Human Nature, at the same Time it is desirous of Knowledge, is cautious of confessing its Want of it. The Precepts, therefore, design'd for its Information, must not be obtruded with Moroseness, but insinuated with Mildness; and even its Vanity soothed, to remove its Ignorance. Instructions are the better receiv'd, and sink the deeper upon the Mind, in proportion to the Address with which they are convey'd. There's Sort of Obsequiousness due from the Teacher to the Scholar, and even in this Sense that Maxim of Juvenal holds true:

Hence it is, that Precepts deliver'd in Verse, are imbib'd with so much Pleasure; and are held in so great Esteem, that they constitute one distinct Species of Poetry. Many Rules we have already given, concerning the other Branches of it, and are now come to teach even the Art of Teaching. Upon this Subject I am under little Temptation of rifling the Stores of the Learned: I don't know one that has treated of it, except the ingenious Author of the Essay on Virgil's Georgics, prefix'd to Mr. Dryden's Translation of them. And he, indeed, has so exhausted the Subject, that it is as hard to come after him, as it is after the great Dryden, or his greater Original.

From what has been said, it appears, that Poetry is in its Nature adapted to deliver Precepts of any Kind, which are sure to be learnt with more Ease, and retain'd the more faithfully by the Help of it. Laws, and religious Maxims, were anciently promulged in Verse; and Priests and Poets were the same: And even to this Day it is a prudent Custom to have religious Lessons drawn up in Verse for the Sake of Youth: In this Respect it may more truly be said

For by Poetry the very Elements that are taught are soften'd into Allurements. The common Grammar, we see, is Verse; and tho' the Language of it, indeed, is Prose, whatever the Measure be, yet it is a sufficient Proof, that, in the Opinion of the past and present Age, Precepts and Poetry are no ways inconsistent: And it were to be wish'd, that not only Rules of Rhetoric and Logic, but of Philosophy, and all other Sciences, were drawn up in a more entertaining Manner. Not that technical Words, or Terms of Art, as they are call'd, should be excluded; for it is impossible any Science should be without them: But they might be so dress'd up, as to invite, not deter the Pains of the Learner. But these are Observations less material to our Purpose, and I only make them by the Way. I now proceed to observe, that there are four Kinds of Didactic Poems, viz. those that relate to moral Duties; or philosophical Speculations; or the Business or Pleasures of Life; or, lastly, to Poetry itself.

Of the moral Poems we shall say but little. We have elsewhere observ'd, that these have scarce any Thing of Poetry in them but their Measure, and therefore hardly deserve to be class'd under the Head of it: Such are Pythagoras's Golden Verses; the Sentences of Theognis; the ????a ????et???? of Phocylides. We have nothing of this Kind of the Latin Writers, or of our own[260], worth mentioning; and, in short, they have nothing in common with a Poem, except this, that a Life led according to the strictest Rules of Virtue, resembles the best, and the noblest.

But, on the other Hand, nothing shines more in Verse, than Disquisitions of natural History. We then see the strictest Reasoning join'd to the politest Expression. Poetry and Philosophy are happily united: The latter affords abundant Matter for Description; it opens a large Field for Fancy, and strikes out new Ideas, which the other expresses with suitable Dignity. What Subject can be a more poetical one than

What can be more suitable to the Dignity of a Poem, than to celebrate the Works of the great Creator? What more agreeable to the Variety of one, than to describe the Journies of the heavenly Orbs, the Rise of Thunder, and other Meteors, the Motion of the Earth, and the Tides of the Sea; the attractive Force of the Magnet, the impulsive Motion of Light, and the slower Progression of Sound; and innumerable other Wonders, in the unbounded Storehouse of Nature. I shall say nothing, at present, of Aratus among the Greeks, or of Manilius among the Latin Writers; Lucretius, alone, shall suffice, instead of all the rest. He, indeed, is so far from celebrating the Creator, that he supposes there is none; but, allowing him his Hypothesis, his Poem is truly philosophical. He had deserv'd much greater Praise, had he corrected his Notions in Philosophy, and his Style in Poetry; for in this Particular, also, he is often deficient. The Asperity of his Versification must be imputed rather to the Times he liv'd in, (viz. the Age between Ennius and Virgil) than to the Subject he treated of; which, whatever the common Opinion be, not only admits of the Harmony of Numbers, but requires it. The following Directions of Virgil about burning the Turf, part of which we cited before, upon another Occasion, don't lose any Thing of their Philosophy by their Smoothness:

And even Lucretius himself is sometimes more flowing and sonorous, not only when he addresses himself to Venus, as in the following beautiful Passage:

But sometimes, likewise, when he unfolds the Principles of Matter, the Causes of Things, and the PhÆnomena of Nature. It is certain, Virgil is much indebted to him, tho' he has much improv'd his Manner.

