NOTES. NOTES ON LECTURE I. [A. p. 9.] Time of commencing these Lectures. THE Prælector of poetry at Oxford is obliged by the statute to read his inaugural lecture the first Tuesday in the term subsequent to his election; and it appears by the university register, that Mr. Lowth was elected to the professorship on the 21st of May, 1741, in the vacation between Easter and Act term. As this vacation is only thirteen days, commencing the Thursday before Whitsunday, and ending the Wednesday after Trinity Sunday, the longest interval that could possibly happen between his election and his first lecture is somewhat less than three weeks: It might probably be much shorter. The usual term of the professorship is ten years. [B. p. 11.] Utility the ultimate object of poetry. GREGORY. Of poetry in the earlier stages of human improvement, of the poetry which the Bible exhibits, utility was doubtless not only the ultimate, but the immediate, object. The poetical costume in which the most ancient sages clothed their thoughts, was as much a matter of necessity as of choice. The feelings, the language, and the habits of men were all poetical; nor would any instructions in regard to their civil or moral duties have been effectual, unless presented in a poetical form: neither was it possible for the sages of those times to exhibit their own feelings and speak their own language, without exhibiting the feelings and speaking the language of poetry. In the gradual advancement of society, the maxims of polity and the precepts of virtue began to assume a didactic form; but poetry was still cultivated for the delight it afforded, and, like the rural beauties of spring, served the double purpose of utility and pleasure. That poetry, which, like the paintings of the artist, is designed merely for pleasure, belongs to a later and more luxurious age; but even this is laudable, provided the poet is careful to make the pleasure innocent, and does not entirely lose sight of the original design of his art. The God of nature has created many things in the material world, whose only purpose is to afford delight; and why may not the same object be sought in some of the productions of the intellect? (Compare Herder, Briefe, Th. I. S. 35 ff.) [C. p. 12.] Authority of Virgil's Georgics. S. Virgilius Of this work Seneca speaks in the following terms: noster, qui non quid verissime, sed quid decentissime diceretur, aspexit; nec agricolas docere voluit, sed legentes delectare. Epist. But Columella, certainly a much better authority in matters. of agriculture, had formed a very different estimate of Virgil's merits. He often quotes the Georgics with the highest approbation, and never with censure. "Haec autem consequemur, si verissimo vati velut oraculo crediderimus, dicenti, Ventos et varium." Lib. I. 4. "Utamurque saepius auctoritate divini carminis." Lib. VII. 3. Even in regard to the only instance of the alleged inaccuracy of Virgil, which Seneca adduces, (the time of sowing millet); the groundlessness of the philosopher's censures may be seen by consulting Columella, Lib. II. 9. Pliny, Nat. Hist. XVIII. 7. Pallad. III. 3. LOWTH. [D. p. 16.] Poetry, philosophy, and history. Our author does, indeed, here "seem to attribute too much to his favourite occupation." The whole passage respecting the comparative utility of poetry, philosophy, and history, appears to me to savour rather of rhetorical exaggeration than of sober truth. They are each useful, and equally so in their respective places; and to elevate one at the expense of the others, shows more of the warm affections of an enthusiast than of the severe accuracy of an instructer. If poetry be more general and more powerful in its influence than philosophy, philosophy is necessary rightly to limit and regulate the dominion of poetry: if "poetry can range uncontrolled over the wide expanse of nature," while history must "confine itself to that path which the stubbornness of fact has prescribed;" then, though the former may be better adapted to excite a love and admiration for what is amiable and great, the instructions of the latter are at least more proper to direct the practice of it in the real |