Thought like science there may be, (74) Τῶν μὲν οὖν πολλῶν οἱ μὲν εἰκῇ ταῦτα ὁρῶσιν, οἱ δὲ δια συνήθειαν ἀπὸ ἕξεως. Επει δ' ἀμφοτέρως ἐνδέχεται, δῆλον ὅτι εἴη ἂν αὐτὰ καὶ ὁδοποιεῖν· δι' ὃ γὰρ ἐπιτυγχάνουσιν οἵ τε διὰ συνήθειαν καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ ταὐτομάτου, τὴν αἰτίαν θεωρεῖν ἐνδέχεται, τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτον ἤδη πάντες ἂν ὁμολογήσαιεν τέχνης ἔργον εἶναι. Arist. Τέχν. 'PηT. I, i, 2. (75) At this point might, perhaps, be introduced in annotation a comment upon the general scheme which here becomes more distinctly enunciated, and it might be continued along the proceeding peroration both in analysis and synthesis. But instead of either any elementary compilation in the form of Prefatory Introduction or Introductory Preface,* or any such annotated commentary, analytic or synthetic, it has been the author's purpose to impersonate illustration in the presence of the poetry itself, where it ought to be distinct and vivid through whatever may be the elaboration, the success of which is best seen in immediate effect, though in unconscious and indirect appreciation. This must be the case especially where, as in the present instance, the author studiedly attempts concession, in many respects, * Tristram Shandy, vol. III, chap. xxxi, p. 92; Works, Lond. 1783. "To this end, then, it is requisite that the final object of the investigation be not directly enunciated and laid down in words, a process which might very easily serve to entangle many persons who are glad to rest content, provided only they are in possession of the final result, but that the mind may be reduced to the necessity of seeking, and put into the way by which it may find it.” "After he was first sufficiently assured that his hearers had followed him as he desired, he could express his thoughts purely and perfectly, and perhaps even regularly work out in common with those hearers, and according to outlines framed in common with them, the particular philosophical sciences, after having first grasped in his mind their higher ground and connexion." Schleiermacher's Introductions to the Dialogues of Plato, General Introduction, p. 17, 8; Camb. 1836. All power the more the more we see. to what is considered a popularised style; whatever may be the esoteric or his exertion in that elaboration of which he at least is conscious. The present poem is certainly imperfect evidence of what is decidedly the author's opinion in favour of classical and scientific regularity of versification; even to the extent exemplified by Pope and advocated by Byron; the science of which, however, seems to have been as yet understood in a very limited sense. But it may be found that a certain* system of regularity in versification has been adopted, and invariably maintained. The frequent reduplication and repetition† may appear evidently design. * The one regularity—that "in each line the accents will be found to be only four ”—which at least Mr. Coleridge professes to be observed in the Christabel, "founded on a new principle: namely that of counting in each line the accents, not the syllables," it would be almost as difficult to violate as to observe. t "Two other marks of St. Paul's style may be mentioned; one of these is the dwelling upon a word and repeating it with various changes, of which there are many instances in this Epistle. One good instance of this is mentioned by Mr. Forster,* in the repetition of the word chastening (Heb. xii, 5) as many as six times in as many successive verses." British Critic, No. LI, p. 178. —“ in each of St. Paul's unquestioned Epistles the same or similar expressions are apt to recur at the beginning, middle, and end of the Epistle; .... these words are on the prominent topic on which the Epistle is written, so that in fact they supply a key to the subject of that letter. . . . . . . . Now these appear to us slight indications which are seen on the surface of a very *The Apostolical Authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews. By the Rev. Charles Forster, B.D. Who but would think?