from A Defence of Poetry
The great secret of morals is Love; or a going out of our nature, and an
identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought,
action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine
intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another
and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his
own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination; and poetry
administers to the effect by acting upon the cause. Poetry enlarges the
circumference of the imagination. . . .