Another Imperfection in Lucretius is, that he never makes any Excursions into poetical Fiction. Some Digressions he has, but they are rather philosophical, than poetical; and therefore don't diversify the Subject, nor afford the Reader sufficient Refreshment. He has some, indeed, philosophical; but then they are impious, such as reason against Providence, the Foundations of Religion, and the Immortality of the Soul. One, however, I must except, that upon the Plague of Athens; which contains, indeed, a poetical Description, but nothing of poetical Fable. It must be own'd, this Poet reasons too much in the Manner of the Schools, the Philosopher appears too open, he wants the Gentility to conceal his Beard, and temper his Severity. Poetry and Philosophy, indeed, were both to be join'd together, but the one ought to be as the Handmaid to the other; which Virgil would not have fail'd to have taken care of, had he been engag'd on such a Subject. Not so Lucretius, who appears more a Philosopher than a Poet, and yet of Poets not the meanest: Virgil, in his Georgics, appears more a Poet than a Husbandman, and yet of Husbandmen the greatest.

I can't see why, in a Work of this Kind, Nature may not be so explain'd, as to admit sometimes of poetical Fiction; in the same Manner that Virgil describes the Cyclops forging the Thunderbolts?

Here the Formation of the Thunder is poetically feign'd; the Matter and the Adjuncts explain'd physically; Philosophy is made the Basis, and Poetry the Superstructure.

I know of no modern Poem of this Sort worth mentioning, except Buchanan's Sphere, which is a Work by no means contemptible. But as Natural Philosophy has, by the Help of Experiments, been lately brought to much greater Perfection than ever; this Kind of Poetry, no doubt, would have made proportionable Advances, if the same Age that shew'd a Boyle, a Halley, and a Newton, had produc'd a Virgil; or if we had not been so much worse Poets than the Ancients, as we are better Philosophers. We have, indeed, some poetical Essays on the[265] Circulation of the Blood, the Air-pump, the Microscope, and the Telescope, and the like: But these are short Descriptions, no ways reducible to the Species of Poetry before us. 'Tis true, they may in some Sense be reduc'd under the Title of Didactic, tho' not of Preceptive Poetry; they teach by Description, not by Precept.

But the next Kind I mention'd, relating to the Business or Pleasures of Life, do both. Under this Head Virgil's Georgics stand foremost, containing the most useful Rules for Husbandry in all its Branches, Agriculture, the Method of raising Trees, or Cattle, or tending of Bees. The Pleasure that naturally results from reading them, is chiefly owing to the Pleasure and Advantage which attends a Country Life. Here Virgil has imitated Hesiod, as he has Theocritus in his Eclogues, and Homer in the Æneis; I should rather have said, has exceeded each in their peculiar Way of Writing, unless, perhaps, we ought to except Theocritus: But Hesiod he his left so far behind him, that he scarce deserves to be mention'd in the Comparison. The good old Man of AscrÆa is at best but a downright Yeoman, whereas Virgil appears with the Learning of a Scholar, and the Elegance of a Gentleman. From his Georgics, then, all the Maxims that relate to this Subject must be illustrated.

The first Rule I would lay down, is, That we ought to select with Judgment such Circumstances as are capable of shining in Verse; not that we are to omit the gravest Precepts, but to express them by their most poetical Adjuncts:

I need not explain myself any farther. To produce all the Instances of this Kind, would be to transcribe the Georgics. 'Tis with the same View the great Author of them is so copious upon the different Properties of Trees and Cattle; the Combat of Bulls; the Conduct and Politics of Bees, and the like.

To vary the Form of Instruction, and to add Life to his Precepts, he sometimes instils them as Matters of Fact, and conveys them under the Appearance of a Narration:

And in another Place:

Sometimes he foretels the ill Consequences of a contrary Practice:

Or he describes the ill Effects he has observ'd to attend it:

By this agreeable Variety the Reader's Attention is wonderfully awaken'd, tho' he sees not the Reason of it; and the Poet's Art is the more to be admir'd, because it escapes Observation.

