from being capable of pronouncIng upon the qualities of the things that he imitates, that this decifion does not even belong to him who made them. The imitator follows the workman whofe work he copies, the workman follows the artist who knew how to apply the object which he alone can appreciate as well as its imitation. This confirms, that the pictures of poets and painters hold only the third rank after the firft model, or truth.

But the poet who has no other judges than an ignorant people whom he endeavours to pleafe, how will he not disfigure the ob-, jects he reprefents to flatter them ? He will imitate that which appears fine to the multitude, without being folicitous whether it is fo in reality. If he difpifes valour, will he have an Achilles for his judge? If he paints artifice will he have an Ulyffes to reprehend him Quite the contrary: Achilles and Ulyffes will be his perfonages: Therfites and Dolon his fpectators.

To this you will object; that the philofopher is himself equally ignorant of many of thofe arts upon which he fpeaks, and that he frequently extends his ideas as far as the poet doth his images. I agree: but the philofopher doth not pretend to be acquainted with truth, he is only in fearch of it: he examines, hé difcuffles, he extends our views, he even inftructs us whilft he deceives himfelf; he propofes his doubts as doubts, his conjectures as conjectures, and affirms nothing but what he knows. The philofopher who reafons, fubmits his reafons to our judgment; the poet, or imitator,

arrogates to himself the province of a judge. In offering us his images, he affirms that they are conformable to truth; he is, therefore, obliged to be acquainted with it, if his art have any reality; in depicting every thing, he lays claim to a knowledge of every thing. The poet is the painter who difplays the image; the philofopher is the architect who draws the plan the one dare not even approach the object to delineate it, the other measures it before he chalks it.

But, that we may not be deceived by analogical errors, let us endeavour more diftinctly to difcover with what part, what faculty of our foul poetical imitations have any affinity; and let us previously confider whence arifes the illufion of those of the painter. The fame bodies feen at various diftances do not appear of the fame fize, nor their figures equally fenfible, nor their colours glowing with the fame vivacity. When feen in water they change their appearance: that which was ftraight appears to be broken; the object feems to flow as with the wave; all the conformity of parts is altered when feen through a fpherical or hollow glafs; with the affiftance of light and fhade, a plain furface is either rendered. convex or concave at the will of the painter; his pencil penetrates as deep as the chiffel of the fculptor; and in thofe reliefs which he knows how to delineate upon canvafs, the touch, deceived by the fight, leaves us doubtful by which we are to determine. All these errors are, doubtlefs in the precipitate judgments of the mind. It is the weakness of the

human understanding, ever urged to judge without knowledge, that lays us open to all thofe magical deceptions, whereby optics and mechanics abufe our fenfes. We conclude folely by appearance, f from what we know, upon what we do not know and our erroneous conclufions are the fource of infinite illufions.

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What means are there to obviate thefe errors ? difquifition and analyfis, fufpenfion of judgment, the art of menfuration, weighing, calculating, are the aids furnished to man to verify the reports of the fenfes, that he may not judge of what is great or little, fpherical or cubical, rare or compact, diftant or near, by what appears fo to be, but by what numbers, meafure, and weight, afcertain to be fuch, Comparifon, judgment, the affinity difcovered by thefe various operations, incontestably belong to the reafoning faculty, and this judgments is often contradictory, with what the appearance of things would induce us to conclude. We have already seen that the fame faculty of the foul cannot adduce contrary conclufions from the fame things, confidered in the fame light. Hence it follows, that it is not the most noble of our faculties, namely reafon, but a different and inferior faculty, which judges according to appearance, and yields to the charm of imitation. This is what I meant before to exprefs, by fay ing that painting, and in general the imitative arts, exerted their influence very diftant from truth, and by uniting with a part of our foul, deftitute of prudence and reafon, and incapable, of itfelf, of having any knowledge of realities

and truth. Thus the art of imi. tation, vile in its nature, and from the faculty of the foul upon which it actuates, muft neceffarily likewife be fo by its productions; at leaft with regard to the mate. rial fenfe, which makes us judge of a painter's pictures. Let us now confider the fame art directly applied by the imitations of the poet to the internal fenfe, that is, understanding.

The fcene reprefents men act. ing voluntary or by force, efteem, ing their actions good or bad, according to the advantage or evil they expect to derive from them, and who are variously affected through them, with pain or plea fure. Now, for the reafons which have been already affigned, it is impoffible that the man thus reprefented fhould ever be confiftent with himfelf; and as the appear. ance and reality of fenfible ob jects excite in him contrary opi nions, in the fame manner he eiti mates variously the objects of his actions, as they, are diflant or near, conformable or oppofite to his paffions; and his judgment, equally mutable as them, incel fantly renders his defires, his rea fon, his will, and all the powers of his foul, in a state of contradiction.

