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 ...

I lAGI-NATION,. 369
subservient also, in an eminent degree, to the improvement and
happiness of mankind, by the tendency which it has to accelerate the progress of society.
Good effects of a taste for poetry. - As the pictures which
the poet presents to us are never (even in works of pure description) faithful copies from nature, but are always meant to
be improvements on the original she affords, it cannot be
doubted that they must have some effect in refining and exalting our taste, both with respect to material beauty, and to the
objects of our pursuit in life. It has been alleged, that the
works of our descriptive poets have contributed to diffuse that
taste for picturesque beauty which is so prevalent in Englhand,
and to recall the public admiration from the fantastic decorations of art, to the more powerful and permanent charms of cultivated nature; and it is certain, that the first ardors of many an
illustrious character have been kindled by the compositions of
Homer and Virgil. It is difficult to say, to what a degree, in
the earlier periods of society, the rude compositions of the bard
and the minstrel may have been instrumental in humanizing the
minds of savage warriors, and in accelerating the growth of cultivated manners. Among the Scandinavians and the Celtc, we
know that this order of men was held in very peculiar veneration; and, accoi-dingly, it would appear, from the monuments
which remain of these nations, that they were distinguished by
a delicacy in the passion of love, and by a humanity and generostherefore poesy feigneth them more just in retribution, and more according
to revealed providence: because true history representeth actions and
events more ordinary, and less interchanged, therefore poesy enduetli them
with more rareness, and more unexpected and alternative variations. so as
it appeareth, poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and
to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submnitting
the shows of things to the desires of the mind; whereas reason doth buckle
and bow the mind unto the nature of things. And we see, that by these
insinuations and congruities with man's nature and pleasure, joined also
with the agreement and consort it hath with music, it hath had access and
estimation in rude times and barbarous regions, where other learning
stood excluded."j - Advancement of Learningy. Book ii.