76 xxiv. AKENSIDE'S POEMS. the Rhine, the Danube, and, much more than all, Ver. 204. Whose unfading light, &c.] It was a notion of the great Mr. Huygens, that there may be fixed stars at such a distance from our solar system, as that their light should not have had time to reach us, even from the creation of the world to this day. the neglect Ver. 234. 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 opposed to this observation; for there, objects at first distasteful are in time rendered entirely agreeable by repeated attention. The difficulty in this case will be removed, 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 merely negative. The object at first gave uneasiness: this uneasiness gradually wears off, as the object grows familiar: and the mind, finding it at last entirely removed, reckons its situation really pleasurable, compared with what it had experienced before. The dislike conceived 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 reconciled to what it had looked on with aversion. In which case, a sort of instinctive justice naturally leads it to make amends for the injury, by running toward the other extreme of fondness and attachment. Or, lastly, though the object itself should always even where the mind is not affected with the least to This excellent observation has been illustrated and extended by the noble restorer of ancient pbilosophy; (see the Characteristics, vol. ii. p. 359 and 422, and vol. iii. p. 181.) And another ingenious author has particularly shown, 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. Some i. § 8.) As to the connection between beauty and truth, there are two opinions concerning it. 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 merely a relative and arbitrary thing; that indeed it was a benevolent provision in Nature to annex so delightful a sensation to those objects which are best and most perfect in themselves, that so we might be engaged 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 proporAnd upon this supposition, by that truth tions. 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, a famous ancient sculptor, 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 modelled according to this a man of mere natural taste, upon looking at it, without entering into its proportions, confesses and admires its This the Athenians did in a particular manner by the word καλοκαγαθός, καλοκαγαθίας 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. says another excelleut 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 Ver. 492. As when Brutus, &c.] Cicero himself describes this fact-Caesare interfecto- statim cruentum altè extollens M. Brutus pugionem, Ci-it once more with the works of imagination; and ceronem nominatim exclamavit, atque ei recupetam libertatem est gratulatus. Cic. Philipp. ii. 12. Ver. 548. 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 which is usually called the moral sense, to be determined by the peculiar temper of the imagination and the earliest associations of ideas. Ver. 591. Lyceum.] The school of Aristotle. NOTES ON BOOK II. Ver. 19. At last the Muses rose, &c.] About the age of Hugh Capet, founder of the third race of French kings, the poets of Provence were in high reputation; a sort of strolling 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 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. Ver. 21. Valclusa.] The famous retreat of Francisco Petrarcha, the father of Italian poetry, and his mistress Laura, a lady of Avignon. Ver. 22. Arno.] The river which runs by rence, the birth-place of Dante and Boccacio. Ver. 23. Parthenope.] Or Naples, the birth-place of Sannazaro. The great Torquato Tasso was born at Sorrento, in the kingdom of Naples. ........ the rage 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 gave 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 embellishments, in order even to gain audience with the public. Ver. 157. 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 notice of by several authors. Lucretius resolves it into self-love: Suave Mari magno, &c. lib. ii. 1. As if a man was never pleased in being moved at the distress of a tragedy, without a cool reflection that though these fictitious personages were so unhappy, yet he himself was perfectly at ease and in safety. The ingenious author of the Reflections critiques sur la Poesie et 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 inattentive state: and this, joined with the moral approbation 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. Ver. 304. Inhabitant of earth, &c.] The account of the economy of Providence here introduced, as the most proper to calm and satisfy the mind Flo-when under the compunction of private evils, seems to have come originally from the Pythagorean school: but of 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 this head, that I am persuaded the reader will be pleased to see it here, though somewhat long. Addressing himself to such as are not satisfied concerning Divine Providence: "The Being who presides over the whole," says he, "has disposed 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 though 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 Ibid. ..... Of dire ambition, &c.] This relates to the eruel wars among the republics of Italy, and abominable politics of its little princes, about the fifteenth century. These at last, in conjunction with the papal power, entirely extinguished the spirit of liberty in that country, and established that abuse of the fine arts which has been since propagated over all Europe. Ver. 30. Thus from their guardians torn, the tender aris, &c.] Nor were they only losers by the separation. For philosophy itself, to use the words of a noble philosopher, "being thus severed by 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," Ver. 18. NOTES ON BOOK III. 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 self-moving creatures, and that mixture of good and evil which diversifies them, considered first of all by what disposition of things, and by 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 ordered, through the entire circle of being, the internal constitution of every mind, where should be its station in the universal fabric, and through 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 into the divine virtue, are consequently removed to a place of unblemished sanctity and hap-swered, that though no man is born ambitious or a piness; as of those who by the most flagitious arts have risen from contemptible beginnings to the greatest affluence and power, and whom you therefore 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. 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 degrees of decency, beauty, and order, variously combined into one system, the idol which he seeks to enjoy 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 moral order of things. This theory has been delivered 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. Ver. 321. ............ one might rise, One order, &c.] See the Meditations of Antoninus, and the Characteristics, passim. Ver. 335. The best and fairest, &c.] This opinion is so old, that Timæus Locrus calls the Supreme Being Engros Tu Biovos, "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 can be no room for a caution here, to understand the expressions, not of any particular circumstances of human life separately considered, but of the sum or universal system of life and being. See also the vision at the end of the Theodicée of Leibnitz. Ver. 350. As flame ascends, &c.] This opinion, though not held by Plato nor any of the ancients, is yet a very natural consequence of his principles. But the disquisition is too complex and extensive to be entered upon here. Ver. 755. Philip.] The Macedonian. 