Again,

Helas! l'amour m'a pris,

Comme le chat fait la fouris.

A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus:
I have as much love in ftore
As there's apples in Portmore.

Where the subject is burlefque or ludicrous, fuch fimiles are far from being improper. Horace fays pleasantly,

Quanquam tu levior cortice.

And Shakespear,

L. 3. ode 9.

In breaking oaths he's stronger than Hercules. And this leads me to obferve, that befide the foregoing comparisons, which are all ferious, there is a fpecies, the end and purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples. Falftaff, fpeaking to his page :

I do here walk before thee, like a fow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.

Second Part Henry IV. act 1. fc. 4.

I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet, or a worm-eaten nut.

As you like it, act. 3. fc. 10.

This fword a dagger had his page,
That was but little for his age;
And therefore waited on him fo
As dwarfs upon knights-errant do.

H 2

Hudibras, canto 1.

De

Defcription of Hudibras's horse:

He was well stay'd, and in his gait
Preferv'd a grave, majestic state.
At fpur or switch no more he skipt,
Or mended pace, than Spaniard whipt:
And yet fo fiery he would bound,
As if he griev'd to touch the ground:
That Cæfar's horfe, who, as fame goes,
Had corns upon his feet and toes,
Was not by half fo tendar hooft,
Nor trod upon the ground fo foft.
And as that beast would kneel and stoop,
(Some write) to take his rider up;
So Hudibras his ('tis well known)
Would often do, to fet him down.

Honour is, like a widow, won
With brisk attempt and putting on,
With entering manfully, and urging;
Not flow approaches, like a virgin.

The fun had long fince in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his
nap;
And, like a lobfter boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn.

Canto I.

Canto 1.

T

C

Books, like men, their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and return no more. Tale of a Tub.

And in this the world may perceive the difference between the integrity of a generous author, and that of a common friend. The latter is obferved to adhere close in profperity, but on the decline of fortune, to drop fuddenly off: whereas

the

the generous author, juft on the contrary, finds
his hero on the dunghil, from thence by gradual
steps raises him to a throne, and then immediately
withdraws, expecting not fo much as thanks for
his pains.
Tale of a Tib.

The most accomplish'd way of using books at
prefent is, to ferve them as fome do lords, learn
their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance.
Tale of a Tub.
Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient fits,
While fpouts run clatt'ring o'er the roof by fits;
And ever and anon with frightful din

The leather founds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed,
Pregnant with Greeks, impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Inftead of paying chairmen, run them through),
Laocoon ftruck the outfide with his fpear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.

Defcription of a city fhower. Swift.
Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild diforder feen,
With throngs promifcuous ftrow the level green.
Thus when difpers'd a routed army runs,
Of Afia's troops, and Afric's fable fons,
With like confufion different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,
The pierc'd battalions difunited, fall

In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.
Rape of the Lock, canto 3.

He does not confider, that fincerity in love is as much out of fashion, as sweet snuff; no body takes it now.

Careless Hufband.

Lady Eafy. My dear, I am afraid you have provoked her a little too far.

Sir Charles. O! Not at all. You fhall fee, I'll fweeten her, and fhe'll cool like a difh of

tea.

CHA P. XX.

Careless Husband.

FIGURES.

TH

HE reader must not expect to find here a complete lift of the different tropes and figures that have been carefully noted by ancient critics and grammarians, Tropes and figures have indeed been multiplied with fo little referve, as to make it no eafy matter to distinguish them from plain language. A difcovery almoft accidental, made me think of giving them a place in this work: I found that the most important of them depend on principles formerly explained; and I was glad of an opportunity to fhow the extenfive influence of these principles. Confining myself therefore to figures that answer this purpose, I am luckily freed from much trash; without dropping, fo far as I remember, any figure that merits a proper name. And I begin with Profopopia or perfonification, which is justly intitled to the first place.

SECT. I.

PERSONIFICATION.

This His figure, which gives life to things inanimate, is fo bold a delufion as to require, one fhould imagine, very peculiar circumftances for operating the effect. And yet, in the language of poetry, we find variety of expreffions, which, though commonly reduced to this figure, are ufed

angry ocean.

without ceremony or any fort of preparation. I give, for example, the following expreffions. Thirsty ground, hungry church-yard, furious dart, The epithets here, in their proper meaning, are attributes of fenfible beings. What is the effect of fuch epithets, when apply'd to things inanimate? Do they raife in the mind of the reader a perception of fenfibility? Do they make him conceive the ground, the church-yard, the dart, the ocean, to be endued with animal functions? This is a curious inquiry; and whether fo or not, it cannot be declined in handling the prefent fubject.

One thing is certain, that the mind is prone to bestow fenfibility upon things inanimate, where that violent effect is neceffary to gratify paffion. This is one inftance, among many, of the power of paffion to adjust our opinions and belief to its gratification *. I give the following examples. Antony, mourning over the body of Cæfar, murdered in the fenate-houfe, vents his paflion in the following words.

Antony. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of

earth,

That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.
Thou art the ruins of the nobleft man
That ever lived in the tide of times.

Julius Cæfar, act 3. fi. 4.

Here Antony must have been impreffed with fome fort of notion, that the body of Cæfar was liftening to him, without which the speech would be foolish and abfurd. Nor will it appear ftrange, after what is faid in the chapter above cited, that paffion fhould have fuch power over the mind of

* Chap. 2. part. 5.

H 4

man.