ceding
remarks will be greatly mistaken, if, when I have been endeavouring to
expose the _abuse_ of imagination, it should be thought, either that I
would wholly repress the excursions of this noble Faculty, or that I
would confine its exercise within narrow limits. It must be obvious to
every person who reflects on this subject, that Imagination presides
over every branch of the Poetic Art, and that a certain infusion of her
peculiar beauties is necessary to constitute its real and essential
character. The Poet therefore of every denomination may be said with
great propriety in an higher sense than the Orator, "to paint to the
eyes, and touch the soul, and combat with shining arms[54]." It is from
this consideration that Horace says, speaking of Poetry in general,

_Descriptas servare vices, operumque colores,
Cur ego si nequeo ignoroque, Poeta salutor_[55]?

[Footnote 54: Les grands Orateurs n'emploient que des expressions
riches capables de faire valoir leurs raisons. Ils tachent
d'eblouir les yeux, et l'esprit, et pour ce sujet ils ne
combattent qu'avec des armes brillantes. Lam. Rhet. Liv. IV.
c. 13.]

[Footnote 55: Hor. de Arte Poet.]

Though the influence of imagination on every species of Poetry is so
obvious, as not to stand in need of illustration, yet we must observe at
the same time, that this power is exerted in different degrees[56], as
the Poet is led by the nature of that subject to which his Genius hath
received the most remarkable bias. Thus the simple beauties of the
Eclogue would appear in the same light, when transposed to the Epopee,
as plants brought to forced vegetation in a Green-house must do to those
who have seen them flourishing in their native soil, and ripened by the
benignity of an happier climate. In the one case they are considered as
unnatural productions, whose beauty is surpassed by the Natives of the
soil; in the other they are regarded as just and decent ornaments, whose
real excellence is properly estimated. The same remark may be applied
indiscriminately to all the other branches of this art. Though they are
originally the offspring of _one Parent_, yet there are certain
characteristic marks, by which a general resemblance is fully
distinguished from perfect similarity.

[Footnote 56: Una cuique proposita lex, suus decor est. Habet
tamen omnis Eloquentia aliquid commune. Quintil. Instit. Lib. X
c. II.]

It is necessary to observe in