The works of Richard Hurd, volume 2 (of 8)

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THE WORKS OF RICHARD HURD, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER. IN EIGHT VOLUMES. VOL. II.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, STRAND. 1811.
VATIBVS ADDERE CALCAR, VT STVDIO MAIORE PETANT HELICONA VIRENTEM. Hor.
A DISSERTATION ON THE IDEA OF UNIVERSAL POETRY.
When we speak of poetry, as an art , we mean such a way or method of treating a subject, as is found most pleasing and delightful to us . In all other kinds of literary composition, pleasure is subordinate to USE: in poetry only, PLEASURE is the end, to which use itself (however it be, for certain reasons, always pretended) must submit.
This idea of the end of poetry is no novel one, but indeed the very same which our great philosopher entertained of it; who gives it as the essential note of this part of learning—THAT IT SUBMITS THE SHEWS OF THINGS TO THE DESIRES OF THE MIND: WHEREAS REASON DOTH BUCKLE AND BOW THE MIND UNTO THE NATURE OF THINGS. For to gratify the desires of the mind , is to PLEASE: Pleasure then, in the idea of Lord Bacon, is the ultimate and appropriate end of poetry; for the sake of which it accommodates itself to the desires of the mind , and doth not (as other kinds of writing, which are under the controul of reason ) buckle and bow the mind to the nature of things .
But they, who like a principle the better for seeing it in Greek, may take it in the words of an old philosopher, Eratosthenes, who affirmed—ποιητὴν πάντα στοχάζεσθαι ψυχαγωγίας, οὐ διδασκαλίας—of which words, the definition given above, is the translation.
This notion of the end of poetry, if kept steadily in view, will unfold to us all the mysteries of the poetic art. There needs but to evolve the philosopher’s idea, and to apply it, as occasion serves. The art of poetry will be, universally, THE ART OF PLEASING; and all its rules , but so many MEANS, which experience finds most conducive to that end;