It would not be uninteresting to point out the causes of the pleasure given by this

extravagant and absurd diction. It depends upon a great variety of causes, but upon none,

perhaps, more than its influence in impressing a notion of the peculiarity and exaltation of

the Poet's character, and in flattering the Reader's self-love by bringing him nearer to a

sympathy with that character; an effect which is accomplished by unsettling ordinary

habits of thinking, and thus assisting the Reader to approach to that perturbed and dizzy

state of mind in which if he does not find himself, he imagines that he is balked of a

peculiar enjoyment which poetry can and ought to bestow.

The sonnet quoted from Gray, in the Preface, except the lines printed in italics, consists 5

of little else but this diction, though not of the worst kind; and indeed, if one may be

permitted to say so, it is far too common in the best writers both ancient and modern.

Perhaps in no way, by positive example could more easily be given a notion of what I

mean by the phrase poetic diction than by referring to a comparison between the metrical

paraphrase which we have of passages in the Old and New Testament, and those passages

as they exist in our common Translation. See Pope's Messiah throughout; Prior's 'Did

sweeter sounds adorn my flowing tongue,' &c. &c. 'Though I speak with the tongues of

men and of angels,' &c. &c., 1st Corinthians, ch. xiii. By way of immediate example take

the following of Dr. Johnson:

Turn on the prudent Ant thy heedless eyes,

Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise;

No stern command, no monitory voice,

Prescribes her duties, or directs her choice;

Yet, timely provident, she hastes away

To snatch the blessings of a plenteous day;

When fruitful Summer loads the teeming plain,

She crops the harvest, and she stores the grain.

How long shall sloth usurp thy useless hours,

Unnerve thy vigour, and enchain thy powers?

While artful shades thy downy couch enclose,

And soft solicitation courts repose,

Amidst the drowsy charms of dull delight,

Year chases year with unremitted flight,

Till Want now following, fraudulent and slow,

Shall spring to seize thee, like an ambush'd foe.

From this hubbub of words pass to the original. 'Go to the Ant, thou Sluggard, consider 6

her ways, and be wise: which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in

the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, 0 Sluggard?

when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of

the hands to sleep. So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an

armed man.' Proverbs, ch. vi.

One more quotation, and I have done. It is from Cowper's Verses supposed to be written 7

by Alexander Selkirk:

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