Springs they delight or ravish their Readers of Hearers? I thought proper just to say so much of the Difficulty of the prefent Work, not out of a Defire of gaining Praife, but Pardon; that if I have fallen înto any Errors, I may meet with fome Favour from the Learned. For to their Judgment I fubmit myfelf, and the Fortunes of this Book; always ready to receive more full Inftruction, and to retract, not to defend the Miftakes of it. But arduous and difficult as these Enquiries are, yet not therefore unpleasant; For it is not to be thought that all Difcourfes which deliver Rules and Precepts are dry and unentertaining; fome are no lefs full of Delight than Advantage. Of which fort is the Subject before us, elegant in its Nature, and agreeable to the Tafte of the moft Polite; who are never better pleased than when they fcrutinife into the Laws of just Writing and true Thought, and have the choiceft Examples of each laid before them. The Mind is charmed with tracing out its own Operations; and while on fo refined a Subject we read Authors of the fame Sentiments with ourfelves, we obfèrve with fecret Complacence, fimilar Ideas arife in our Minds; or if we diffent from a good Writer, we are ready to join in his Praise, tho' not in his Opinion: For fuch an one, tho' he miffes the Truth, yet deviates with Ingenuity, and is elegant even in his Mistakes. The Difficulties then we are fpeaking of, are fuch that they don't deter the Admirers of Polite Literature, but invite them: Such as are not attended with Uncouthness of Thought or Afperity of Style; but are like the Labours of Lovers, who, to gain the Goodwill of the Fair, go through the moft arduous Tasks and folicite Dangers. If the Reader fhall obferve in the following Sheets Sheets fome Errors flipt, fome Defects either in Thought or Expreffion, he will at worft have no Reafon to complain that I have too importunately loaded him. He will rather wonder perhaps, on the other Hand, how I durft pretend to treat of fuch Variety of Matter in fo few Pages: An Accufation, to which I know not how to give a fatisfactory Answer, and which I own I have often been ready to draw up against myself. I can only declare that this has been owing either to Chance, or to the Nature of my Subject, or to my own Inabilities, not to Indolence, for I have omitted nothing which after the most mature Deliberation I thought proper to be taken Notice of. In other refpects I own I ftudied Brevity as much as poffible, rejecting many things that offer'd, which I judged unentertaining, fuperfluous, and fuch as would give the Reader rather Pain than Pleasure; many likewife, which tho' proper Obfervations in themselves, yet had been abundantly taken Notice of by others, whofe Writings I had no Inclination to make fo free with, as to purloin. And this, I hope, will not be imputed to me as an Imperfection: For Brevity as fuch (to use the Language of the Schoolmen) and confidered in its own Nature, is by no means a Fault; but rather an Excellence, if we keep clear of thofe Faults that often adhere to it. If we do Juftice to our Subject and are at the fame time perfpicuous, we cannot be too concife; especially in those Works where we propofe to delight the Reader, as well as profit him. How far this has been effected in the following Sheets, must be left entirely to his Judgment. I am fure my Endeavour has been not to be wanting to both thefe Ends, and I might with more Eafe to myself have wrote a larger Book. To treat of Elegance in an inelegant Manner is One Thing I would defire the Reader to observe, that under each Head of Poetry, I have either wholly omitted every thing that is Historical, or but lightly touch'd upon it: Not because I think by any Means that Part of Learning contemptible; but partly because I find it more fuitable to my Na- ture (fuch as it is) to fearch into Things than Facts; and partly because others, whofe Erudition I very much reverence, and to whom I always refer my Reader, have already in this Refpect, deferv'd well of the Learned. However, in one or two of my Differtations I could not come at the Nature of the Subject I treated of without enquiring into the Hiftory of it: as in those upon the Origin of Poetry in general, upon Epigram, and Satire. But even in them to enter into a long Detail of Circumftances fetch'd from the Writings of the Ancients, wou'd be doing Nothing but what had been done before; which is the Thing I have throughout endeavour'd to avoid. My Aim has been not to be tedious; and for fear I fhould be fo now, I fhall add no Prov'd, against Monf. Dacier, that fictitious Narra- 20, 21 That Fiction is not effential to Poetry That Poetry does not differ from Hiftory in the Diction The Difference between Poefy, Poetry, and a Poem ibid. What the fecret Sources of Pleasure are, which all re- ceive from Poetry Page 25, 26 The Rife of Poetry fetch'd farther back: Shewn that the immediate Causes of it are founded in that The Meaning of that Saying, Poeta nafcitur, non fit Of the Inspiration attributed to Poets Explanation of poetical Fables rejected r What Style is; and in what its Beauty confifts The Style of Poetry fo fingular, that there are many ibid.. Other Expreffions, which tho' not entirely poetical, yet are much more fuitable to Verfe, than Profe A beautiful Poem may, however, confift of those which are common both to Profe and Metre That it is the Property of Poetry to express the whole |