Gambar halaman
PDF
ePub

their definition of poetry from its end; though they have been by no means agreed, whether that end be principally to inftruct or to pleafe. Racine, and others, have held, that the primary object of poetry is inftruction; and in fupport of this opinion they have remarked, that, in ancient times, poetry was employed to perform the office of an auxiliary to religion and virtue. A modern critic, of great refinement in claffical tafte, but too deeply imbued with the fubtilty of the Warburtonian fchool, has, on the contrary, taken much pains to prove that the first object of poetry is to pleafe, and that this is the only kind of literary compofition in which ufe is fubordinate to pleafure; and he has hence deduced a definition of poetry, confidered as an art, defcribing it to be: "Such a way, or method, of treating a subject, as is found moft pleafing and delightful to us." If either of thefe definitions be adopted, it is evident that they inake no other difference between poetry and profe, than in the degree of power which the former may be fuppofed to poffefs above the latter, of conveying inAtruction, or affording pleasure. Towards the purpose of inftruction, verfe can contribute nothing, except as an aid to the memory; for that of conveying pleafure it will be allowed to poffets peculiar, but certainly not exclufive advantage.

A definition of poetry, fimilar to that of bishop Hurd, is given by Johnfon. "Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reafon." "The true poet," he adds, "enables you to feel what you remember to have felt before, and to feel it with a great increase of fenfibility: you recognize a familiar image, but meet it again amplified and expanded, embellithed with beauty, and enlarged with majefty." This is an admirable defcription of the power of fine writing; but it applies as truly to works of fancy and fentiment in profe as in verfe.

Thofe writers appear to have approached nearest to a true definition of poetry, who have understood it to be the immediate offspring of a vigorous imagination and quick fenfibility, and have called it the language of fancy and paffion. This appears to have been the idea entertained of poetry by Plato, and to have furnished the chief ground of his exclufion of poets from his republic. Cicero formed the fame idea of poetry; end faid, that "while all other accomplishments must be acquired by inftruc.

tion and precept, the poet derives fuf ficient refources from himself, from the native vigour of his mind, and a certain divine impulfe.' This notion is adopted, among the moderns, by Dr. Blair. From this idea of poetry arife the terms poetic enthusiasm, and poetic infpiration, and the application of the title Vales, both to the poet and the prophet. Little credit is, indeed, given to the modern poet's invocation of the Mufes; and we now feldom read of Mount Parnaffus, or the waters of Hippocrene: but poets are still confidered as men infpired by the power of imagination, and pouring forth the ftrong language of fancy and feeling. It, however, by no means neceffarily follows, that they muft fpeak and write verfes. In the rude ftate of nature, before the art of verfification was known, men felt ftrong paflions, and expreffed them ftrongly. Their language would be bold and figurative; it would be vehement and abrupt: fometimes, under the impulfe of the gentle and the tender, or the gay and joyous paffions, it would flow in a kind of wild and unfettered melody; for, under fuch impreffions, melody is natural to man. These first expreffions of paffion and fentiment would be poetry, but they would not affume the regular form of verfe. So artificial a production must have been the refult of innumerable efforts, and could not attain any high degree of perfection but in a period of great refinement. "No one can doubt," fays Quintilian, "that poetry, at first, flowed without art; and that it was reduced to feet after the ear had difcovered, by frequent obfervation, the regular intervals of melodious founds."

If the feveral excellencies of poetry be diftinctly examined, it will be found that, except measured hamony, none of these are excluded from profe.

We have the authority of Horace and of Johnson, and a ftill higher authority, that of common fenfe, for afferting, that truth and nature are the basis of all literary merit and it will not be pretended, that truth and nature are the exclufive poffeffion of the verfifier. The ftores of knowledge and fentiment are equally open to the man of fenfe and information, or to the man of feeling and fancy, whether he expreffes his conceptions in verfe or in profe. He who is capable of conceiving a noble, a tender, or an ingenious fentiment, may be a fublime, a pathetic, or a witty writer, though he should not choose to give his ideas a metrical drefs. Milton would

1796.]

