3 T The DESIGN. HERE are certain powers in human nature which feem to hold a middle place between the organs of bodily fenfe and the faculties of moral perception: They have been call'd by a very general name, THE POWERS OF IMAGINATION. Like the external fenfes, they relate to matter and motion; and at the fame time, give the mind ideas analogous to thofe of moral approbation and diflike. As they are the inlets of fome of the most exquifite pleafures we are acquainted with, men of warm and fenfible tempers have fought means to recall the delightful perceptions they afford, independent of the objects which originally produc'd them. This gave rife to the imitative or defigning arts; fome of which, like painting and fculpture, directly copy the external appearances which were admir'd in nature; others, like mufic and poetry, bring them back to remembrance by figns univerfally establish'd and understood. But thefe arts, as they grew more correct and deliberate, were naturally led to extend their imitation beyond the peculiar objects of the imaginative powers; efpecially poetry, which making ufe of language as the inftrument by which it i mitates, |