconsistent with the laws of the moral order.

If it be objected, that this account of things supposes the passions to be merely accidental, whereas there appears in some a natural and hereditary disposition to certain passions prior to all circumstances of education or fortune; it may be answer'd, that tho' no man is born ambitious or a miser, yet he may inherit from his parents a peculiar temper or complexion of mind, which shall render his imagination more liable to be struck with some particular objects, consequently dispose him to form opinions of good and ill, and entertain passions of a particular turn. Some men, for instance, by the original frame of their minds, are more delighted with the vast and magnificent, others on the contrary with the elegant and gentle aspects of nature. And it is very remarkable, that the disposition of the moral powers is always similar to this of the imagination; that those who are most inclin'd to admire prodigious and sublime objects in the physical world, are also most inclin'd to applaud examples of fortitude and heroic virtue in the moral. While those who are charm'd rather with the delicacy and sweetness of colours, and forms, and sounds, never fail in like manner to yield the preference to the softer scenes of virtue and the sympathies of a domestic life. And this is sufficient to account for the objection.

Among the ancient philosophers, tho' we have several hints concerning this influence of the imagination upon morals among the remains of the Socratic school, yet the Stoics were the first who paid it a due attention. Zeno, their founder, thought it impossible to preserve any tolerable regularity in life, without frequently inspecting those pictures or appearances of things which the imagination offers to the mind. (Diog. Laert. l. vii.) The meditations of M. Aurelius, and the discourses of Epictetus, are full of the same sentiments; insomuch that this latter makes the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or right management of the fancys, the only thing for which we are accountable to providence, and without which a man is no other than stupid or frantic. Arrian. l. i. c. 12. & l. ii. c. 22. See also the Characteristics, vol. 1. from p. 313, to p. 321. where this Stoical doctrine is embellished with all the eloquence and graces of Plato.

↵

31

—how folly's aukward arts, &c.]

Notwithstanding the general influence of ridicule on private and civil life, as well as on learning and the sciences, it has been almost constantly neglected or misrepresented, by divines especially. The manner of treating these subjects in the science of human nature, should be precisely the same as in natural philosophy; from particular facts to investigate the stated order in which they appear, and then apply the general law, thus discovered, to the explication of other appearances and the improvement of useful arts.

↵

32

Behold the foremost band, &c.

] The first and most general source of ridicule in the characters of men, is vanity or self-applause for some desirable quality or possession which evidently does not belong to those who assume it.

↵

33

Then comes the second order, &c.

] Ridicule from the same vanity, where tho' the possession be real, yet no merit can arise from it, because of some particular circumstances, which, tho' obvious to the spectator, are yet overlook'd by the ridiculous character.

↵

34

Another tribe succeeds, &c.

] Ridicule from a notion of excellence in particular objects disproportion'd to their intrinsic value, and inconsistent with the order of nature.

↵

35

But now ye gay, &c.

] Ridicule from a notion of excellence, where the object is absolutely odious or contemptible. This is the highest degree of the ridiculous; as in the affectation of diseases or vices.

↵

36

Thus far triumphant, &c.]

Ridicule from false shame or groundless fear.

↵

37

Last of the, &c.

Ridicule from the ignorance of such things as our circumstances require us to know.

↵

38

—suffice it to have said, &c.]

By comparing these general sources of ridicule with each other, and examining the ridiculous in other objects, we may obtain a general definition of it equally applicable to every species. The most important circumstance of this definition is laid down in the lines referr'd to; but others more minute we shall subjoin here. Aristotle's account of the matter seems both imperfect and false;
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, says he, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: the ridiculous is some certain fault or turpitude without pain, and not destructive to its subject. (Poetic. c. v.)
For allowing it to be true, as it is not, that the ridiculous is never accompany'd with pain, yet we might produce many instances of such a fault or turpitude which cannot with any tolerable propriety be called ridiculous. So that the definition does not distinguish the thing defined. Nay farther, even when we perceive the turpitude tending to the destruction of its subject, we may still be sensible of a ridiculous appearance, till the ruin become imminent and the keener sensations of pity or terror banish the ludicrous apprehension from our minds. For the sensation of ridicule is not a bare perception of the agreement or disagreement of ideas; but a passion or emotion of the mind consequential to that perception. So that the mind may perceive the agreement or disagreement, and yet not feel the ridiculous, because it is engrossed by a more violent emotion. Thus it happens that some men think those objects ridiculous, to which others cannot endure to apply the name; because in them they excite a much intenser and more important feeling. And this difference, among other causes, has brought a good deal of confusion into this question.

