great genius of Aristotle, and that of his great resembler, Sir Francis Bacon, saw deeper into the true spirit of poe-
try
- Mr. Locke again replies:
- ↑ These lines, however, are a dull wretched paraphrase of some parts of the Psalms.
The constellations shine at his command;
He form'd their radiant orbs, and with his hand.
He weigh'd, and put them off with such a force
As might preserve an everlasting course[1].
"I doubt not but Sir R. Blackmore, in these lines, had a regard to the proportionment of the projective motion of the vis centripeta, that keeps the planets in their continued courses.
"I have by me some observations, made by a judicious friend of mine on both of Sir R. Blackmore's poems. If they may be any ways acceptable to Sir R., I shall send them to you."
"Though Sir R. B.'s vein in poetry be what every body must allow him to have an extraordinary talent in; and though, with you, I exceedingly valued his first preface, yet I must own to you, there was nothing I so much admired him for, as for what he says of hypotheses in his last. It seems to me so right, and is yet so much out of the way of the ordinary writers and practitioners in that faculty, that it shews as great a strength and penetration of judgment, as his poetry has shown flights of fancy."
As the best comment on this, let an extract from Locke's Essay on Education fully explain his ideas.
"If he have a poetic vein, 'tis to me the strangest thing in the world that the father should desire or suffer it to be cherished or improved. Methinks the parents should labour to have it stifled and suppressed as much as may be; and I know not what reason a father can have to wish his son a poet, who does not desire to have him bid defiance to all other callings or business; which is not yet the worst of the case; for if he proves a successful rhymer, and gets once the reputation of a wit, I desire it may be considered, what company and places he is like to spend his time in, nay, and estate too; for it is very seldom seen, that any one discovers mines of gold or silver in Parnassus. 'Tis a pleasant air, but barren soil, and there are very few instances of those who have added to their patrimony by any thing they have
