But {11}now let us see how the Greeks have named it,and how they deemed of it.The Greeks named him [Greek text],which name hath,as the most excellent,gone through other languages;it cometh of this word [Greek text],which is TO MAKE;wherein,I know not whether by luck or wisdom,we Englishmen have met with the Greeks in calling him "a maker,"which name,how high and incomparable a title it is,I had rather were known by marking the scope of other sciences,than by any partial allegation.There is no art delivered unto mankind that hath not the works of nature for his principal object,without which they could not consist,and on which they so depend as they become actors and players,as it were,of what nature will have set forth.{12}So doth the astronomer look upon the stars,and by that he seeth set down what order nature hath taken therein.So doth the geometrician and arithmetician,in their diverse sorts of quantities.So doth the musician,in times,tell you which by nature agree,which not.The natural philosopher thereon hath his name;and the moral philosopher standeth upon the natural virtues,vices,or passions of man;and follow nature,saith he,therein,and thou shalt not err.The lawyer saith what men have determined.The historian,what men have done.The grammarian speaketh only of the rules of speech;and the rhetorician and logician,considering what in nature will soonest prove and persuade,thereon give artificial rules,which still are compassed within the circle of a question,according to the proposed matter.
The physician weigheth the nature of man's body,and the nature of things helpful and hurtful unto it.And the metaphysic,though it be in the second and abstract notions,and therefore be counted supernatural,yet doth he,indeed,build upon the depth of nature.
Only the poet,disdaining to be tied to any such subjection,lifted up with the vigour of his own invention,doth grow,in effect,into another nature;in making things either better than nature bringeth forth,or quite anew;forms such as never were in nature,as the heroes,demi-gods,Cyclops,chimeras,furies,and such like;so as he goeth hand in hand with Nature,not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts,but freely ranging within the zodiac of his own wit.{13}Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done;neither with so pleasant rivers,fruitful trees,sweet-smelling flowers,nor whatsoever else may make the too-much-loved earth more lovely;her world is brazen,the poets only deliver a golden.
But let those things alone,and go to man;{14}for whom as the other things are,so it seemeth in him her uttermost cunning is employed;and know,whether she have brought forth so true a lover as Theagenes;so constant a friend as Pylades;so valiant a man as Orlando;so right a prince as Xenophon's Cyrus;and so excellent a man every way as Virgil's AEneas?Neither let this be jestingly conceived,because the works of the one be essential,the other in imitation or fiction;for every understanding knoweth the skill of each artificer standeth in that idea,or fore-conceit of the work,and not in the work itself.And that the poet hath that idea is manifest by delivering them forth in such excellency as he had imagined them;which delivering forth,also,is not wholly imaginative,as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the air;but so far substantially it worketh not only to make a Cyrus,which had been but a particular excellency,as nature might have done;but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world to make many Cyruses;if they will learn aright,why,and how,that maker made him.Neither let it be deemed too saucy a comparison to balance the highest point of man's wit with the efficacy of nature;but rather give right honour to the heavenly Maker of that maker,who having made man to His own likeness,set him beyond and over all the works of that second nature;which in nothing he showeth so much as in poetry;when,with the force of a divine breath,he bringeth things forth surpassing her doings,with no small arguments to the incredulous of that first accursed fall of Adam;since our erected wit maketh us know what perfection is,and yet our infected will keepeth us from reaching unto it.But these arguments will by few be understood,and by fewer granted;thus much I hope will be given me,that the Greeks,with some probability of reason,gave him the name above all names of learning.
Now {15}let us go to a more ordinary opening of him,that the truth may be the more palpable;and so,I hope,though we get not so unmatched a praise as the etymology of his names will grant,yet his very deion,which no man will deny,shall not justly be barred from a principal commendation.
Poesy,{16}therefore,is an art of imitation;for so Aristotle termeth it in the word [Greek text];that is to say,a representing,counterfeiting,or figuring forth:to speak metaphorically,a speaking picture,with this end,to teach and delight.
Of {17}this have been three general kinds:the CHIEF,both in antiquity and excellency,which they that did imitate the inconceivable excellencies of God;such were David in the Psalms;Solomon in the Song of Songs,in his Ecclesiastes,and Proverbs;Moses and Deborah in their hymns;and the writer of Job;which,beside others,the learned Emanuel Tremellius and Fr.Junius do entitle the poetical part of the ure;against these none will speak that hath the Holy Ghost in due holy reverence.In this kind,though in a wrong divinity,were Orpheus,Amphion,Homer in his hymns,and many others,both Greeks and Romans.And this poesy must be used by whosoever will follow St.Paul's counsel,in singing psalms when they are merry;and I know is used with the fruit of comfort by some,when,in sorrowful pangs of their death-bringing sins,they find the consolation of the never-leaving goodness.
