CHAP. V.

Of the true genius for the profund, and by what it is con stituted

AN

ND I will venture to lay it down, as the first maxim and corner-ftone of this our art ; that whoever would excel therein, must studiously 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 fenfe. His bu finefs must be to contract the true gout de travers; and to acquire a most happy, uncommon, unaccountable way of thinking.

He is to confider himself as a grotefque painter, whofe works would be spoiled by an initation of nature, or uni»formity of defign. He is to mingle bits of the most various, or difcordant kinds, landscape, history, portraits, a nimals, and connect them with a great deal of flourishing, by head or tail, as it shall please his imagination, and con. tribute to his principal end, which is to glare by strong oppofitions of colours, and furprize by contrariety of images.

Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni. HoR..

His defign ought to be like a labyrinth, cut of which no body can get clear but himfelf. And fince the great art of all poetry is to mix truth with fiction, in order to join the credible with the furpriziug; our author shall. produce the credible, by painting nature in her lowest fimplicity, and the furprizing, by contradicting common opinion. In the very manners he will affect the marve- . lous; he will draw Achilles with the patience of Job; a prince talking like a jack-pudding; a maid of honour felling bargains; a footman speaking like a philofopher; and a fine gentleman like a scholar. Whoever is conver fant in modern plays, may make a most 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 hath long been weary of natural things..

How

How much the contrary are formed to pleafe, is evident, from the univerfal applaufe daily given to the admirable entertainments of harlequins and magicians on our stage. When an audience behold a coach turned into a wheelbarrow, a conjuror into an old woman, or a man's 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 master of this happy and anti-natural way of thinking, to fuch a degree, as to be able, on the appearance of any object, to furnish hit imagination with ideas infinitely below it. And bis eyes fhould be like unto the wrong end of a perspective 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 latefiring, or a child's mantle.

The skies, whofe fpreading volumes fcarce have room,
Spun thin, and wove in nature's finest loom,

The new born world in their foft lap embrac'd,
And all around their flarry mantle caft

If he looks upon a tempeft, he fhall have an image of a tumbled bed, and defcribe a fucceeding calm in this

The ocean, joyed to fee the tempeft fed,'

New lays his waves, and smooths his ruffled bed +.

The triumphs and acclamations of the angels at the creation of the univerfe, prefent to his imagination" the "rejoicings on the Lord Mayor's day; and be beholds. thofe glorious beings celebrating their creator, by huzza ing, making illuminations, and flinging fquibs, crackers, and sky rockets.

Glorious illuminations, made on high
By all the ftars and planets of the sky,

*Prince Arthur, p; 41, 42. † P. 14.

1

In just degrees, and fhining order placed,

Spectators charmed, and the bleft dwellings graced.
Through all th' enlightened air fwift fire-works flew,
Which with repeated shouts glad cherubs threw.
Comets afcended with their fweeping train,
Then fell in starry showers and glittering rain.
In air ten thousand meteors blazing hung,
Which from th' eternal battlements were flung

If a man, who is violently fond of wit, will facrifice 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, should not ficrifice to it all other tranfitory regards? You fhall hear a zealous proteftant deacon invoke a faint, and mo deftly belceech her to do more for us than Providence.

Look down, blefl faint, with pity then look down,
Shed on this land thy kinder influence,

And guide us through the mifts of providence,

In which we fray

Neither will be, if a goodly fimile come in his way, fcruple to affirm himself an eye-witnels of things never yet be held by man, or never in existence; as thus;

Thus have I feen in Araby the bieft,

A phenix couch'd upon her fun'ral neft ‡.

But to convince you, that nothing is fo great, which a marvellous genius, prompted by this laudable zeal,is not able to leffen; hear how the most sublime of all beings is reprefented in the following images.

Prince Arthur, p. 50.

N. B. In order to do juftice to these great poets, our citations are taken from the best, the last, and most correct editions of their works. That which we ufe of Prince Arthur, is in duodecimo, 1714, the fourth edition revifed. Pope.

A. Philips on the death of Q. Mary. + Auon.

Firft

First he is a PAINTER.

Sometimes the Lord of nature in the air
Spreads forth his clouds, his fable canvas, where
His pencil, dipt in heavenly colour bright,
Paints his fair rain-bow, charming to the sight*.

Now he is a CHEMIST.

Th almighty chemift does his work prepare,
Pours down his waters on the thirfly plain,
Digefts his lightning, and diftills his rain †.

Now he is a WRESTLER.

Me in his griping arms th' Eternal took,
Aud with fuch mighty force my body shook,
That the frong grafp my members forely bruis'd,
Broke all my bones, and all my finews loos'd ‡.

Now a RECRUITING OFFICER.

For clouds the fun-beams levy fresh fupplies,
And raife recruits of vapours, which arife,
Drawn from the feas, to mufler in the skies .

Now a peaceable GUARANTEE.

In leagues of peace the neighbours did agree,
And to maintain them God was guarantee

Then he is an ATTORNEY.

**

Page 15.

tt P. 61.

In the following lines he is a GOLD-BEATER.

Who the rich metal beats, and then with care
Unfolds the golden leaves to gild the fields of air *.

Then a FULLER.

th' exhaling reeks, that fecret rife,
Born on rebounding fun beams through the skies,
Are thicken'd, wrongbt, and whiten'd, till they grow
A heavenly fleece-

A MERCER, or PACKER.

Didft thou one end of air's wide curtain hold,
And help the bales of ather to unfold;

Say, which cærulean pile was by thy hand enroll'd ‡i

A BUTLER

He measures all the drops with wondrous skill,
Which the black clouds, his floating bottles, fill ||.

And a BAKER.

God in the wilderness his table fpread,
And in his airy ovens bak'd their bread **

CHAP. VI.

Of the feveral kinds of geniuses in the profound, and the marks and characters of each.

I

DOUBT not, but the reader, by this cloud of examples, begins to be convinced of the truth of our affertion, that the bathos is an art; and that the genius of no mortal whatever, following the mere ideas of na

* Black. Pf. civ. p. 181.

P. 131.

+ P. 174.

+ P. 18.
**Black. Song of Mofes, p. 218.

ture,