The Enquirer. No. VI.

have written a magnificent fable concerning the lofs of Paradife, and Butler a witty tale of Hudibras, had they only expreffed their conceptions in profe.

If it be one of the offices of poetry, to exhibit exact and lively pictures of men and things; if it be the province of the poet, to obferve, with a difcriminating eye, the objects which are beft adapted to excite emotions, and to reprefent them with fuch diftinctness and force as to make a vivid impreffion upon the reader's fancy; what reafon can be given, why thefe effects may not be produced in profe? The fame objects, on either fuppofition, lie before the eye or imagination of the writer; he has accefs to the fame magazine of words; and he has equal fcope for the exercife of judgment and taste in the arrangement of his materials.

If, beyond the fimple defcription of real objects, it be understood to be the peculiar privilege of the poet to give ideal exiftence to objects, and scenes of which no archetype is found in nature; if we be told, that fiction is the hallowed temple of poetry, and reminded of "the poet's eye in a fine phrenzy rolling," &c. this character may be afcribed to poetry in its full extent, without confining it within the narrow inclosure of metre. By the united aid of memory, and the power of affociation, to give birth to imaginary beings, to transfer the powers of one being to another, to people any part of the univerfe with new forms, to call up fpectres from the infernal deep, to bring down divinities from the celestial regions, and even to beftow perfonal existence upon abstract ideas; thefe wonders, fancy can perform; and the man who poffeffes, in an uncommon degree, this inventive faculty, has, undoubtedly, the best title to the appellation of poet, according to the original meaning of the term; for he is, in truth, a creator. But this divine power is not the exclufive privilege of those who have acquired the art of meafuring out words in regular feet; and introduced, at fixed intervals, fimilar founds. The mechanical task of verfifying, and the fublime operation of poetic invention, are not fo intimately conjoined by nature, as not to admit of an eafy feparation; and it is an indifputable fact, that fictions of the boldest kind, which have required the highest exertion of genius, have been written in profe as well as in verse.

The character of poetry, which may feem moft to require that it be limited to

455

verfe, is its appropriate diction. It will be admitted, that metaphorical language, being more impreffive than general terms, is beft fuited to poetry. That excited ftate of mind, which poetry fuppofes, naturally prompts a figurative style. But the language of fancy, fentiment, and paffion, is not peculiar to verse. Whatever is the natural and proper expreffion of any conception or feeling in metre or rhyme, is its natural and proper expreffion in profe. All beyond this is a departure from the true principles of tafte. If the artificial diction of modern poetry would be improper, on finilar occafions, in profe, it is equally improper in verse. In fupport of this opinion, the appeal may be made, not only to the general fenfe of propriety, but to those molt perfect models of fine writing, the Greek poets. The language of these great mafters is always fo confonant to nature, that, thrown out of rhythm it would become the proper expreffion of the fame fentiment in profe. If modern poetry will feldom bear to be brought to the fame tafte, it is because the taite of the moderns has been refined to a degree of faftidioufnefs, which leads them to prefer the meretricious ornaments of art, to the genuine fimplicity of nature.

If, in order to eftaofifh the opinion, that verfe is not effential to poetry, it were required, that examples inould be adduced of writings in profe, which poffefs all the properties of genuine poetry, except its metrical numbers; it would be eafy, in treating the fubiet more at large, to point out many paffages fublimely poetical in the profe parts of the Hebrew fcriptures; to refer to many dialogues of Plato, replete with elevated conceptions and poetical diction; to call to the reader's recollection Xenophon's Choice of Hercules, the Table of Cebes, the Metamorphofis of Apuleius, with his beautiful Fable of Cupid and Plychè many of the productions of Lucian's fportive fancy, and fatyrical humour, and Cicero's Dream of Scipio, with many paffages, truly poetical, from his orations and rhilofophical writings as well as from the works of ancient hiftorians, moralifts, and critics: nor would it be lefs eafy, among the moderns, to produce a long lift of poetical hiftorians, fabulifts, and novelifts; to refer to the writings of Rabelais, Cervantes, and Sterne; to lay open the rich poetic ftores of the English Offian; to recal the amusement which every youthful fancy has received, from the wonderful tales of the

Arabian

Arabian Nights Entertainments; to mention the elegant fictions lately produced by the fertile genius of Wieland, and by other German writers; and lastly, to dwell upon the numberlefs beauties of Fenelon's Telemachus, a work which poffeffes every character of the epic, except verfification.

