men thought it might be copied, fo as to gain them applaufe.

Even in Greece itself, tragedy had attained its maturity many years before comedy, as may be feen by comparing the age of Sophocles and Euripides with that of Philemon and Menander.

For ourselves, we fhall find most of our firft poets prone to a turgid bombaft, and most of our first profaïc writers to a pedantic stiffness; which rude ftyles gradually improved, but reached not a claffical purity fooner than Tillotfon, Dryden, Addifon, Shaftesbury, Prior, Pope, Atterbury, Harris.

&c. &c.

Effects indeed ftrike us, when we are not thinking about the caufe; yet may we be affured, if we refleft, that a cause there is, and that too a caufe intelligent and rational. Nothing would perhaps more contribute to give us a tafte truly critical, than on every occafion to investigate this caufe, and to ask ourselves, upon feeling any uncommon effect, why we are thus delighted; why thus affected; why melted into pity; why made to fhudder with horror?

Till this why is well anfwered, all is darknefs, and our admiration, like that of the vulgar, founded upon ignorance.

Ibid. $179. The Caufes or Reasons of fuch Excellence.

To explain, by a few examples, that are known to all, and for that reafon here alledged, because they are known.

I am ftruck with the night fcene in Virgil's fourth Æneid" The univerfal filence "throughout the globe-the fweet reft of "its various inhabitants, foothing their "cares and forgetting their labours-the unhappy Dido alone reftlefs; reftlefs, agitated with impetuous paflions." Æn. iv. 522.

I am affected with the ftory of Regu lus, as painted by Weft" the crowd of "anxious friends, perfuading him not to "return his wife fainting through fenfi"bility and fear-perfons the least con

"nected appearing to feel for him, yet "himfelf unmoved, inexorable, and ftern."

Horat. Carm. L. iii. Od. 5. Without referring to thefe deeply tragic fcenes, what charms has mufic, when a masterly band pass unexpectedly from loud to foft, or from foft to loud!-When the fyftem changes from the greater third to the lefs; or reciprocally, when it changes from this laft to the former.

All thefe effe&ts have a fimilar and well known caufe, the amazing force which contraries acquire, either by juxta-pofition, or by quick fucceffion. Ibid.

§180. Why Contraries have this Effect.

But we ask ftill farther, Why have contraries this force ?-We anfwer, Because, of all things which differ, none differ fo widely. Sound differs from darkness, but not fo much as from filence; darkness differs from found, but not fo much as from light. In the fame intenfe manner differ repofe and reftlefinefs; felicity and mifery; dubious folicitude and firm refolution: the epic and the comic; the fublime and the ludicrous.

And why differ contraries thus widely? Because while attributes, fimplydifferent, may co-exist in the fame fubject, contraries cannot co-exist, but always destroy one another. Thus the fame marble may be both white and hard; but the fame marble cannot be both white and black. And hence it follows, that as their difference is more intenfe, fo is our recognition of them more vivid, and our impreffions more permanent.

This effect of contraries is evident even in objects of fenfe, where imagination and intellect are not in the least concerned. When we pafs (for example) from a hothoufe, we feel the common air more in tenfely cool; when we pass from a dark cavern, we feel the common light of the day more intenfely glaring.

But to proceed to inftances of another and a very different kind.

Few fcenes are more affecting than the taking of Troy, as defcribed in the second Eneid" the apparition of Hector to "Eneas, when asleep, announcing to him "the commencement of that direful event "the diftant lamentations, heard by "Eneas as he awakes-his afcending the "houfe-top, and viewing the city in flames "-his friend Pentheus, efcaped from de"ftruction, and relating to him theirwretch"ed and deplorable condition--Eneas,

"with a few friends, rushing into the thick"eft danger-their various fuccefs till "they all perish, but himself and two more "the affecting fcenes of horror and pity "at Priam's palace-a fon flain at his fa"ther's feet; and the immediate massacre " of the old monarch himself-Eneas, on feeing this, infpired with the memory of "his own father his refolving to return "home, having now loft all his compa"nions-his feeing Helen in the way, and "his defign to dispatch fo wicked a woman "Venus interpofing, and fhewing him "(by removing the film from his eyes) "the moft fublime, though moft direful, of "all fights; the Gods themselves bufied "in Troy's deftruction; Neptune at one employ, Juno at another, Pallas at a "third-It is not Helen (fays Venus) "but the gods, that are the authors of "your country's ruin-it is their incle"mency," &c.

