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his first appearance, ftrains to make a figure, is too oftentatious to be relifhed. Hence the first fentences of a work ought to be fhort, natural and fimple. Cicero, in his oration pro Archia poeta, errs against this rule his reader is out of breath at the very first period; which feems never to end. Burnet begins the History of his Own Times with a period long and intricate.

A third rule or obfervation is, That where the fubject is intended for entertainment folely, not for inftruction, a thing ought to be defcribed as it appears, not as it is in reality. In running, for example, the impulfe upon the ground is proportioned in fome degree to the celerity of motion: though in appearance it is otherwife; for a perfon in fwift motion feems to fkim the ground, and scarcely to touch it. Virgil, with great tafte, defcribes quick running according to appearance; and raifes an image far more lively than by adhering fcrupulously to truth:

Hos fuper advenit Volfca de gente Camilla,
Agmen agens equitum et florentes ære catervas,
Bellatrix: non illa colo calathifve Minervæ
-Foemineas affueta manus; fed prælia virgo
Dura pati, curfuque pedum prævertere ventos.
Illa vel intactæ fegetis per fumma volaret
Gramina: nec teneras curfu læfiffet ariftas :
Vel mare per medium, fluctu fufpenfa tumenti,
Ferret iter; celeres nec tingeret æquore plantas.
Eneid, vii. 803.:

This example is copied by the author of Telemachus:

Les Brutiens font legeres à la courfe comme les cerfs, et comme les daims. On croiroit que l'herbe même la plus tendre n'eft point foulée fous leurs pieds; à peine laiflentils dans le fable quelques traces de leurs pas.

R 2

Liv. 10.

Again:

Again:

Déjà il avoit abattu Eufilas fi léger à la courfe, qu'à peine il imprimoit la trace de fes pas dans le fable, et qui devançoit dans fon pays les plus rapides flots de l'Eurotas et de l'Alphée. Liv. 20.

Fourth, In narration as well as in description, objects ought to be painted fo accurately as to form in the mind of the reader diftin&t and lively images. Every useless circumftance ought indeed to be fuppreffed, becaufe every fuch circumftance loads the narration; but if a circumstance be neceffary, however flight, it cannot be described too minutely. The force of language confifts in raifing complete images; which have the effect to transport the reader as by magic into the very place of the important action, and to convert him as it were into a fpectator, beholding every thing that paffes. The narrative in an epic poem ought to rival a picture in the liveliness and accuracy of its reprefentations: no circumftance must be omitted that tends to make a complete image; because an imperfect image, as well as any other imperfect conception, is cold and uninterefting. I fhall illuftrate this rule by feveral examples, giving the first place to a beautiful paffage from Virgil :

Qualis populea morens Philomela fub umbrâ
Amiffos queritur foetus, quos durus arater
Obfervans nido implumes detraxit.

Georg. lib. 4. 1. 511.

The poplar, ploughman, and unfledged young, though not effential in the defcription, tend to make a complete image, and upon that account are an embellishment.

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*

Again:

Hic viridem Æneas frondenti ex ilice metam
Conftituit, fignum nautis.

Horace, addreffing to Fortune :

Te pauper ambit follicita prece
Ruris colonus; te dominam æquoris,
Quicumque Bithynâ laceffit
Carpathium pelagus carinâ.

Eneid, v. 129.

Carm. lib. 1. ode 35.

-Illum ex moenibus hofticis
Matrona bellantis tyranni
Profpiciens, et adulta virgo,
Sufpiret Eheu, ne rudis agminum
Sponfus laceffat regius afperum
Tactu leonem, quem cruenta
Per medias rapit ira cædes.

Carm. lib. 3. ode 2.

Shakespear fays,* "You may as well go about to turn the fun to ice by fanning in his face with a peacock's feather." The peacock's feather, not to mention the beauty of the object, completes the image: an accurate image cannot be formed of that fanciful operation, without conceiving a particular feather; and one is at a lofs when this is neglected in the defcription. Again," the rogues flighted me into the river with as little remorfe, as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' th' litter.”

Old Lady. You would not be a queen ?

Anne. No not for all the riches under heav'n.

Old Lady. 'Tis ftrange: a threepence bow'd would hire me, old as I am, to queen it.

Henry VIII. a 2. fc. 5.

In

Henry V. a 4. fc. 4. + Merry Wives of Windfor, at 3. fc. 15

In the following paffage, the action with all its ma terial circumftances, is reprefented fo much to the Fife, that it would fcarce appear more diftinct to a real fpectator; and it is the manner of defcription that contributes greatly to the fublimity of the paffage.

He fpake; and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim; the fudden blaze
Far round illumin'd hell highly they rag'd
Against the Higheft, and fierce with grafped arms.
Clath'd on their founding fhields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n.

Milton, b. 1.

A paffage I am to cite from Shakespear, falls not much fhort of that now mentioned in particularity of defcription:

O you hard hearts! you cruel men of Rome!
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms; and there have fat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To fee great Pompey pals the ftreets of Rome;
And when you faw his chariot but appear,
Have you not made an univerfal fhout,
That Tyber trembled underneath his banks,
To hear the replication of your founds,

Made in his concave thores ?

Julius Cafar, act 1. fc. 1.

The following paffage is fcarce inferior to either of those mentioned :

Far before the reft, the fon of Offian comes; bright in the fmiles of youth, fair as the firit beams of the fun. His

long

long hair waves on his back: his dark brow' is half beneath his helmet. The fword hangs loofe on the hero's fide; and his fpear glitters as he moves. I fled from his terrible eye, King of high Temora. Fingal.

The Henriade of Voltaire errs greatly against the foregoing rule: every incident is touched in a fummary way, without ever defcending to circumftances. This manner is good in a general history, the purpofe of which is to record important tranfactions : but in a fable it is cold and uninteresting; because it is impracticable to form diftinct images of perfons or things represented in a manner fo fuperficial.

It is obferved above, that every ufelefs circumftance ought to be fuppreffed. The crowding fuch circumftances, is, on the one hand, no lefs to be avoided, than the concisenefs for which Voltaire is blamed, on the other. In the Eneid,* Barce, the nurfe of Sichæus, whom we never hear of before nor after, is introduced for a purpose not more important than to call Anna to her fifter Dido; and that it might not be thought unjust in Dido, even in this trivial circumftance, to prefer her husband's nurfe before her own, the poet takes care to inform his reader, that Dido's nurfe was dead. To this I muft oppofe a beautiful paffage in the fame book, where, after Dido's last fpeech, the poet, without detaining his readers by defcribing the manner of her death, haftens to the lamentation of her attendants;

Dixerat: atque illam media inter talia ferro
Collapfam afpiciunt comites, enfemque cruore
Spumantem, fparfafque manus. It clamor ad alta
Atria, concuffam bacchatur fama per urbem;

Lamentis gemitique et foemineo ululatu

Tecta fremunt, refonat magnis plangoribus æther.
Lib. 4. l. 663.

As

* Lib. 4. 1. 632.

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