 of every nation surprised
them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent which it received by
accident at first: or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe Nature
and Passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the
most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for
fiction, and left nothing to those that followed them, but transcription of the
same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it
is commonly observed that the early writers are in possession of nature, and
their followers of art: that the first excel in strength and invention, and the
latter in elegance and refinement.
    »I was desirous to add my name to this illustrious fraternity. I read all
the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes
that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca. But I soon found that no man was ever
great by imitation. My desire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention
to nature and to life. Nature was to be my subject, and men to be my auditors: I
could never describe what I had not seen: I could not hope to move those with
delight or terrour, whose interests and opinions I did not understand.
    Being now resolved to be a poet, I saw every thing with a new purpose; my
sphere of attention was suddenly magnified: no kind of knowledge was to be
overlooked. I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and
pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley. I
observed with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace.
Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and sometimes watched the
changes of the summer clouds. To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is
beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he
must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants
of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors
of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety: for
every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious
truth; and he, who knows most, will have most power of diversifying his scenes,
and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction.
    All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to study, and every
country which I have surveyed has contributed something to my poetical powers.«
    »In so wide a survey, said the prince, you
