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 ...

238 THE INFLUENCE OF CASUAL ASSOCITATIONS
when it is acquired, it secures an author, to a great degree,
from that crowd of imitators who spoil the effect of whatever
is not beyond their reach. To the poet who uses blank verse,
it is an acquisition of still more essential consequence than to
him who expresses himself in rhyme; for the more that the
structure of the verse approaches to prose, the more it is necessary to give novelty and dignity to the composition. And accordingly, among our magazine poets, ten thousand catch the
structure of Pope's versification, for one who approaches to the
manner of Milton or of Thomson.
The facility, however, of this imitation, like every other, increases with the number of those who have studied it with success; for the more numerous the authors who have employed
their genius in any one direction, the more copious are the
materials out of which mediocrity may select and combine, so
as to escape the charge of plagiarism. And, in fact, in our own
language, this, as well as the other great resource of poetical
expression, the employment of appropriated words, has had its
effects so much impaired by the abuse which has been made of
it, that a few of our best poets of late have endeavored to
strike out a new path for themselves, by resting the elevation
for their composition chiefly on a singular, and, to an ordinary
writer, an unattainable, union of harmonious versification with
a natural arrangement of words and a simple elegance of expression. It is this union which seems to form the distinguishing charm of the poetry of Goldsmith.
From the remarks which have been made on the influence of
the association of ideas on our judgments in matters of taste, it
is obvious how much the opinions of a nation with respect to
merit in the fine arts, are likely to be influenced by the form of
their government, and the state of their manners. Voltaire, in
his discourse pronounced at his reception into the French
academy, gives several reasons why the poets of that country,have not succeeded in describing rural scenes and employments.
The principal one is, the ideas of meanness, and poverty, and
wretchedness, which the French are accustomed to associate
with the profession of husbandry. The same thing is alluded