A LETTER

It has been an established custom for poets, at the beginning of their work, to address themselves to some Muse; and this practice of the ancients has gained so much reputation that even in our days we find it almost constantly imitated. I cannot help but imagine, however, that this imitation—which is so readily accepted by others—must at some time or other have given your Lordship pause. You are accustomed to examining things by a better standard than that of fashion or common taste.

You must certainly have observed our poets under a remarkable constraint when they are obliged to assume this character; and you have wondered, perhaps, why that air of enthusiasm original: "Enthusiasm." In the 18th century, this term referred to a state of divine inspiration or poetic fervor. Shaftesbury is exploring why this "inspired" style feels natural in ancient Greek and Roman poetry but forced and insincere in contemporary writing., which fits so gracefully with an ancient, should be so spiritless and awkward in a modern. But as to this doubt, your Lordship would have soon resolved it yourself; it could only serve to bring to mind a reflection you have often made on many other occasions: that truth is the most powerful thing in the world, since even fiction * itself must be governed by it, and can only please by its resemblance to it. The appearance of reality is necessary to make any passion agreeably represented; and to be able to move others, we must first be moved ourselves, or at least seem to be so, based on some probable grounds. Now, what possibility

* See below, p. 142, etc. and VOLUME III. p. 260, etc. original: "Infra"