ing of the man who liftens, to the paffion with which he is moved. In the expreffion bold deed, or audax facinus, we extend to the effect what properly belongs to the caufe. But not to waste time by making a commentary upon every expreffion of this kind, the beft way to give a complete view of the fubject, is to exhibit a table of the different relations that may give occafion to this figure. And in viewing the table, it will be obferved, that the figure can never have any grace but where the relations are of the moft intimate kind.

1. An attribute of the cause expreffed as an at tribute of the effect.

Audax facinus.

Of yonder fleet a bold difcovery make..

An impious mortal gave the daring wound.

To my advent'rous fong.

That with no middle flight intends to foar.

Paradife Loft.

2. An attribute of the effect expreffed as an attribute of the cause.

Quos periiffe ambos mifera cenfebam in mari.

Plautus.

No wonder, fallen fuch a pernicious height.
Paradife Loft

3. An effect expreffed as an attribute of the caufe.

Jovial wine, Giddy brink, Drowfy night, Mufing midnight, Panting height, Aftonifh'd thought, Mournful gloom.

Cafting

Casting a dim religious light.

And the merry bells ring round,
And the jorund rebecks found.

Milton, Comus.

Milton, Allegro.

4. An attribute of a fubject bestowed upon one of its parts or members.

Longing arms.

It was the nightingale and not the lark,
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Romeo and Juliet, a&t 3. fc. 7.

Oh, lay by

Those most ungentle looks and angry weapons;
Unless you mean my griefs and killing fears
Should ftretch me out at your relentless feet.
Fair Penitent, alt 3.

And ready now

To ftoop with wearied wing and willing feet
On the bare outfide of this world.

Paradife Loft, b. 3.

5. A quality of the agent given to the inftrument with which it operates.

Why peep your coward fwords half out their fhells!

6. An attribute of the agent given to the fubject upon which it operates.

High-climbing hill.

04

Milton.

7. A quality of one fubject given to another.

Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
Gazis.

Horat. Carm. I. 1. ode 29.

When

When faplefs age, and weak unable limbs,
Should bring thy father to his drooping chair.

Shakespear.

By art, the pilot through the boiling deep
And howling tempeft, iteers the fearless thip.
Iliad xxiii. 385.

Then, nothing loath, th' enamour'd fair he led,
And funk tranfported on the confcious bed.

A flupid moment motionless she stood.

Summer, l. 1336.

8. A circumftance connected with a fubject, expreffed as a quality of the fubject.

Breezy fummit.

'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try.

* See chap. 1.

Odyffey viii. 337.

Iliad i. 301.

Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall.
Odyssey v. 395.

From this table it appears, that the adorning a caufe with an attribute of the effect, is not fo agreeable as the oppofite expreffion. The progrefs from cause to effect is natural and easy: the oppofite progrefs refembles retrogade motion;* and therefore panting height, aftonifh'd thought, are strained and uncouth expreffions, which a writer of taste will avoid.

It is not lefs ftrained, to apply to a fubject in its prefent ftate, an epithet that may belong to it in fome future ftate:

Submerfafque obruc puppes.

Eneid, i. 73.

And

And mighty ruins fall.

Impious fons their mangled fathers wound.

Another rule regards this figure, That the property of one fubject ought not to be bestowed upon another with which that property is incongruous:

Iliad v. 411.

King Rich. How dare thy joints forget
To pay their awful duty to our prefence?
Richard II. act 3. fc. 6.

SECT.

The connection between an awful fuperior and his fubmiffive dependent is fo intimate, that an attribute may readily be transferred from the one to the other: but awfulness cannot be fo transferred, because it is inconfiftent with fubmiffion..

VI.

Metaphor and Allegory.

A METAPHOR differs from a fimile, in

form only, not in fubftance: in a fimile, the two fubjects are kept diftin&t in the expreffion, as well as in the thought; in a metaphor, the two fubjects are kept diftinct in the thought only, not in the expreffion. A hero resembles a lion, and, upon that refemblance many fimiles have been raifed by Homer and other poets. But instead of refembling a lion, let us take the aid of the imagination, and faign or figure the hero to be a lion: by that variation the fimile is converted into a metaphor; which is carri ed on by defcribing all the qualities of a lion that refemble thofe of the hero. The fundamental pleafure here, that of refemblance, belongs to the thought.

An

An additional pleasure arifes from the expreffion : the poet, by figuring his hero to be a lion, goes on to defcribe the lion in appearance, but in reality the hero and his defcription is peculiarly beautiful, by expreffing the virtues and qualities of the hero in new terms, which, properly fpeaking, belong not to him, but to the lion. This will better be understood by examples. A family connected with a common parent, refembles a tree, the trunk and branches of which are connected with a common root: but let us fuppofe, that a family is figured, not barely to be like a tree, but to be a tree; and then the fimile will be converted into a metaphor, in the following

manner :

Edward's fev'n fons, whereof thyfelf art one,
Were fev'n fair branches fpringing from one root:
Some of thefe branches by the deft'nies cut :
But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glo'fter,
One flourishing branch of his molt royal root,
Is hack'd down, and his fummer-leaves all faded,
By Envy's hand and Murder's bloody axe.
Richard II. act 1. fc. 3.

Figuring human life to be a voyage at sea :

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in thallows and in miferies.
On fuch a full fea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current while it ferves,
Or lose our ventures.

Julius Cæfar, at 4. fc. 5

Figuring glory and honour to be a garland of flowers,

Wou'd to heav'n, Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!

Hotspur.

Pr. Henry.