in. As therefore we have already
seen, that the desire of imitating is _innate_ to the mind (if your
Lordship will permit me to make use of an unphilosophical epithet) and
as the first inhabitants of the world were employed in the culture of
the field, and in surveying the scenery of external Nature, it is
probable that the first rude draughts of Poetry were extemporary
effusions, either descriptive of the scenes of pastoral life, or
extolling the attributes of the Supreme Being. On this account Plato
says that Poetry was originally +Entheos Mimesis+[8], or an inspired
imitation of those objects which produced either pleasure or admiration.
To paint those objects which produced pleasure was the business of the
pastoral, and to display those which raise admiration was the task
consigned to the Lyric Poet. --To excite this passion, no method was so
effectual as that of celebrating the perfections of the Powers who were
supposed to preside over Nature. The Ode therefore in its first
formation was a song in honour of these Powers[9], either sung at solemn
festivals or after the days of Amphion who was the inventor of the Lyre,
accompanied with the musick of that instrument. Thus Horace tells us,

_Musa dedit fidibus Divos, puerosque Divorum_[10],

The Muse to nobler subjects tun'd her lyre,
Gods, and the sons of Gods her song inspire. FRANCIS.

[Footnote 8: Plat. Io.]

[Footnote 9: Nec prima illa post secula per aetates sane complures
alio Lyrici spectarunt, quam ut Deorum laudes ac decora, aut
virorum fortium res preclare gestas Hymnis ac Paeanibus, ad templa
& aras complecterentur;--ut ad emulationem captos admiratione
mortales invitarent. Strad. Prolus. 4 Poet.]

[Footnote 10: Hor. de Art. Poet.]

In this infancy of the arts, when it was the business of the Muse,
as the same Poet informs us,

_Publica privatis secernere, sacra prophanis;
Concubitu prohibere vago, dare jura maritis,
Oppida moliri, leges includere ligno[11]._

Poetic Wisdom mark'd with happy mean,
Public and private, sacred and profane,
The wandering joys of lawless love supprest,
With equal rites the wedded couple blest,
Plann'd future towns, and instituted laws, &c. FRANCIS.

your Lordship will immediately conclude that the species of Poetry which
was first cultivated (especially when its end was to excite admiration)
must for that reason have been the _loosest_ and the most
_undetermined_.