In farther confirmation of the opinion fupported in this paper, may be adduced the authority of Horace. He gives the honourable appellation of poet, not to the mere verfifier, but to the man who poffelfes the divine infpiration of genius, and can command a fuitable grandeur of expreflion:

Ingenium cui fit, cui mens divinior, atque os Magna fonaturum, des nomines hujus honorem. And to prevent mifapprehenfion, he gives an example of a paffage from Ennius, in which, when the verfe is broken up, that is, when the paffage becomes profe, the reader fill finds disjeti membra pictæ, the limbs of the disjointed poet.

The prefent difcuffion is not a mere verbal difpute. Its object is more important, than to introduce a new, or extended ufe of the term poetry: it is, to detect one of thofe numerous miftakes in the ufe of words, which are attended with ill effects, In appropriating the name of poet to the compofer of verfes, the honours of poetry have been confined to this clafs of writers; and it has not been fufficiently perceived, that all the effential and most valuable powers of the poet may be found in one, who does not understand, or who is not willing to fubmit to the mental fatigue of practifing, the art of verfification. It is not my defign to depreciate this art. Though it may not, in thefe degenerate times, be able to perform all the wonders of Orpheus's lyre, it can ftill add an irresistible

charm to the productions of fancy. Verfe is certainly the fairest drefs of poetry; and when true genius and cor sect tafte employ it to embellish their productions, the finished piece is deTervedly placed in the first clafs of human productions. But let not the honour due to that divine enchantrefs, Poefy, whofe fublime conceptions fill the fancy, and delight the heart, be bestowed upon the hand-maid, whofe humble office confifts alone in melodious arrangement. It were as if the mechanical hand, that prepares and mixes the painter's colours, were to fteal away the praife from the inventive genius which produced and executed the defign. Nor

let thofe whofe literary productions are dictated by a ready invention, a glowing fancy, and a feeling heart, and chaftifed by a found judgment and correct taße, be refufed an honourable station among poets, merely because their works are not caft in the mold of verfe. Let the exclufive homage which has hitherto been paid to the first clafs of poets be difmiffed with other fuperftitions; and let the merit of every literary performance be fairly eftimated, not by the comparatively trivial circumftance of having been written in profe or verfe, but by the fhare of judgment, genius, and taste which it difcovers.

It obviously follows from the point eftablished in this paper, that the terms poetry and profe are incorrectly opposed to each other. Verfe is, properly, the contrary of profe; and becaufe poetry speaks the language of fancy, paffion, and fentiment, and philofophy fpeaks the language of reafon, thefe two terms fhould be confidered as contraries, and writing fhould be divided, not into poetry and profe, but into poetry and philofophy : divifion which might anfwer an ufeful purpofe, by occafionally reminding both poets and philofophers of the propriety of keeping within their respective pro vinces poets might learn that their proper office is to amufe rather than to inftruct the world, in which, as poets, they have hitherto had little fuccefs: and

:

[ocr errors]

which is more important-philofo, phers might learn, in inftructing mankind, to abandon the idle project of amufing them at the fame time, with poetical fancies and fictions.

I

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine,

READ, fir, in your Magazine for April,

a paper, the defign of which, is to thow the impolicy of large farms, in a national view; the writer of which informs us, that ne refides in the country, and has done fo for fome years. Had it not been for fuch information, I fhould have concluded that his refidence had been (to ufe a country phrafe) within the found of Bow-bell, if this is not the cafe, however, it is plain to me, that there are perfons who live in the country, that are far from being acquainted with the true ftate of the neighbourhoods where they refide.

