with most facility. What the heart or the imagination dictates, always flows readily; but where there is no subject to warm or interest these, constraint appears; and hence, those letters of mere compliment, congratulation, or affected condolence, which have cost the authors most labour in composing, and which, for that reason, they perhaps consider as their master-pieces, never fail of being the most disagreeable and insipid to the readers. 4. It ought, at the same time, to be remembered, that the ease and simplicity which we have recommended in epistolary correspondence, are not to be understood as importing entire carelessness. In writing to the most intimate friend, a certain degree of attention, both to the subject and the style, is requisite and becoming. It is no more than what we owe both to ourselves, and to the friend with whom we correspond. A slovenly and negligent manner of writing, is a disobliging mark of want of respect. The liberty, besides, of writing letters with too careless a hand, is apt to betray us into imprudence in what we write. 5. The first requisite, both in conversation and correspondence, is to attend to all the proper decorums which our own character, and that of others, demand. An imprudent expression in conversation may be forgotten and pass away; but when we take the pen into our hand, we must remember, that "the word which hath been written remains."* Example 1. In our own times, several collections of letters have issued from the press. Among these, Franklin's correspondence holds a most distinguished place. 2. But of all the letters which this or any country hath produced, the most finished, perhaps, are those of Lord Chesterfield. Lady Montagu's Letters entitle her to rank among authors of a superior class. 3. The most distinguished collection of letters, however, in the English Language, is that of Pope, Dean Swift, and their friends; partly published in Pope's works, and partly in those of Dean Swift. *"Litera scripta manet." BOOK VII. POETRY. CHAPTER I. THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF POETRY. 541. POETRY is the language of passion, or of enlivened imagination, formed, most commonly, into regular numbers. 542. The historian, the orator, and the philosopher, address themselves, for the most part, primarily to the understanding their direct aim is to inform, to persuade, or to instruct. But the primary aim of a poet is to please, and to move; and, therefore, it is to the imagination, and the passions, that he speaks. Illus. 1. He may, and he ought to have it in his view, to instruct and to reform; but it is indirectly, and by pleasing and moving, that he accomplishes this end. His mind is supposed to be animated by some interesting object, which fires his imagination, or engages his passions; and which, of course, communicates to his style a peculiar elevation suited to his ideas; very different from that mode of expression, which is natural to the mind in its calm and ordinary state. 2. Yet, though versification be, in general, the exterior distinction of poetry, there are some forms of verse so loose and familiar, as to be hardly distinguishable from prose; such as the verse of Terence's comedies; and there is also a species of prose, so measured in its cadence, and so much raised in its tone, as to approach very near to poetical numbers; such as the Telemachus of Fenelon, and the English translation of Ossian. Dr. Johnson's Rasselas is perhaps of this class too. 3. The truth is, verse and prose, on some occasions, run into one another, like light and shade. It is hardly possible to determine the exact limit where prose ends, and poetry begins; nor is there any occasion for being very precise about the boundaries, as long as the nature of each is understood. 543. The Greeks, ever fond of attributing to their own nation the invention of all sciences and arts, have ascribed the origin of poetry to Orpheus, Linus, and Musæus. Obs. There were, perhaps, such persons as these, who were the first distinguished bards in the Grecian countries. But long before such names were heard of, and among nations where they were never known, poetry existed. 544. It has been often said, and the concurring voice of all antiquity affirms, that poetry is older than prose. But in what sense this seemingly strange paradox holds true, has not always been well understood. (See Art. 30. and Illus.) Illus. 1. There never, certainly, was any period of society in which men conversed in poetical numbers. It was in very humble and scanty prose, as we may easily believe, that the first tribes carried on intercourse among themselves, relating to the necessities of life. But from the very beginning of society, there were occasions on which they met together for feasts, sacrifices, and public assemblies; and on all such occasions, it is well known, that music, song, and dance, constituted their principal entertainment. 2. It is chiefly in America, that we have had the opportunity of being made acquainted with men in their savage state. We learn from the particular and concurring accounts of travellers, that, among all the nations of that vast continent, especially among the northern tribes, with whom we have had most intercourse, music and song are, at all their meetings, carried on with an incredible degree of enthusiasm ; that the chiefs of the tribe are those who signalize themselves most on such occasions; that it is in songs they celebrate their religious rites; that by these they lament their public and private calamities, the death of friends, or the loss of warriors; express their joy on their victories; celebrate the great actions of their nation, and their heroes; excite each other to perform great exploits in war, or to suffer death and torments with unshaken constancy. (Art. 19. Illus. 1.) Corol. Here then we see the first beginnings of poetic composition, in those rude effusions, which the enthusiasm of fancy or passion suggested to untaught men, when roused by interesting events, and by their meeting together in public assemblies. 