superstitious. Besides this, he ought to be very well versed in Legends
and Fables, antiquated Romances, and the Traditions of Nurses and old
Women, that he may fall in with our natural Prejudices, and humour those
Notions which we have imbibed in our Infancy. For otherwise he will be
apt to make his Fairies talk like People of his own Species, and not
like other Setts of Beings, who converse with different Objects, and
think in a different Manner from that of Mankind;

'Sylvis deducti caveant, me Judice, Fauni
Ne velut innati triviis ac poene forenses
Aut nimium teneris juvenentur versibus'

[Hor.]

I do not say with Mr. _Bays_ in the _Rehearsal_, that Spirits must not
be confined to speak Sense, but it is certain their Sense ought to be a
little discoloured, that it may seem particular, and proper to the
Person and the Condition of the Speaker.

These Descriptions raise a pleasing kind of Horrour in the Mind of the
Reader, and amuse his Imagination with the Strangeness and Novelty of
the Persons who are represented in them. They bring up into our Memory
the Stories we have heard in our Childhood, and favour those secret
Terrors and Apprehensions to which the Mind of Man is naturally subject.
We are pleased with surveying the different Habits and Behaviours of
Foreign Countries, how much more must we be delighted and surprised when
we are led, as it were, into a new Creation, and see the Persons and
Manners of another Species? Men of cold Fancies, and Philosophical
Dispositions, object to this kind of Poetry, that it has not Probability
enough to affect the Imagination. But to this it may be answered, that
we are sure, in general, there are many Intellectual Beings in the World
besides our selves, and several Species of Spirits, who are subject to
different Laws and Oeconomies from those of Mankind; when we see,
therefore, any of these represented naturally, we cannot look upon the
Representation as altogether impossible; nay, many are prepossest with
such false Opinions, as dispose them to believe these particular
Delusions; at least, we have all heard so many pleasing Relations in
favour of them, that we do not care for seeing through the Falshood, and
willingly give our selves up to so agreeable an Imposture.

The Ancients have not much of this Poetry among them, for, indeed,
almost the whole Substance of it owes its Original to the Darkness and
Superstition of later Ages, when pious Frauds were made us