Not lefs folemn and awful, though lefs leading to pity, is the commencement of the fixth Eneid" the Sibyl's cavern"her frantic gestures, and prophecy-the "request of Eneas to defcend to the fhades « her answer, and information about the "lofs of one of his friends-the fate of "poor Mifenus-his funeral-the golden bough difcovered, a preparatory cir"cumitance for the defcent-the facrifice "the ground bellowing under their feet "-the woods in motion-the dogs of He"cate howling-the actual defcent, in all "its particulars of the marvellous, and the "terrible."

If we pass from an ancient author to a modern, what scene more ftriking than the firft fcene in Hamlet ?" The folemnity "of the time, a fevere and pinching night "the folemnity of the place, a platform "for a guard-the guards themselves; "and their appofite difcourfe-yonder ftar "in fuch a pofition; the bell then beat"ing one-when description is exhaufted, "the thing itself appears, the Ghoft enters." From Shakespeare the tranfition to Milton is natural. What pieces have ever met a more juft, as well as univerfal applaufe, than his L'Allegro and Il Penferofo-The firft, a combination of every incident that is lively and chearful; the fecond, of every incident that is melancholy and ferious: the materials of each collected, according to their character, from rural life, from city life, from mufic, from poetry; in a word, from every part of nature, and every part of art.

The

To pafs from poetry to painting-the Crucifixion of Polycrates by Salvator Rofa, is "a moft affecting reprefentation of "various human figures, feen under diffe"rent modes of horror and pity, as they contemplate a dreadful fpectacle, the "crucifixion above-mentioned." Aurora of Guido, on the other fide, is "one of thofe joyous exhibitions, where "nothing is feen but youth and beauty, in every attitude of elegance and grace." The former picture in poetry would have been a deep Penferofo; the latter, a most pleafing and animated Allegro.

And to what caufe are we to refer these lait enumerations of ftriking effects?

To a very different one from the former-not to an oppofition of contrary incidents, but to a concatenation or accumulation of many that are fimilar and congenial.

And why have concatenation and accumulation fuch a force ?-From these most fimple and obvious truths, that many things fimilar, when added together will be more in quantity than any of them taken fingly;

confequently, that the more things are thus added, the greater will be their effect.

We have mentioned at the fame time both accumulation and concatenation; becaufe in painting, the objects, by exifting at once, are accumulated; in poetry, as they exift by fucceffion, they are not accumulated but concatenated. Yet, through memory and imagination, even these alfo derive an accumulative force, being preferved from paffing away by those admirable faculties, till, like many pieces of metal melted together, they collectively form one common magnitude.

It must be farther remembered, there is an accumulation of things analogous, even when thofe things are the objects of different faculties. For example-As are paffionate geftures to the eye, fo are passionate tones to the ear; fo are paffionate ideas to the imagination. To feel the amazing force of an accumulation like this, we muft fee fome capital actor, acting the drama of fome capital poet, where all the powers of both are affembled at the fame instant.

And thus have we endeavoured, by a few obvious and eafy examples, to explain what we mean by the words," feeking the cause "or reason, as often as we feel works of "art and ingenuity to affect us."-See § 167. 178. Harris.

$181.

If I might advife a beginner in this elegant purfuit, it should be, as far as poflible, to recur for principles to the molt plain and fimple truths, and to extend every theorem, as he advances, to its utmost lati. tude, fo as to make it fuit, and include, the greatest number of poffible cafes.

I would advise him farther, to avoid fubtle and far-fetched refinement, which, as it is for the most part adverfe to perfpicuity and truth, may ferve to make an able Sophift, but never an able Critic.

A word more I would advise a young Critic, in his contemplations, to turn his eye rather to the praife-worthy than the blameable; that is, to inveftigate the caufes of praife, rather than the caufes of blame. For though an uninformed beginner may, in a fingle inftance, happen to blame properly, it is more than probable, that in the next he may fail, and incur the cenfure paffed upon the criticifing cobler, Ne jutor ultra crepidam. Harris.

$182. On Numerous Compofition. As Numerous Compofition arifes from a juft arrangement of words, fo is that arrangement juft, when formed upon their verbal quantity.

