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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42746	Miscellaneous letters and essays on several subjects philosophical, moral, historical, critical, amorous, &c., in prose and verse : directed to John Dryden, Esq., the Honourable Geo. Granvill, Esq., Walter Moile, Esq., Mr. Dennis, Mr. Congreve, and other eminent men of th' age / by several gentlemen and ladies.	Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; Moyle, Walter, 1672-1721.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.	1694 (1694)	Wing G732; ESTC R14504	119,130	250

Walls of Thebes Of the latter Horace Art Poetic Dictus Amphion Thebanae condior Areis Saxa movere sono Testudinis prece bland●… Ducere quo vellet Tho' there be nothing more vulgar and com●…on than these Fables of the Ancient Poets and Musicians yet do they evidently demonstrate that even from those Primitive Times down to our Iron Age these extraordinary Praises and Encomiums were only bestow'd on this divine Power of Poetry that Poets alone seem'd worthy by this most Sacred Art to have the next place to the Gods themselves So that this Universal Applause if there were no other Motive ought to recommend it to our Admiration and Esteem But 't is agreed by the universal and unanimous consent of almost all Nations and Authors that Poetry not only contains all other Arts and Sciences but has this Prerogative peculiar to it self That no Rules no Masters with the best Instructions can teach it unless those who apply themselves to this divine Science are destin'd to the Sacred Function by Nature and a Genius Whence arose that Maxim allow'd of by all Men o●… Sense Poeta Nascitur non Fit That a Poet is Born not Made And from hence it follows in my Opinion That a Poet derives the honor of that Name from his Nature and Genius not from his Art 〈◊〉 This e'ery Scholar has That none but the Darling o●… Heav'n and Nature This may be acquir'd by a Studious Pedant That must be born and grow up with the auspicious Babe for Poeta nascitur non fit I 'm much mistaken if Polidore Virgil do no●… comment on this Axiom in his first Book De Re●… Inventor Cap. 8. where he says 'T is certain tha●… Poetry for many Reasons excels the other Arts an●… Sciences either because no other Art is to be acquir'●… but by a long Application to it or because as Strab●… in the beginning of his Geography against Eratosthenes eloquently demonstrates it contains all others because of all the Arts that Humane Wit has produc'd Poetry alone it taught by a Divine Inspiration c. Cicero in his Oration for Archias the Poet has lest us the Praise of Poets of which Name himself had been extreamly Ambitious in these words Atqui sic says he à summis hominibus ●…ruditissimisque accepimus caeterarum rerum studia Doctrinâ Praeceptis Arte constare Poetam Natur●…●…psâ valere mentis viribus excitari quasi divino quodam spiritu afflari quare suo Jure noster ●…nnius Sanctos appellat Poetas quod quasi deorum aliquo dono Munere commendati nobis esse videantur You see Sir that Cicero confesses that divine Fire in Poets which himself desir'd in vain and ●…hat Poets seem to be recommended by the Gift and Benefit of the Gods to our reception ●…f he that felt not this Sacred Fury was sensible of this we may credit Ovid who by his own Experience says De Fastis lib. 6. Facta Canam sed erunt qui me finxisse loquentur Nullaque Mortali numina visa putent Est Deus in Nobis agitante Calescimus illo Impetus hic sacrae semina mentis habet And Socrates in Plato affirms this Poetical Fury ●…o be divinely inspir'd Plato in his Second Book ●…f the Common-wealth calls Poets the Sons of ●…he Gods and in Lysis terms them the Parents and Guides of Wisdom and elsewhere he ca●… Homer the Father of all Wisdom and Philosophy in these Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Home●… was the Guide and Master of the Tragical Beautie●… and Virtues And Petronius Arbiter tells us tha●… the Mind can neither conceive or bring forth i●… Poetical Births unless it be impregnated wit●… great and boundless stores of Learning and fo●… this reason he says in his Satyricon that Eumolp●… spoke oft'ner divinely that is Poetically tha●… like a Man Those who endeavour to draw the Origin●… of Poetry from Singing are not in my Opinio●… much mistaken For when the Ancients endeavour'd to declare the Affections