From this account of the different manners, in which the faculties of the mind exert themselves in the sphere of competition, your Lordship will immediately observe, that the Poet who attempts to combine distant ideas, to catch remote allusions, to form vivid and agreeable pictures; is more apt from the very nature of his profession to set up a _false standard_ of _excellence_, than the cool and dispassionate Philosopher who proceeds deliberately from position to argument, and who employs Imagination only as the Handmaid of a superior faculty. Having gone thus far, like persons who have got into a track from which they cannot recede, we may venture to proceed a step farther; and affirm that the _Lyric Poet_ is exposed to this hazard more nearly than any other, and that to prevent him from falling into the extreme we have mentioned, will require the exercise of the closest attention. That I may illustrate this observation as fully as the nature of the subject will permit, it will be expedient to enquire into the end which Lyric Poetry proposeth to obtain, and to examine the original standards from which the rules of this art are deduced. Aristotle, who has treated of poetry at great length, assigns two causes of its origin,--_Imitation_ and Harmony; both of which are natural to the human mind[3]. By Imitation he understands, “whatever employs means to represent any subject in a natural manner, whether it hath a real or imaginary existence[4].” The desire of imitating is originally stamped on the mind, and is a source of perpetual pleasure. “Thus” (says the great Critic) “though the figures of wild beasts, or of dead men, cannot be viewed as they naturally are without horror and reluctance; yet the Imitation of these in painting is highly agreeable, and our pleasure is augmented in proportion to that degree of resemblance which we conceive to subsist betwixt the Original and the Copy[5].” By Harmony he understands not the numbers or measures of poetry only, but that music of language, which when it is justly adapted to variety of sentiment or description, contributes most effectually to unite the pleasing with the instructive[6]. This indeed seems to be the opinion of all the Ancients who have written on this subject. Thus Plato says expressly, that those Authors who employ numbers and images without music have no other merit than that of throwing prose into measure[7]. [Footnote 3: Εοικασι δε γεννησαι μεν ὁλως την Ποιητικην, αιτιαι δυο και αυται φυσικαι. Το μιμεισθαι συμφυτον τοις ανθρωποις, &c. Και Ἁρμονια και ρυθμος εξ αρχης οἱ πεφυκοτες προς αυτα μαλιστα κατα μικρον προαγοντες εγεινησαν την Ποιησιν‧ Arist. Poet. c. 4.] [Footnote 4: The Reader of curiosity may see this subject particularly discussed in Dacier’s Remarks on the Poeticks of Aristotle, c. 4.]