Et fugit borrendum ftridens elapfa fagitta; Th' impetuous arrow whizzes on the wing. POPE. and the creaking of hell-gates, in the defcription by Milton

Open fly With impetuous recoil and jarring found Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harth thunder.

But many beauties of this kind, which the moderns, and perhaps the ancients, have obferved, seem to be the product of blind reverence acting upon fancy. Dionyfius himself tells us, that the found cf Homer's verfes fometimes exhibits the idea of corporeal bulk: is not this a difcovery nearly approaching to that of the blind man, who after long enquiry into the nature of the scarlet colour, found that it reprefented nothing fo much as the clangor of a trumpet? The reprefentative power of poetick harmony confifts of found and measure; of the force of the fyllables fingly confidered, and of the time in which they are pronounced. Sound can refemble nothing but found, and time can measure nothing but motion and duration.

The criticks, however, have ftruck out other fimilitudes; nor is there any irregularity of numbers which credulous admiration cannot difcover to be eminently beautiful. Thus the propriety of each of thefe lines has been celebrated by writers whofe opinion the world has reafon to regard

Vertitur interea coelum, et ruit oceano noxMeantime the rapid heav'ns rowl'd down the light,

And on the fhaded ocean rafh'd the night. DRYDEN.

Sternitur, exanimifque tremeus procumbit bumi

bos.

to day, the fall of an ox under a blow, and the birth of a mouse from a mountain; fince we are told of all these images, that they are very strongly impreffed by

the fame form and termination of the verfe.

We may, however, without giving way to enthusiasm, admit that fome beauties of this kind may be produced. A fudden ftop at an unufual fyllable may image the ceflation of action, or the paufe of difcourfe; and Milton has very happily imitated the repetitions of an echo:

I fled, and cried out death: Hell trembled at the hideous name, and figh'd From all her caves, and back refounded death.

The measure or time in pronouncing may be varied fo as very strongly to reprefent, not only the modes of external motion, but the quick or flow fucceffion of ideas, and confequently the paffions of the mind. This, at leaft, was the power of the fpondaick and dactylick harmony; but our language can reach noeminent divertities of found. We can indeed sometimes, by encumbering and retarding the line, fhew the difficulty of a progress made by strong efforts and with frequent interruptions, or mark a flow and heavy motion. Thus Milton has imagined the toil of Satan struggling through chaos

So he with difficulty and labour hard
Mov'd on: with difficulty and labour he-
Thus he has defcribed the leviathans or
whales-

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.

fuch

But he has at other times neglected reprefentations, as may be ob the volubility and levity of th ferved in which exprefs an action tard efe lines,

luctant

y and reDefcent and fall

To us is adverfe. Who but felt of late, When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear Infulting, and purfu'd us through the deep, With what confufion and laborious flight We funk thus low? Th' afcent is easy then.

In another place, he defcribes the gentle glide of ebbing waters in a line remarkably rough and halting:

Tripping

perform wonders upon the defcription

His fluices.

It is not indeed to be expected, that the found fhould always affilt the meaning, but it ought never to counteract it; and therefore Milton has here certainly committed a fault like that of the player, who looked on the earth when he implored the heavens, and to the heavens when he addreffed the earth.

Those who are determined to find in Milton an assemblage of all the excellencies which have ennobled all other poets, will perhaps be offended that I do not celebrate his verfification in higher terms; for there are readers who difcover that in this paffage

So stretch'd out huge in length the arch fiend

lay,

a long form is defcribed in a long line; but the truth is, that length of body is only mentioned in a flow line, to which it has only the refemblance of time to fpace, of an hour to a maypole.

The fame turn of ingenuity might

Then from the mountains hewing timber tall, Began to build a veffel of huge bulk; Meafur'd by cubit,length, breadth, and height.

In thefe lines the poet apparently defigns to fix the attention upon bulk; but this is effected by the enumeration, not by the measure; for what analogy can there be between modulations of found, and corporeal dimenfions?

Milton, indeed, feems only to have regarded this fpecies of embellishment so far, as not to reject it when it came unfought; which would often happer to a mind fo vigorous, employed upon a fubject fo various and extenfive. He had, indeed, a greater and a nobler work religious truth, a fingle image of life to perform; a fingle fentiment of moral or or nature, would have been cheaply loft for a thousand echoes of the cadence to the sense; and he who had undertaken to vindicate the ways of God to man, might have been accused of neglecting his caufe, had he lavished much of his attention upon fyllables and sounds,

COGOR RELICTOS.

HOR

TO THE RAMBLER.

FRANCIS.

I was born in the houfe of difcord. My parents were of unfuitable ages, contrary tempers, and different religions; and therefore employed the spirit and acuteness which nature had very liberally bestowed upon both, in hourly dif putes, and inceffant contrivances to detect each other in the wrong; so that from the first exertions of reafon I was bred a disputant, trained up in all the arts of domeftick fophiftry, initiated in a thousand low stratagems, nimble shifts, and fly concealments; verfed in all the turns of altercation, and acquainted with

the

the whole difcipline of fending and proving.

It was neceffarily my care to preferve the kindness of both the controvertists; and therefore I had very early formed the habit of fufpending my judgment, of hearing arguments with indifference, inclining as occafion required to either fide, and of holding myself undetermined between them till I knew for what opinion I might conveniently declare.

Thus, Sir, I acquired very early the fkill of difputation; and, as we naturally love the arts in which we believe ounfelves to excel, I did not let my abi. lities lie useless, nor fuffer my dexterity to be lost for want of practice. I engaged in perpetual wrangles with my Ichool-fellows, and was never to be convinced or repreffed by any other argu. ments than blows, by which my antagonifts commonly determined the controverfy, as I was, like the Roman ora. tor, much more eminent for eloquence

than courage.

