The Glen, you know, is haunted; and sometimes when the green umbrage is beginning to look grey in the still evening, I have more than a glimpse of the Faery Queen. SEWARD. Perhaps we intrude on your dreams. Let us retire. NORTH. Take your seats. What Book is that, beneath your arm, Talboys? TALBOYS. The Volume you bid me bring with me this Evening to the Wren's Nest. NORTH. Yes, yes--now I remember. You are here by appointment. TALBOYS. Else had we not been here. We had not merely your permission, sir--but your invitation. NORTH. I was expecting you--and by hands unseen this our Round Table has been spread for my guests. Pretty coffee-cups, are they not? Ask no questions--there they are--but handle them gently--for the porcelain is delicate--and at rude touch will disappear from your fingers. A Book. Ay, ay--a Quarto--and by a writer of deserved Fame. SEWARD. We are dissatisfied with it, sir. Dugald Stewart is hard on the POET, and we desire to hear a vindication from our Master's lips. NORTH. Master! We are all pupils Of THE POET. He is the Master of us all. Talboys, read out--and begin at the beginning. TALBOYS. "In entering on this subject, it is proper to observe, that the word POET is not here used in that restricted sense in which it is commonly employed; but in its original acceptation of Maker, or Creator. In plainer language, it is used to comprehend all those who devote themselves to the culture of the Arts which are addressed to the Imagination; and in whose minds it may be presumed Imagination has acquired a more than ordinary sway over the other powers of the Understanding. By using the word in such a latitude, we shall be enabled to generalise the observations which might otherwise seem applicable merely to the different classes of versifiers." NORTH. That Mr. Stewart should, as a Philosopher, mark the liberal and magnanimous, and metaphysical large acceptation of the Name is right and good. But look at his Note. TALBOYS. "For this latitude in the use of the word POET, I may plead the example of Bacon and d'Alembert, the former of whom (_De Aug. Scient._, lib. xi. cap. 1) comprehends under Poetry all fables or fictitious histories, whether in prose or verse; while the latter includes in it painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and their different divisions." NORTH.