Replacement Question 2.3

In Johnson's Rasselas, Imlac explains, "The business of a poet is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip." William Blake disagrees vehemently: in the margins of his copy of the Discourses of Johnson's friend Sir Joshua Reynolds, he wrote, “What is General Nature? is there Such a Thing? what is General Knowledge? is there such a thing? Strictly Speaking All Knowledge is Particular. ... To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is Alone the Distinction of Merit. General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess." With reference to any two works from the period 1660-1818, discuss the tension between the general and the particular.