Again:

When first young Maro, in his boundless mind,
A work t' outlast immortal Rome design'd.

Essay on Criticism, l. 180.

The following examples are of absurdities:

Alii pulsis e tormento catenis discerpti sectique, dimidiato corpore pugnabant sibi superstites, ac peremptæ partis ultores.

Strada, Dec. ii. 1. 2.

Il pover huomo, che non sen' era accorto,
Andava combattendo, ed era morto.

Berni.

He fled; but flying, left his life behind.

Iliad, xi. 433.

Full through his neck the weighty falchion sped
Along the pavement roll'd the mutt'ring head.

Odyssey, xxii. 365.

The last article is of raving like one mad. Cleo patra speaking to the aspic,

-Welcome, thou kind deceiver,
Thou best of thieves; who, with an easy key,
Dost open life, and unperceiv'd by us,
Ev'n steal us from ourselves; discharging so
Death's dreadful office, better than himself;
Touching our limbs so gently into slumber,
That Death stands by, deceiv'd by his own image,
And thinks himself but sleep.

Dryden, All for Love, Act v.

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 Issus,

Jam in conspectu, sed extra teli jactum, utraque acies erat; quum priores Persæ inconditum et trucem sustulere clamorem. Redditur et a Macedonibus major, exercitus impar numero, sed

jugis montium vastisque saltibus repercussus: quippe semper cir cumjecta nemora petreque, quantumcunque accepere vocem, multiplicato sono referunt.

Having discussed what observations occurred upon the thoughts or things expressed, I proceed to what more peculiarly concern the language or verbal dress. The language proper for expressing passion being handled in a former chapter, several observations there made are applicable to the present subject; particularly, That as words are intimately connected with the ideas they represent, the emotions raised by the sound and by the sense ought to be concordant. An elevated subject requires an elevated style; what is familiar, ought to be familiarly expressed: a subject that is serious and important, ought to be clothed in plain nervous language a description, on the other hand, addressed to the imagination, is susceptible of the highest ornaments that sounding words and figurative expression can bestow upon it.

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

Jam faciam quod vultis; eris tu, qui modo miles,
Mercator: tu, consultus modo, rusticus; hinc vos,
Vos hinc mutatis discedite partibus: eia,
Quid statis? nolint: atqui licet esse beatis.
Quid causæ est, merito quin illis Jupiter ambas
Iratas buccas inflet ? neque se fore pos thac
Tam facilem dicat, votis ut præbeat aurem ?

Sat. lib. 1. Sat, i. l. 16.

Jupiter in wrath puffing up both cheeks, is a low and even ludicrous expression, far from suitable to the gravity and importance of the subject: every VOL. II.

32a

one must feel the discordance.

The following

couplet, sinking far below the subject, is no less ludicrous.

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

Essay on Man, Ep. IV. 223.

Le Rhin tremble et fremit à ces tristes nouvelles;
Le feu sort à travers ses humides prunelles,

C'est done trop peu, dit-il, que l'Escaut en deux mois
Ait appris à couler sous de nouvelles loix;

Et de mille remparts men onde environnée
De ces fleuves sans nom suivra la destinée ?
Ah! perissent mes eaux, ou par d'illustres coups
Montrons qui doit céder des mortels ou de nous.
A ces mots essuiant sa barbe limonnèuse,

Il prend d'un vieux guerrier la figure poudreuse.
Son front cicatricé rend son air furieux,

Et l'ardeur du combat étincelle en ses yeux.

Boileau, Epitre IV. 1. 61.

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

On the other hand, to raise the expression above the tone of the subject, is a fault than which none is more common. Take the following instances:

Orcan le plus fidéle à server ses desseins,
Né sous le ciel brûlant des plus noirs Affricains.
Bajazet, Act III. Sc. 8.

Les ombres par trois fois ont obscurci les cieux
Depuis que le sommeil n'est entré dans vos yeux :
Et le jour a trois fois chassé la nuit obscure
Depuis que votre corps languit sans nourriture.

Phedra, Act I. Sc. 3.

Assuerus. Ce mortel, qui montra tant de zéle pour moi, Vit il

encore?

Asaph.

Il voit l'astre qui vous éclaire.
Esther, Act II. Se. 3.

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

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

Iphigenie.

-In the inner room

Hamlet, Act I. Sc, 2.

I

spy a winking lamp, that weakly strikes The ambient air, scarce kindling into light.

Southern, Fute of Capua, Act III.

In the funeral orations of the Bishop of Meaux, the following passages are raised far above the tone of the subject:

L'Ocean etonné de se voir traversé tant de fois, en des appareils si divers, et pour des causes si differentes, &c.

p. 6.

Grande Reine, je satisfais à vos plus tendres desirs, quand je célébre ce monarque; et son cœur qui n'a jamais vêcu que pour lui, se evile, tout poudre qu'il est, et devient sensible, même sous ce drap mortuaire, au nom d'un epoux si cher.

p. 32.

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

Mr. le Comte de Boulainvilliers et Mr. l'Abbé Dubos ont fait chacun un systeme, dont l'un semble être une conjuration contre le tiers-etat, et l'autre une conjuration contre la noblesse. Lorsque le Soleil donna à Phaeton son char à conduire, il lui dit, Si vous montes trop haut, vous brulerez la demeure céleste; si · Vous descendez trop bas, vous réduirez en cendres la terre: n'allez point trop à droite, vous tomberiez dans la constellation du serpent; n'allez point trop à gauche, vous iriez dans celle de l'autel tenez-vous entre les deaux.

L. xxx. ch. 10.

The following passage, intended, one would imagine, as a receipe to boil water, is altogether burlesque by the laboured elevation of the diction:

A massy caldron of stupendous frame

They brought, and plac'd it o'er the rising flame :
Then heap the lighted wood; the flame divides
Beneath the vase, and climbs around the sides;
In its wide womb they pour the rushing stream:
The boiling water bubbles to the brim.

Iliad, xviii. 405.

In a passage at the beginning of the 4th book of Telemachus, one feels a sudden bound upward without preparation, which accords not with the subject:

Calypso, qui avoit été justu› à ce moment immobile et transportée de plaisir en écoutant les avantures de Télémaque, l'interrompit pour lui faire pendre quelque repôs. Il est tems, lui ditelle, qui vous alliez goûter la douceur du sommeil aprés tant de travaux. Vous n'avez rien à craindre ici; tout vous est favorable. Abandonnez vous donc à la joye. Goutez la paix, et tous les autres dons des dieux dont vous allez être comblé. Demain, quand l'Aurore avec ses doigts de roses entr'ouvrira les portes dorees de l'Orient, et que le Chevaux du Soleil sortans de l'onde amere repandront les flames du jour, pour chasser devant eux toutes les étoiles du ciel, nous reprendrons, mon cher Télémaque, l'histoire de vos malheurs.

This obviously is copied from a similar passage in the Eneid, which ought to have been copied, because it lies open to the same censure; but the force of authority is great :

At regina gravi jamdudum saucia cura
Vulnus alit venis, et cæco carpitur igni.
Multa viri virtus animo, multusque recursat

Gentis honos: hærent infixi pectore vultus,

Verbaque; nec placidam membris dat cura quietem.
Postera Phabea lustrabat lampade terras,

Humentemque Aurora polo dimoverat umbram;
Cum sic unanimem alloquitur malesana sororem.

Lib. iv. 1.