femblance is the object, as in a picture or a ftatue, a perfect conformity to its archetype is a thing at leaft conceivable. In like manner, the utmost pleasure of which the imagination is fufceptible by a poetical narrative or exhibition, is a thing, in my judgment, not inconceivable. We Britons, for example, do, by immenfe degrees, excel the ancient Greeks in the arts of navigation and fhip-building; and how much farther we may fill excel them in thefe, by means of discoveries and improvements yet to be made,' it would be the greateft prefumption in any man to fay. But as it requires not a prophetic fpirit to discover, it implies no prefumption to affirm, that we fhall never excel them fo far in poetry and eloquence, if ever in these respects we come to equal them. The fame thing might probably be affirmed in regard to painting, fculpture, and mufic, if we had here as ample a fund of materials for forming a comparison.

BUT let it be obferved, that the remarks now made regard only the advancement of the arts themselves; for though the ufeful are of flower growth than the other, and their utmoft perfection cannot always be fo cafily afcertained, yet the acquifition of any one of them by a learner,

learner, in the perfection which it has reached at the time, is a much eafier matter than the acquifition of any of the elegant arts;-befides, that the latter require much more of a certain happy combination in the original frame of fpirit, commonly called genius, than is neceffary in the other.

LET it be observed further, that as the gratification of tafte is the immediate object of the fine arts, their effect is in a manner inftantaneous, and the quality of any new production in these is immediately judged by every body; for all have in them fome rudiments of tafte, though in fome they are improved by a good, in others corrupted by a bad education, and in others almoft fuppreffed by a total want of education. In the useful arts, on the contrary, as more time and experience are requifite for discovering the means by which our accommodation is effected, fo it generally requires examination, time, and trial, that we may be fatisfied of the fitnefs of the work for the end propofed. In thefe we are not near fo apt to confider ourselves as judges, unless we be either artifts, or accustomed to employ and examine the works of artists in that particular profeffion.

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I MENTIONED fome arts that have their fundamental principles in the abftract fciences of geometry and arithmetic, and fome in the doctrine of gravitation and motion. There are. others, as the medical and chirurgical arts, which require a ftill broader foundation of science in anatomy, the animal ceconomy, natural hiftory, diseases, and remedies.-Those arts, which, like poetry, are purely to be ranked among the elegant, as their end is attained by an accommodation to fome internal tafte, fo the fprings by which alone they can be regulated, must be fought for in the nature of the human mind, and more especially in the principles of the imagination. It is alfo in the human mind that we muft investigate the fource of fome of the ufeful arts. Logic, whofe end is the discovery of truth, is founded in the doctrine of the underftanding; and ethics, (under which may be comprehended economics, politics, and jurifprudence) are founded in that of the will.

THIS was the idea of Lord Verulam *, perhaps the most comprehenfive genius in philofophy

Doârina circa intelle&um, atque illa altera circa voluntatem hominis, in natalibus fuis tanquam gemellæ funt. Etenim illuminationis puritas et arbitrii libertas fimul inceperunt, fimul

corruerunt.

phy that has appeared in modern times. But these are not the only arts which have their foundation in the fcience of human nature. Grammar too, in its general principles, has a clofe connexion with the understanding, and the theory of the affociation of ideas.

BUT there is no art whatever that hath fo clofe a connexion with all the faculties and powers of the mind, as eloquence, or the art of speaking, in the extenfive sense in which I employ the term. For, in the first place, that it ought to be ranked among the polite or fine arts, is manifeft from this, that in all its exertions, with little or no exception, (as will appear afterwards) it requires the aid of the imagination. Thereby it not only pleases, but by pleafing commands attention, roufes the paffions, and often at laft fubdues the most stubborn resolution. It is alfo a useful art. This is certainly the cafe, if the power of speech be a useful faculty, as it

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corruerunt. Neque datur in univerfitate rerum tam intima fympathia quam illa Veri et Boni.-Venimus jam ad doctrinam circa ufum et objecta facultatum animæ humanæ. Illa duas habet partes eafque notiffimas, et confenfu receptas; Logicam et Ethicam Logica de intellectu et ratione; Ethica de voluntate, appetitu, et affectibus differit. Altera decreta, altera actiones progignit. De Aug. Sci. 1. v. c. I.

profeffedly

profeffedly teaches us how to employ that faculty with the greateft probability of fuccefs. Further, if the logical art, and the ethical, be useful, eloquence is ufeful, as it inftructs us how these arts muft be applied for the conviction and the perfuafion of others. It is indeed the grand art of communication, not of ideas only, but of fentiments, paffions, difpofitions, and purpofes. Nay, without this, the greatest talents, even wisdom itself, lofe much of their luftre, and ftill more of their usefulness. The wife in heart, faith Solomon, fhall be called prudent, but the fweetness of the lips increaseth learning †. By the former a man's own conduct may be well regulated, but the latter is abfolutely neceffary for diffufing valuable knowledge, and enforcing right rules of action upon others.

POETRY indeed is properly no other than a particular mode or form of certain branches of oratory. But of this more afterwards. Suffice it only to remark at prefent, that the direct end of the former, whether to delight the fancy as in epic, or to move the paffions as in tragedy, is avowedly in part the aim, and fometimes the

+ Prov. xvi. 21.