Nymphs, the Rivers with Deities; and, that he might ftill have fome Being within call to his affiftance, he placed responsive Echo in the vacant regions of Air.

In the infant ages of the world, the credulity of Ignorance greedily received every marvellous tale: but, as mankind increased in knowledge, and a long feries of traditions had established a certain mythology and hiftory, the Poet was no longer permitted to range, uncontrolled, through the boundless dominions of Fancy, but became restrained, in fome measure, to things believed, or known. Though the duty of Poetry to pleafe and to furprife ftill fubfifted, the means varied with the ftate of the world, and it foon grew neceffary to make the new Inventions lean on the old Traditions.The human mind delights in novelty, and is captivated by the marvellous, but even in fable itfelf requires the eredible.The Poet, who can give to fplendid inventions, and to fictions new and bold, the air and authority of reality and truth, is master of the genuine

fources

fources of the Caftalian fpring, and may justly be faid to draw his inspiration from the well-bead of pure poefy.

Shakespear faw how useful the popular Superftitions had been to the ancient Poets : he felt that they were neceffary to Poetry itself. We need only read fome modern French heroic poems, to be convinced how poorly Epic Poetry fubfifts on the pure elements of History and Philofophy: Taffo, though he had a fubject so popular, at the time he wrote, as the deliverance of Jerufalem, was obliged to employ the operations of magic, and the interpofition of angels and dæmons, to give the marvellous, the fublime, and, I may add, that religious air to his work, which ennobles the enthufiafm; and fanctifies the fiction of the poet. Ariofto's excurfive mufe wanders through the regions of Romance, attended by all the fuperb train of chivalry, giants, dwarfs, and enchanters; and however these Poets, by fevere and frigid critics, may have been condemned for giving ornaments not purely claffical,

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claffical, to their works; I believe every reader of taste admires, not only the fertility of their imagination, but the judgment with which they availed themselves of the fuperftition of the times, and of the customs and modes of the country, in which they laid the scenes of action.

To recur, as the Learned sometimes do, to the Theology and Fables of other ages, and other countries, has ever a poor effect: Jupiter, Minerva, and Apollo, only embellish a modern ftory, as a print from their statues adorns the frontispiece. We admire indeed the art of the fculptors who give their images with grace and majesty ; but no devotion is excited, no enthusiasm kindled, by the representations of characters whofe divinity we do not acknowledge.

When the Pagan temples ceased to be revered, and the Parnaffian mount existed no longer, it would have been difficult for the Poet of later times to have preserved the divinity of his mufe inviolate, if the western

world

world too had not had its facred fables. While there is any national fuperftition which credulity has confecrated, any hallowed tradition long revered by vulgar faith; to that fanctuary, that asylum, may the Poet refort. Let him tread the holy ground with reverence; respect the established doctrine; exactly observe the accustomed rites, and the attributes of the object of veneration; then shall he not vainly invoke an inexorable or abfent deity. Ghosts, Fairies, Goblins, Elves, were as propitious, were as affistant to Shakespear, and gave as much of the Sublime, and of the Marvellous, to his fictions, as Nymphs, Satyrs, Fawns, and even the triple Geryon, to the works of ancient Bards. Our Poet never carries his præternatural Beings beyond the limits of the popular tradition. It is true, that he boldly exerts his poetic genius, and fascinating powers in that magic circle, in which none e'er durft walk but he: but as judicious as bold, he contains himself within it. He calls up all the stately phantoms in the regions of fuperftition, which our faith will

receive

receive with reverence. He throws into their manners and language a myfterious folemnity, favorable to Superftition in general, with fomething highly characteristic of each particular Being which he exhibits. His witches, his ghosts, and his fairies, seem Spirits of health or goblins damn'd; bring with them airs from heaven, or blasts from bell. His ghofts are fullen, melancholy, and terrible. Every fentence, utter'd by the Witches, is a prophecy or a charm; their manners are malignant, their phrases ambiguous, their promifes delufive. The witches cauldron is a collection of all that is most horrid, in their fuppofed incantations. Ariel is a spirit, mild, gentle, and sweet, poffefs'd of fupernatural powers, but fubject to the command of a great magician.

The Fairies are fportive and gay; the innocent artificers of harmless frauds, and mirthful delufions. Puck's enumeration of the feats of a fairy is the most agreeable recital of their fuppofed gambols.

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