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properly applied, as indeed have those that are not compounded when they decorate and illuftrate the substantive, or raise fome new idea in the mind; but how abfurd and ridiculous are many that we meet with in fome of the poets? fuch, for inftance, as watery floods, burning fire, cold ice, arrow-bearing quiver; which convey nothing to the mind of the reader, and when examined, carry no other meaning than watery water, hot heat, cold cold, arrow-bearing arrow-bearer. But even the beft epithets may be fo frequently used as to overload a discourse, and make it heavy, languid, and difagreeable. A good poem, like a rich dish, confifts of many dainties so judicioufly mixed, as to form one compound that is perfect and pleasing; no ingredient should predominate; for too great a portion of any one, however palatable it may be in itself, will rob the rest of their flavour. Befides, a luxuriancy of epithets tends to make the ftyle prolix and flaccid, and robs it of that ftrength and force with which every discourse fhould be animated; for the shorter and clofer the style the ftronger. And even where fome of the paffions are concerned, or the fubject is preceptive, and intended to inform the judgment, they are to be ufed very fparingly; for a redundancy of epithets will here break in upon perfpicuity, and render that obfcure, which would have been otherwise very plain and intelligible. In confirmation of this opinion, I must beg leave to obferve, that the funeral oration of Mark Anthony in Shakespear's Julius Cafar, which is one of the most artful, pathetic, and best fpeeches that ever was penned in the English language, has hardly an epithet from the beginning to the end. There are indeed adjectives and participles to the fubftantives, but these are not to be called epithets, fince they make up the effential part of the description; whereas, what we call epithets, are added only by way of ornament and illufration.

But this is faid not with an intention to leffen the reader's esteem for epithets, fince it is certain, that they are moft admirably adapted to defcription, and fo effential to poetry, that the beauty of its style depends in a great meaLure on their use, which Homer, Virgil, and the best poets were fo fenfible of, that their works abound with them. And in fome places many epithets are joined to the fame

fubftantive without any conjunction between them, and are often thus more elegant and expreffive.

An eyeless monfter, hideous, vaft, deform!

Immediately a place

VIRGIL.

Before his eyes appear'd, fad, noisome, dark.

-And the plain ox,

MILTON.

That harmless, honeft, guileless animal,
In what has he offended? He, whose toil,
Patient, and ever ready, cloaths the fields
With all the pomp of harvest; shall he bleed,
And wrestling groan beneath the cruel hands
Even of the clowns he feeds?

THOMSON.

What therefore we contend for, is their proper application; we would have the poet, like a good architect, diftinguish ornament from ftrength, and put each in its proper place; for as nothing adds more beauty to a poem than juft and ornamental epithets, fo nothing gives more grace to a building than windows well decorated; but no man would for that reason stick his house full of them, and difplace those pillars which should support the fabric, to let in more light than is necessary.

The poet indeed, as Quintilian has obferved, is here greatly indulged, and may use these bewitching ornaments more frequently and more freely than the orator; but both ought to take care that they are not too redundant, for elegance abhors a verbose luxuriance either in profe or verfe.

We come now to speak of tropes and figures, materials which the poet handles very freely; but as we have treated largely of thefe in our volume of Rhetoric, we fhall not take up the reader's time with an illustration of them here befides, they are perhaps better and more eafily obtained from experience than precept; for every one who is conversant with the beft authors, and reads them with due attention, cannot be unacquainted with the figures of speech, and the art of applying them, though he never looked for them in the rhetoric of the

schools, or ever heard fo much as a definition of their names. Nor will this appear at all myfterious, when we confider, that the works of the antient poets and orators are the gardens from whence these flowers were taken.

Those which the young student will be most liable to err in, are the metaphor, the fimile, and the description, and therefore a few cautions refpecting these may be necessary.

Metaphors are always agreeable, and have a good effect when they are drawn from nature, and connect ideas that have a due relation to each other; but when they are forced, foreign, and obfcure, they are altogether as infipid, abfurd and ridiculous.

