Author calls it) an "Alacrity of finking;" and who by ftrength of Nature alone can excel. All I mean is to evince the Neceffity of Rules to thefe leffer Genius's, as well as the Usefulness of them to the greater. CHA P. IV. That there is an Art of the Bathos, or W Profund. E come now to prove, that there is an Art of Sinking in Poetry. Is there not an Architecture of Vaults and Cellars, as well as of lofty Domes and Pyramids? Is there not as much skill and labour in making Dikes, as in raifing Mounts? Is there not an Art of Diving as well as of Flying? And will any fober practitioner affirm, that a diving Engine is not of fingular use in making him long-winded, affifting his fight, and furnishing him with other ingenious means of keeping under water? If we fearch the Authors of Antiquity, we fhall find as few to have been diftinguifhed in the true Profund, as in the true Sublime. And the very fame thing (as it appears from Longinus) had been imagined of that, as now of this: namely, that it was entirely the Gift of Nature. I grant that to excel in the Bathos a Genius is requifite; yet the Rules of Art must be allowed fo far ufeful, as to add weight, or, as I may fay, hang on lead, to facilitate and enforce our defcent, to guide us to the most advantageous declivities, and habituate our imagination to a depth of thinking. Many there are that can fall, but few can arrive at the felicity of falling gracefully; much more for a man who is amongst the loweft of the Creation, at the very bottom of the Atmosphere, to defcend beneath himfelf, is not fo eafy a tafk unlefs he calls in Art to his affiftance. It is with the Bathos as with fmall Beer, which is indeed vapid and infipid, if left at large, and let abroad; but being by our Rules confined and well ftopt, nothing grows fo frothy, pert, and bouncing. The Sublime of Nature is the Sky, the Sun, Moon, Stars, etc. The Profund of Nature is Gold, Pearls, precious Stones, and the Treasures of the Deep, which are ineftimable as unknown. But all that lies between thefe, as Corn, Flower, Fruits, Animals, and Things for the meer ufe of Man, are of mean price, and fo common as not to be greatly esteemed by the curious. It being certain that any thing, of which we know the true ufe, cannot be invaluable: Which affords a folution, why common Sense hath either been totally defpifed, or held in small repute, by the greatest modern Critics and Authors. Of the true Genius for the Profund, and by what it is conftituted. A ND I will venture to lay it down, as the firft Maxim and Corner-Stone of this our Art; that whoever would excel therein, muft ftudioufly avoid, deteft, and turn his head from all the ideas, ways, and workings of that peftilent Foe to Wit, and Destroyer of fine Figures, which is known by the Name of Common Senfe. His bufinefs must be to contract the true Gout de travers; and and to acquire a moft happy, uncommon, unaccountable Way of Thinking. He is to confider himself as a Grotefque painter, whose works would be spoiled by an imitation of nature, or uniformity of defign. He is to mingle bits of the most various, or difcordant kinds, landscape, history, portraits, animals, and connect them with a great deal of flourishing, by heads or tails, as it fhall please his imagination, and contribute to his principal end, which is to glare by ftrong oppofitions of colours, and furprize by contrariety of images. Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni. Hor: His defign ought to be like a labyrinth, out of which no body can get clear but himself. And fince the great Art of all Poetry is to mix Truth with Fiction, in order to join the Credible with the Surprizing; our author fhall produce the Credible, by painting nature in her lowest fimplicity; and the Surprizing, by contradicting common opinion. In the very Manners he will affect the Marvellous; he will draw Achilles with the patience of Job; a Prince talking like a Jack-pudding; a Maid of honour felling bargains; a footman fpeaking like a Philofopher; and a fine gentleman like a scholar. Whoever is converfant in modern Plays, may make a moft noble collection of this kind, and, at the fame time, form a complete body of modern Ethics and Morality. Nothing feemed more plain to our great authors, than that the world had long been weary of natural things. How much the contrary are formed to please, is evident from the univerfal applause daily given to the admirable entertainments of Harlequins and Magicians on our stage. When an audience behold a coach turned into a wheel-bar, Jow, a conjurer into an old woman, or a man's head head where his heels fhould be; how are they ftruck with transport and delight? Which can only be imputed to this caufe, that each object is changed into that which hath been fuggefted to them by their own low ideas before. He ought therefore to render himself mafter of this happy and anti-natural way of thinking to fuch a degrec, as to be able, on the appearance of any object, to furnish his imagination with ideas infinitely below it. And his eyes fhould be like unto the wrong end of a perfpective glafs, by which all the objects of nature are leffened. For Example; when a true genius looks upon the Sky, he immediately catches the idea of a piece of blue luteftring, or a child's mantle. * The Skies, whofe fpreading volumes fearce have room, Spun thin, and wove in nature's finest loom, The new-born world in their foft lap embrac'd, If he looks upon a tempeft, he fhall have an image of a tumbled bed, and describe a succeeding calm in this manner : The Ocean, joy'd to fee the tempeft fled, New lays his waves, and fmooths his ruffled bed. The Triumphs and Acclamations of the Angels, at the Creation of the Universe, present to his imagination"the Rejoicings of the Lord Mayor's Day;" and he beholds thofe glorious beings celebrating the Creator, by huzzaing, making il *Prince Arthur, p. 41, 42. P. 14. N. B. In order to do Juftice to these great Poets, our Citations are taken from the beft, the laft, and most correct Editions of their Works. That which we ufe of Prince Arthur, is in Duodecimo, 1714. The fourth Edition revifed. P. luminatiofis, luminations, and flinging squibs, crackers and fkyrockets. * Glorious Illuminations, made on high If a man who is violently fond of Wit, will faerifice to that paffion his friend or his God, would it not be a fhame, if he who is fmit with the love of the Bathos fhould not facrifice to it all other tranfitory regards? You fhall hear a zealous Proteftant Deacon invoke a Saint, and modeftly befeech her to do more for us than Providence: + Look down, blefs'd faint, with pity then look down, Shed on this land thy kinder influence, And guide us through the mists of providence, Neither will he, if a goodly Simile come in his way, fcruple to affirm himself an eye-witness of things never yet beheld by man, or never in existence; as thus, ↑ Thus have I feen in Araby the bless'd, A Phoenix couch'd upon her fun'ral neft. But to convince you that nothing is fo great which a marvellous genius, prompted by this laud * P. 50. +A. Philips on the Death of Queen Mary. ‡ Anon. able |