...for all the purposes of poetry, we may have on sacred subjects. Let us pass to the next objection. Poetry pleases by exhibiting an idea more grateful...the mind than things themselves afford. This effect prooeeda from the display of those parts of nature which attract, and the concealment of those which...

...poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and being few are...sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression." ("Grace" here means adornment, ornament; "sentiment" the content, the subject matter; "expression"...

...unexpected, surprises and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and being few are universally known .. . they can receive no grace from novelty of sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression" (296). The same argument had been used by Tasso in his Discourses on the Heroic Poem: The argument...

...relation of the human soul to God. The words of scripture, the work of God, comes to us unadorned and "it can receive no grace from novelty of sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression" (Life of Watts). Religious effusion is to "be felt rather than expressed," and the "ideas of Christian...

...indiscriminate representation emphasize the aesthetic. In the Life of Waller, for instance, he says: Poetry pleases by exhibiting an idea more grateful to the mind than things diemselves afford. This effect proceeds from the display of those parts of nature which attract, and...

...matter. Since for Johnson poetry is above all "invention and decoration", which are meant to please "by exhibiting an idea more grateful to the mind than things themselves afford", poetry cannot be a good linguistic tool for religion, which "must be shown as it is; suppression and...

...poetry is invention: such invention, as by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights. The topics of devotion are few, and being few are...sentiment and very little from novelty of expression." I should imagine that, as a rule, those who know what contemplative piety is would feel that they were...

...invention ; such. invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights. The topicks of devotion are few, and being few are universally...sentiment, and very little from novelty of expression. rfient of those which repel, the imagination : but Religion must be shown as it is ; suppression and...