planation in the understanding. In order to fupply this defect, I fhall give examples of the various refemblances betwixt found and fignification; and at the fame time shall endeavour to explain why such resemblances are beautiful. I begin with examples where the refemblance betwixt the found and fignification is the most entire; proceeding to others, where the refemblance is lefs and less fo. There being frequently a strong refemblance betwixt different founds, it will not be surprising to find a natural found imitated by one that is articulate. Thus the found of a bow-ftring is imitated by the words that express it. The ftring let fly, Twang'd short and sharp, like the fhrill swallow's cry. Odyssey xxi. 449. The found of felling trees in a wood: Loud founds the ax, redoubling ftrokes on ftrokes; On all fides round the foreft hurls her oaks Headlong. Headlong. Deep-echoing groan the thickets brown, Then rustling, crackling, crashing, thunder down. Iliad, xxiii. 144, But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore No perfon can be at a lofs about the caufe of this beauty. It is obviously that of imitation. That. there is any other natural refemblance betwixt found and fignification, must not be taken for granted. There is evidently no refemblance betwixt found and motion, nor betwixt found and fentiment. In this matter, we are apt to be deceived by artful reading or pronouncing. The fame paffage may be pronounced in many different tones, elevated or humble, fweet or harsh, brifk or melancholy, fo as to accord with the thought or fentiment. Such concord, depending on artful pronunciation, must be distinguished from that concord betwixt found and sense, which is perceived in some expreffions independent of artful pronun ciation. ciation. The latter is the poet's work: the former must be attributed to the reader. Another thing contributes still more to the deceit. In language, found and sense are fo intimately connected, as that the properties of the one are readily communicated to the other. An emotion of grandeur, of sweetness, of melancholy, or of compaffion, though occafioned by the thought folely, is transferred upon the words, which by that means resemble in appearance the thought that is expreffed by them*. I have great reason to recommend these observations to my reader, confidering how inaccurately the prefent fubject is handled by critics. Not one of them diftinguishes the natural refemblance of found and fignification, from the artificial refemblance now defcribed. Witness Vida in particular, who in a very long paffage has given very few examples, but what are of the latter kind +. That there may be a refemblance betwixt natural and artificial founds, is self-evident; See chap. 2. part 1. fect. 4. Poet. L. 3. 1 365454. and and that in fact there exift fuch resemblances fuccessfully employ'd by writers of genius, is clear from the foregoing examples, and many others that might be given, But we may fafely pronounce, that this natural refemblance can be carried no farther. The objects of the several senses, differ fo widely from each other as to exclude any refemblance. Sound in particular, whether articulate or inarticulate, refembles not in any degree tafte, fmell, or motion; and as little can it resemble any internal fentiment, feeling, or emotion. But muft we' then agree, that nothing but natural found can be imi tated by that which is articulate? Taking imitation in its proper fenfe, as involving a refemblance betwixt two objects, the propofition must be admitted. And yet in many paffages that are not descriptive of natural found, every one must be fenfible of a peculiar concord betwixt the found of the words and their meaning. As there can be no doubt of the fact, what remains is, to inquire into its cause. Refembling caufes may produce effects that have no refemblance; and causes that VOL. II. U u have have no resemblance may produce resembling effects. A magnificent building, for example, resembles not in any degree an he roic action; and yet the emotions they produce, being concordant, bear a refemblance to each other. We are ftill more fenfible of this resemblance, in a fong where the mufic is properly adjusted to the sentiment. There is no resemblance betwixt thought and found; but there is the ftrongest resemblance betwixt the emotion raised by mufic tender and pathetic, and that raised by the complaint of an unsuccessful lover. To apply these examples to the present subject, I observe, that the found even of a fingle word makes, in fome inftances, an impreffion resembling that which is made by the thing it fignifies; witness the word running, compofed of two short fyllables; and more remarkably the words rapidity, impetuofity, precipitation. Brutal manners produce in the spectator, an emotion not unlike what is produced by a harsh and rough found. Hence the figurative, expreffion, rugged manners; an expreffion peculiarly agreeable by the relation of the found to the sense, |