be imitated without much Difficulty, and yet nothing perhaps is so hard in the Experiment.

-- ut sibi quivis

Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret.

Hor.

This brings to my mind what Monsieur Le Clerc says, that 'tis much easier to imitate the loftiest Flights in Seneca's Tragedies, or Lucan, than the Simplicity of Terence.

After you have observed the different manner of Style amongst the best Writers, and collected a general Idea from them all, you are to consider next the different Manner to be us'd by the same Writer, according to the Subject he treats of. The Severity of Philosophy requires a grave didactick Style, agreeable to the Plainness and Simplicity of Truth and Reason. Morality and Divinity are capable of all the Ornaments of Wit and Fancy. History is content with a plainer Dress, as being a Relation of Matters of Fact, the Reflexions upon which are to be short and pertinent, and the rest left to the various Humour and Judgment of every Reader.

But of all sorts of Writing there is none has that Variety and Liberty as Letters and Essays; the former, especially, include all Subjects whatsoever, and are varied not only according to the Subject, but also according to the Person to whom you write, so that it wou'd be an endless Labour to give Rules about them. Yet this, being a way of writing in which every one is necessarily exercis'd more or less, it deserves a particular Regard; nor will it be a difficult thing, at the Expence of a little Thought and Observation, to furnish yourself with Rules sufficient to all the Variety of Occasions that may occur.

II. AN ESSAY ON ALLEGORICAL

POETRY, &c.
1715

It is a Misfortune, as Mr. Waller observes, which attends the Writers of English Poetry, that they can hardly expect their Works shou'd last long in a Tongue which is daily changing; that whilst they are new, Envy is apt to prevail against them; and as that wears off, our Language it self fails. Our Poets therefore, he says, shou'd imitate judicious Statuaries, that chuse the most durable Materials, and shou'd carve in Latin or Greek, if they wou'd have their Labours preserv'd for ever.

NOTWITHSTANDING the Disadvantage he has mention'd, we have two Antient English Poets, Chaucer and Spenser, who may perhaps be reckon'd as Exceptions to this Remark. These seem to have taken deep Root, like old British Oaks, and to flourish in defiance of all the Injuries of Time and Weather. The former is indeed much more obsolete in his Stile than the latter; but it is owing to an extraordinary native Strength in both, that they have been able thus far to survive amidst the Changes of our Tongue, and seem rather likely, among the Curious at least, to preserve the Knowledg of our Antient Language, than to be in danger of being destroy'd with it, and bury'd under its Ruins.

THO Spenser's Affection to his Master Chaucer led him in many things to copy after him, yet those who have read both will easily observe that these two Genius's were of a very different kind. Chaucer excell'd in his Characters; Spenser in his Descriptions. The first study'd Humour, was an excellent Satirist, and a lively but rough

Painter of the Manners of that rude Age in which he liv'd: The latter was of the serious Turn, had an exalted and elegant Mind, a warm and boundless Fancy, and was an admirable Imager of Vertues and Vices, which was his particular Talent. The Embellishments of Description are rich and lavish in him beyond Comparison: and as this is the most striking part of Poetry, especially to young Readers, I take it to be the Reason that he has been the Father of more Poets among us, than any other of our Writers; Poetry being first kindled in the Imagination, which Spenser writes to, more than any one, and the Season of Youth being the most susceptible of the Impression. It will not seem strange therefore that Cowley, as himself tells us, first caught his Flame by reading Spenser; that our great Milton own'd him for his Original, as Mr. Dryden assures us; and that Dryden study'd him, and has bestow'd more frequent Commendations on him, than on any other English Poet.

THE most known and celebrated of his Works, tho I will not say the most perfect, is the Fairy Queen. It is conceiv'd, wrought up, and colour'd with a stronger Fancy, and discovers more the particular Genius of Spenser, than any of his other Writings. The Author, in a Letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, having call'd this Poem, a continu'd Allegory, or dark Conceit, it may not be improper to offer some Remarks on Allegorical Poetry in general; by which the Beauties of this Work may more easily be discover'd by ordinary Readers. I must at the same time beg the Indulgence of those who are conversant with Critical Discourses, to what I shall here propose; this being a Subject something out of the way, and not expresly treated upon by those who have laid down Rules for the Art of Poetry.

AN Allegory is a Fable or Story, in which, under imaginary Persons or Things, is shadow'd some real Action or instructive Moral; or, as I think it is somewhere very shortly defin'd by Plutarch, it is that in which one thing is related, and another thing is understood. It is a kind of Poetical Picture, or Hieroglyphick, which by its apt Resemblance conveys Instruction to the Mind by an Analogy to the Senses; and so amuses the Fancy, whilst it informs the Understanding. Every Allegory has therefore two Senses, the Literal and the Mystical; the literal Sense is like a Dream or Vision, of which the mystical Sense is the true Meaning or Interpretation.

THIS will be more clearly apprehended, by considering, that as a Simile is but a more extended Metaphor, so an Allegory is a kind of continu'd Simile, or an Assemblage of Similitudes drawn out at full length. Thus, when it is said, That Death is the Offspring of Sin, this is a Metaphor, to signify that the former is produc'd by the latter, as a Child is brought into the World by its Parent. Again, to compare Death to a meager and ghastly Apparition, starting out of the Ground, moving towards the Spectator with a menacing Air, and shaking in his Hand a bloody Dart, is a Representation of the Terrors which attend that great Enemy to Human Nature. But let the Reader observe, in Milton's Paradise Lost, with what exquisite Fancy and Skill this common Metaphor and Simile, and the Moral contain'd in them, are extended and wrought up into one of the most beautiful Allegories in our Language.

THE Resemblance which has been so often observ'd in general between Poetry and Painting, is yet more particular in Allegory; which, as I said before, is a kind of Picture in Poetry. Horace has in one of his Odes pathetically describ'd the ruinous Condition of his

Country after the Civil Wars, and the Hazard of its being involv'd in new Dissensions, by the Emblem of a Ship shatter'd with Storms, and driven into Port with broken Masts, torn Sails, and disabled Rigging; and in danger of being forc'd by new Storms out to Sea again. There is nothing said in the whole Ode but what is literally applicable to a Ship; but it is generally agreed, that the Thing signify'd is the Roman State. Thus Rubens, who had a good Allegorical Genius in Painting, has, in his famous Work of the Luxemburg Gallery, figur'd the Government of France, on Lewis the Thirteenth's arriving at Age, by a Galley. The King stands at the Helm; Mary of Medicis, the Queen Mother and Regent, puts the Rudder in his Hand; Justice, Fortitude, Religion, and Publick Faith are seated at the Oars; and other Vertues have their proper Employments in managing the Sails and Tackle.

By this general Description of Allegory, it may easily be conceiv'd that in Works of this kind there is a large Field open to Invention, which among the Antients was universally look'd upon to be the principal Part of Poetry. The Power of raising Images or Resemblances of things, giving them Life and Action, and presenting them as it were before the Eyes, was thought to have something in it like Creation: And it was probably for this fabling Part, that the first Authors of such Works were call'd Poets or Makers, as the Word signifies, and as it is literally translated and used by Spenser; tho the learned Gerard Vossius* is of opinion, that it was rather for the framing their Verses. However, by this Art of Fiction or Allegory, more than by the Structure of their Numbers, or what we now call Versification, the Poets *De Arte Poetica, Cap. 3. §. 16.