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O F

CRITICISM.

VOLUME II.

DUBLIN:

Printed for SARAH COTTER, in Skinner-Row,

M,DCC,LXII.

BRITISH!!

SEP

ELEMENTS of CRITICISM.

CHA P. XVIII. Beauty of Language,

O

F all the fine arts, painting only and fculpture are in their nature imitative. A field laid out with tafte, is not, properly speaking, a copy or imitation of nature, but nature itfelf embellished. Architecture deals in originals, and copies not from nature. Sound and motion may in some measure be imitated by mufic; but for the moft part mufic, like architecture, deals in originals. Language has no archetype in nature, more than mufic or architecture; unlefs where, like mufic, it is imitative of found or motion. In the defcription of particular founds, language fometimes happily furnisheth words, which, befide their cuftomary power of exciting ideas, refemble by their foftnefs or harfhnefs the found defcribed: and there are words, which, by the celerity or flownefs of pronunciation, have fome refemblance to the motion they fignify. This imitative power of words goes one step farther. The loftinefs of fome words, makes them proper fymbols of lofty ideas: a rough fubject is imitated by harfh-founding words; and words of many fyllables, pronounced flow and fmooth, are naturally expreffive of grief and melancholy. Words have a feparate effect on the A 2 mind,

mind, abstracting from their fignification and from their imitative power. They are more or less agreeable to the ear, by the roundness, fweetnefs, faintnefs, or roughnefs, of their tones.

Thefe are beauties, but not of the first rank: They are relished by thofe only, who have more delicacy of fenfation than belongs to the bulk of mankind. Language poffeffeth a beauty fuperior greatly in degree, of which we are eminently confcious when a thought is communicated in a strong and lively manner. This beauty of language, arifing from its power of expreffing thought, is apt to be confounded with the beauty of the thought expreffed; which beauty, by a natural transition of feeling among things intimately connected, is convey'd to the expreffion, and makes it appear more beautiful. But thefe beauties, if we wish to think accurately, muft be carefully distinguished from each other. They are indeed fo diftin&t, that we fometimes are confcious of the highest pleasure language can afford, when the fubje&t expreffed is difagreeable. A thing that is loathsome, or a scene of horror to make one's hair stand on end, may be described in the livelieft manner. In this cafe, the difagreeableness of the fubject, doth not even obfcure the agreeablenefs of the defcription. The caufes of the original beauty of language confidered as fignificant, which is a branch of the prefent fubject, will be explained in their order. I fhall only at prefent obferve, that this beauty is the beauty of means fitted to an end, viz. the communication of thought. And hence it evidently appears, that of feveral expreffions all conveying the fame thought, the most beautiful, in the fenfe now mentioned, is that which in the most perfect manner anfwers its end.

* See chap. 2. part 1. fect. 4.

The

The feveral beauties of language above mentioned, being of different kinds and distinguishable from each other, ought to be handled feparately. I fhall begin with those beauties of language which arife from found; after which will follow the beauties of language confidered as fignificant. This order appears natural; for the found of a word is attended to, before we confider its fignification. In a third fection come thofe fingular beauties of language that are derived from a refemblance betwixt found and fignification. The beauties of verfe I propofe to handle in the latt fection. For though the foregoing beauties are found in verfe as well as in profe; yet verfe has many peculiar beauties, which for the fake of perfpicuity must be brought under one view. And verfification, at any rate, is a fubject of great importance, as to deferve a place by itself.

SECT. I.

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Beauty of language with refpect to found.

Propofe to handle this fubject in the following order, which appears the most natural. The founds of the different letters come firft. Next, thefe founds as united in fyllables. Third, fyllables united in words. Fourth, words united in a period. And in the laft place, periods united in a difcourfe.

With refpect to the firft article, every vowel is founded by a fingle expiration of air from the wind pipe through the cavity of the mouth; and by varying this cavity, the different vowels are founded. The air in paffing through cavities differing in fize, produceth various founds, fome high or fharp, fome low or flat. A fmall cavity occafions a high found, a large cavity a low found. The five vowels accordingly, pronounced with the fame exten

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