of fcripture affords, to the curious obfervers of nature and bability, no fmall evidence of their genuinenefs and truth.

pro

The advice I would found upon these observations is, that a writer who would copy nature, and command the paffions which are peculiar to the feveral scenes of it, fhould, in all narration or description, wherever the circumstances of a discourse will admit of it, prefer a more particular to a more general term; as father, mother, brother, fifter, &c. inftead of relation; justice, temperance, veracity, &c. and cruelty, covetousness, deceit, &c. as the cafe requires, inftead of the more indefinite terms virtue, and vice; and universally, the proper names of perfons, places, and things, rather than more comprehenfive terms which are applicable to other ideas besides those that are intended to be conveyed.

Shakespeare interefts his readers more than most other dramatic poets, becaufe he copies nature and real life in this refpect more closely than most others. It will, perhaps, not appear improbable that Shakespeare's frequent use of particular terms, and his attention to the choice of them, contributed not a little to his peculiar excellence in distinguishing the paffions and characters of human nature; whereas dealing much in general terms, leads writers to confound all characters, and not to make those distinctions which nature doth. If it should be rather thought that Shakespeare's happiness in diftinguishing characters led him to be fo particular and circumftantial in his descriptions, it may be allowed, without contradicting the converfe of this hypothesis; and it equally confirms the fuppofition of the connection that is here fuggefted to fubfift between the diftinguishing particular characters, and the ufe of particular terms. Homer abounds more in the minute details of circumstances than Virgil, and his characters are better diftinguished. Virgil ufes more general terms

upon all occafions, and the fameness of his characters is remarkable.

To exemplify this obfervation, I fhall fubjoin a description from Shakespeare, of the manner in which a prodigy was talked of among the common people, as being particularly excellent in its kind.

Old men, and beldams in the streets

Do prophecy upon it dangerously.

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths;
And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the ear;

And he that speaks doth grafp the hearer's wrist,
Whilft he that hears makes fearful action,
With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes.
I faw a fmith ftand with his hammer thus,
The while his iron did on th' anvil cool,
With open mouth fwallowing a taylor's news,
Who, with his fhears and measure in his hand,
Standing on flippers, which his nimble hafte
Had falfely thruft upon contrary feet,
Told of a many thousand warlike French
That were embattled, and rank'd in Kent.

Another lean, unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

KING JOHN, A&t IV. Scene 4.

The facred writings abound with the most lively and animating defcriptions, which derive their excellence from the notice that is taken of particular circumftances. See, among other paffages, Isaiah xxxix. 4. to 15. and Jer. xiv. 15. to the end.

One

On this ac

One reason why philofophers feldom fucceed in poetry, may be, that abstract ideas are too familiar to their minds. Philofophers are perpetually employed in reducing particular to general propofitions, a turn of thinking very unfavourable to poetry. One reason, likewife, why poetry is generally sooner brought to perfection than any other branch of polite literature, may be, that, in early ages, the state of language is most favourable to poetry; as it then contains fewer abstract terms. count, a poet in an early age has the advantage of a later poet, who has equal strength of imagination. It may be faid that, to counterbalance this, the greater progress which the art of criticism will have made in a more refined age, will be an advantage to a later poet. But perhaps refinement in criticism may rather be unfavourable to the genuine spirit of poetry, as an attention to rules tends to deaden and dissipate the fire of imagination

LECTURE

LECTURE XIII.

Of the Tendency of strong Emotions to produce BELIEF, and the transferring of Paffions from one Object to another.

TH

HE tendency of strong emotions and paffions to generate belief may help to throw light upon several things which occur upon the subject of criticism, and works of taste and genius. And that we should be prone to conclude, that very vivid ideas, and strong emotions of mind, are derived from external objects, and circumstances really exifting, can be no matter of surprize, when we reflect that objects really exifting do generally excite fuch ideas and emotions. Vivid ideas and ftrong emotions, therefore, having been, through life, affociated with reality, it is easy to imagine that, upon the perception of the proper feelings, the affociated idea of reality will likewife recur, and adhere to it as ufual; unless the emotion be combined with fuch other ideas and circumftances as have had as ftrong an affociation with fiction. In this case the abfurdity and impoffibility of the fcene precludes affent; and at the fame time, by taking away the affociated circumftance, it greatly weakens the original impreffion. But while the impreffions remain vivid, and no certain marks of fiction appear, the idea of reality will occur; that is, the mind. will find itself strongly inclined to believe the scene to be real.

This may help us to account for the fatisfaction that is received, and particularly by youth, and all perfons of little knowledge and experience, in reading the hiftory of fuch beings and powers as far exceed every thing human, and which never could have had any existence; as of fairies in European countries, genies in the East; the heathen gods and goddesses in the ancient claffical and knights-errant and necromancers in modern ftory.

ages,

It may, likewise, fuggest a reason why these ftories are read with less pleasure by perfons more advanced in years. In youth the vivid and magnified ideas presented by such stories, and the emotions confequent upon them, have a stronger association with truth than any improbable circumstances attending them have yet. acquired with falfehood. In reading them, therefore, there is nothing to prevent the object from being conceived to be ideally prefent, and their unexperienced paffions are excited mechanically, as by the presence of the like real objects. Whereas the affociation which fuch ftrange powers and properties have acquired with the ideas of impoffibility, falfehood, and absurdity, in the minds of perfons of confiderable age and reflection, often makes it impoffible for them, even in imagination, to conceive: fuch things really to exist..

If, however, the fiction be confiftent with itself, and be natural upon any uniform principles, or fuppofitions, fo that it fhall require only one fingle effort of the imagination to conceive the existence of the imaginary beings and powers, and the ideas of inconsistency and contradiction do not frequently occur through the course of the narration, to deftroy the illufion; a reader of a lively turn of mind, though of good difcernment, may enter into the scene, and receive great pleasure from the performance: But ftill, in confequence of a thousand reiterated affociations, all re

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