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fame begun. I come with him to battle, to direct his arm. His renown will be a fun to my foul, in the dark hour of my departure. O that the name of Morni were forgot among the people that the heroes would only fay, "Behold the father of Gaul."

Some writers, through heat of imagination, fall into contradiction; fome are guilty of downright abfurdities; and fome even rave like madmen. Against fuch capital errors one cannot be more effectually warned than by collecting inftances; and the first fhall be of a contradiction, the moft venial of all. Virgil speaking of Neptune,

Interea magno mifceri murmure pontuin,
Emiffamque hyemem fenfit Neptunus, et imis
Stagna refufa vadis: graviter commotus, et alto
Profpiciens, fummâ placidum caput extulit undâ.
Eneid, i. 128.

Again:

When firft young Maro, in his boundlefs mind,
A work t' outlast immortal Rome defign'd.

Effay on Criticifm, l. 130.

The following examples are of abfurdities.

Alii pulfis e tormento catenis difcerpti fectique, dimidiato corpore pugnabant fibi fuperflites, ac peremptæ partis ultores.. Strada, Dec. 2. l. 2.

Il povér huomo, che non fen' era accorto,
Andava combattendo, ed era morto.

He fled; but flying, left his life behind.

Berni

Iliad, xi. 433

Full through his neck the weighty falchion fped
Along the pavement roll'd the mutt'ring head.
Odyffey, xxii. 365,

The laft article is of raving like one mad. Cleopatra speaking to the afpic,

Welcome thou kind deceiver,
Thou beft of thieves; who, with an easy key,
Doft open life, and unperceiv'd by us,
Ev'n fteal us from ourfelves; difcharging fo
Death's dreadful office, better than himfelf;
Touching our limbs fo gently into flumber,
That Death ftands by, deceiv'd by his own image,
And thinks himself but Sleep.

Dryden, All for Love, act 5.

Reasons that are common and known to every one, ought to be taken for granted to express them is childish, and interrupts the narration. Quintus Curtius, relating the battle of Iffus,

Jam in confpectu, fed extra teli jactum, utraque acies erat; quum priores Perfæ inconditum et trucem fuftulere clamorem. Redditur et a Macedonibus major, exercitus impar numero, fed jugis montium vaftifque faltibus repercullus quippe femper circumjecta nemora petræque, quantumcunque accepere vocem, multiplicato fono referunt.

Having difcuffed what obfervations occurred upon the thoughts or things expreffed, I proceed to what more peculiarly concern the language or verbal drefs. The language proper for exprefling paffion being handled in a former chapter, feveral obfervations there made are applicable to the prefent fubject; particularly, That as words are intimately connected with the ideas they reprefent, the emotions raifed by the found and by the fenfe ought to be concordant. An elevated fubject requires an elevated ftyle; what is familiar, ought to be familiarly expreffed: a fubject that is ferious and important, ought to be clothed in plain nervous language: a defcription on the other hand, addrefied to the imagination, is fufceptible of

the

the highest ornaments that founding words and figurative expreffion can beftow upon it.

I fhall give a few examples of the foregoing rules. A poet of any genius is not apt to dress a high fubject in low words; and yet blemishes of that kind are found even in claffical works. Horace, observing that men are fatisfied with themselves, but feldom with their condition, introduces Jupiter indulging to each his own choice:

Jam faciam quod vultis eris tu, qui modo miles, Mercator: tu, confultus modo, rufticus: hinc vos, Vos hinc mutatis difcedite partibus: eia, Quid ftatis nolint: atqui licet effe beatis. Quid caufæ eft, merito quin illis Jupiter ambas Iratas buccas inflet? neque fe fore pofthac Tam facilem dicat, votis ut præbeat aurem ?

Sat. lib. 1. fat. 1. 7. 16.

Jupiter in wrath puffing up both cheeks, is a low and even ludicrous expreffion, far from suitable to the gravity and importance of the fubject: every one must feel the difcordance. The following couplet, finking far below the fubject, is no lefs ludicrous.