At the univerfity I found my predominant ambition completely gratified by the ftudy of logick. I impreffed upon my memory a thoufand axioms, and ten thousand diftinctions, practifed every form of fyllogifm, paffed all my days in the fchools of difputation, and lept every night with Smiglecius on my pillow.

You will not doubt but fuch a genius was foon raised to eminence by fuch application: I was celebrated in my third year for the most artful opponent that the university could boaft, and became the terror and envy of all the candidates for philofophical reputation.

My renown, indeed, was not purchafed but at the price of all my time and all my studies. I never fpoke but to contradict, nor declaimed but in defence of a pofition univerfally acknow. ledged to be falfe, and therefore worthy, in any opinion, to be adorned with all the colours of falfe representation, and ftrengthened with all the art of fallacious fubtilty.

My father, who had no other wifh than to fee his fon richer than himself, eafily concluded that I should diftinguish myself among the profeffors of the law; and therefore, when I had taken my first degree, dispatched me to the Temple with a paternal admonition, that I should never fuffer myself to feel shame,

Vitiated, ignorant, and heady as I was, I had not yet loft my reverence for virtue, and therefore could not receive fuch dictates without horror; but, however, was pleafed with his determi nation of my courfe of life, because he placed me in the way that leads fooneft from the prescribed walks of difcipline and education, to the open fields of liberty and choice.

I was now in the place where every one catches the contagion of vanity, and foon began to distinguish_myself by sophifms and paradoxes. I declared war against all received opinions and eftablished rules, and levelled my batteries particularly against thofe univerfal principles which had stood unshaken in all the viciffitudes of literature, and are confidered as the inviolable temples of truth, or the impregnable bulwarks of science.

I applied myself chiefly to thofe parts of learning which have filled the world with doubt and perplexity; and could readily produce all the arguments relating to matter and motion, time and fpace, identity and infinity.

I was equally able and equally willing to maintain the fyftem of Newton or Defcartes, and favoured occafionally the hypothefis of Ptolomy, or that of Copernicus. I fometimes exalted ve getables to fenfe, and fometimes de graded animals to mechanism.

Nor was I lefs inclined to weaken the credit of hiftory, or perplex the doctrines of polity. I was always of the party which I heard the company condemn.

Among the zealots of liberty I could harangue with great copioufnefs upon the advantages of abfolute monarchy, the fecrecy of it's counfels, and the expedition of it's measures; and often celebrated the bleffings produced by the extinction of parties, and preclusion of debates.

Among the affertors of regal authority, I never failed to declaim with re publican warmth upon the original char ter of univerfal liberty, the corruption of courts, and the folly of voluntary fubmiffion to thofe whom nature has levelled with ourselves.

I knew the defects of every scheme of government, and the inconveniencies of every law. I fometimes fhewed how much the condition of mankind would

be

be improved, by breaking the world into petty fovereignties, and fometimes difplayed the felicity and peace which univerfal monarchy would diffuse over the earth.

To every acknowledged fact I found innumerable objections; for it was my rule to judge of hiftory only by abftracted probability; and therefore I made no fcruple of bidding defiance to teftimony, I have more than once queftioned the existence of Alexander the Great; and having demonftrated the folly of erecting edifices, like the pyramids of Egypt, I frequently hinted my fufpicion that the world had been long deceived, and that they were to be found only in the narratives of travellers.

It had been happy for me could I have confined my fcepticifm to hiftorical controverfies, and philofophical difquifitions; but having now violated my reason, and accustomed myself to enquire not after proofs, but objections, I had perplexed truth with falfehood till my ideas were confufed, my judgment embarraffed, and my intellects distorted. The habit of confidering every propofition as alike uncertain, left me no teft by which any tenet could be tried; every opinion prefented both fides with equal evidence, and my fallacies began to operate upon my own mind in more important enquiries. It was at laft the fport of my vanity to weaken the obligations of moral duty, and efface the diftinctions of good and evil, till I had deadened the fenfe of conviction, and abandoned my heart to the fluctuations of uncertainty, without anchor and with out compafs, without fatisfaction of curiofity, or peace of confcience, without principles of reafon, or motives of action. Such is the hazard of repreffing the

firft perceptions of truth, of fpreading for diverfion the fnares of sophistry, and engaging reafon against it's own determinations.

The difproportions of abfurdity grow lefs and lefs vifible, as we are reconciled by degrees to the deformity of a mistress; and falfehood, by long ufe, is affimilated to the mind, as poison to the body.

I had foon the mortification of seeing my converfation courted only by the ignorant or wicked, by either boys who were enchanted by novelty, or wretches, who having long difobeyed virtue and reason, were now defirous of my affiftance to dethrone them.

Thus alarmed, I fhuddered at my own corruption, and that pride by which I had been feduced contributed to reclaim me. I was weary of continual irrefolution, and a perpetual equipoise of the mind; and afhamed of being the favourite of those who were scorned and fhunned by the rest of mankind.

I therefore retired from all temptation to difpute, prescribed a new regimen to my understanding, and refolved, inttead of rejecting all established opinions which I could not prove, to tolerate though not adopt all which I could not confute. I forbore to heat my imagination with needlefs controverfies, to difcufs quef, tions confessedly uncertain, and refrain❤ ed fteadily from gratifying my vanity by the fupport of falfehood.

By this method I am at length recovered from my argumental delirium, and find myself in the state of one awakened from the confufion and tumult of a feverish dream. I rejoice in the new poffeffion of evidence and reality, and ftep on from truth to truth with confidence and quiet.

I am, Sir, &c. PERTINAX.

BOETIUS,

ride, to shoot with the bow, and to speak The bow and the horse were eafily. Ee

mastered;