The fcene then reprefents to us all men, and even those who are given to us as models, otherwife affected than they ought to be, to fupport themfelves in a flate of moderation that is agreeable to them. Let a wife and courageous man lofe his fon, his friend, his mittrefs, in a word, the object the dearest to his heart; we shall not fee him give way to exceffive and extravagant grief; and if hu

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ner our judgment upon laudable things, that we habituate ourfelves to honour a weakness of foul with the name of fenfibility, and treat thofe as obdurate men devoid of fentiment, in whom rigid duty conftantly furmounts natural affections. On the contrary, we treat thofe as amiable characters, who are lively affected at every thing, and are the perpetual plaything of events thofe who weep like women for the lofs of what was dear to them; thofe, who, through an inordinate friendship, are unjuft to ferve their friends; thofe who are ignorant of any other rule but the blind difpofition of their heart; those who are always praifing the fex who conquer them, and whom they imitate; thofe who poffefs no other virtues than their paffions, nor any other merit than their weakness. Thus equanimity, ftrength, conftancy, the love of juftice, the empire of reafon, in fenfibly become deteftable qualities, vices which are decried; men make themfelves honoured, for what renders them worthy of contempt; and this fubverfion of found judgment is the inevitable confequence of thofe leffons which are received at the theatre.

It is therefore with reafon that we blame the imitations of the poet, and place them in the fame rank as thofe of the painter, as well on account of their being equally diftant from truth, as becaufe they both equally flatter the fenfible part of the foul, and, neglecting the rational, pervert the order of our faculties, and make us keep the beft in fubordination to the worst. He who, in a republic, fhould endeavour to make the good fubmit to the wicked,

and the lawful chiefs to the rebels, would be an enemy to his country and a traitor to the state; yet the imitative poet introduces dif fenfions and death into the republic of the foul, by raifing and nourishing the vileft faculties at the expence of the nobleft; by exerting and exhaufting his pow. ers upon thofe things the leaft worthy of engaging them, by confounding in vague fimilitudes the beautiful truth with the trappings of falfehood which pleafes the multitude, and apparent grandeur with that which is real. Who can imagine themfelves poffeffed of fufficient virtue to withstand the poet's kill, which is exerted either to corrupt or difcourage them? When Homer or fome tragic author difplays to us a hero overwhelmed with affliction, weeping, lamenting, lamenting, beating his breaft; an Achilles, for inftance, the fon of a goddefs, at one time ftretched upon the earth, and heaping the burning fand upon his head; at another, wandering like a madman upon the fhore, and blending his dreadful outcries with the roaring of the waves; or a Priam, venerable for his dignity, for his great age, and his illuftrious progeny, rolling in the mire, clotting his white hairs with dirt, the air echoing with his imprecations, execrating alike gods and men; which among us can remain unmoved, or not feel a fecret pleasure in the defcription; Is not the fentiment reprefented as it were kindled within us? And do we not feriously ap plaud the author's art, and confider him as a great poet, for the expreffion he gives to his pictures, and the affections he communi.

cates to us? Nevertheless, when a domeftic real calamity happens to us, we pride ourselves upon bearing it with moderation, without fhedding tears: we confider the courage which we extort from ourfelves as a manly virtue, and we fhould think ourselves as pufilla nimous as women, to weep and groan like thefe heroes who af. fected us upon the stage. Are not thefe very useful fpectacles, whofe examples we admire, and yet blush to imitate; where we intereft ourselves for weakneffes, from which we guard ourselves with fo much difficulty in our own misfortunes? The most noble faculty of the foul, thus lofing its ufe and empire, habituates itself to fink beneath the law of paffions: no longer repreffes our tears and moans; it gives us up to our tenderness for objects that are fo. reign to us; and, under pretence of chimerical calamities, fo far from being fhocked at a virtuous man giving way to excef. five grief, fo far from fuppreffing our applaufe at his abject behaviour, we even applaud ourselves for the pity with which he infpires us: it is a pleasure we fancy we have obtained without weak. nefs, and which we tafte without remorse.

But in letting ourselves be thus conquered by the grief of others, how shall we refift the impulfe of our own; and how fhall we more courageoufly fupport our own ills, than thofe of which we have only a trifling reprefentation? What, fhall our own fenfibility a lone efcape us? Who is he that will not in adverfity adopt those emotions, to which he fo readily yields for others? Is there any

one who can refufe his own miffortunes thofe tears, which he fo bountifully fhed for a stranger? As much may be faid of comedy, of the indecent laughter which it forces from us, of the habit which we imbibe of turning every thing into ridicule, even the moft ferious and gravest objects; and of the almoft unavoidable effect whereby it changes into theatrical buffoons and jeiters the most refpectable citizens. Equally may we cenfure the love, the rage, and all other paffions, which becoming daily more familiar to us as amusement and paftime, de prive us at length of all power of refifting them when they really affail us. In fine, let us confider the ftage and its imitations in whatever light we may, we con ftantly find that by animating and exciting in us thofe difpofitions which we fhould reprefs, they make that govern which should obey; and fo far from making us better or happier, they render us worfe and ftill more unhappy, and make us purchase at our own expence, the attention we give to be pleafed and flattered.

Wherefore, my friend Glaucus, when you meet with enthufiaftical admirers of Homer; when they tell you that Homer is the inftitutor of Greece, and the mafter of all arts; that the government of ftates, civil difcipline, the education of mankind, and all the economy of human life, are taught in his writings; honour their zeal; love and fupport them like men endowed with excellent qualities; admire with them the marvellous flights of this great genius; grant them with pleasure that Homer is the most N 4

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