Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

PO'ETICAL FANCY. 177
Who can doubt that, in the following lines, Pope wrote the first
for the sake of the second?
"A wit's a feather, and a chief's a rod;
An honest man's the noblest work of God."
Were the first of these lines, or a line equally unmeaning, placed
last, the couplet would have appeared execrable to a person of
the most moderate taste.
Why alliteration is introduced. - It affords a strong confirmation of the fbregoing observations, that the poets of
some nations have delighted in the practice of alliteration,
as well as of rhyme; and have ever considered it as an essential circumstance in versification. Dr. Beattie observes, that
4 some ancient English poems are more distinguished by
alliteration, than by any other poetical contrivance. In the
works of Langland, even when no regard is had to rhyme,
and but- little to a rude sort of anapestie measure, it seems
to have been a rule, that three words, at least, of each line
should begin with the same letter." A late author informs
us, that, in the Icelandic poetry, alliteration is considered as a
circumstance no less essential than rhyme. He mentions also
several other restraints, which must add wonderfully to the
difficulty of versification; and which appear to us to be perfectly arbitrary and capricious. If that really be the case, the
whole pleasure of the reader or hearer arises from his surprise
at the facility of the poet's composition under these complicated
restraints; that is, from his surprise at the command which the
poet has acquired over his thoughts and expressions. In our
rhyme, I acknowledge that the coincidence of sound is agreeable in itself; and only affirm, that the pleasure which the ear
receives from it, is heightened by the other consideration.
3. Of poeticalfancy. - There is another habit of association
which, in some men, is very remarkable; that which is the foundation of poetical fancy: a talent which agrees with wit in some
circumstances, but which differs from it essentially in others.
The pleasure we receive from wit, agrees in one particular
with the pleasure which arises from poetical allusions; that in