manufacture, there are two reflections, which administer great occation of furprize; the one, that all dignities and honours fhould be bestowed upon the exceeding few meagre inhabitants of the top of the mountain; the other, that our nation fhould have arrived at that pitch of greatness it now poffeffes, without any regular fyftem of laws. As to the firft, it is with great pleasure I have obferved of late the gradual decay of delicacy and refinement among mankind, who are become too reasonable to require that we should labour with infinite pains to come up to the taste of these mountaineers, when they without any may condescend to ours. But as we have now an unquestionable majority on our fide, I doubt not but we fhall fhortly be able to level the highlanders, and procure a farther vent for our own product, which is already fo much relished, encouraged, and rewarded by the nobility and gentry of Great Britain.

Therefore, to fupply our former defects, I propose to collect the fcattered rules of our art into regular institutes, from the example and practice of the deep geniufes of our nation; imitating herein my predeceffors, the mafter of Alexander, and the fecretary of the renowned Zenobia: and in this my undertaking I am the more animated, as I expect more fuccefs than has attended even those great critics; fince their laws, though they might be good, have ever been flickly executed, and their precepts, however strict, obeyed only by fits, and by a very small number.

At the fame time I intend to do justice upon our neighbours, inhabitants of the upper Parnaffus; who, taking advantage of the rifing ground, are perpetually throwing down rubbish, dirt, and ftones upon us, never fuffering us to live in peace. Thefe men, while they enjoy the crystal ftream of Helicon, envy us our common water, which (thank our stars), though it is fomewhat muddy, flows in much greater abundance. Nor is this the greatest in. juftice that we have to complain of; for though it is evident, that we never made the leaft attempt or inroad in. to their territories, but lived contented in our native fens; they have often not only committed petty larcenies upon our borders, but driven the country, and carried off at once whole cart-loads of our manufacture; to reclaim

fome

fome of which stolen goods, is part of the defign of this treatise.

For we fhall fee, in the courfe of this work, that our greatest adverfaries have fometimes defcended towards us; and doubtless might now and then have arrived at the bathos itself, had it not been for that mistaken opinion they all entertained, that the rules of the antients were equally neceffary to the moderns; than which there cannot be a more grievous error, as will be amply proved in the following difcourfe.

And indeed when any of these have gone fo far, as by the light of their own genius to attempt new models, it is wonderful to obferve, how nearly they have approach. ed us in those particular pieces; though in their others they differed toto cælo from us.

That the bathos, or profound, is the natural tafie of man, and in particular of the prefent age.

T

HE tafte of the bathos is implanted by nature itself in the foul of man, till prevented by custom or example, he is taught, or rather compelled to relish the fublime. Accordingly, we fee the unprejudiced minds of children delight only in fuch productions, and in such images, as our true modern writers fet before then. I have obferved, how faft the general tafte is returning to this firft fimplicity and innocence: and if the intent of all poetry be to diveit and instruct, certainly, that kind, which diverts and inftructs the greatefl number, is to be preferred. Let us look round among the admirers of poetry; we fhall find thofe who have a tafte of the fu blime, to be very few; but the profound strikes univerfal ly, and is adapted to every capacity. It is a fruitless undertaking to write for men of a nice and foppifh gufto, whom, after all, it is almoft impoffible to please; and it is still more chimerical to write for pofterity, of whose tafte we cannot make any judgment, and whofe applaufe we can never enjoy. It must be confuffed, our wiler authors have a prefent end,

Et

Et prodeffe volunt, et delectare poetæ.

Their true defign is profit or gain; in order to acquire which, it is neceffary to procure applause by adminiftring. pleasure to the reader: from whence it follows demonftrably, that their productions muft by fuited to the prefent taste. And I cannot but congratulate our age on this peculiar felicity, that though we have made indeed great progrefs in all other branches of luxury, we are not yet debauched with any high relish in poetry, but are in this one tafte lefs nice than our ancestors. If an art is to be eftemated by its fuccefs, I appeal to experience, whether there have not been, in proportion to their number, as many ftarving good poets, as bad ones?

Nevertheless, in making gain the principal end of our art, far be it from me to exclude any great geniuses of rank or fortune from diverting themfelves this way They ought to be praised no lefs than thofe princes, who pafs their vacant hours in fome ingenious mechanical or manual And to fuch as thefe, it would be ingratitude not to own, that our art has been often infinitely indebted.

art.

