Tout ce que ta plume trace, In me tota ruens Venus Maynard. Horat. Carm, lib. 1. ode 19. From confidering that a word ufed in a figurative fenfe fuggefts at the fame time its proper meaning, we difcover a fifth rule, That we ought not to employ a word in a figurative fenfe, the proper fenfe of which is inconfiftent or incongruous with the fubject: for every inconfiftency, and even incongruity, though in the expreffion only and not real, is unpleasant : Interea genitor Tyberini ad fluminis undam Vulnera ficcabat lymphis Eneid. x. 833. Tres adeo incertos cæca caligine foles Erramus pelago, totidem fine fidere noctes. Eneid. iii. 203. The foregoing rule may be extended to form a fixth, That no epithet ought to be given to the figurative sense of a word that agrees not alfo with its proper fense: Dicat Opuntiæ Frater Megilla, quo beatus Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27. Parcus deorum cultor, et infrequens, Infanientis dum fapientiæ Horat. Carm. 1. 1. ode 34. Seventhly, The crowding into one period or thought different figures of speech, is not lefs faulty than crowding metaphors in that manner: the mind is diftracted in the quick tranfition from one image to another, and is puzzled inttead of being pleased: I am of ladies most deject and wretched, Ah mifer, Quantâ laboras in Charybdi! Que faga, quis te folvere Theffalis Hamlet. Odyssey, i. 439 Vix Vix illigatum te triformi Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 27. Eighthly, If crowding figures be bad, it is still worse to graft one figure upon another: For instance, While his keen falchion drinks the warriors lives. Iliad xi. 211, A falchion drinking the warriors blood is a figure built upon refemblance, which is paffable. But then in the expreffion, lives is again put for blood; and by thus grafting one figure upon another, the expreffion is rendered obfcure and unpleasant, Ninthly, Intricate and involved figures, that can fcarce be analyfed, or reduced to plain language, are leaft of all tolerable: Arma acri facienda viro: nunc viribus ufus, Præcipitate moras. Eneid. viii. 44. Huic gladio, perque ærea futa Per tunicam fqualentem auro, latus haurit apertum. Semotique prius tarda neceffitas Lethi, corripuit gradum. Eneid. x. 313. Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 3. Scribêris Vario fortis, et hoftium Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 6. Elfe fhall our fates be number'd with the dead. Iliad. v. 294. Commutual death the fate of war confounds. Speaking of Proteus, Iliad viii. 85. and xi. 117. Inftant he wears, elufive of the rape, Odyffey iv. 563. Rolling Rolling convulfive on the floor, is seen Ibid. iv. 952. The mingling tempeft weaves its gloom. Autumn, 337. A various sweetness fwells the gentle race. A fober calm fleeces unbounded æther. Ibid. 640. Winter, 738. In the tenth place, When a fubject is introduced by its proper name, it is abfurd to attribute to it the properties of a different fubject to which the word is fome times apply'd in a figurative fenfe : Hear me, oh Neptune! thou whofe arms are hurl'd From shore to shore, and gird the folid world. Odyssey, ix. 617. Neptune is here introduced perfonally, and not figuratively for the ocean: the defcription therefore, which is only applicable to the latter, is altogether improper. It is not fufficient, that a figure of speech be regularly conftructed, and be free from blemish: it requires tafte to discern when it is proper when improper; and tafte, I fufpect, is our only guide. One however may gather from reflection and experience, that ornaments and graces fuit not any of the difpiriting paffions, nor are proper for expreffing any thing grave and important. In familiar converfation, they are in fome measure ridiculous: Profpero, in the Tempeft, fpeaking to his daughter Miranda, fays, The fringed curtains of thine eyes advance, No exception can be taken to the juftnefs of the figure; and circumstances may be imagined to make it proper : but it is certainly not proper in familiar converfation. In the laft place, Though figures of fpeech have a charming effect when accurately conftructed and properly introduced, they ought however to be scattered with a fparing hand: nothing is more luscious, and no thing thing confequently more fatiating, than redundant ornaments of any kind, H NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION. ORACE, and many critics after him, exhort wri ters to chufe a fubject adapted to their genius. Such peculiarities would multiply rules of criticifm without end; and at any rate belong not to the prefent work, the object of which is human nature in general, and what is common to the fpecies. But though thechoice of a fubject comes not under fuch a plan, the manner of execution comes under it; because the man-ner of execution is fubjected to general rules, derived. from principles common to the fpecies.. These rules,. as they concern the things expreffed as well as the language or expreffion, require a divifion of this chapters into two parts; first of thoughts, and next of words.. I pretend not to justify this divifion as entirely accurate: for in difcourfing of thoughts, it is difficult to abftracti altogether from words; and ftill more difficult, in difcourfing of words, to abftract altogether from thought.. The first rule is, That in hiftory, the reflections ought to be chafte and folid; for while the mind is in-tent upon truth, it is little difpofed to the operations of the imagination. Strada's Belgic hiftory is full of poetical images, which, being difcordant with the subject, are unpleasant; and they have a still worse effect, by giving an air of fiction to a genuine hiftory. Such flowers ought to be scattered with a fparing hand, even in epic poetry; and at no rate are they proper, till the reader be warmed, and by an enlivened imagination be prepared to relish them in that state of mind, they are extremely agreeable; but while we are fedate and attentive to an historical chain of facts, we reject with difdain every fiction. This Belgic history is indeed wofully vicious both in matter and in form; it is stuffed with frigid and unmeaning reflections; and its poetical flafhes, even laying alide their impropriety, are mere vinfel. Secondly, Secondly, Vida *, following Horace, recommends a modeft commencement of an epic poem; giving for a reason, That the writer ought to hufband his fire. This reafon has weight; but what is faid above fuggefts a reafon ftill more weighty: bold thoughts and figures are never relished till the mind be heated and thoroughly engaged, which is not the reader's cafe at the commencement. Homer introduces not a fingle fimile in the first book of the Iliad, nor in the first book of the Odyssey. On the other hand, Shakespear begins one of his plays with a fentiment too bold for the most heated imagination: Bedford. Hung be the heav'ns with black, yield day. Comets, importing change of times and ftates, First part, Henry VI, The paffage with which Strada begins his hiftory, is too poetical for a fubject of that kind; and at any rate too high for the beginning of a grave performance. A third reafon ought to have not lefs influence than either of the former, That a man who, upon his first appearance, ftrains to make a figure, is too oftentatious to be relished. Hence the first fentences of a work ought to be fhort, natural, and fimple. Cicero, in his oration pro Archia poeta, errs against that rule: his reader is out of breath at the very firft. period; which feems never to end, Burnet begins the hiftory of his own times with a pe riod long and intricate. A third rule or observation is, That where the subject is intended for entertainment folely, not for inftruction, a thing ought to be defcribed as it appears, not as it is in reality. In running, for example, the impulfe upon the ground is proportioned in fome degree to the celerity of motion; though in appearance it is * Poet. lib.. 2. 1. 30.. otherwife, |