That which makes objects ridiculous is some ground of admiration or esteem connected with other more general circumstances, comparatively worthless or deformed; or it is some circumstance of turpitude or deformity connected with what is in general excellent or beautiful: the inconsistent properties existing either in the objects themselves, or in the apprehension of the person to whom they relate; belonging always to the same order or class of being, implying sentiment or design; and exciting no acute or vehement emotion of the heart.

To prove the several parts of this definition: The appearance of excellence or beauty connected with a general condition comparatively sordid or deformed, is ridiculous; for instance, pompous pretensions to wisdom join'd with ignorance and folly in the Socrates of Aristophanes; and the applause of military glory with cowardice and stupidity in the Thraso of Terence.

The appearance of deformity or turpitude in conjunction with what is in general excellent or venerable, is also ridiculous: for instance, the personal weaknesses of a magistrate appearing in the solemn and public functions of his station.

The incongruous properties may either exist in the objects themselves, or in the apprehension of the person to whom they relate: in the last-mention'd instances they both exist in the objects; in the instance from Aristophanes and Terence, one of them is objective and real, the other only founded in the apprehension of the ridiculous character.

The inconsistent properties must belong to the same order or class of being. A coxcomb in fine cloaths bedaubed by accident in foul weather, is a ridiculous object; because his general apprehension of excellence and esteem is referr'd to the splendour and expence of his dress. A man of sense and merit in the same circumstances, is not counted ridiculous; because the general ground of excellence and esteem in him, is, both in fact and in his own apprehension, of a very different species.

Every ridiculous object implies sentiment or design. A column placed by an architect without a capital or base, is laugh'd at: the same column in a ruin causes a very different sensation.

And lastly, the occurrence must excite no acute or vehement emotion of the heart, such as terror, pity, or indignation; for in that case, as was observ'd above, the mind is not at leisure to contemplate the ridiculous.

Whether any appearance not ridiculous be involved in this description, and whether it comprehend every species and form of the ridiculous, must be determined by repeated applications of it to particular instances.

↵

39

Ask we for what fair end, &c.]

Since it is beyond all contradiction evident that we have a natural sense or feeling of the ridiculous, and since so good a reason may be assign'd to justify the supreme being for bestowing it; one cannot without astonishment reflect on the conduct of those men who imagine it is for the service of true religion to vilify and blacken it without distinction, and endeavour to persuade us that it is never applied but in a bad cause. Ridicule is not concerned with meer speculative truth or falsehood. It is not in abstract propositions or theorems, but in actions and passions, good and evil, beauty and deformity, that we find materials for it; and all these terms are relative, implying approbation or blame. To ask then whether ridicule be a test of truth, is, in other words, to ask whether that which is ridiculous can be morally true, can be just and becoming; or whether that which is just and becoming, can be ridiculous. A question that does not deserve a serious answer. For it is most evident, that as in a metaphysical proposition offer'd to the understanding for its assent, the faculty of reason examines the terms of the proposition, and finding one idea which was supposed equal to another, to be in fact unequal, of consequence rejects the proposition as a falsehood: so in objects offer'd to the mind for its esteem or applause, the faculty of ridicule feeling an incongruity in the claim, urges the mind to reject it with laughter and contempt. When therefore we observe such a claim obtruded upon mankind, and the inconsistent circumstances carefully concealed from the eye of public, it is our business, if the matter be of importance to society, to drag out those latent circumstances, and by setting them full in view, convince the world how ridiculous the claim is; and thus a double advantage is gained; for we both detect the moral falsehood sooner than in the way of speculative inquiry, and impress the minds of men with a stronger sense of the vanity and error of its authors. And this and no more is meant by the application of ridicule.

