fword in the hand of a coward, is, in poetical diction, termed a coward fword: the expreffion is fignificative of an internal operation; for the mind, in paffing from the agent to its inftrument, is difpofed to extend to the latter the properties of the former. Governed by the fame principle, we fay liftening fear, by extending the attribute liftening 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 cause. But not to waste time by making a commentary upen every expreffion of this kind, the best way to give a complete view of the fubject, is to exhibit a table of the different connections that may give occafion to this figure. And in viewing this table, it will be observed, that the figure can never have any grace, but where the connections are of the moft intimate kind. . 1. An attribute of the cause expreffed as an attribute of the effect. Audax facinus. Of yonder fleet a bold discovery 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. No wonder, fallen fuch a pernicious height, Plautus. Paradife Loft. ed 3. An effect expressed as an attribute of the cause. Jovial wine, Giddy brink, Drowfy night, Mufing midnight, Panting height, Aftonish'd thought, Mournful gloom. Cafting a dim religious light. And the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks found. Milton, Comus. Milton, Allegro. 4. An attribute of a fubject beftowed upon one of its parts or members. Longing arms. It was the nightingale, and not the lark, Oh, lay by Those most ungentle looks and angry weapons; Fair Penitent, act 3. And ready now To ftoop with wearied wing, and willing feet, 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 shells? 6. An attribute of the agent given to the fubject upon which it operates. High-climbing hill. Milton. 7. A quality of one fubject given to another. Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides Gazis. Hora. Carm. 1. 1. ode 29. When fapless age, and weak unable limbs, Shakespear. By art, the pilot through the boiling deep Then, nothing loth, th' enamour'd fair he led, Odyss. viii. 337. A flupid moment motionless the stood. Summer, l. 1336. 8. A circumftance connected with a fubject, expreffed as a quality of the subject. Breezy fummit. 'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try. Iliad i. 301. Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall. Odyf. v. 395. From this table it appears, that the expreffing an effect as an attribute of the caufe, is not fo agreeable as the oppofite expreffion. The descent from caufe to effect is natural and eafy the oppofite direction refembles retrograde motion.* Panting height, for example, aftonish'd thought, are ftrained and uncouth expreffions, which a writer of tafte will avoid. For the fame reafon, an epithet is unsuitable, which at prefent is not ap * See chap. 1. plicable Impious fons their mangled fathers wound. Another rule regards this figure, That the property of one object ought not to be bestowed upon another with which it is incongruous: K. Rich. How dare thy joints forget Richard II. act 3. sc. 6. The connection betwixt an awful fuperior and his fubmiflive 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. SECT VI. Metaphor and Allegory. A Metaphor differs from a fimile, in form only, a fubjects are kept diftinct in the expreffion, as well as in the thought in a metaphor, the two fubjects are kept diftinct in thought only, not in expreffion. A hero refembles a lion, and upon that refernblance many fimiles have been made by Homer and other poets. But instead of resembling a lion, let us take the aid of the imagination, and feign or figure the hero to be a lion. By this variation the fimile is converted into a metaphor; which is carried on by defcribing all the qualities, of a lion that refemble thofe of the hero. The fundamental pleasure here, that of refemblance, belongs to thought as diftinguished from expreffion. . There There is an additional pleasure which 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 vir tues and qualities of the hero in new terms, which, properly fpeaking, belong not to him, but to a different being. This will better be understood by examples. A family connected with a common parent, resembles 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 thyself art one, 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; Is bound in fhallows and in miferies. And we must take the current when it serves, Julius Cæfar act 4. Sc. 5. Figuring glory and honour to be a garland of fresh flowers: Hotfpur |