Upon uneafy pallets ftretching thee,

And hufh'd with buzzing night-flies to thy flumber,
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of coftly ftate,

And lull'd with founds of fweeteft melody?
O thou dull god, why ly'ft thou with the vile
In loathfome beds, and leav'it the kingly couch,
A watch-cafe to a common larum-bell?
Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the fhip-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious furge,
And in the vifitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monftrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the flippery throuds,
That, with the hurly Death itself awakes?
Can't thou, O partial Sleep, give thy repofe
To the wet fea-boy in an hour fo rude;
And, in the calmeft and the ftilleft night,
With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a King? Then, happy low ! lie down ;
Uneafy lies the head that wears a crown.

Second part, Henry IV. ad 3. fc. x.

I fhall add one example more, to fhow that defcriptive perfonification may be used with propriety, even where the purpose of the difcourfe is inftruction merely :

Oh let the fteps of youth be cautious,
How they advance into a dangerous world;
Our duty only can conduct us fate.
Our paffions are feducers: but of all,
The strongeft Love. He first approaches us
In childish play, wantoning in our walks :
If heedlefsly we wander after him,
As he will pick out all the dancing-way,
We're loft, and hardly to return again.
We should take warning: he is painted blind,
To fhow us, if we fondly follow him,
The precipices we may fall into.

Therefore

Therefore let Virtue take him by the hand:
Directed fo, he leads to certain joy.

Southern.

Hitherto fuccefs has attended our steps: but whether we fhall complete our progrefs with equal fuccefs, feems doubtful; for when we look back to the expreffions mentioned in the begining, thirsty ground, furious dart, and fuch like, it feems no lefs difficult than at firft, to fay whether there be in them any fort of perfonification. Such expreffions evidently raise not the flighteft conviction of fenfibility: nor do I think they amount to defcriptive perfonification; because, in them, we do not even figure the ground or the dart to be animated. If fo, they cannot at all come under the prefent fubject. To fhow which, I fhall endeavour to trace the effect that fuch expreffions have in the mind. Doth not the expreffion angry ocean, for example, tacitly compare the ocean in a ftorm to a man in wrath? By this tacit comparison, the ocean is elevated above its rank in nature; and yet perfonification is excluded, because, by the very nature of comparison, the things compared are kept diftinct, and the native appearance of each is preferved. It will be fhown afterward, that expreffions of this kind belong to another figure, which I term a figure of speech, and which employs the feventh fection of the prefent chapter.

Though thus in general we can diftinguish defcriptive perfonification from what is merely a figure of fpeech, it is however, often difficult to fay, with respect to fome expreflions, whether they are of the one kind or of the other. Take the following inftances.

The moon fhines bright: in fuch a night as this,
When the fweet wind did gently kifs the trees,

And

And they did make no noise; in fuch a night,
Troilus methinks mounted the Trojan wall,
And figh'd his foul towards the Grecian tents
Where Creffid lay that night.

Merchant of Venice, act 5. fc. 1.

I have feen

Th' ambitious ocean fwell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds.

Julius Cæfar, act 1. fc. 6.

With respect to thefe and numberlefs other examples of the fame kind, it must depend upon the reader, whether they be examples of perfonification, or of a figure of speech merely a sprightly imagination will advance them to the former clafs; with a plain reader they will remain in the latter.

Having thus at large explained the prefent figure, its different kinds, and the principles upon which it is founded what comes next in order, is, to fhow in what cafes it may be introduced with propriety, when it is fuitable, when unfuitable. I begin with obferving, that paffionate perfonification is not promoted by every paffion indifferently. All difpiriting paffions are averfe to it; and remorfe, in particular, is too ferious and fevere to be gratified with a phantom of the mind. I cannot therefore approve the following fpeech of Enobarbus, who had deferted his master Antony :

Be witness to me, O thou bleffed moon,
When men revolted thall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent-

Oh fovereign miftrefs of true melancholy,

The poifonous damp of night difpunge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me.

Antony and Cleopatra, að 4. fc. 7.

If this can be juftified, it must be upon the Heathen fyftem of theology, which converted into deities the fun, moon, and itars.

Secondly, After a paffionate perfonification is properly introduced, it ought to be confined to its proper province, that of gratifying the paffion, without giving place to any fentiment or action but what anfwers that purpofe; for perfonification is at any rate a bold figure, and ought to be employ'd with great referve. The paffion of love, for example, in a plaintive tone, may give a momentary life to woods and rocks, in order to make them fenfible of the lov er's diftrefs; but no paffion will fupport a conviction fo far ftretched, as that thefe woods and rocks fhould be living witneffes to report the diftrefs to others :

Ch'i' t'ami piu de la mia vita,

Se tu nol fai, crudele,

Chiedilo à quefte felve

Che te'l diranno, et te'l diran con effe
Le fere loro e i duri fterpi, e i faffi

Di quefti alpestri monti,

Ch'i ho fi fpeffe volte

Inteneriti al fuon de' miei lamenti,

Paftor Fido, at 3. Sc. 3.

No lover who is not crazed will utter fuch a fentiment: it is plainly the operation of the writer, indulging his inventive faculty without regard to nature. The fame obfervation is applicable to the following paffage :

In winter's tedious nights fit by the fire
With good old folks and let them tell thee tales
Of woful ages, long ago betid:

And ere thou bid good night, to quit their grief,
Tell them the lamentable fall of me,

And fend the hearers weeping to their beds.

For

For why; the fenfelefs brands will sympathise
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And in compaffion weep the fire out.

Richard II. act 5. fc. 1.

One must read this paffage very seriously to avoid laughing. The following paffage is quite extravagant the different parts of the human body are two intimately connected with felf, to be perfonified by the power of any paffion; and after converting fuch a part into a sensible being, it is still worse to make it be conceived as rifing in rebellion against self:

Cleopatra. Hafte, bare my arm, and roufe the ferpent's fury.

Coward flesh

Wouldst thou confpire with Cæfar, to betray me,

As thou wert none of mine? I'll force thee to't.
Dryden, All for Love, act 5.

Next comes defcriptive perfonification; upon which I must observe, in general, that it ought to be cautiously used. A perfonage in a tragedy, agitated by a strong paffion, deals in warm fentiments; and the reader catching fire by fympathy, relifheth the boldest personifications: but a writer, even in the moft lively description, taking a lower flight, ought to content himself with fuch eafy perfonifications as agree with the tone of mind infpired by the defcription. Nor is even fuch eafy perfonification always admitted; for in plain narrative, the mind, ferious and fedate, rejects perfonification altogether. Strada, in his hiftory of the Belgic wars, has the following paffage, which, by a strained elevation above the tone of the fubject, deviates into burlesque.

Vix defcenderat a prætoria navi Cæfar; cum fæeda illico exorta in portu tempeftas, claffem impetu disjecit, prætori

VOL. II.