BOOK I PART III
We may observe the same effect of poetry
in a lesser degree; and this is common both
to poetry and madness, that the vivacity they
bestow on the ideas is not derived from the
particular situations or connexions of the ob-
jects of these ideas, but from the present temper
and disposition of the person. But how great
soever the pitch may be, to which this vivac-
ity rises, it is evident, that in poetry it never
has the same feeling with that which arises in
the mind, when we reason, though even upon
the lowest species of probability. The mind
can easily distinguish betwixt the one and the
other; and whatever emotion the poetical en-
thusiasm may give to the spirits, it is still the
mere phantom of belief or persuasion. The case
is the same with the idea, as with the passion it
occasions. There is no passion of the human
mind but what may arise from poetry; though