be by having their hard, dull wits softened and fharpened with the fweet delight of Poetry; for until they find a pleasure in the exercise of the mind, great promifes of much knowledge, will little perfuade them that know not the fruits of knowledge. In Wales, the true remnant of the antient Britons, as there are good authorities to fhew the long time they had poets, which they called Bards, fo through all the conquefts of Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, fome of whom did feek to ruin all memory of learning from among them, yet do their poets, even to this day, laft; fo as it is not more notable in the foon beginning, than in long continuing.

But fince the authors of moft of our sciences were the Romans, and, before them, the Greeks ; let us, a little, ftand upon their authorities, but even so far, as to see what names they have given unto this now fcorned skill. Among the Romans, a poet was called Vates, which is as much as a diviner, foreseer, or prophet, as by his conjoined words Vaticinium, and Vaticinari, is manifeft; fo heavenly a title did that excellent people bestow upon this heart-ravishing knowledge! And fo far were they carried into the admiration thereof, that they thought in the changeable hitting upon any fuch verfes, great foretokens of their following fortunes were placed. Whereupon

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Whereupon grew the word of Sortes Virgiliana; when, by fudden opening Virgil's book, they lighted upon fome verfe, as it is reported by many, whereof the hiftories of the emperor's lives are full. As of Albinus, the governor of our Ifland, who, in his childhood, met with this verse,

Arma amens capio, nec fat rationis in armis ; And in his age performed it. Although it were a very vain and godlefs fuperftition; as also it was, to think spirits were commanded by fuch. verfes whereupon this word charms, derived of Carmina, cometh, fo yet ferveth it to fhew the great reverence those wits were held in; and altogether not without ground, fince both the oracles of Delphi and the Sibyls prophefies were wholly delivered in verfes; for that fame exquifite obferving of number and measure in the words, and that high-flying liberty of conceit proper to the poet, did feem to have fome divine force in it.

And may not I prefume a little farther, to fhew the reasonableness of this word Vates, and fay, That the holy David's Pfalms are a divine Poem? If I do, I fhall not do it without the teftimony of great learned men, both antient and modern. But even the name of Pfalms, will speak for me, which being interpreted, is nothing but Songs: then, that it is fully written

in

in metre, as all learned Hebricians agree, although the rules be not yet fully found. Laftly, and principally, his handling his prophecy, which is merely poetical. For what else is the awaking his mufical inftruments; the often and free changing of perfons; his notable Profopopaias, when he maketh you, as it were, fee God coming in his majefty; his telling of the beafts joyfulness, and hills leaping; but a heavenly Poefy; wherein, almost, he fheweth himself a paí fionate lover of that unspeakable and everlasting beauty, to be feen by the eyes of the mind, only cleared by faith? But, truly, now, having named him, I fear I feem to profane that holy name, applying it to Poetry, which is, among us, thrown down to fo ridiculous an eftimation. But they that, with quiet judgments, will look a little deeper into it, fhall find the end and working of it fuch, as being rightly applied, deserveth not to be scourged out of the church of God.

.

But now let us fee how the Greeks have named it, and how they deemed of it. The Greeks named him oth; which name hath, as the most excellent, gone through other languages; it cometh of this word T, which is to make: wherein, I know not whether by luck or wif dom, we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him Maker! which name, how high

and

and incomparable a title it is, I had rather were known by marking the fcope of other fciences, than by any partial allegation. There is no art delivered unto mankind, that hath not the works of nature for his principal object, without which, they could not confift, and on which they fo depend, as they become actors and players, as it were, of what nature will have fet forth. So doth the Aftronomer look upon the ftars, and by that he feeth fet down what order nature hath taken therein. So doth the Geometrician and Arithmetician, in their diverfe forts of quantities. So doth the Mufician, in times, tell you, which by nature agree, which not. The natural Philofopher thereon hath his name; and the moral Philofopher ftandeth upon the natural virtues, vices, or paffions of man: And follow nature, faith he, therein, and thou fhalt not err. The Lawyer faith what men have determined. The Hiflorian, what men have done. The Grammarian, fpeaketh only of the rules of fpeech; and the Rhetorician and Logician, confidering what in nature will fooneft prove, and perfuade thereon, give artificial rules, which fill are compaffed within the circle of a queftion, according to the propofed matter.. The Phyfician weigheth, the nature of man's body, and the nature of things helpful and hurtful unto it. And the Metaphyfick, though it be in

the

that po

the second, and abstract notions, and therefore be counted fupernatural, yet doth he, indeed, build upon the depth of nature. Only the Poet, difdaining to be tied to any fuch fubjection, lifted up with the vigour of his own invention, doth grow, in effect, into another nature in making things either better than nature bringeth forth, or quite anew; forms fuch as never were in nature, as the Heroes, Demi-gods, Cyclops, Chymeras, Furies, and fuch like; fo as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not inclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely ranging within the zodiack of his own wit. Nature never fet forth the earth in fo rich ta pestry as diverse poets have done; neither with fo pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever elfe may make the too much-loved earth more lovely; Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.

But let thofe things alone, and go to Man; for whom, as the other things are, fo it feemeth in him her uttermoft cunning is employed; and know, Whether the have brought forth fo true a lover as Theagenes; fo conftant a friend as Py lades; fo valiant a man as Orlando; fo right a prince as Xenophon's Cyrus; and fo excellent a man every way as Virgil's Æneas? Neither let this be jeftingly conceived, because the works of the one be essential, the other in imitation or fic

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tion;