In fimiles or comparisons, the chief and effential parts fhould bear an exact and true proportion. A small difagreement in a lefs confiderable circumstance, will not indeed spoil the figure; but the more exact the parallel is in every particular, the more perfect and lively it will be; and therefore fimiles are generally best when short; for, befides that tediousness tires, by running into minute circumstances, you are in danger of difcovering fome unpleafing difproportion. Similes need not be always drawn from lofty fubjects; for thofe taken from common things are fignificant and agreeable, if they are cloathed with proper expreffions, and paint in ftrong and lively colours the things we intend they should reprefent. In grand subjects, fimiles that are drawn from leffer things relieve and refresh the mind.

Defcriptions, which by historians and orators are used cautiously and through neceffity, either to describe persons, things and places, or to affect the paffions, are often in poetry introduced only by way of decoration, and that with fuccefs. Great judgment, however, is required in the diftribution of this figure. Whether it be intended to move the paffions, or to please the fancy, it must answer the end propofed; and therefore it is never to be admitted but when fome point can be obtained. A little wit never be. trays himself more than when by attempting to display his genius, he throws in defcriptions that have no connection with the subject in hand, and are therefore a dead weight to it. Thefe verfifiers are likewife too apt to lay hold of every hint that presents itself, and to run out into long common-places; whereas the man of real genius and

judgment confiders that many things must be left to gratify the imagination of the reader, and therefore cuts off all fuperfluities, however pleafing, and rejects every thing that would feem abrupt and foreign to his fubject. He difcards likewife all low and vulgar circumstances, and employs his genius in beautifying the effential and more noble parts.

That painting as well as poetry fo much affects us, is chiefly owing to the juftnefs and elegance of description. Pieces of portraiture and hiftory, as well as landscapes, if the figures are nobly defigned, and finely executed, if the perspective be good, the lights and shades juft and natural, and the whole bold and free, will always please ; and fo it is with poetry, the defcriptions in Homer, Virgil, Milton, and Shakespear, will live for ever, and, like the pieces of Raphael, always feed the imagination with pleasure.

The power of description in poetry is very great, and there is more ufe made of it than is generally imagined; for however the modes of expreffion have been multiplied, many of them will be found to be little more than defcriptions: thus images are descriptions only heightened and animated; allufions and fimiles, defcriptions placed in an oppofite point of view; epithets are generally defcriptions of the fubftantives they precede, or fome of their properties; every metaphor is a fhort defcription and comparison united; and the hyperbole is often no more than a description carried beyond the bounds of probability; and it is chiefly owing to their defcriptive power that thefe figures ftrike the imagination fo forcibly, and impress fuch lively images on the mind.

We are now to speak of the different forts of ftyle, which have been usually divided into the plain, mediate, and sublime. Virgil may be pointed out as a perfect pattern in each, that is to fay, his Bucolics have been esteemed for the plain ftyle, his Georgics for the mediate, and the Æneid for the fublime. Though in many parts of each, examples may be feen of them all; for there are few poems of any merit that can be wrote in the plain or mediate ftyle only, without partaking of the other; nor are there any that are in all places fublime. Even the epic poem and the tragedy have their under parts; common things as well as great

must be introduced, and both are to be expressed and treated according to their nature and dignity.

The fublime ftyle has the property of expreffing lofty ideas in a lofty language; that is to fay, with words that are fonorous and majestic, and fuitable to the grandeur of the fubject.

He on the wings of cherub rode fublime

On the crystalline sky, in fapphire thron'd,
Illuftrious far and wide-

Before him pow'r divine his way prepar'd;
At his command th' uprooted hills retir'd,

Each to his place; they heard his voice, and went
Obfequious; heav'n his wonted face renew'd,
And with fresh flowrets hill and valley fmil'd.

-Up he rode,

Follow'd with acclamation and the found
Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tun'd
Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air
Refounding; (thou remember'ft, for thou heard'st)
The heav'ns and all the conftellations rung,
The planets in their station lift'ning ftood,
While the bright pomp afcended jubilant.
Open ye everlasting gates, they fung,
Open, ye heav'ns, your living doors, let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a world.

MILTON.

This description of the Meffiah is to be admired for the fublimity of the thoughts, as well as for that of the style; as indeed is the following defcription of a tempeft by Mr. Thomson.

'Tis dumb amaze, and lift'ning terror all ;
When to the quicker eye the livid glance
Appears far fouth, emiffive thro' the cloud;
And by the powerful breath of God inflate,
The thunder raises his tremendous voice:
At first low muttering; but at each approach,
The lightnings flafh a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds: till over head a fheet
Of various flame difclofes wide, then shuts

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