y been justified, and their
eulogium pronounced by implication, when it was said, above--that, of
_good_ poetry, the _individual_, as well as the species, _survives_. And
how does it survive but through the People? What preserves it but their
intellect and their wisdom?

--Past and future, are the wings
On whose support, harmoniously conjoined,
Moves the great Spirit of human knowledge--MS.

The voice that issues from this Spirit, is that Vox Populi which the
Deity inspires. Foolish must he be who can mistake for this a local
acclamation, or a transitory outcry--transitory though it be for years,
local though from a Nation. Still more lamentable is his error who can
believe that there is any thing of divine infallibility in the clamour
of that small though loud portion of the community, ever governed by
factitious influence, which, under the name of the PUBLIC, passes
itself, upon the unthinking, for the PEOPLE. Towards the Public, the
Writer hopes that he feels as much deference as it is entitled to: but
to the People, philosophically characterised, and to the embodied spirit
of their knowledge, so far as it exists and moves, at the present,
faithfully supported by its two wings, the past and the future, his
devout respect, his reverence, is due. He offers it willingly and
readily; and, this done, takes leave of his Readers, by assuring
them--that, if he were not persuaded that the contents of these Volumes,
and the Work to which they are subsidiary, evince something of the
'Vision and the Faculty divine;' and that, both in words and things,
they will operate in their degree, to extend the domain of sensibility
for the delight, the honour, and the benefit of human nature,
notwithstanding the many happy hours which he has employed in their
composition, and the manifold comforts and enjoyments they have procured
to him, he would not, if a wish could do it, save them from immediate
destruction;--from becoming at this moment, to the world, as a thing
that had never been.

1815

_(d)_ OF POETRY AS OBSERVATION AND DESCRIPTION.

The powers requisite for the production of poetry are: first, those of
Observation and Description,--_i.e._, the ability to observe with
accuracy things as they are in themselves, and with fidelity to describe
them, unmodified by any passion or feeling existing in the mind of the
describer: whether the things depicted be actually present to the
senses, or have a place only in