Poets therefore take part in the divine act of creation. Man can thus enjoy what makes him divine. Poetry has a moral purpose, therefore, con sisting in leading men to truth by integrating, not dividing knowledge. History teaches and so does philosophy, but the poet is superior to both, since history deals with facts and records, ultimately hearsay, and the philosopher describes abstractions that often do not relate to the world as most people understand it. The poet affects feelings and does not just give examples.
Poetry is more philosophical than history, as the historian is trapped with facts.
The poet uses the facts of the historian, but he makes them more noble by using the imagination in the creative process. Poetry is even capable of making the unpleasant like war and horror pleasant in terms of the means through which it is presented. The next section from Sidney deals with the creative process. Nature's world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden. For every understanding knows the skill of each artificer stands in the idea or fore-conceit of the work, and not in the work itself.