Chapter IV

What the greater Poetry is, what Enthusiasm is.

The greater poetry then, is an art by which a poet justly and reasonably excites great passion, in order to please and instruct, and make mankind better and happier; so that the first and grand rule in the greater poetry is, that a poet must every where excite great passion: but in some branches of the greater poetry, it is impossible for a poet every where to excite in a very great degree, that which we vulgarly call passion: as in the ode, for example, and in the narration of the epic poem. It follows then, that there must be two sorts of passion: first, that which we call vulgar passion; and secondly, enthusiasm.

First, vulgar passion, or that which we commonly call passion, is that which is moved by the objects themselves, or by the ideas in the ordinary course of life; I mean, that common society which we find in the world. As for example, anger is moved by an affront that is offered us in our presence, or by the relation of one; pity by the sight of a mournful object, or the relation of one; admiration or wonder, (the common passion, I mean; for there is an enthusiastic admiration, as we shall find anon) by the sight of a strange object, or the relation of one.