or Passions of th●… Mind in Song by the Sound and peculiar Variation of the Voice as it were in a more Polite an●… Elaborate Speech this rude and unpollish'd Soun●… by degrees refind into an Art Which when 〈◊〉 became where-ever it was so improv'd th●… with it the Praises of the Gods or Heroes w●… celebrated into certain Verses or Rhimes ga●… Birth to Poetry which indeed seems truly real●… to be deriv'd from Singing since with the Learned ev'n now a Poet is not said to Speak b●… Sing The antient Germans a Warlike Peopl●… had no other History of the Acts of the Kin●… and Leaders but certain Songs or Verses b●… which they either extoll'd their Warlike Exploi●… or rous'd the Minds of the Soldiers to fight as 〈◊〉 find in Polyaenus Solon annimated the Athenians to Battle And the Lacedaemonians Sacrific'd to the Muses before they began a Fight that we read that the noble Heroe Matthias King of Hungary us'd to be so touch'd with the Acts of the antient Heroes as he sung 'em to his Lute that the force with which it affected his Mind was apparent in his Body imitating Achilles who sung the Praises of great Commanders to his Harp Another Proof of the Antiquity of Poesie are the Sibyls the Oracles of the Pythian Apollo many of which are in Herodotus Inscriptions Monuments of Victories Pillars and Obelisc's all which afford cause to believe Verse to have a very early Original With these the Writings of the greatest and most antient Authors strow their Works by their Authorities and Sentences to render them the more palatable and efficacious Nay St. Paul is said to have convinc'd the Athenians of the madness of their Idolatry by part only of a Verse of the Poet Aratus and to have us'd that Verse of Menander to the Christian Corinthians Evil Discourses corrupt good Manners Thus much for the Divine and very antient Origin of Poesie and now we are come to the Subject of it according to our former Division Tho' other Arts and Sciences afford abundant matter and a large Field for our Thoughts and Consideration yet none can stand in competition with Poesie for what is there in all the wond'rous Variety and vast extent of Nature that falls not under the consideration of a Poet All the Wonders Mercies and Favours of the highest God can in nothing be more gloriously express'd than in Verse Who can describe the Beauty of his Providence the Bounty of his Gifts the Sacredness of his Mysteries with such Charms such Force such Excellence as the Poet in his Melodious Numbers Majestic Language and Divine Thoughts Hence it was that the Royal Psalmist David chose to appease the Anger of an offended God with the soothing Sacrifice of this Penitential Verses To this we add the Hymns of the antient Hebrews of the old Church and of the Poetical and holy Fathers of the New who to make their Ejaculations and Jubilees of Seraphic Love reach late

aerio So weak was the Power of a God to keep her a Maid Nay they make her very Fruitful too for besides Sons by this Amour with 〈◊〉 they give her fifty Daughters Where three Ways meet the Ancients us'd to perform the Rites of Hecate who is call'd by three several Names Luna Artemis and Hecate About the New of the Moon the Richer sort us'd to send a Collation to those Places where three ways met in the Evening as a Supper for Hecate but the Poor us'd to devour these Nocturnal ●…unkets of this Goddess and give out that she her self had eat them as the Priests and their Tribe in Daniel tho' indeed these Suppers were but very Parsimonious so that an ill Supper got the Proverbial Name of a Feast for Hecate for the Poetical Divinity taught that the Ghosts wou'd subsist with very little Nourishment But that Hecate was the same with Luna ●…or Diana is evident from several Places particularly from Raphael Regius in his Comments on the 7th Book of Ovid's Metam And here I think 't is time to make an end of this Lunary Essay lest I be thought to take so much pains about her Goddess-ship for the Influence she has on me I wou'd not incur the Imputation of a Madman for her sake whatever I might for the sake of some Earthly Cynthia perhaps fully as Inconstant and might deserve a greater variety of Names from her numerous Follies than Diana from the several Places of her Worship But whatever Influence the Ethereal or Terrestrial Cynthia's may have on me I 'm confident that neither they nor any other Cause