-the poet so: Of all that is of Soul, of Life; In the present instance the author wishes to express the sentiments of the Bishop of St. David's :-"he desires it should be known that he looks upon the established system,” (of orthography) "if an accidental custom may be so called, as a mass of anomalies, the growth of ignorance and chance, equally repugnant to good taste and to common sense. But he is aware that the public-perhaps to show foreigners that we do not live under the despotism of an academy-clings to these anomalies with a tenacity proportioned to their absurdity, and is jealous of all encroachment on ground consecrated by prescription to the free play of blind caprice. He has not thought himself at liberty in a work like the present to irritate these prejudices by innovations, however rational and conformable to good and ancient, though neglected, usage, and has therefore complied as closely as may be with the fashion of the day." Thirlwall's History of Greece, Advertisement, vol. I, p. vii; Lond. 1835. (76) "Taking up the subject, then, upon general grounds, I ask what is meant by the word Poet? What is a Poet? To whom does he address himself? And what language is to be peculiar, deep, and pervading point of character in the Great Apostle; inasmuch as they signify that each Epistle has its own appropriate subject, tone and spirit," etc. p. 181. See p. 180, 3, 7, 8. The frequent repetition of кaúxnois etc. in 2 Cor. (i, 12, 4; v, 12; vii, 4, 14; viii, 24; ix, 2, 3, 4; x, 8, 13, 5, 6, 7; xi, 10, 2, 6, 7, 8, 30; xii, 1, 5, 6, 9, 11; Mill. Kuster. Leipz. 1723) is also very remarkable. etc. All passion in all eloquence : expected from him? He is a man speaking to men: a man, it is true, endued with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind; a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the goings-on of the Universe, and habitually impelled to create them where he does not find them." "Nor let this necessity of producing immediate pleasure be considered as a degradation of the Poet's art. It is far otherwise. It is an acknowledgment of the beauty of the universe, an acknowledgment the more sincere because it is not formal, but indirect; it is a task light and easy to him who looks at the world in the spirit of love: further, it is a homage paid to the native and naked dignity of man, to the grand elementary principle of pleasure, by which he knows, and feels, and lives, and moves." etc. "The knowledge both of the Poet and the Man of Science is pleasure; but the knowledge of the one cleaves to us as a necessary part of our existence, our natural and unalienable inheritance; the other is a personal and individual acquisition, slow to come to us, and by no habitual and direct sympathy connecting us with our fellow-beings. The Man of Science seeks truth as a remote and unknown benefactor; he cherishes and loves it in his solitude: the Poet, singing a song in which all human beings join with him, rejoices in the presence of truth as our visible friend and hourly companion. Poetry is the breath and finer spirit* of all knowledge; it is the impassioned * It is interesting to compare a passage in the same Preface where Mr. Wordsworth speaks of poetry as a vehicle of the pathetic with Aristotle's παθημάτων κάθαρσις (Περι Ποιητ. vi, 2); especially as Mr Wordsworth professes himself unacquainted with Aristotle. The vivid power of radiation, The quickening spell of inspiration ; expression which is in the countenance of all Science." etc. "The objects of the Poet's thoughts are every where; though the eyes and senses of man, are, it is true, his favourite guides, yet he will follow wheresoever he can find an atmosphere of sensation in which to move his wings. Poetry is the first and last of all knowledge-it is as immortal as the heart of man. If the labours of men of Science should ever create any material revolution, direct or indirect, in our condition, and in the impressions which we habitually receive, the Poet will then sleep no more than as present, but he will be ready to follow the steps of the man of Science, not only in those general indirect effects, but he will be at his side, carrying sensation into the midst of the objects of the Science itself. The remotest discoveries of the Chemist, the Botanist, or Mineralogist, will be as proper objects of the Poet's art as any upon which it can be employed, if the time should ever come when these things shall be familiar to us, and the relations under which they are contemplated by the followers of these respective Sciences shall be manifestly and palpably material to us as enjoying and suffering beings. If the time should ever come when what is now called Science, thus familiarized to men, shall be ready to put on, as it were, a form of flesh and blood, the Poet will lend his divine spirit to aid the transfiguration, and will welcome the Being thus produced, as a dear and genuine inmate of the household of man." Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads. It might, perhaps, have been hoped that the spirit, of which, in the last passage, Mr. Wordsworth, early in his literary life, so well expressed a sense (though vague and indistinct), was prescient of some future achievements in that Poetry of Science: but it was not so; and any successful champion of such may |