Part 15

{8} § 3. Borrowed from by Historians.

{9} § 4. Honoured by the Romans as Sacred and Prophetic.

{10} § 5. And really sacred and prophetic in the Psalms of David.

{11} § 6. By the Greeks, Poets were honoured with the name of Makers.

{12} Poetry is the one creative art. Astronomers and others repeat what they find.

{13} Poets improve Nature.

{14} And idealize man.

{15} Here a Second Part of the Essay begins.

{16} § 1. Poetry defined.

{17} § 2. Its kinds. a. Divine.

{18} b. Philosophical, which is perhaps too imitative.

{19} Marcus Manilius wrote under Tiberius a metrical treatise on Astronomy, of which five books on the fixed stars remain.

{20} c. Poetry proper.

{21} § 3. Subdivisions of Poetry proper.

{22} Its essence is in the thought, not in apparelling of verse.

{23} Heliodorus was Bishop of Tricca, in Thessaly, and lived in the fourth century. His story of Theagenes and Chariclea, called the “Æthiopica,” was a romantic tale in Greek which was, in Elizabeth’s reign, translated into English.

{24} The Poet’s Work and Parts. § 1. WORK: What Poetry does for us.

{25} Their clay lodgings—

“Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”

(Shakespeare, “Merchant of Venice,” act v., sc. 1)

{26} Poetry best advances the end of all earthly learning, virtuous action.

{27} Its advantage herein over Moral Philosophy.

{28} Its advantage herein over History.

{29} “All men make faults, and even I in this, Authórising thy trespass with compare.”

Shakespeare, “Sonnet” 35.

{30} “Witness of the times, light of truth, life of memory, mistress of life, messenger of antiquity.”—Cicero, “De Oratore.”

{31} In what manner the Poet goes beyond Philosopher, Historian, and all others (bating comparison with the Divine).

{32} He is beyond the Philosopher.