can be Powerful enough to turn me to any thing that should diminish my Value and Esteem for you or the pleasure I take in being what I shall ever Subscribe my self SIR Your Obliged and faithful Friend and Humble Servant Charles Gildon An ESSAY at a Vindication of the Love-Verses of Cowley and Waller c. In Answer to the Preface of a Book Intituled Letters and Uerses Amorous and Gallant Directed to Mr. CONGREVE AS in my two former Critical Discourses of this Book against Mr. Rymer's Short view of Tragedy a Zeal for the Honour of my Country in its greatest Ornaments her Poets Engag'd me so here I cannot help challenging the same Pretence since I can't suppose them deficient in Love without derogating from the Justness of their Characters But I must confess I have not the same hopes of Success in this for there I had to do with an impotent Opiniator but here with a Gentleman of a great deal of Wit and fine Sense There I address'd to Parties already sensible of the Justice of my Cause here to one who is prepossess'd of the contrary But on the other hand I have the greater satisfaction here of being Worsted by one whose Wit can better defend an Error than I the Truth and I 'm of Opinion that 't is a nobler Fate to fall by the Hand of an Hero than Conquer a Dastard Pretender And tho' my Prudence might be call'd in Question by this Attempt yet my generous Ambition will merit a Magnis tamen excidit Ausis One thing I must possess you of in my favour that my unhappy Circumstances allow me not time to use all the Caution I ought or search all the Reasons might be urg'd in this noble Cause so that I am not only Viribus but Opibus impar However I hope the Design will gain me the Opinion of a Good English Man if my Performance shou'd not attain that of a good Critic which will sufficiently compensate my trouble for I shou'd be prouder to be thought a Zealot for the Glory as well as Interest of my Country than the greatest Wit and most Learned Arguer I shall never deny the Ancients their just Praise of the Invention of Arts and Sciences but I cannot without contradicting my own Reason allow them the Perfecters of 'em so far that they must be our uncontroverted Patterns and Standard For our Physicians have found the Prescripts of Hippocrates very Defective And as in Physic so in Poetry there must be a regard had to the Clime Nature and Customs of the People for the Habits of the Mind as well as those of the Body are influenc'd by them and Love with the other Passions vary in their Effects as well as Causes according to each Country and Age nay according to the very Constitution of each Person affected This makes me hope that the Ingenious Author of the Letters and Verses Amorous and Gallant guides himself by a fallacious Rule when he makes the Ancients the Standard of the Excellence of the Moderns or indeed when by exalting those he wholly deprives these of all Honour in Love-Uerses His Charge is reducible to these two Heads viz. The Occasions and the Performances He will have it that the Occasions on which their Poems are written are sought out and that none meet with 'em but themselves whilst those of the Ancients are such as happen almost to e'ry Man in Love Next That the Verses of the Moderns are fill'd with Thoughts that are indeed Surprizing and Glittering but not Tender Passionate or Natural for e'ry Man in Love to think This is the sum of his Charge against 'em of which in the Order I 've plac'd ' em First As for the Occasions I cannot remember any Subject chosen by either Cowly or Waller for we 've nothing to do here with Petrarch a Foreigner that seems to be sought out or unnatural for a Man in Love to choose and if some of 'em do not happen to e'ry Man in Love they are yet on an equal Bottom with the Ancients many of whose Subjects or Occasions are far from happening to all Lovers as none who can pretend to any knowledge of their Writings can deny Corinna's Parrot dy'd and Ovid writes its Funeral Elegy but sure none will contend that this is an Accident common to all Ladies who have Lovers and those Poets too Catullus addresses one Copy of Verses to the very Sparrow of Lesbia and in another deplores its Death A great many Lovers may have Mistresses who never take a Voyage during their Amour and yet Ovid has an Elegy ad Amicam Navigantem and so may ten thousand true Lovers especially such as are Poets