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In familiar converfation, they are in fome measure ridiculous. Profpero in the Tempest, fpeaking to his daughter Miranda, fays.

The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance,
And fay what thou feeft yond.

No exception can be taken to the juftness of the figure; and circumftances may be imagined to make it proper but it is certainly not proper in familiar converfation.

In the laft place, though figures of speech have a charming effect when accurately conftructed and properly introduced, they ought however to be fcattered with a fparing hand: nothing is more luscious, and nothing confequently more fatiating, than redundant ornament of any kind.

CHA P. XXI. Narration and Description.

HORACE, and many writers after him, give inftructions for chufing a fubject adapted to the genius of the author. But rules of criticism would be endless, did one defcend to peculiarities in talent or genius. The aim of the present work is, to confider human nature in general, and to explore what is common to the fpecies. The choice of a fubject comes not under fuch a plan: but the manner of execution comes under it; because the manner of execution is fubjected to general rules. Thefe rules refpect the things expreffed, as well as the language or expreffion; which fuggefts a divificn of the prefent chapter into two parts; firft of thoughts, and next of words. I pretend not to juftify this divifion as entirely accurate. In difcourfing of the thoughts, it is difficult to abftract altogether from words, and ftill more difficult in difcourfing of the words, to abstract altogether from thought. The

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The firft obfervation is, That the thoughts which embellish a narration ought to be chafte and folid. While the mind is intent upon facts, it is little difpofed to the operations of the imagina-tion. Poetical images in a grave hiftory are intolerable; and yet Strada's Belgic hiftory is full of poetical images. Thefe being difcordant with the fubject, are difguftful; and they have a ftill worfe effect, by giving an air of fiction to a genuine hiftory. Such flowers ought to be scattered with a fparing hand, even in epic poetry; and at no rate. are they proper, till the reader be warmed, and by an enlivened imagination be prepared to relish them in that ftate of mind, they are extremely agreeable. But while we are fedate and attentive to an hiftorical chain of facts, we reject with difdain every fiction. This Belgic hiftory is indeed. wofully vicious both in matter and form: it is ftuffed with frigid and unmeaning reflections, as well as with poetical flashes, which, even laying afide the impropriety, are mere tinfel.

Vida,* following Horace, recommends a modest commencement of an epic poem; giving for a reafon, that the writer ought to hufband his fire. This reafon has weight; but what is faid abovefuggefts a reafon ftill more weighty: Bold thoughts and figures are never relished till the mind be heated and thoroughly engaged, which is not the reader's cafe at the commencement. Shakespear, in the first part of his hiftory of Henry VI. begins with a fentiment too bold for the moft heated imagination:

Bedford. Hung by the heav'ns with black, yield day to night!

Comets, importing change of times and states, your crystal tresses in the sky,

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* Poet. lib. z. 1. 39.

And

And with them fcourge the bad revolting stars.
That have confented unto Henry's death!
Henry the Fifth, too famous to live long!
England ne'er left a king of fo much worth.

The paffage with which Strada begins his hiftory, is too poetical for a fubject of that kind; and at any rate too high for the beginning of a grave performance. A third reafon ought to have not lefs. influence than either of the former: A man who, upon his first appearance, endeavours to exhibit all his talents, is never relifhed; the first periods of a work ought therefore 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 hiftory of his own times with a period long and intricate.

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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 accurately proportioned to the celerity of motion in appearance it is otherwife; for a perfon in fwift motion feems to fkim the ground, and fcarcely to touch it. Virgil, with great tafte defcribes quick running according to its appearance; and thereby raifes an image far more lively, than it could have been 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 Tele-machus :

Les Brutiens font legeres à la courfe commc les cerfs, et comme les daims. On croiroit que l'herbe même la plus-tendre n'eft point foulée fous leurs pieds; à peine laiffent ils dans le fable quelques traces de leurs pas. Liv. 10.

Again,

Déja il avoit abattu Eufilas fi léger à la courfes qu'à peine il imprimoit la trace de fes pás dans le fable, et qui devançoit dans font pays les plus rapides flots de l' Eurotas et de l' Alphée.

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Liv. 20

Fourthly, In narration as well as in description, facts and objects ought to be painted fo accurately as to form in the mind of the reader diftinct and lively images. Every ufelefs circumftance ought indeed to be fuppreffed, becaufe every fuch circumftance loads the narration; but if a circumftance be neceffary, however flight, it cannot be defcribed too minutely. The force of language confifts in raifing complete images; which cannot be done till the reader, forgetting himself, be transported as by magic into the very place and time of the important action, and be converted, as it were, into a real fpectator, beholding every thing that paffes. In this view, the narrative in an epic poem ought to rival a picture in the livelinefs and accuracy of its reprefentations: no circumstance must be omitted that tends to make a complete image; because an imperfect image, as well as any L5 ether

* Part 1. fect. 6.

250
other imperfect conception, is cold and uninterest-
ing. 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 arator
Obfervans nido implumes detraxit.

Georg. lib. 4. t. 511,

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

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, Sufpirit: 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

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Henry V, act 4. fc. 4.

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