But the greatest Ornaments of this sort of Poems, are the frequent Excursions into some more noble Subject, which seem'd naturally to arise out of that the Poet is treating of. Sometimes, for Instance, he runs back into History and Antiquity, or, perhaps, the very Origine of Things:

And again:

Sometimes he makes Reflections on the Condition of Human Life:

At another Time he heightens his Subject with Astronomy, and Natural Philosophy; an Instance of which I have already cited, from the Georgics: But I cannot help adding one more, not only as it makes very remarkably for our present Purpose, but is, moreover, an abundant Proof of what I before advanc'd, that Natural Philosophy might be express'd in the sweetest Numbers, and consequently is capable of much smoother Versification than that of Lucretius. The Poet, then, having mention'd the Noise of Crows as a Sign of fair Weather, proceeds thus:

Often he digresses into Fable and Fiction, as in that beautiful Episode of Orpheus and Eurydice: And still more often into poetical Descriptions, as those of the perpetual Spring in Italy, and the bleak Winter in Scythia; of the Happiness of a Country Life; of the various Prognostications of the Weather; of the Prodigies that foretold the Death of CÆsar; and, to name no more, of the Murrain among the Cattle. Of which, I wonder the foremention'd Author of the Essay on Virgil's Georgics should say, that Virgil seems in it to have summon'd up all his Might to equal the Description of the Plague in Lucretius, since the one is as much beyond the other in the Ingenuity of the Composition, as it is inferior to it, in the Dignity of the Subject; and the Plague in Lucretius is exceeded by that of Virgil, as much as Beasts are by Men. Upon the whole, this is deservedly esteem'd the most finish'd Piece of all Virgil's Works; I need not add, that it is the compleatest in its Kind, of any we now have, or the World ever saw.

The Moderns have produc'd nothing in this Kind, except Rapin's Books of Gardening, and the celebrated Poem on Cyder by an ingenious Author, that not long since resided among us; who, if he had enjoy'd the Advantage of Virgil's Language, would have been second to Virgil in a much nearer Degree. As long as the fluctuating State of our Tongue will permit, this English Georgic shall infallibly flourish,

Among the Pleasures of a Country Life, we may reckon Hunting, Fishing, Hawking, and the like; which are excellent Subjects for Didactic Verse, and are very fruitful of poetic Matter. We have only some Essays of this Sort, and those by modern Hands, except only Gratius's CynÆgeticon, which owes all its Value to Fortune, rather than any true Merit of its own; viz. that it has the Advantage of being writ in the Augustan Age, and being recommended by Ovid, a Contemporary, in the following Verse,

Oppian's Halieutica and Cynegetica are scarce to be reckon'd among the Writings of the Ancients, but to be plac'd rather in the Middle Age[276].

The Rules for writing upon these Subjects are the same with what I have mention'd under the Georgics; I have no Occasion, therefore, to add new ones here. The same may be said for that Species of Poetry, that consists in teaching the Art of Poetry; the Manner of Writing is the same, as far as the Difference of the Matter will admit.

The Pieces that have been writ in this Way, are known to all; and Poetry seems never to have employ'd her Time better, than upon herself. The Ancients have left us only one Specimen of this Kind, but such as may compensate for all the rest, Horace's Epistle to the Piso's; a Work that ought to be got by Heart by all true Lovers of Poetry, in which 'tis hard to say, whether we should admire the Wit or Judgment most, both in the Choice of the Precepts, and the Manner of delivering them. Among the Moderns, the celebrated French Poet[277], and several of our Countrymen[278], have succeeded, each in his native Tongue, very happily.

These are the several Kinds of Didactic Poetry, with which the Writers of the past or present Age have furnish'd us. In this Number I might reckon Ovid of the Art of Love; but I pass it by, on account of its Levity, not to say its Indecency. Much less excusable are Claudius Quilletus, and Hieronymus Fracastorius, among the Moderns; who, it were to be wish'd, had chosen Subjects less obnoxious to Censure.

I would, however, observe, that any Thing in the World may be the Subject of this Kind of Poem: The Business or Recreations of the City, or the Country; even the Conduct of common Life, and civil Converse: But none more suitable than Arts and Sciences. And among those, which of them so proper to receive Instructions from the Hand of Poetry, as its two Sister Arts, Painting and Music? In the former, particularly, there is Room for the most entertaining Precepts concerning the Disposal of Colours; the Arrangement of Lights and Shades; the secret Attractives of Beauty; the various Ideas which make up that one; the distinguishing between the Attitudes proper to either Sex, and every Passion; the representing Prospects, of Buildings, Battles, or the Country; and, lastly, concerning the Nature of Imitation, and the Power of Painting. What a boundless Field of Invention is here? what Room for Description, Comparison, and poetical Fable? How easy the Transition, at any Time, from the Draught to the Original, from the Shadow to the Substance? And, from hence, what noble Excursions may be made into History, into Panegyric upon the greatest Beauties or Hero's of the past or present Age? The Task, I confess, is difficult; but, according to that noted, but true Saying,[279] So are all Things that are great. Let the Man, therefore, that is equal to such an Undertaking, be fir'd with a noble Ambition to attempt a Work untouch'd before; and let the Georgics, which have been our great Example, furnish him with this noble Incentive: