Magnitudini Pori adjicere videbatur beliua qua vehebatur, tantum inter cæteras eminens, quanto aliis ipfe praeftabat. 1. 8. cap. 14.

It is ftill a greater deviation from congruity, to af fect not only variety in the words, but also in the conftruction. Defcribing Thermopylae, Titus Livi us fays,

Id jugum, ficut Apennini dorfo Italia dividitur, ita mediam Græciam diremit. 1. 36. § 15.

Speaking of Shakespear.

There may remain a fufpicion that we over-rate the greatnefs of his genius, in the fame manner as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being difproportioned and mishapen, Hiftory of G. Britain, vol. 1. p. 138.

This is ftudying variety in a period where the beau ty lies in uniformity. Better thus:

There may remain a fufpicion that we over-rate the greatnefs of his genius, in the fame manner as we over-ratė the greatness of bodies that are difproportioned and mifshapen.

Next as to the length of the members that fignify the refembling objects. To produce a refemblance between fuch members, they ought not only to be conftructed in the fame manner, but as nearly as pollible be equal in length. By neglecting this cit cumftance, the following example is defective in.

neatnefs.

As the performance of all other religious duties will not avail in the fight of God, without charity: fo neither will the discharge of all other ministerial duties avail in the fight of men, without a faithful discharge of this principal duty.

Differtation upon parties, Dedication.

In the following paffage are accumulated all the errors that a period expreffing a refemblance can well admit.

Minifters are anfwerable for every thing done to the prejudice of the conftitution, in the fame proportion as the prefervation of the conftitution in its purity and vigour, or the perverting and weakening it, are of greater confequence to the nation, than any other inftances of good or bad government.

Differtation upon parties, Dedication.

Next of a comparifon where things are oppofed to each other. And here it must be obvious, that if refemblance ought to be ftudied in the words which exprefs two refembling objects, there is equal reason for ftudying oppofition in the words which exprefs contrafted objects. This rule will be best illustrated by examples of deviations from it:

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. Spectator, No. 399.

Here the oppofition in the thought is neglected in the words, which at firft view feem to import, that the friend and the enemy are employed in different matters, without any relation to each other, whether of refemblance or of oppofition. And therefore the contraft or oppofition will be better marked by expreffing the thought as follows.

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes.

The

The following are examples of the fame kind:

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himfelf to the applaufe of those about him. Ibid. No. 73.

Better:

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains that of others.

Sicut in frugibus pecudibufque, non tantum femina að fervandum indolem valent, quantum terræ proprietas colique, fub quo aluntur, mutat. Livy, lib. 38. § 17.1

We proceed to a rule of a different kind. During the courfe of a period, the fcene ought to be contin ued without variation: the changing from perfon to perfon, from fubject to fubject, or from períon to fubject, within the bounds of a fingle period, diftracts the mind, and affords no time for a folid impreffion. I illuftrate this rule by giving examples of deviations from it.

Hones alit artes, omnefque incenduntur ad ftudia gloriâ, jacentque ea femper quæ apud quofque improbantur. Cicero, Tufcul. queft. 1. 1.

Speaking of the diftemper contracted by Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, and of the cure fered by Philip the phyfician:

Inter hæc à Parmenione fidiffimo purpuratorum, literas accipit, quibus ei denunciabat, ne falutem fuam Philip committeret.

Quintus Curtius, 1. 3. cap. 6.

Hook, in his Roman hiftory, fpeaking of Eumenes, who had been beat to the ground with a ftone, fays,

Atter

After a fhort time he came to himself; and the next day, they put him on board his thip, which conveyed him first to Corinth, and thence to the island of Ægina.

I give another example of a period which is unpleas‐ ant, even by a very flight deviation from the rule:

That fort of inftruction which is acquired by inculcating an important moral truth, c.

This exprefiion includes two perfons, one acquiring, and one inculcating; and the fcene is changed without neceflity. To avoid this blemish, the thought may be expreffed thus:

That fort of inftru&tion which is afforded by inculcating, &c.

The bad effect of fuch change of perfon is remarkable in the following paffage.

The Britons, daily haraffed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence, who confequently reduced the greateft part of the island to their own power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the rest of the country, in cuftoms, religion, and language, became wholly Saxons. Letter to the Lord High Treafurer. Swift.

The following paffage has a change from fubject to perfon.

This profitution of praife is not only a deceit upon the grofs of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned; but alfo the better fort muft by this means lofe fome part at least of that defire of fame which is the incentive to generous actions, when they find it promifcuously bestowed on the meritorious and undeferving.

Guardian, No. 4.

Even fo flight a change as to vary the construction in the fame period, is unpleasant:

Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmiffa, tranfgreffus flumen, ut quofque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat; Gallos Hifpanelque equites prope ripam lavo in cornu adverfus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum.:

Tit. Liv. 1. 22. § 46.

$46.

Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own army:

Eo magis ruere in fuos bellua, tantoque majorem ftragem edere quam inter hoftes ediderant, quanto acrius pavor confternatam agit, quam infidentis magiftri imperio regitur. Liv. 1. 27. § 14.

This paffage is alfo faulty in a different respect, that there is no refemblance between the members of the fentence, though they exprefs à fimile

The prefent head, which relates to the choice of materials, fhall be clofed with a rule concerning the ufe of copulatives. Longinus obferves, that it ànimates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the following example from Xenophon.

Clofing their fhields together, they were pufh'd, they fought, they flew, they were flain.

Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16.

The reafon I take to be what follows.. A continued found, if not loud, tends to lay us afleep: an interrupted found roufes and animates by its repeated impulfes. Thus feet compofed of fyllables, being pronounced with a fenfible interval between each, make more lively impreffions than can be made by a continued