never venture on any other Billows but the Frown of their Fair ones and yet Propertius toss'd in another Storm Writes to Cynthia upon it And indeed to reduce the Subjects or Occasions of Love-Uerses to any particular Standard is highly Irrational and must only be the effect of want of Consideration for the various Circumstances and Fortunes of the Lovers must diversifie and alter the Occasions of writing to their Mistresses So that there is no Occasion that is General and that can reach all Men in Love but the Cruelty of their Mistresses on their first Addresses that is their not immediate Compliance for Jealousie is not Universal or at least to extend to the Beating

we find in the Nature of corporeal Things Wh●… Pleasure does Metaphysics afford that is not built on our Esteem and Esteem is the only part of Admiration that contributes to Pleasure for there 's a Pain attends despising which is the other Division of it what P●…easure I say have we in this study but what is built on our Esteem of the valuable Certainty it furnishes us with in what ever it proposes For there is nothing more sure than Abstract Ideas the subject of Ontology or Metaplysies Again in Pneumatology does not the Contemplation of the Purer and Superior Beings to the very Supream and first cause of all that Exists fill our Souls with excessive and amazing Delight and Wonder Lastly what Pleasure is there in Woman that soft summary of Man's Happiness which derives not its self from Admiration Admiration therefore is so far from being an Enemy to t●…t it is the very foundation of our Happiness whether we consider it in the Direction or Aim and End of our Life that is in Philosophy or Woman Some Sir may perhaps think I have made a very strange mixture in joyning Philosophy and Woman tho' I 'm confident so much Wit Youth and all those other Accomplishments of a fine Gentleman that render you the darling of both Sexes will not let you think I have degraded Philosophy in it which will appear from a short parallel drawn betwixt them Philosophy is either employed in the Consideration of Bodys as in Physics 〈◊〉 of Beings in general or Abstract Ideas as in Metaphysics or Ontology or of Pur●… and Immaterial Essences as the Souls Angels God as in Pneumatology or lastly of Uirtue as in Ethics First the Business of Physics is extreamly un●…ertain for there the Mind is employed about ●…ery Obscure Ideas and though some of our Ex●…eriments often present us with certain Effects ●…et does it not always discover the absolute cer●…inty of the Cause nor shall we ever be able to pe●…etrate into the inmost Nature or all the qualitys of Matter and till then we must be in the dark 〈◊〉 to the true Causes so that Physic's put us up●…n the chase of what we have very little proba●…ility of obtaining On the other Hand the ●…ove of Woman is more certain in obtaining 〈◊〉 well as more noble in its End viz. a perfect ●…njoyment of and a close Union with the Ob●…ct desir'd the effect of which ends not with ●…em but is perpetuated by their Off-Spring who ●…e a part of 'em the admirable and certain Ef●…ct of a known Charming and Generous ●…ause Secondly Metaphysics amuses us with meer Abstract Ideas whilst the Love of Woman put●… us in a sensible Possession of a Real not Ideal Abstract of all the Beautys and Perfections of every Being on this side of the Eternal The Contemplation of whom with the Created Spirits makes up Pneumatology but we wander in too uncertain a Path in our Contemplation of these latter to arrive at satisfaction for Fancy there directs ou●… steps more than Judgment built on Right Reason and Evidence And therefore that part canno●… be comparable to that of the Love of Woman which gives us by the most prevailing way the Senses a proof of the Existence of Spirits if not distinct f●…om yet of a purer Make●… than even the refin'd Body of Woman for wha●… Lover is there that does not feel perfectly see●… some unseen Spirits da●…ted from the bright Eyes o●… the fair one he adores which have a sensible influence on him tho' he touch her not and thes●… are Spirits that chear not shock our Natures a●… those other Fantoms do Then for the Contemplation of the Supream Being the best Philosophers form an Idea o●… him by his W●…ndrous Works of which what ca●… give a fairer I●…ge of him than Woman the most Beautiful Good and Compassionate being of the Universe