Pascal, Hunting over Poetry II

So why are ordinary people correct to prefer hunting to poetry? (324) First, Pascal says, poets are at least as confused as hunters: hunters do not know why hunting makes them happy and poets do not know why some poetry is good and other poetry bad.

“We do not know in what grace consists, which is the object of poetry. We do not know the natural model which we ought to imitate; and through lack of this knowledge, we have coined fantastic terms, "The golden age," "The wonder of our times," "Fatal," etc., and call this jargon poetical beauty. But whoever imagines a woman after this model, which consists in saying little things in big words, will see a pretty girl adorned with mirrors and chains, at whom he will smile; because we know better wherein consists the charm of woman than the charm of verse” (33).

But, though hunters may be as confused as poets, the amusement of hunting successfully distracts us from our unhappiness, and so produces at least a relief from our condition. Poetry initially distracts us from ourselves, but then it presents us with bad models, and when we seek to imitate those models, we plunge even more deeply into unhappiness. After a hunt, we may at least be well-fed.