While every Zephyr fleeps; then the shrouds drop; The downy feather on the cordage hung, Moves not; the flat fea fhines like yellow gold Fus'd in the fire, or like the marble floor Ir is evident, that the poet ftudied the effect in these verses; but he has foftened his artifice by the fimplicity of his language; had it not been for this, the labour would have been manifeft.. Hence it appears, that the perfection of this species of harmony confifts in its feeming wholly accidental: and this can only be, when the words are so happily chofen, and the founds are fo connected with the idea, that they feem all to fpring from one and the fame motion of the foul. Hor. LET us, at the fame time, fuppofe the idea to be beautiful, and then, your defcription will reach much farther than you intended, for, it takes in, not only a part of good writing, but, perhaps, the whole. Eug. FROM this point, we may take a general view of our fubject. We began by confidering harmony fimply as an address to the ear: thence, we traced its correfpondence with the idea, and, of course, with the imagination. The fimpleft truth is pleafing by its very nature; but this pleasure cannot be too much heightened: the force and furprise of imagery, the elegance of diction, the varied accords of harmony tend all to this point. Poetry is to the foul, what the fun is to nature; it calls forth, it cherishes, it adorns her beauties. As we improve our language, we multiply the the refources of poetry; of all the means of forwarding this improvement, the forming and perfecting our verification is the moft powerful. Afp. I did not imagine, Eugenio, that the flow of a verfe could have taken fo large a range, Eug. It extends ftill farther. Why does the eye fill with gladness, at the bare mention of a great or generous action? The mind is pre-difpofed to receive the finest impreffions; the true direction and happiest effect of poetry; is, by renewing these impreffions, to preserve the mind in a state of fenfibility we are induced to repeat those impreffions, by the pleafing fenfations with which they are attended: for, the supreme Goodness has fo formed our organs, that thofe 5 thofe arts which tend moft to refine our feelings, and, of confequence, our manners, give us at the same time the greatest pleafure. Now, it is probable, that all the powers which produce these refined pleafures fpring from one common principle, as it is evident they tend to one common end: for there is fuch an intercourse among them, that, while we perfect our fenfations in any one of them, we acquire a general aptness for them all. Hort. Muft not the moral fense partake, in fome measure, of this general connexion ? Eug. The author of the Characteristics will answer you much better than I can do [m]: The mind, which is fpectator [m] Inquiry concerning Virtue. * or auditor of other minds, cannot be without its Eye and Ear; fo as to difcern proportion; distinguish found, and scan each "sentiment or thought which comes before "it. It feels the foft and harsh, the agree "able and disagreeable, in the affections; "and finds a foul and fair, a barmonious and "a dissonant, as really and truly here, as in any mufical numbers, or in the out"ward forms or representations of sensible things." DIA |