But it is said, the practice is dangerous, and may be inconsistent with the regard we owe to objects of real dignity and excellence. I answer, the practice fairly managed can never be dangerous; men may be dishonest in obtruding circumstances foreign to the object, and we may be inadvertent in allowing those circumstances to impose upon us; but the sense of ridicule always judges right: the Socrates of Aristophanes is as truly ridiculous a character as ever was drawn.—True; but it is not the character of Socrates, the divine moralist and father of ancient wisdom. What then? did the ridicule of the poet hinder the philosopher from detecting and disclaiming those foreign circumstances which he had falsely introduced into his character, and thus rendering the satirist doubly ridiculous in his turn? No: but it nevertheless had an ill influence on the minds of the people. And so has the reasoning of Spinoza made many atheists; he has founded it indeed on suppositions utterly false, but allow him these, and his conclusions are unavoidably true. And if we must reject the use of ridicule, because by the imposition of false circumstances, things may be made to seem ridiculous, which are not so in themselves; why we ought not in the same manner to reject the use of reason, because by proceeding on false principles, conclusions will appear true which are impossible in nature, let the vehement and obstinate declaimers against ridicule determine.

↵

40

The inexpressive semblance, &c.]

This similitude is the foundation of almost all the ornaments of poetic diction.

↵

41

Two faithful needles, &c.]

See the elegant poem recited by Cardinal Bembo in the character of Lucretius; Strada Prolus. vi. Academ. 2. c. 5.

↵

42

By these mysterious ties, &c.]

The act of remembring seems almost wholly to depend on the association of ideas.

↵

43

Into its proper vehicle, &c.]

This relates to the different sorts of corporeal mediums, by which the ideas of the artist are rendered palpable to the senses; as by sounds, in music; by lines and shadows, in painting; by diction, in poetry, &c.

↵

44

—One pursues

The vast alone, &c.]

See the note to ver. 18 of this book.

↵

45

Waller longs, &c.]

O! how I long my careless limbs to lay

Under the plantane shade; and all the day

With am'rous airs my fancy entertain, &c.

WALLER, Battle of the Summer-Islands. Canto I.
And again,

While in the park I sing, the list'ning deer

Attend my passion and forget to fear, &c.

At Pens-hurst.

↵

46

—Not a breeze, &c.]

That this account may not appear rather poetically extravagant than just in philosophy, it may be proper to produce the sentiment of one of the greatest, wisest, and best of men on this article; one so little to be suspected of partiality in the case, that he reckons it among those favours for which he was especially thankful to the gods, that they had not suffered him to make any great proficiency in the arts of eloquence and poetry, lest by that means he should have been diverted from pursuits of more importance to his high station. Speaking of the beauty of universal nature, he observes that there is a pleasing and graceful aspect in every object we perceive, when once we consider its connection with that general order. He instances in many things which at first sight would be thought rather deformities, and then adds,
that a man who enjoys a sensibility of temper with a just comprehension of the universal order—will discern many amiable things, not credible to every mind, but to those alone who have entered into an honourable familiarity with nature and her works. M. Antonin. iii. 2.

↵

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Information about this book

Title statement

The pleasures of imagination: A poem. In three books.

Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770.

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http://ota.ox.ac.uk/id/4279

ID [isbn10]

110601278X

ID [isbn13]

9781106012784

ID [TCP]

K048676.000

ID [BIBNO]

CW3315017089

ID [ECLL]

0886400900

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— The pleasures of imagination: A poem. In three books., Akenside, Mark, 1721-1770.. 125,[3]p. ; 4⁰. London :: printed for R. Dodsley,. 1744.. [Anonymous. By Mark Akenside.] [Titlepage in red and black.] [With a half-title and final advertisement leaf.] [A later edition without the note at foot of p.9 and with press figure 2 at foot of p.32.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [Foxon, A140] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT54251.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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