Now if we feek for this verbal quantity in Greek and Latin, we thall find that, while thofe two languages were in purity, their verbal quantity was in purity alfo. Every fyllable had a measure of time, either long or fhort, defined with precifion either by its constituent vowel, or by the relation of that vowel to other letters adjoining. Syllables thus characterized, when combined, made a foot; and feet thus characterized, when combined, made a verfe: fo that while a particular harmony existed in every part, a general harmony was diffufed through the whole.

Pronunciation at this period being, like other things, perfect, accent and quantity were accurately diftinguifhed; of which diflinction, familiar then, though now obfcure, we venture to fuggeft the following explanation. We compare quantity to mufical tones differing in long and fhort, as, upon whatever line they ftand, a femibrief differs from a minim. We compare accent to mufical tones differing in high and low, as D upon the third line differs from G upon the firft, be its length the fame, er be it longer or shorter.

fion of centuries, from Homer and Hefiod And thus things continued for a fuccef to Virgil and Horace, during which interval, if we add a trifle to its end, all the truly clafiical poets, both Greek and Latin, flourished.

Nor was profe at the fame time neglected. Penetrating wits difcovered this alfo to be capable of numerous compofition, and founded their ideas upon the following reafonings.

Though they allowed that profe fhould not be ftrictly metrical (for then it would be no longer profe, but poetry); yet at the fame time they afferted, if it had no Rhythm at all, fuch a vague effufion would of courfe fatigue, and the reader would feek in vain for thofe returning paufes, fo helpful to his reading, and fo grateful to his ear.

$183.

Ibid.

On other Decorations of Proje be fides Profaic Feet; as Alliteration. Befides the decoration of Profaic Feet, there are other decorations, admiffible into English compofition, fuch as Alliteration, and Sentences, especially the Period.

First therefore for the firft; I mean' Alliteration.

Among the claffics of old, there is no finer illuftration of this figure, than Lu-' cretius's defcription of thofe bleft abodes, where his gods, detached from providential cares, ever lived in the fruition of divine ferenity.

The fublime and accurate Virgil did not contemn this decoration, though he used it with fuch pure, unaffected fimplicity, that we often feel its force without contemplating the caufe. Take one inftance out of infinite, with which his works abound.

Aurora interea miferis mortalibus almam Extulerat lucem, referens opera atque labores. En. XI. v. 183.

thority of Homer. To Virgil we may add the fuperior au

Ήτα 3 καππεδίον τὸ ̓Αλήϊον οἷος ̓Αλάτο, Ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων πάτον ̓Αιθρώπων ̓Αλεείνων. IX. C. 201. Hermogenes, the rhetorician, when he quotes thefe lines, quotes them as an ex

ample

ample of the figure here mentioned, but calls it by a Greek name, ΠΑΡΗΧΗΣΙΣ.

Cicero has tranflated the above verfes elegantly, and given us too Alliteration, though not under the fame letters.

Qui mifer in campis errabat folus Alais,
Ipfe fuum cor edens, hominum veftigia vitans.

CIC.

Ariftotle knew this figure, and called it HAPOMOINEIE, a name perhaps not fo precife as the other, because it rather expreffes refemblance in general, than that which arifes from found in particular. His example is — ΑΓΡΟΝ γὰρ ἔλαβεν, ΑΡΓΟΝ **' aire.

The Latin rhetoricians filed it Annominatio, and give us examples of fimilar character.

But the moft fingular fact is, that fo early in our own history, as the reign of Henry the fecond, this decoration was esteemed and cultivated both by the English and the Welch. So we are informed by Giraldus Cambrenfis, a contemporary writer, who, having firft given the Welch infance, fubjoins the English in the following verfe

God is together Gammen and Wifedóme. -that is, God is at once both joy and wifdom.

He calls the figure by the Latin name Annominatio, and adds, "that the two "nations were fo attached to this verbal

❝ornament in every high-finished com"pofition, that nothing was by them "esteemed elegantly delivered, no diction "confidered but as rude and ruftic, if it "were not first amply refined with the "polifbing art of this figure."

'Tis perhaps from this national tafte of ours, that we derive many proverbial fimiles, which, if we except the found, feem to have no other merit-Fine as five-pence

-Round as a Robin-&c.

Even Spenfer and Shakespeare adopted the practice, but then it was in a manner fuitable to fuch geniuses. Spenfer fays

For not to have been dipt in Lethe lake
Could fave the fon of Thetis from to die;
But that blind bard did him immortal make
With verfes dipt in dew of Caftilie.

