THat which gave Birth to Poetry, and hath supported its Reputation among the most Ingenious of every Age, is the desire of Imi­tation which is interwoven with every Man's Essence. Hence we admire the well-drawn Pictures of those dead Bodies, whose Original we have in Horror. And we are ravish'd to hear the Voice of a Swine Naturally counterfeited, tho we hate it in that Ani­mal. So Poetry and Painture in some manner expresseth every thing that is done in Nature. Whence Poetry is term'd a speaking Picture, and a Picture dumb Poetry. And the Word Poet does not signify one that Feigns but one that Makes. As when he speaks of a Tempest, he must make the Winds Mutiny, Ships Split, Mountains of Water Clash, and loose themselves in Gulfs. Which makes Poetry so difficult, and consequently so rare and admirable, that few succeed well in it.

Another Excellency in Poetry is its Harmony, Natu­ral not only to Man; but to the meanest Individual, which God hath created in Number and Measure: Which [Page 18]made the Pythagoreans say, that not only the Celestial Bodies make a most agreeable Consort, but also the Plants by their Proportions, and the Beasts by their Motions, chant measured Odes in praise of their Creator. There­fore with more Reason must Man (whose Soul is a num­ber moveing of it self) be delighted with numerous Lan­guage, which is Poetry, the most sensible Effect of that Divine Harmony, which is infus'd into his Body. And we may make a Judgment of good from vulgar Wits by their Delight or Disaffection to Poetry. For if a Man ought to be regular in his Actions, Why not in his Words? the Image of his Reason, as Reason is of his Soul. As if you should say that the well regulated Dance of a Ball, ought to be less priz'd than an ordinary Walk, or Country-Dance.

Moreover Poetry hath such power over Mens Minds, that Tyrtoeus animated his Souldiers to fight by the rehear­sal of his Verses; which was also the Custom of the Ger­mans, when they were to charge their Enemies. Moses, David, and many other Prophets accounted nothing more worthy than Poetry, to sing the Praises of God. And the first Poets, as Musoeus, Orpheus and Linus were the Divines of Paganism. Yea the Gods of Antiquity af­fected to deliver their Oracles in Verse. So did Legisla­tors their Laws to render them more venerable.

Besides they greatly help the Memory; the Cadence or Measure serving as a Rule to the Mind to keep it from being at a loss. Poetry alone among all the Arts supplies Praise to Virtue, the Rampant Stile of Rhetorical Dis­course, tho it borrow its fairest Flowers and square Peri­ods from Poetry, being not comparable to it, which is far more sublime, and consequently more fit to immorta­lize [Page 19]the Memory of Heroick Actions. Upon which ac­count the Muses were believ'd the Daughters of Mnemo­syne or Memory. Tho Poets have been sometimes expell'd out of States, so have Philosophers, Physicians, Mathe­maticians, and many other Professors of Arts, acknow­ledged nevertheless useful to Humane Society. If some of them have been Lascivious, others Impious, others Slanderous, those are the Faults of the Poets not Poetry. And as the more delicate any wine is, the more hurtful its Excess is to the Body; so Poetry is so much the more excellent by how much its abuse is noxious. Plato, who advis'd the banishing of it out of his imaginary Com­mon- Wealth, calling it a sweet Poyson, deserv'd more than it to be really interdicted. There not being in all the Poets such Fables, Impieties and Impurities, as that of his Convivium, his Phoedrus, and some other Pieces. In the mean time he is forc'd to admire them, to call them the Sons and Interpreters of the Gods, yea Divine and the Fathers of Wisdom. For the Raptures cannot be cal­led Folly, unless in that Sense as Aristotle saith, To Phi­losophize well, a Man must be besides himself. But there Wisdom being extream, and their Motions unknown to the vulgar, therefore they call that Fury, which they ought to call the highest pitch and point of Wisdom, term'd Enthusiasm or Divine Inspiration, because it sur­passeth the reach of Man. And indeed every one acknow­ledges in Poetry some Character of Divinity. And there­fore 'tis received by all the World, and serves for a guide and introducer to great Persons, who otherwise would not give audience, but like that well in Verse, which they would blame in Prose. Which obliged Sylla to reward the Good, that they might be encouraged to continue their [Page 20]Divine Works, and the bad Poets on condition that they made no more. And 'tis of these, as of some Rhymes of our times that they speak, who blame Poetry; in whose reproches the true Poets are no more concern'd than Physitians in the infamy of Mountebanks. The Fables of the Antient Poets are full of Mysteries, and serve for ornament to the Sciences, and to Divinity it self. Nor has variety of Wit appear'd in any Science more than Po­etry, which serves not barely to teach and instruct, as the other Liberal Sciences, but withal to recreate and delight, which is an excellent Method to prevent the Disgust, which Disciplines bring even in their Rudiments.

And if they have complain'd in all Ages of not advancing their fortunes, this doth not argue any demerit of theirs, but rather the want either of judgment or gratitude in others.