Unacquainted, indeed, muft that man be with agricultural purfuits, who recommends the division of farms into fuch hands as can command a capital from 501.

te

17 96.]

Reflections on Large Farms.

to 100l.; fucn a plan, if adopted, could fcarcely fail to bring thofe capitals to nothing, and leave the good people of England deftitute of bread in a great degree. I had, indeed, heard, that fober citizens, when talking over rural affairs, had propofed fuch a fcheme; but really imagined, that fuch ideas had blown away with the fumes from the pipe with which they afcended. How great my furprife, then, to find a country gentleman adopt. ing them! and I was led to fufpect, that he must have lately been paying a vifit to his friends in town, who were accounting for the prefent high price of provifions, by the increase of monopoly and large farms.

But, fir, I wish to reafon with your correfpondent, and to appeal not to conjecture and opinion, but to matters of fact. I lay it down as the fair and indifputable datum in this cafe, that the man who by his fkill and induftry, makes his land the moft productive, is both the best farmer, and the best friend to his country-whether he holds a greater or a lefs number of acres. To cultivate land to advantage, it is neceffary to have a strong team of horfes or oxen; the man who fails in this respect, feldom, if ever, has his land well broken up and made a tilth fit to receive the feed; it is allo of great importance to have land well manured, either by compoft to be purchated, or made from a large ftock of cattle kept upon the farm; but these things are generally beyond the reach of the perfon who has only a flen-. der capital, and, in confequence, they are very frequently but partially done. Take a furvey of various diftricts in the kingdom, where the large farmer uniting kill, capital, and industry, fpares neither labour nor expence to cultivate and manure his land in the highest degree; and, in general, you will find he is rewarded by luxuriant crops, when the feafon does, not prove unkind: whit the lefler farmer, in many inftances, for want of fuf. ficient ftrength, having done his tillage in a lefs perfect manner, and, for want of capital, having been fparing in his manure, his crops do not exhibit that luxuriant appearance, nor yield fo great a produce, as would otherwife have been the cafe. I have heard of farms, that have been in the hands of fmall farmers, which were generally reputed fterile and bad land, and which have brought fome of their occupiers to poverty; that on being cultivated by fuperior fkill, and fuperior capital, have foon exhibited an appearance that has made a confiderable MONTHLY MAG. No. VI.

457

alteration in the fentiments of persons refpecting the ftaple of the land. Inftances might be produced, where the received opinion of the country has been, that such forts of land were unfit to produce wheat; nor would that opinion, probably, have been changed, had not an alteration in the management of it been adopted by a large farmer, who by attention and perfeverance, has made it produce as good wheat as any in the neighbourhood. I do not mean to affert, that there are no large farmers who neglect their bufinefs, and where this is the cafe, I readily grant their farms would be better in other hands; but these are comparatively few : nor do I mean to fay, that there are no fmall farmers who are both skilful and fuccefsful in the cultivation of their farms, and are entitled to great commendation in this refpect; but fpeaking from what has fallen under my obfervation, I have no doubt but the large, or I would rather fay, the moderate-fized farm, produces more corn, in proportion, than the fmall one; and, confequently, is of more general benent.

66

It has, however, frequently been obferved, that if it be admitted that the large farmer produces more corn than the fmall one; yet, with refpect to pigs and poultry, he is far behind nim; the truth of this I am much inclined to suspect; a judicious pamphlet lately published, entitled, Thoughts on the caufe of the high price of provifions," has the following obfervations on this fubject: "But fuppofing the practice of converting small farms into large ones was much more general than it is, yet I am perfuaded, this country would reap a confiderable benefit from it, for farms of about 300 acres of arable, with a fuitable quantity of pafture land, will, in general, be occupied by perfons much more able to manure, cultivate, and stock them to advantage, than thofe fmall ones cultivated by perfons of inferior rank. If, therefore, farms of the above defcription are more productive, in proportion, than small farms, there will of courfe be a larger quantity of offa. corn, and culture of clover-grafs, to feed swine; so, then, as every good farmer must be fenfible, that no one thing in husbandry turns to to good an account as hogs, he will, if he confults his own intereft, breed and fatten more, in proportion, than Imail farmers can do; fo that, instead of farms of a moderate fize having a tendency to