F

CHA P. III.

The neceffity of the bathos phyfically confidered.

URTHERMORE, it were great cruelty and injustice, if all fuch authors as cannot write in the other way, were prohibited from writing at all. Against this I draw an argument from what feems to me an undoubted phyfical maxim; that poetry is a natural morbid fecretion from the brain. As I would not fuddenly stop a cold in the head, or dry up my neighbour's iffue, I would as little hinder him from neceffary writing. It may be affirmed with great truth, that there is hardly any human creature paft childhood, but at one time or other has had fome poetical evacuation, and, no question, was much the better for it in his health; fo true is the laying, nafcimur poet.. Therefore is the defire of writing properly term ed pruritus, the "titillation of the generative faculty of the brain," and the perfon is faid to conccive; now uch as conceive must bring forth. I have known a man VOL, V. F

thought

thoughtful, melancholy, and raving for divers days, who forthwith grew wonderfully eafy, lightfome, and cheerful, upon a discharge of the peccant humour in exceeding purulent metre. Nor can I question, but abundance of untimely deaths are occafioned for want of this laudable vent of unruly paffions; yea, perhaps, in poor wretches (which is very lamentable), for mere want of pen, ink, and paper! From herce it follows, that a fuppreffion of the very worst poetry is of dangerous confequence to the state. We find by experience, that the fame humours which vent themselves in fummer in ballads and fonnets, are condenfed, by the winter's cold, into pamphlets and speeches for and against the ministry: nay, I know not, but many times a piece of poetry may be the most innocent compo fition of a minifter himself.

It is therefore manifeft, that mediocrity ought to be allowed, yea, indulged, to the good fubjects of England. Nor can I conceive how the world has fwallowed the contrary maxim upon the fingle authority of Horace. Why fhould the golden mean, and quinteffence of all virtues, be deemed fo offenfive in this art? or coolness or mediocrity be fo amiable a quality in a man, and fo detestable in a poet?

However, far be it from me to compare these writers with thofe great fpirits, who are born with a vivacité de pefanteur, or (as an English author calls it) an "alacri

ty of finking" and who by ftrength of nature alone, can excel. All I mean, is to evince the neceflity of rules to these of leffer geniuses, as well as the usefulness of them to the greater.

That there is an art of the bathos, or prefund.

Wing in poetry. Is there not an architecture of

7.E come now to prove, that there is an art of fink

Mediocribus effe poetis

Non dii, non homines, &c.

HOR. Pope.

Spoken by Falstaff of himself in Shakespear's Merry Wives of

dfor. Hawkefworth.

vaults, and cellars, as well as lofty domes and pyramids? Is there not as much skill and labour in making ditches. as in railing mounts? Is there not an art of diving as well as of flying and will any fober practitioner affirm, that a diving engine is not of fingular ufe in making him longwinded, affifting his defcent, and furnishing him with more ingenious means of keeping under water?

If we fearch the authors of antiquity, we fhall find as few to have been distinguished in the true profund, as in the true fublime. And the very fame thing (as it appears from Longinus) had been imagined of that, as now of this: namely, that it was entirely the gift of nature. I grant, that, to excel in the bathos, a genius is requifite; yet the rules of art must be aHowed fo far ufeful, as to add weight, or, as I may fay, hang on lead to facilitate and enforce our defcent, to guide us to the most advan tageous declivities, and habituate our immagination to a depth of thinking. Many there are that can fall, but few can arrive at the felicity of falling gracefully; much more for a man, who is amongst the loweft of the creati on, at the very bottom of the atmosphere; to defcend beneath himself, is not so easy a task, unless he calls in art to his affiftance. It is with the bathos as with small beer, which is indeed vapid and insipid, if left at large and let abroad; but being, by our rules, confined and well stopt, nothing grows fo frothy, pert, and bouncing.

The fublime of nature is the fky, the fun, moon, stars, &c.

The profund of nature is gold, pearls, precious ftones, and the treasures of the deep, which, are ineftimable as unknown. But all that lies between these, as corn, flowers, fruits, animals, and things for the mere ufe of man, are of mean price, and so common as not to be greatly esteemed by the curious. It being certain that any thing, of which we know the true ufe, cannot be invaluable: which affords a solution, why common sense bath either been totally defpiled, or held in fimall repute, by the greatest modern critics and authors.