Which made St. Austin compar●… God to a fine Woman viewing her own Perfection in a Glass 'T is true that the Admirable Order and Oeconomy of the Coelestial Bodys their Glory and Light discover apparent Foot steps of the Eternal Mind these shew us a powerful and a wise Being but nothing has a share of his best attribute of Goodness but the best part of Man Woman his own Image Besides the Confideration of the Universe is as I may say a voluminous Introduction to the Contemplation of that Being we are forc'd there to run through objects distinct and various in their Forms and Beauty as well as vastly distant in their situation which all contributes to the Confusion and Imperfection of the Image they present of the Power and Wisdom of God and the Administration of Humane Affairs is a too tedious as well as a too controverted argument of his Goodness But Woman gives us at once a Beautiful and more Compendious prospect of his Power Wisdom and Goodness for as Pliny says never are the works of Nature so admirable as in small things and Woman is the Minature draught of all his Attributes that are communicable to his Creatures for in one fine Woman we may read the legible Characters of an Almighty Hand From whom also had I time and room I cou'd draw the knowledge of the Moral Attributes of the first Cause Lastly Ethics teach us the Rules and Prescripts of Virtue to secure us from those Inquietudes the Criminal and Vicious Experience but this is only subservient to and prepares us for the enjoyment of Woman in a more perfect Degree for it contracts and calls home all our Wandring Wishes and our loose Desires and directs them all to one Object which like the Sun-beams contracted into a burning Glass must be of far greater Force and by consequence give a greater and more exalted Relish of Delight than when scatter'd and dissipated Ethics only informs the Mind with a bare knowledge of Vertue without having power to influence us to the embracing of it for there are a great many that with Medea in Ovid may say Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor but Woman can effect what Philosophy is impotent in for whilst that proposes the meer unactive Theory the Love of Woman reduces it to Practice for when that is necessary to please her a Man loves all the Facultys of the Soul unite to effect the noble Work 'T is methinks such an Arraignment of the first Cause to run down that Sex which Heaven has made choice of to impart to so large a share in giving Immortality to Humane Race by the propagation of our kind that they deserve not to taste that Pleasure that is join'd to so mighty a work The greatest Pleasure in the noblest Act with the di●…est of Creatures Woman But whether Philosophy or Woman have the right of Precedence 't is certain they both afford us a Noble and agreeable Pleasure without one or both of which we can never be truly happy But yet by the Nil admirari of Horace they are thrown aside for the cutting off Admiration deprives us of all Pleasure in either that in both being built on Admiration And indeed this passage seems to aim at a Stupid and Pyrr●…onian Indifference or Indisturbance and Insensibility which can no more be arriv'd at than 't is to be desir'd But perhaps I mistake the sense of Horace who it may be is only against that variable and wavering Admiration that is the Mother of Ten Thousand fruitless Inquietudes and Troubles by generating too numerous a Progeny of restless Desires for ev'ry object that presents it self This I confess is so far an Enemy to Happiness as 't is to Constancy and Resolution its safe guard and which are so eminently conspicuous in you FINIS ERRATA PAge 17. Line 3. read thus p. 1●… l. 14. r. his p. 36. l. 〈◊〉 dele the ad th●… p. 37. l. pe●…l r. t●… p. 41. l. 〈◊〉 r. p●…ely p. 43. l. 1. r. be 〈◊〉 l. 3. add rashly or ma●…sly p. 44. l. 5. r. Yours c. l. 1. p. 45. l. 10. r. his p. 46. l. 17. r. 〈◊〉 p 47. l. 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 p. 50. l. 13. add the p. 54. l. 6. r. containing p. 55. l. 17. dele 〈◊〉 p. 66. l. 11. r. 〈◊〉 p. 72. l. 3. 5. an p. 83. r. Reputation p. 84. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 110. l. 9. r. 〈◊〉 p. 197. l. 8. r. Fl●…ods P. 195. l. 〈◊〉 r. wh●… p. 1●…5 l. 9. r. Wretch There are many false Points and Com●…'s and s●… Faults 〈◊〉 here mentioned which the Reader is desir'd to excuse and correct