* In a Letter addreffed to Sir John Sinclair, bart.. 3 N

[ocr errors]

leffen

leffen the breed of bogs, they increase it. And in respect to poultry, whether any alteration, by laying small farms into large ones, has leffened the breed, our confumption will beft determine; for near double the quantity (at least in London) is confumed now, than was fifty years ago. Such an amazing increase of this ar ticle of provisions, muft fhow, that not only the practice of breeding poultry is become more general, but that it is reafonable to believe, fome great benefit has arifen to promote this great produce, from land being better cultivated." I am perfuaded, fir, that the high price of bread corn may be fatisfactorily accounted for, to every unprejudiced and reflecting mind, on far better grounds than either a monopoly, or the increase of large farms.-The two laft crops of wheat, taken generally, have been far from abundant; and there has been a failure of the importation of foreign wheat (till very lately) in any confi. derable quantities: thefe adinitted facts, when compared with our aftonishing confumption (beyond all former experience) lead to the true caufe of that comparative fcarcity which has been felt.-The fupply has not been adequate to the demand and if fleets and armies must be victualled if thofe whofe part we have been taking in the prefent conteft, ftand in need of a fupply from our granaries: till thefe calls fhall ceafe, the poor man of Britain muft be contented to yield a part of his loaf; or Providence afford us a harvest more than ufually plentiful. Let us not, then, impute blame, where blame is by no means due; from my own obfervations, I am well convinced, that many large farmers, for their fpirited exertions in raifing of cattle and of corn, are entitled (instead of reproach and cenfure) to the gratitude of their country,

A FRIEND TO AGRICULTURE. June 9, 1796.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

[blocks in formation]

and circulated in your Publication, in the hope that it may produce fome other communication, of equal value, relative to other manufactories." Your's, July 8, 1796. A. B. QUERIES SUBMITTED TO MR. PALE, OF GLASGOW, BY MR. BAYLEY, OF MANCHESTER.

1. The dimenfions of spinning-rooms, espe· cially the bright?

2. Number of Spindles in a room? 3. Modes of ventilation and purification? 4. Number of boys and girls in one room? 5. Hours of labour, of reft, and for meals ? 6. Rules for cleanliness and health? 7 Time and manner of teaching the chil dren to read, and of religious inftruction?

8, Mode and time of hiring?

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

Whence the mills are fupplied with la bourers?

Means employed to prevent, or to cor rect the typhous fever ?

Mode of lodging and feeding the chil

dren?

What are they fit for when too big for the Spindles?

Are they con monly firong for labour, or otherwise? &c.

MR. DALE'S ANSWERS TO THE SAME.

1. The fpinning, and all the other rooms, are of the whole extent of the buildings, without any fubdivifions, and are from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet long; from twentyfix to thirty feet wide, and all of them in height ten feet from floor to floor, or nine feet clear of the beams.

2. The fpinning-rooms contain each about two thoufand fpindles.

3. Ventilation is greatly promoted by the rapid motion of many parts of the machinery; fresh air is introduced by regularly opening the windows at top, on both fides of the houfe. To increase the circulation of this ftill more, air-holes, fix inches fquare, on a level with the floor, are opened below every other window through the walls, at the diftance of fourteen feet from each other; but

thefe are only of advantage in fummer, as the cold in winter precludes the use of them. The means of purification in ufe are, wafhing the walls and cielings of the rooms, at least once a year, with new flacked lime, weekly wathings of the floors and machinery with fcalding water, and frequent and conftant bruthings of the walls, cieling, and floor.

4. The greatest number of perfons in any one room is feventy-five, in fome there are only fifty,

« SebelumnyaLanjutkan »