"To the tutor of the young princes I recommended myself fo much, that I was prefented to the emperour as a man of uncommon knowledge. The emperour asked me many queftions concerning my country and my travels; and though I cannot now recollect any thing that he uttered above the power of a common man, he difmiffed me aftonished at his wisdom, and enamoured of his goodness.

"My credit was now fo high, that the merchants, with whom I had travelled, applied to me for recommendations to the ladies of the Court. I was furprised at their confidence of folicitation, and gently reproached them with their practices on the road. They heard me with cold indifference, and fhewed no tokens of fhame or forrow.

"They then urged their requeft with the offer of a bribe; but what I would not do for kindness, I would not do for money; and refused them, not because they had injured me, but because I would not enable them to injure others; for I knew they would have made ufe of my credit to cheat those who should buy their wares.

"Having refided at Agra till there was no more. to be learned, I travelled into Perfia, where I faw many remains of ancient magnificence, and obferved many new accommodations of life. The Perfians are a nation eminently focial, and their affemblies afforded me daily opportunities of remarking characters and manners, and of tracing human nature through all its variations.

"From Perfia I paffed into Arabia, where I faw a nation at once paftoral and warlike; who live

without

without any fettled habitation; whose only wealth is their flocks and herds; and who have yet carried on, through all ages, an hereditary war with all mankind, though they neither covet nor envy their poffeffions.

CHA P. X.

IMLAC'S HISTORY CONTINUED.

UPON POETRY.

A DISSERTATION

WHEREVER HEREVER I went, I found that poetry was confidered as the highest learning, and regarded with a veneration fomewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the Angelick Nature. And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the moft ancient poets are confidered as the beft: whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquifition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation furprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by confent which it received by accident at firft: or whether, as the province of poetry is to defcribe Nature and Paffion, which are always the fame, the first writers took poffeffion of the most striking objects for defcription, and the moft probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to thofe that followed them, but transcription of the same events, and new combinations of the fame images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed that the early writers are in poffeffion of nature, and their followers of art: that the first excel in ftrength and invention,

2

invention, and the latter in elegance and refine

ment.

"I was defirous to add my name to this illuftrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Perfia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are fufpended in the mosque of Mecca. But I foon found that no man was ever great by imitation. My defire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my fubject, and men to be my auditors: I could never defcribe what I had not feen: I could not hope to move those with delight or terrour, whofe interefts and opinions I did not

understand.

"Being now resolved to be a poet, I saw every thing with a new purpose; my fphere of attention was fuddenly magnified: no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the foreft and flower of the valley. I obferved with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and fometimes watched the changes of the fummer clouds. To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he must be converfant with all that is awfully vaft or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety: for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he, who knows

knows most, will have moft power of diverfifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allufions and unexpected inftruction.

"All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to ftudy, and every country which I have furveyed has contributed fomething to my poetical powers."

"In fo wide a furvey, faid the prince, you must furely have left much unobferved. I have lived, till now, within the circuit of thefe mountains, and yet cannot walk abroad without the fight of something which I had never beheld before, or never heeded."

"The business of a poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or defcribe the different fhades in the verdure of the foreft. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature fuch prominent and striking features, as recall the original to every mind; and muft neglect the minuter difcriminations, which one may have remarked, and another have neglected, for thofe characteristicks which are alike obvious to vigilance and careleffness.

"But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be acquainted likewife with all the modes of life. His character requires that he estimate the happiness and mifery of every condition; obferve the power of all the paffions in all their combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind as they are modified by various inftitutions and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the fprightliness of infancy to the de

spondence

fpondence of decrepitude. He must diveft himself of the prejudices of his age or country; he must confider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state; he must difregard prefent laws and opinions, and rife to general and tranfcendental truths, which will always be the fame: he must therefore content himself with the flow progress of his name; contemn the applaufe of his own time, and commit his claims to the juftice of pofterity. He must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legiflator of mankind, and confider himself as prefiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations; as a being fuperior to time and place.

"His labour is not yet at an end: he must know many languages and many fciences; and, that his style may be worthy of his thoughts, muft, by inceffant practice, familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and grace of harmony."

CHAP. XI.

IMLAC'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED. A HINT ON

PILGRIMAGE.

MLAC now felt the enthufiaftick fit, and was proceeding to aggrandize his own profeffion, when the prince cried out, "Enough! thou haft convinced me, that no human being can ever be a poet. Proceed with thy narration."

"To be a poet, faid Imlac, is indeed very difficult." "So difficult, returned the prince, that I will at prefent hear no more of his labours. Tell me whither you went when you had seen Perfia."

"From