545. Man, by nature, is both a poet and a musician. The same impulse which prompted the enthusiastic poetic style, prompted a certain melody, or modulation of sound, suited to the emotions of joy or grief, of admiration, love, or anger. There is a power in sound, which, partly from nature, partly from habit and association, makes such pathetic impressions on the fancy, as delight even the most wild barbarians. Corol. Music and poetry, therefore, had the same rise; they were prompted by the same occasions; they were united in song; and, as long as they continued united, they tended, without doubt, mutually to heighten and exalt each other's power. 546. The first poets sung their own verses: and hence the beginning of what we call versification, or words arranged in a more artful order than prose, so as to be suited to some tune or melody. Illus. The liberty of transposition, or inversion, which the poetic style would naturally assume, made it easier to form the words into some sort of numbers that fell in with the music of the song. Very harsh and uncouth, we may easily believe, these numbers would be at first. But the pleasure was felt; it was studied; and versification, by degrees, passed into an art. (Art. 25. Illus.) Corol. 1. It appears from what has been said, that the first compositions, which were either recorded by writing or transmitted by tradition, could be no other than poetical compositions. No other but these, could draw the attention of men in their rude, uncivilized state. Indeed they knew no other. 2. Cool reasoning and plain discourse had no power to attract savage tribes, addicted only to hunting and war. There was nothing that could either rouse the speaker to pour himself forth, or draw the crowd to listen, but the high powers of passion, of music, and of song. This vehicle, poetry, therefore, and no other, could be employed by chiefs and legislators, when they meant to instruct or animate their tribes. 3. There is, likewise, a farther reason why such compositions only could be transmitted to posterity; because, before writing was invented, songs only could last, and be remembered. The ear gave assistance to the memory, by the help of numbers; fathers repeated and sung them to their children; and by this oral tradition of national ballads, were conveyed all the historical knowledge, and all the instruction, of the first ages. 547. The earliest accounts which history gives us concerning all nations, bear testimony to these facts. In the first ages of Greece, priests, philosophers, and statesmen, all delivered their instructions in poetry. Illus. Apollo, Orpheus, and Amphion, their most ancient bards, are represented as the first tamers of mankind, the first founders of law and civilization. Minos and Thales sung to the lyre the laws which they composed;* and till the age immediately preceding that of Herodotus, history had appeared in no other form than that of poetical tales. 548. In the same manner, among all other nations, poets are the first literary characters, and songs are the first compositions that make their appearance. (Illus. 2. Art. 544. and Art. 21.) Illus. Among the Scythian or Gothic nations, many of their kings and leaders were scalders, or poets; and it is from their runic songs, that the most early writers of their history, among whom we may reckon Saxo-Grammaticus, acknowledged, that they had derived their chief information. Among the Celtic tribes, in Gaul, Britain, and Ireland, we know, in what admiration their bards were held, and what great influence they possessed over the people. They were both poets and musicians, in each of these countries. They were always near the person of the chief or sovereign; they recorded all his great exploits; they were employed as the ambassadors between contending tribes, and their persons were held sacred. 549. Diversity of climate and of manner of living, hath occasioned some diversity in the strain of the first poetry of * Strabo, I. 10. nations; chiefly, according as those nations are of a more ferocious, or of a more gentle spirit; and according as they advance faster or slower in the arts of civilization. (Art. 31.) Illus. 1. Thus we find all the remains of the ancient Gothic poetry remarkably fierce, and breathing nothing but slaughter and blood; while the Peruvian and the Chinese songs turned, from the earliest times, upon milder subjects. The Celtic poetry, in the days of Ossian, though chiefly of the martial kind, yet had attained a considerable mixture of tenderness and refinement; in consequence of the long cultivation of poetry among the Celta, by means of a series and succession of bards which had been established for ages. So Lucan informs us: Vos quoque qui fortes animos, belloque peremptos 2. Among the Grecian states, the early poetry appears to have received a philosophical cast, from what we are informed concerning the subjects of Orpheus, Linus, and Musæus, who treated of creation and of chaos, of the generation of the world, and of the rise of things; and we know that the Greeks advanced sooner to philosophy, and proceeded with a quicker pace in all the arts of refinement, than most other nations. 3. The Arabians and the Persians have always been the greatest poets of the East; and among them, as among other people, poetry was the earliest vehicle of all their learning and instruction.f 550. During the infancy of poetry, all the different kinds of it lay confused, and were mingled in the same composition, according as inclination, enthusiasm, or casual incidents, directed the poet's strain. Illus. 1. Odes and hymns of every sort, would naturally be among the first compositions; according as the bards were moved by religious feelings, by exultation, resentment, love, or any other warm sentiment, to pour themselves forth in song. 2. Plaintive or elegiac poetry, would as naturally arise from lamentations over their deceased friends. 3. The recital of the achievements of their heroes, and their ancestors, gave birth to what we now call epic poetry; and as, not content with simply reciting these, they would infallibly be led, at some of their public meetings, to represent them, by introducing different bards speaking in the character of their heroes, and answering each other, we find in this the first outlines of tragedy, or dramatic writing. 551. None of these kinds of poetry, however, were, in the first ages of society, properly distinguished, or separated, as they are now, from each other. Indeed, not only were the *You too, ye bards, whom sacred raptures fire, And noblest themes in deathless songs pursue. Rowe. Vid. Voyages de Chardin, chap. de la Poesie des Persans. |