(Those bully Greeks, who as the moderns do,
Instead of paying chairmen, run them through,)
Laocoon ftruck the outfide with his fpear,
And each imprifon'd hero quak'd for fear.

Defcription of a City Shower. Swift.

Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild diforder feen,
With throngs promiscuous ftrow the level green.
Thus when difpers'd a routed army runs,
Of Afia's troops, and Afric's fable fons,
With like confufion, different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,
The pierc'd battalions difunited, fall,

In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.

Rape of the Lock, canto 3.

He does not confider that fincerity in love is as much out of fashion as fweet fnuff; nobody takes it now.

Careless Hufband.

Lady Eafy. My dear, I am afraid you have provoked her a little too far.

Sir Charles. O! Not at all. You fhall fee, I'll fweeten ber, and she'll cool like a difh of tea.

M 2

Ibid.

CHAP.

Figures.

THE endless variety of expreffions brought

under the head of tropes and figures by ancient critics and grammarians, makes it evident, that they had no precife criterion for diftinguifhing tropes and figures from plain language. It was accordingly my opinion, that little could be made of them in the way of rational criticifm; till difcovering, by a fort of accident, that many of them depend on principles formerly explained, I gladly embrace the opportunity to fhow the influence of thefe principles where it would be the leaft expected. Confining myfelf therefore to fuch figures, I am luckily freed from much trash; without dropping, as far as I remember, any trope or figure that merits a proper name. And I begin with Profopopia or perfonification, which is juftly intitled to the first place.

SECT. I.

Perfonification.

THE bestowing fenfibility and voluntary

motion upon things inanimate, is fo bold a figure, as to require, one fhould imagine, very peculiar circumftances for operating the delufion and yet, in the language of poetry, we find variety of expreffions, which though commonly reduced to that figure, are ufed without ceremony, or any fort of preparation; as, for example, thirsty ground, hungry church-yard, furious dart, angry ocean. Thefe epithets, in their proper meaning, are attributes of fenfible beings : what is their meaning when applied to things inani

mate

mate? do they make us conceive the ground, the church-yard, the dart, the ocean, to be endued with animal functions? This is a curious inquiry; and whether fo or not, it cannot be declined in handling the present fubject.

The mind, agitated by certain paffions, is prone to bestow fenfibility, upon things inanimate.* This is an additional inftance of the influence of paffion upon our opinions and belief. I give examples. Antony, mourning over the body of Cæfar murdered in the fenate-house, vents his paffion in the following words:

Antony. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with thefe butchers.

Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man

That ever lived in the tide of time.

Julius Cæfar, act 3. Sc. 4.

Here Antony must have been impreffed with a notion, that the body of Cæfar was listening to him, without which the fpeech would be foolish and abfurd. Nor will it appear strange, confidering what is said in the chapter above cited, that paffion fhould have fuch power over the mind of man. In another example of the fame kind, the earth, as a common mother, is animated to give refuge against a father's unkindnefs :

Almeria. O Earth, behold, I kneel upon thy bofom,
And bend my flowing eyes to ftream upon

Thy face, imploring thee that thou wilt yield!
Open thy bowels of compaflion, take.

Into thy womb the last and most forlorn

Of all thy race. Hear me thou common parent;

I have no parent elfe.

* Page 162.

-Be thou a mother,

And step between me and the curfe of him,
Who was who was, but is no more a father;
But brands my innocence with horrid crimes;
And for the tender names of child and daughter,
Now calls me murderer and parricide.

Mourning Bride, act 4. Sc. 7.

Plaintive paffions are extremely folicitous for vent; and a foliloquy commonly anfwers the purpose: but when fuch a paffion becomes exceffive, it cannot be gratified but by fympathy from others; and if denied that confolation in a natural way, it will convert even things inanimate into fympathifing beings. Thus Philoctetes complains to the rocks and promontories of the ifle of Lemnos ;* and Alceftes dying, invokes the fun, the light of day, the clouds, the earth, her husband's palace, &c.t Mofchus, lamenting the death of Bion, conceives, that the birds, the fountains, the trees, lament with him. The fhepherd, who in Virgil bewails the death of Daphnis, expreff eth himself thus:

Daphni, tuum Poenos etiam ingemuiffe leones
Interitum, montefque feri fylvæque loquuntur.

Again:

Eclogue, v. 27.

Illum etiam lauri, illum etiam flevere myrice.
Pinifer illum etiam fola fub rupe jacentem
Mænalus, et gclidi fleverunt faxa Lycæi.

Eclogue, X. 13.

Again :

Ho visto al pianto mio

Refponder per pietate i fafi e l'onde;

* Philoctetes of Sophocles, act, 4. fc. 2.

Alceftes of Euripides, at 2. fc. 1.

E fofpirar

E fofpirar le fronde
Ho visto al pianto mio.
Ma non ho visto mai,
Ne fpero di vedere

Compaffion ne la crudele, e bella.

Aminta di Taffo, a&t̃ 1. Sc. 2.

That fuch perfonification is derived from nature, will not admit the leaft remaining doubt, after finding it in poems of the darkeft ages and remoteft countries. No figure is more frequent in Offian's works; for example,

The battle is over, faid the King, and I behold the blood of my friends. Sad is the heath of Lena, and mournful the oaks of Cromla.

Again:

The fword of Gaul trembles at his fide, and longs to glitter in his hand.

King Richard having got intelligence of Bolingbroke's invafion, fays, upon landing in England from his Irish expedition, in a mixture of joy and refent

ment,

I weep for joy

To ftand upon my kingdom once again.
Dear earth, I do falute thee with my hand,

Though rebels wound thee with their horfes' hoofs.
As a long parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and fmiles in meeting;
So weeping, fmiling, greet I thee, my earth,
And do thee favour with my royal hands.
Feed not thy fovereign's foe, my gentle earth,
Nor with thy fweets comfort his rav'nous fenfe
But let thy fpiders that fuck up thy venom,
And heavy gaited toads, lie in their way;

Doing