V

Thus like a worshipper before a shrine,

He earnest syllabled, and, rising up,
He led that lovely stranger tenderly

Through the green forest toward the burning west.

-Idem, 3.

In our next quotation the same tendency has passed beyond the stage of sentimentality into that of obscurity. The thought in it is so small for the kind of representation given it, as to be at times altogether invisible. It is intended to describe hot weather and a shower; and is a singular exemplification of the way in which extremes meet; for while the poet evidently supposes himself to be illustrating his subject, he is really trying to explain it. His endeavor to exercise his imaginative tendency has led him to argue; and while he thinks himself influenced by a poetic motive, it is really prosaic. Thus his style is a failure in two regards: it is both too figurative and too philo sophical.

Should Solstice, stalking through the sickening bowers,
Suck the warm dew-drops, lap the falling showers;
Kneel with parched lip, and bending from its brink,
From dripping palm the scanty river drink;
Nymphs! o'er the soil ten thousand points erect,
And high in air the electric flame collect.

Soon shall dark mists with self-attraction shroud
The blazing day, and sail in wilds of cloud;
Each silvery flower the streams aërial quaff,

Bow her sweet head, and infant harvests laugh.

-The Botanic Garden, Part First: E. Darwin.

By comparing any of the clean-cut, clear descriptions of Homer with this passage, in which, on account of the farfetched illustrative nature of the form, it needs often a second thought to detect what the poet is talking about, one will have a sufficiently forcible exemplification of the difference between poetic form that is representative, and

that which, on account of the addition to it of elements having to do merely with the illustrative methods of presenting the thought, is not representative.

The fault now under consideration characterizes, as will be noticed, all poems in which the subject does not justify the treatment,-from those like Spenser's Faerie Queene, (in which the allegory meant to illustrate the thought, and therefore an element merely of the form, is made to appear the principal thing, because developed to such an extent that one forgets all about what the subject of the poem is,) down to sensational plays, and romances of the lowest order, in which the characters, for serious, not comic purposes, are placed in situations and made to utter sentiments inconceivable in their circumstances. There is no necessity for quoting from such works here.

V

CHAPTER XXIV.

EXPLANATORY ALLOY IN DIRECT REPRESENTATION.

Alloy, if carrying to Extreme the Tendency in Plain Language, becomes
Didactic; if the Tendency in Figurative Language, it becomes Ornate
-Didactic Alloy explains, and appeals to the Elaborative Faculty, not
the Imagination—Rhetoric instead of Poetry-Examples of Didactic
Alloy where Representation purports to be Direct-In Cases where the
Thought is Philosophical-How Thought of the same Kind can be Ex-
pressed Poetically—In Cases where the Thought is Picturesque, as in
Descriptions of Natural Scenery—How similar Scenes can be described
Poetically-Didactic Descriptions of Persons-Similar Representative
Descriptions-How Illustrative Representation helps the Appeal to the
Imagination-In Descriptions of Natural Scenery-Of Persons-The
Sensuous and the Sensual.

THE

HE reader who has followed our line of thought to this point, probably understands by this time the general nature of the difference between pure and alloyed representation. But he cannot understand the extent of the inartistic influence which the latter introduces into poetry as a representative art, until he has traced its developments a little further. That will be done for him in this and following chapters.

It has been said that whatever is added to representation of such a nature as to change it from pure to alloyed, must come from the poet. This is true, and yet he may not always be himself the primary source of these additions. He may get them either from his own mind or from nature, a term used here to apply to every thing ex

ternal to himself. If he get them from his own mind, he will carry into excessive development the tendency which has been termed the instinctive, underlying ejaculatory sounds and all plain language; and his product will manifest a preponderance of the features making up the thought that he desires to express. If he get his additions from nature, he will carry into excessive development the tendency, which has been termed the reflective, underlying imitative sounds and all figurative language; and his product will manifest a preponderance of the features employed in the form for the purpose of amplifying and illustrating his thought. The first tendency, carried to an extreme, will deprive the form of representation, and v make it explanatory or didactic; the second will overload it with representation, and make it florid or ornate.

Taking up these tendencies in their order, we will examine now the former of them, and first, as exemplified in poetry modelled upon direct representation. In this form, as we have seen, the poet uses no similies nor metaphors. He states precisely what he wishes to say— only what he says, if put in the form of poetry, must represent his thought. If it merely present this, he gives us a product not of the ideal art of poetry, but of the practical art of rhetoric. This latter appeals to the mind through what Sir William Hamilton termed the elaborative faculty, and is characterized by a particularizing of details in explanatory words and clauses, termed amplification,—all of which details together enable the hearer to weigh the evidence that is offered, and to draw from it trustworthy conclusions. Poetry, on the contrary, appeals to the representative faculty, and is characterized by an absence of any more details or explanatory elements than are needed in order to form a picture, and this for the

Teason timt nothing annuus so strange the imagination a a fim the same time, as poetry and rhetoric both communicate ideas, there is a constant tendency for the vie to pas in the cher, ia the pot to forget that the poetical depends not upon ideas alone, but also upon the forms giver to the ideas-in fact, to forget that, vide grast poetry must necessary embody great thoughts, very genuine poetry, at times, may do no more than give to the merestary nothings a local habitation and a

To exemplify what has been said, let us begin with some quotations from Wordsworth. They are specimens of rhetoric, pure and simple, presenting, but not in any setise representing, the thought By consequence, they are almost wholly lacking in the suggestive and inspiring Hents with which true poetry appeals to the imagination: O for the coming of that glorious time

When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth
And best protection, this imperial Realm,
While she exacts allegiance, shall admit

An obligation, on her part, to deac à

Them who are born to serve her and obey;
Binding herself by statute to secure

For all the children whom her soll maintains
The rudiments of letters, and inform

The mind with moral and religious truth,
Both understood and practised,- -so that none,
However destitute, be left to droop.

By timely culture unsustained.

The discipline of slavery is unknown

Among us,-hence the more do we require

The discipline of virtue; order else

Cannot subsist, nor confidence, nor peace.

Thus, duties rising out of good possessed,

And prudent caution needful to avert
Impending evil, equally require