It may be allowed to be a question fit for the determination of those concerning whom Cato said, Their
palates are more sensitive than their hearts, whether that
saying of Philoxenus the poet be true or no, The most
savory flesh is that which is no flesh, and fish that is no fish.
Yet this to me, Marcus Sedatus, is out of question, that
those precepts of philosophy which seem not to be delivered with a designed gravity, such as becomes philosophers,
take most with persons that are very young, and meet
with a more ready acceptance and compliance from them.
Whence it is that they do not only read through Esop's
fables and the fictions of poets and the Abaris of Heraclides and Ariston's Lyco; but they also read such doctrines
as relate to the souls of men, if something fabulous be
mixed with them, with an excess of pleasure that borders on
enthusiasm. Wherefore we are not only to govern their
appetites in the delights of eating and drinking, but also
(and much more) to inure them to a like temperance in
reading and hearing, that, while they make use of pleasure
as a sauce, they may pursue that which is wholesome and
profitable in those things which they read. For neither
can a city be secure if but one gate be left open to receive
the enemy, though all the rest be shut; nor a young man
safe, though he be sufficiently fortified against the assaults
of all other pleasures, whilst he is without any guard against
those of the ear. Yea, the nearer the commerce is betwixt
[p. 43]
the delights of that sense and those of the mind and reason,
by so much the more, when he lies open on that side, is he
apt to be debauched and corrupted thereby. Seeing therefore we cannot (and perhaps would not if we could) debar
young men of the size of my Soclarus and thy Cleander
altogether from the reading of poets, yet let us keep the
stricter guard upon them, as those who need a guide to
direct them in their reading more than in their walks.
Upon which consideration, I find myself disposed to send
thee at present in writing that discourse concerning Poetry
which I had lately an occasion to deliver by word of mouth;
that, when thou hast read it over thyself, thou mayst also
make such use of it, if thou judgest it may be serviceable
to that purpose, as those which are engaged to drink hard
do of amethysts (or preservatives against drunkenness),—
that is, that thou mayst communicate it to Cleander, to
prepossess him therewith; seeing he is naturally endowed
with a brisk, piercing, and daring wit, and therefore more
prone to be inveigled by that sort of study.
They say of the fish called polypus that
His head in one respect is very good,
But in another very naughty food;
because, though it be very luscious to eat, yet it is thought
to disturb the fancy with frightful and confused dreams.
And the like observation may be made concerning poetry,
that it affords sweet and withal wholesome nourishment to
the minds of young men, but yet it contains likewise no
less matter of disturbance and emotion to them that want
a right conduct in the study thereof. For of it also, as well
as of Egypt, may it be said that (to those who will use it)
Its over-fertile and luxuriant field
Medicines and poisons intermixt doth yield;
for therein
Love with soft passions and rich language drest
Oft steals the heart out of th' ingenuous breast.
1
[p. 44]
And indeed such only are endangered thereby, for the
charms of that art ordinarily affect not those that are
downright sots and naturally incapable of learning. Wherefore, when Simonides was asked why of all men he could
not deceive the Thessalians, his answer was, Because they
are not so well bred as to be capable of being cajoled by
me. And Gorgias used to call tragical poems cheats,
wherein he that did cheat was juster than he that did not
cheat, and he that was cheated was wiser than he that was
not cheated.
It deserves therefore our consideration, whether we shall
put young men into Epicurus's boat,—wherein, having
their ears stopped with wax, as those of the men of Ithaca
were, they shall be obliged to sail by and not so much as
touch at poetry,—or rather keep a guard on them, so as
to oblige their judgments by principles of right reason to
use it aright, and preserve them from being seduced to
their hurt by that which affords them so much delight.
For neither did Lycurgus, the valiant son of Dryas (as
Homer
2 calls him) act like a man of sound reason in the
course which he took to reform his people that were much
inclined to drunkenness, by travelling up and down to destroy all the vines in the country; whereas he should have
ordered that every vine should have a well of water near it,
that (as Plato saith) the drunken deity might be reduced to
temperance by a sober one. For water mixed with wine
takes away the hurtful spirits, while it leaves the useful
ones in it. Neither should we cut down or destroy the
Muses' vine, poetry; but where we perceive it luxuriates
and grows wild through an ungoverned appetite of applause, there ought we to prune away or keep under the
fabulous and theatrical branches thereof; and where we
find any of the Graces linked to any of the Muses,—that
is, where the lusciousness and tempting charms of language
[p. 45]
are not altogether barren and unprofitable,—there
let us bring in philosophy to incorporate with it.
For as, where the mandrake grows near the vine and so
communicates something of its force thereto, the wine that
is made of its grapes makes the sleep of those that drink
it more refreshing; so doth the tempering poetry with the
principles of philosophy and allaying their roughness with
its fictions render the study of them more easy and the
relish of them more grateful to young learners. Wherefore those that would give their minds to philosophical
studies are not obliged to avoid poetry altogether, but
rather to prepare themselves for philosophy by poems,
accustoming themselves to search for and embrace that
which may profit in that which pleaseth them, and rejecting and discarding that wherein they find nothing of this
nature. For this discrimination is the first step to learning; and when this is attained, then, according to what
Sophocles saith,—
To have begun well what we do intend
Gives hope and prospect of as good an end.
