e called Dr. Samuel Johnson himself "that great luminary, or rather
dark lantern of literature."

If we turn over Ritson's distasteful pages, it is only to obtain from
them further proof of the perception of Warton's Romanticism by an
adversary whom hatred made perspicacious. Ritson abuses the _History of
English Poetry_ for presuming to have "rescued from oblivion irregular
beauties" of which no one desired to be reminded. He charges Warton with
recommending the poetry of "our Pagan fathers" because it is untouched
by Christianity, and of saying that "religion and poetry are
incompatible." He accuses him of "constantly busying himself with
passages which he does not understand, because they appeal to his ear
or his fancy." "Old poetry," Ritson says to Warton, "is the same thing
to you, sense or nonsense." He dwells on Warton's marked attraction to
whatever is prodigious and impossible. The manner in which these
accusations are made is insolent and detestable; but Ritson had
penetration, and without knowing what he reached, in some of these
diatribes he pierced to the heart of the Romanticist fallacy.

It is needful that I should bring these observations to a close. I hope
I have made good my claim that it was the Wartons who introduced into
the discussion of English poetry the principle of Romanticism. To use a
metaphor of which both of them would have approved, that principle was
to them like the mystical bowl of ichor, the _ampolla_, which Astolpho
was expected to bring down from heaven in the _Orlando Furioso_. If I
have given you an exaggerated idea of the extent to which they foresaw
the momentous change in English literature, I am to blame. No doubt by
extracting a great number of slight and minute remarks, and by putting
them together, the critic may produce an effect which is too emphatic.
But you will be on your guard against such misdirection. It is enough
for me if you will admit the priority of the intuition of the brothers,
and I do not think that it can be contested.

Thomas Warton said, "I have rejected the ideas of men who are the most
distinguished ornaments" of the history of English poetry, and he
appealed against a "mechanical" attitude towards the art of poetry. The
brothers did more in rebelling against the Classic formulas than in
starting new poetic methods. There was an absence in them of "the pomps
and prodigality" of genius of which Gray spoke in a noble stanza. They
began with enthusiasm,