Nor is elegance only to be found in fingle words, or in fingle feet; it may be found, when we put them together, in our peculiar mode of putting them. 'Tis out of words and feet thus compounded, that we form fentences, and among fentences none fo ftriking, none fo pleafing as the Period. The reafon is, that, while other fentences are indefinite, and (like a geometrical right line) may be produced indefinitely, the Period (like a circular line) is always circumfcribed, returns, and terminates at a given point. In other words, while other fentences, by the help of common copulatives, have a fort of boundless effufion; the conflituent parts of a Period have a fort of reflex union, in which union the fentence is fo far complete, as neither to require, nor even to admit, a farther extenfion. Readers find a pleasure in this

grateful

grateful circuit, which leads them fo agreeably to an acquifition of knowledge.

The author, if he may be permitted, would refer, by way of illuftration, to the beginnings of his Hermes, and his philofophical arrangements, where fome attempts have been made in this periodical ftyle. He would refer alfo, for much more illuftrious examples, to the opening of Cicero's Offices; to that of the capital Oration of Demofthenes concerning the Crown; and to that of the celebrated Panegyric, made (if he may be fo called) by the father of Periods, Ifocrates.

Again-every compound fentence is compounded of other fentences more fimple, which, compared to one another, have a certain proportion of length. Now it is in general a good rule, that among thefe conflituent fentences, the laft (if poffible) fhould be equal to the firft; or if not equal, then rather longer than fhorter. The reafon is, that without a special caufe, abrupt conclufions are offenfive, and the reader, like a traveller quietly pursuing his journey, finds an unexpected precipice, where he is disagreeably stopt.

$185. On Monofyllables.

Harris.

Above all, care fhould be had, that a fentence end not with a crowd of them, thofe efpecially of the vulgar, untunable fort, fuch as, "to fet it up," to get by and by at it," &c. for thefe difgrace a fentence that may be otherwife laudable, and are like the rabble at the close of fome pompous cavalcade. Ibid.

$186. Authorities alledged. "Twas by these, and other arts of fimilar fort, that authors in diftant ages have cultivated their style. Looking upon knowledge (if I may be allowed the allufion) to pafs into the manfions of the mind through language, they were careful (if I may pursue the metaphor) not to offend in the veftibule. They did not efteem it pardonable to defpife the public ear, when

they faw the love of numbers fo univerfally diffused.

Nor were they difcouraged, as if they thought their labour would be loft. In thefe more refined, but yet popular arts, they knew the amazing difference between the power to execute, and the power to judge-that to execute was the joint effort of genius and of habit; a painful acquifition, only attainable by the few;-t judge, the fimple effort of that plain but common fenfe, imparted by Providence in fome degree to every one. Ibid.

$187. Objectors anf-wered.

But here methinks an objector demands -"And are authors then to compose, and "form their treatises by rule ?-Are they "to balance periods?-To fcan pæans "and cretics ?-To affect alliterations? "To enumerate monofyllables ?" &c.

be faid, They ought; the permiflion fhould If, in answer to this objector, it should at least be tempered with much caution.

Thefe arts are to be fo blended with a

pure but common ftyle, that the reader, as he proceeds, may only feel their latent force. If ever they become glaring, they degenerate into affectation; an extreme more difgufting, because lefs natural, than clown. 'Tis in writing, as in actingeven the vulgar language of an unpolished The beft writers are like our late admired Garrick-And how did that able genius employ his art?-Not by a vain oftentation of any one of his powers, but by a latent ufe of them all in fuch an exhibition theatre, and only beholding an actor, we of nature, that while we were present in a could not help thinking ourselves in Denmark with Hamlet, or in Bofworth field with Richard,

§ 188.

Ibid.

When the Habit is once gained, nothing fo eafy as Practice.

There is another objection ftill.-Thefe fpeculations may be called minutiæ; things partaking at beft more of the elegant than of the folid; and attended with difficulties beyond the value of the labour.

To answer this, it may be obferved, that when habit is once gained, nothing fo eafy as practice. When the ear is once habituated to thefe verbal rhythms, it forms them fpontaneously, without attention or labour. If we call for inftances, what more eafy to every fmith, to every carpenter, to every common mechanic, than

the