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 an miser, yet he may inherit from his parents a peculiar temper or complection 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 inclined to admire prodigious and sublime objects in the physical world, are also most inclined to applaud examples of fortitude and heroic virtue in the moral. While those who are charmed 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, though 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. Laërt. 1. vii.) The meditations of M. Aurelius, and the discourses of Epictetus, are full of the same sentiment; insomuch that the latter makes the Xeños ola, dù pavracy, or "right management of the fancies," the only thing for which we are accountable to Providence, and without which a man is no other than stupid or frantic. (Arrian. 1. i. c. 12. et l. ii. c. 22.) See also the Characteristics, vol. i. from p. 313 to 321, where this stoical doctrine is embellished with all the elegance and graces of Plato. Ver. 75....... how Folly's awkward 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. 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 Ver. 84. Behold the foremost band, &c.] The first and most general source of ridicule in the charac-class of beings; imply sentiment or design; and ters of men, is vanity, or self-applause for some exciting no acute or vehement emotion of the desirable quality or possession, which evidently does heart." not belong to those who assume it. Ver. 121. Then comes the second order, &c.] Ridicale from the same vanity, where, though the possession be real, yet no merit can arise from it, because of some particular circumstances, which, though obvious to the spectator, are yet overlooked by the ridiculous character. Ver. 152. Another tribe succeeds, &c.] Ridicule from a notion of excellence in particular objects disproportioned to their intrinsic value, and inconsistent with the order of Nature. Ver. 191. But now, ye gay, &c.] Ridicule from a notion of excellence, when the object is absolutely odious or contemptible. This is the highest degree of the ridiculous; as in the affectation of diseases or vices. Ver. 207. Thus far triumphant, &c.] Ridicule from false shame or groundless fear. Ver. 228, Last of the, &c.] Ridicule from the ignorance of such things as our circumstances require us to know. Ver. 248. .... 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 referred to; but others more minute we shall subjoin here. Aristotle's account of the matter seems both imperfect and false; Toyu yahoov, says he, liv augτnμá ti nai avoxos évákovov xal & Długoy "the ridiculous is some certain fault or turpitude without pain, and not destructive to its subject." (Poët. c. 5.) For allowing it to be true, as it is not, that the ridiculous is never accompanied 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 designed. Nay, further; 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 keeper sensations of pity or terrour 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 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 of wisdom joined with ignorance or folly in the Socrates of Aristophanes; and the ostentations 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 apprehension of the person to whom they relate:" in the last-mentioned instance, they both exist in the objects; in the instances from Aristophanes and Terence, one of them is objective and real, the other only founded in the apprehension of the ridiculous cha racter. "The inconsistent properties must belong to the same order or class of being. A coxcomb in fiue clothes, bedaubed by accident in foul weather, is a ridiculous object; because his general apprehension of excellence and esteem is referred to the splendour and expense 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 laughed 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 terrour, pity, or indignation; for in that case, as was observed 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. Ver. 259. 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 assigned 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 mere 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 them 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 offered 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 offered to the mind for its esteem or applause, the faculty of ridicule, finding an incongruity in the claim, urges the mind to rejet 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 the public, it is our business, if the matter be of importance to society, to drag out those latent circumstances, and, by setting them in full view, to 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 errour of its authors. And this and no more is meant by the application of ridicule. gant poem recited by cardinal Bembo in the cha racter of Lucretius; Strada Prolus. vi. Academ. 2. c. v. Ver. 348. By these mysterious ties, &c.] The act of remembering seems almost wholly to depend on the association of ideas. Ver. 411. Into its proper vehicle, &c.] This re'ates to the different sorts of corporeal mediums, by which the ideas of the artists are rendered palpable to the senses; as by sounds, in music; by lines and shadows, in painting; by diction, in poetry, &c. Ver. 547. ............ one pursues The vast alone, &c.] See the note to ver. 18 of this book. Ver. 558. Waller longs, &c.] "O! how I long my careless limbs to lay And again, "While in the park I sing, the listening deer Attend my passion, and forget to fear, &c." At Pens-hurst. Ver. 593. 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 head; 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 But it is said, the practice is dangerous, and should have been diverted from pursuits of more may be inconsistent with the regard we owe to importance to his high station. Speaking of the objects of real dignity and excellence. I answer, beauty of universal nature, he observes, that "there the practice fairly managed can never be dan- is a pleasing and graceful aspect in every object gerous; men may be dishonest in obtaining cir- we perceive," when once we consider its connection cumstances foreign to the object, and we may be with that general order. He instances in many inadvertent in allowing those circumstances to im- things which at first sight would be thought rather pose upon us: but the sense of ridicule always deformities; and then adds, "that a man who enjudges right. The Socrates of Aristophanes is as joys a sensibility of temper with a just compretruly ridiculous a character as ever was drawn:-hension of the universal order-will discern many 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 rendered 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. Ver. 285. The inexpressive semblance, &c.] This similitude is the foundation of almost all the ornaments of poetic diction. Ver. 526. Two faithful needles, &c.] See the ele 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. THE PLEASURES OF THE IMAGINATION. THE GENERAL ARGUMENT. The pleasures of the imagination proceed either from natural objects, as from a flourishing grove, a clear and murmuring fountain, a calin sea by moon-light; or from works of art, such as a noble edifice, a musical tune, a statue, a picture, a poem. In treating of these pleasures, we must begin with the former class; they being original to the other; and nothing more being necessary, in order to explain them, than a view of our natural inclination toward greatness and beauty, and of those appearances, in the world |