Not one looks backward, onward ftill he goes,
Yet ne'er looks forward farther than his nose.

Effay in Man, ep. iv. 223.

Le Rhin tremble et fremit à ces triftes nouvelles ;
Le feu fort à travers fes humides prunelles.

C'eft donc trop peu, dit-il, que l'Escaut en deux mois
Ait appris à couler fous de nouvelles loix ;
Et de mille remparts mon onde environnée
De ces fleuves fans nom fuivra la destinée ?
Ah! periffent mes eaux, ou par d'illuftres coups
Montrons qui doit cedar des mortels ou de nous.
A ces mots effuiant la barbe limenneufe,

Il prend d'un vieux guerrier la figure poudreufe.

Son

Son front cicatricé rend fon air furieux,

Et l'ardeur du combat étincelle en fes yeux.

Boileau, epitre 4. 1. 61.

A god wiping his dirty beard is proper for burlesque poetry only; and altogether unfuitable to the ftrained elevation of this poem.

On the other hand, ro raife the expreffion above the tone of the fubject, is a fault than which none is more common. Take the following inftances:

Orcan le plus fiée à ferver fes deffeins,

Né fous le ciel brûlant des plus noirs Affricains.
Bajazet, act 3. fe. 8.

Les ombres par trois fois ont obfcurci les cieux
Depuis que le fommeil n'eft entré dans vos yeux;
Et le jour a trois fois chaffé la nuit obfcure
Depuis que votre corps languit fans nourriture.
Phedra, act 1. fc. 3.

Affuerus. Ce mortel, qui montra tant de zéle pour moi, Vit-il encore ?

Ajaph..

Il voit l'aftre qui vous écalire.

Efther, alt 2. fc. 3.

Oui, c'eft Agamemnon, c'eft ton roi qui t' eveille;
Viens, reconnois la voix qui frappe ton oreille.

Iphigenie.

No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds fhall tell ;
And the King's rowse the heav'ns fhall bruit again,
Refpeaking earthly thunder.

Hamlet, act 1. fc. 2.

In the inner room

I fpy a winking lamp, that weakly strikes
The ambient air, fearce kindling into light.

Southern, Fate of Capua, at 3.

In the funeral orations of the Bishop of Meaux, the following paffages are raised far above the tone of the fubject:

L'Ocean etonné de fe voir traverfé tant de fois, en des appareils fi divers, et pour des caufes fi differentes, &c.

p. 6. Grande Reine, je fatisfais à vos plus tendres defirs, quand je célébre ce monarque; et fon cœur qui n'a jamais vêcu que pour lui, fe eveille, tout poudre qu'il eft, et devient fenfible, mê mefous ce drap mortuaire, au nom d'un epoux fi

cher.

P. 32.

Montefquieu, in a didactic work, L'efprit des Loix, gives too great indulgence to imagination: the tone of his language fwells frequently above his subject. I give an example:

Mr. le Comte de Boulainvilliers et Mr l' Abbé Dubos ont fait chacun un fyfteme, dont l'um femble être une con- ' juration contre le tiers-etat, et l'autre une conjuration contre la nobleffe. Lorfque le Soleil donna à Phaeton fon char à conduire, il lui dit, Si vous montez trop haut, vous brulerez la demeure céleste; fi vous defcendez trop bas, vous réduirez en cendres la terre: n'allez point trop à droite, vous tomberiez dans la conftellation du ferpent ;. n'allez point trop à gauche, vous iriez dans celle de l'autel: tenez-vous entre les deux. L. 30. ch. 10.

The following paffage, intended, one would imagine, as a receipt to boil water, is altogether burlefque by the laboured elevation of the diction:

A maffy caldron of ftupendous frame

They brought, and plac'd it o'er the rifing flame :
Then heap the lighted wood; the flame divides
Beneath the vafe, and climbs around the fides:
In its wide womb they pour the rufhing ftream :
The boiling water bubbles to the brim.

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Iliad, xviii. 405.

In

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