White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud Howl o'er the mafts, and fing thro' ev'ry shroud: Pale, trembling, tir'd the failors freeze with fears, And inftant death on ev'ry wave appears * Mr. Pope. Aratus has more fpirit in it than the applauded defcriptions in the authors of antiquity; becaufe when the storm is in all its rage, and the danger become extreme, almighty Power is introduced to calm at once the roaring main, and give prefervation to the miferable diftreffed. It ends in that fervency of devotion, which fuch grand occurrences are fitted to raise in the minds of the thoughtful. a "He commandeth and raiseth the ftormy wind, which "lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to heaven, "they go down again to the depths; their foul is melted "away because of trouble. They reel to and fro like "drunken man, and are at their wits-end. Then they cry "unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out "of their diftreffes. He maketh the ftorm a calm, fo that "the waves thereof are ftill. Then are they glad, because "they be quiet; fo he bringeth them unto their defired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his "goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of "men!" Shakespear has, with inimitable art, made ufe of a storm in his tragedy of King Lear, and continued it through seven fcenes. In reading it, one fees the piteous condition of those who are expos'd to it in open air; one almost hears the wind and thunder, and beholds the flafhes of lightning. The anger, fury, and paffionate exclamations of Lear himself feem to rival the ftorm, which is as outrageous in his breast, inflamed and ulcerated by the barbarities of his daughters, as in the elements themfelves. We view him Con Aratus has attempted a refinement upon the last thought, and turned it thus, A slender plank preferves them from their fate +. But instead of increafing the terror, he only leffens Contending with the fretful elements, Bids the wind blow the earth into the fea, That things might change, or cease: tears his white hair, Catch in their fury We afterwards fee the diftreffed old man expofed to all the inclemencies of the weather; nature itself in hurry and diforder, but he as violent and boisterous as the storm. Rumble thy belly-full, fpit fire, fpout rain; Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire are my daughters; And immediately after, Let the great gods, That keep this dreadful thund'ring o'er our heads, Unwhipt of justice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand, Thou perjur'd, and thou fimular man of virtue, Thefe dreadful fummoners grace The *Iliad. o. ver. 624. + Arati Phænomen. ver. 299. leffens and refines it away; and befides, he sets a bound to the impending danger, by saying, "a plank preserves them," thus banishing their despair. But the Poet is fo far from confining the danger of his failors, that he paints them in a most desperate fituation, while they are only not swallow'd up in every wave, and have death before their eyes as faft as they escape it. (4) Nay more, the danger is difcerned in the The ftorm still continues, and the poor old man is forced along the open heath, to take shelter in a wretched hovel. There the poet has laid new incidents, to ftamp fresh terror on the imagination, by lodging Edgar in it before them. The paffions of the old king are fo turbulent, that he will not be perfuaded to take any refuge. When honest Kent intreats him to go in, he cries, Prithee go in thyfelf, feek thy own ease; This tempeft will not give me leave to ponder Nay, get thee in; I'll pray, and then I'll fleep- The miferies and diforders of Lear and Edgar are then painted with fuch judicious horror, that every imagination muft the very hurry and confufion of the words; the verses are tofs'd up and down with the fhip, the harshness and jarring of the fyllables give us a lively image of the storm, and the whole description is in itself a terrible and furious tempeft. It is by the fame method, that Archilochus has fucceeded fo well in defcribing a wreck; and Demofthenes, where he relates the con fufions must be ftrongly affected by fuch tempefts in reafon and nature. I have quoted those paffages, which have the moral reflexions in them, fince they add folemnity to the terror, and alarm at once a variety of paffions. (4) Nay more the danger, &c.-] I have given this fentence fuch a turn, as I thought would be most suitable to our language, and have omitted the following words, which occur in the original: "Befides, he has forcibly united fome "prepofitions that are naturally averse to union, and heaped << them one upon another, ' ix JavaTeio. By this means, "the danger is difcern'd," &c. The beauty Longinus here commends in Homer of making the words correspond with the fenfe, is one of the most excellent, that can be found in compofition. The many and refined observations of this nature in Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, are an evidence, how exceedingly fond the ancients were of it. There fhould be a ftile of found as well as of words, but fuch a ftile depends on a great command of lanand a mufical ear. guage, We see a great deal of it in Milton, but in Mr. Pope it appears to perfection. It would be folly to quote examples, fince they can poffibly escape none who can read and hear. *Orat. de Coronâ. (5) The fufions at Athens, upon arrival of ill news. (5) "It was (fays be) in the evening, &c." If I may speak by a figure, they review'd the forces of their fubjects, and cull'd out the flower of them, with this caution, not to place any mean, or indecent, or coarfe expreffion in fo choice a body. For fuch expreffions are like mere patches, or unfightly bits of matter, which in this edifice of grandeur entirely confound the fine proportions, mar the symmetry, and deform the beauty of the whole. SEC (5) The whole paffage in Demofthenes's oration runs thus: "It was evening when a courier brought the news to "the magiftrates of the furprifal of Elatea. Immediately "they arofe, tho' in the midft of their repaft. Some of "them hurried away to the Forum, and driving the trades66 men out, fet fire to their fhops. Others fled to advertise "the commanders of the army of the news, and to sum66 mon the public herald. The whole city was full of tu"mult. On the morrow, by break of day, the magistrates "convene the fenate. You, gentlemen, obey'd the fum"mons. Before the public council proceeded to debate, the "people took their feats above. When the fenate were "come in, the magiftrates laid open the reafons of their "meeting, and produced the courier. He confirmed their "report. The herald demanded aloud, who would harangue? "No body rose up. The herald repeated the question several ❝ times. In vain: No body rofe up; no body harangued; "tho' all the commanders of the army were there, tho' "the orators were prefent, tho' the common voice of our "country joined in the petition, and demanded an oration ❝for the public fafety." (1) Lucan |