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Nov. 30. 1774, when the medal was affigned to Mr. Walth.

III. ON THE ATTRACTION OF MOUNTAINS, delivered Nov. 30, 1775, when the medal was affigned to the Rev. Dr. Mafkelyne, for his Obfervations made on the Mountain Schehallien for finding the Attraction.

IV. ON SOME LATE IMPROVEMENTS of the Means for preferving the Health of Mariners, delivered Nov. 30, 1776, on adjudging the medal to the late Captain Cook, for his Account of the Method he had taken to preferve the Health of the Crew of his Majefty's Ship The Refolution, during her late Voyage round the World.

After enumerating the methods which Capt. Cook,

"O name, for ever fad, for ever dear!"" employed in order to prevent peftilential diforders among his crew, he thus concludes his paper:

"Thefe, Gentlemen, are the reflections I had to lay before you on this interefting fubject; and, if I have encroached on your time, you will recollect that much of my difcourfe hath been employed in explaining fome things but juft mentioned by Captain Cook, and in adding other materials, which I had procured partly in converfation with himfelf, and partly, after his departure, with thofe intelligent friends he alludes to in his paper. This was my plan; which, as I have now executed, you will pleafe to return your thanks to thofe gentlemen, who, on your account, fo chearfully communicated to me their obfervations. "As to your acknowledgements to Captain Cook, and your high opinion of his deferts, you will beft teftify them by the honourable diftinction fuggefted by your council, in prefenting him with this medal: for I need not gather your fuffrages, fince the attention with which you have favoured me hath abundantly expreffed your approbation. My fatisfaction, therefore, had been complete, had he himself been prefent to receive the honours you now confer upon him. But you are apprifed that our brave and indefatigable brother is at this inflant far removed from us, anticipating, I may

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"Allow me then, Gentlemen, to deliver this medal, with his unperithing name engraven upon it, into the hands of one who will be happy to receive that truft, and to know that this refpectable body never more cordially nor more meritoriously bestowed that faithful fymbol of their esteem and affection. For if Rome decreed the cur crown to him who faved the life of a fingle citizen, what wreathes are due to that man, who, having himself faved many, perpetuates in your Tranfac tions the means by which Britain may now, on the moft diftant voyages, preferve numbers of her intrepid fons, her mariners; who, braving every danger, have fo liberally contributed to the fame, to the opulence, and to the ma ritime empire of their country!"

V. ON THE INVENTION and Im

provements of the Reflecting Telescope, Nov. 30, 1777, when the medal was adjudged to Mr. John Mudge, of Plymouth, F. R. S. for his valuable Paper, containing "Directions for making the beft Compofition for the Metals of Reflecting Telescopes; together with a Defcription of the Procefs for grinding, polibing, and giving the great Speculum the true parabolic Form."

VI. ON THE THEORY OF GUNNERY, Nov. 30, 1778, when Mr. Charles Hutton gained the medal, for his paper, intituled "The Force of fired Gunpowder, and the critical Velocity of Cannon-Balls, determined by Experi

ments.

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At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society, 1778, Sir John Pringle refigned the chair, on account of his declining years, fo that this was the laft difcourfe which he delivered. With refpect to the merits of thefe compofitions, the learned world have long been fettled in their opinion. The republication of them by Dr. Kippis was a ufeful undertaking, and we hope

the fuccefs of it will reward him for up the life and remains of his deceased the trouble with which he has drawn friend.

ART. XXXII. Le&ures on Rhetoric and the Belles Lettres. By Hugh Blair, D. D. one of the Minifters of the High Church, and Proffer of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres int he University of Edinburgh. 4to. 2 Vols. Cadell, Creech, &c.

(Continued from page 435.)

WE followed our ingenious author through the first four of his lectures, in our laft review, we fhall now continue our account.

In his fifth lecture he treats of beauty, and other pleafures of tafte. Beauty, he obferves, next to fublimity, affords the highest pleasure to the imagination. The emotion which it raifes is very eafily diftinguifhed from that of fublimity. It is of a calmer kind; more gentle and foothing; does not elevate the mind fo much, but produces an agreeable ferenity. Sublimity raifes a feeling too violent to be lating; the pleafure arifing from beauty admits of longer continuance. It extends alfo to a much greater variety of objects than fublimity; to a variety indeed fo great, that the feelings which beautiful objects produce differ confiderably, not in degree only, but alfo in kind, from one another.

The Doctor proceeds to enumerate feveral of thofe claffes of objects in which beauty moft remarkably appears, and to point out, as far as he can, the feparate principles of beauty in each of them. He confiders colour, figure, motion, the beauty of the human countenance, and that arifing from fitnefs and defign, &c. and then goes on to the confideration of feveral other principles, from which objects derive their power of delighting the imagination, fuch as novelty, imitation, melody, harmony, &c. He concludes the Lecture in the following manner:

"At prefent it is not neceffary to purfue any farther the fubject of the pleafures of Tatte. I have opened fome of the general principles; it is time now to make the application to our chief fubject. If the queftion be put, to what clafs of thofe pleafures of tafte which I have enumerated, that pleasure is to be referred, which we receive from poetry, eloquence, or fine writing? My anfwer is, not to any one, but to them all. This fine LOND. MAG. Dec. 1783.

gular advantage, writing and difcourfe poffefs, that they encompafs fo large and rich a field on all fides, and have power to exhibit, in great perfection, not a fingle fet of objects only, but almoft the whole of thofe which give pleafure to tafte and imagination; whether that pleafure arife from fublimity, from beauty in its different forms, from defign and art, froin moral fentiment, from novelty, from harmony, from wit, humour, and ridicule. To whichfoever of thefe the peculiar bent of a perfon's tafte lies, from fome writer of other, he has it always in his power to receive the gratification of it.

"Now this high power which elo. quence and poetry poffefs, of fupplying tafte and imagination with fuch a wide circle of pleasures, they derive altogether from their having a greater capacity of imitation and defcription than is poffeffed by any other art. Of all the means which human ingenuity has contrived, for recalling the images of real objects, and awakening, by reprefentation, fimilar emotions to thofe which are raised by the original, none is fo full and extenfive as that which is is executed by words and writing. Through the affiftance of this happy invention, there is nothing, either in the natural or moral world, but what can be reprefented and set before the mind, in colours very ftrong and lively. Hence it is ufual among critical writers, to fpeak of difcourfe, as the chief of all the imitative or mimetic arts; they compare it with painting and with fculpture, and in many refpects prefer it juftly before them.

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This ftyle was first introduced by Ariftotle in his poetics; and fince his time, has acquired a general currency among modern authors. But, as it is of confequence to introduce as much precifion as poffible into critical lan guage, I muft obferve, that this manner of fpeaking is not accurate. Neither difcourfe in general, nor poetry in particular,

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meant one of Homer's defcriptions in the Iliad. I admit, at the fame time, that imitation and defcription agree in their principal effect, of recalling, by external figns, the ideas of things which we do not fee. But though in this they coincide, yet it fhould not be forgotten, that the terms themfelves are not fynonymous; that they import different means of effecting the fame end; and of courfe make different impreffions on the mind*.

particular, can be called altogether reprefentation of a battle on the ftage, imitative arts. We muft diftinguifh but would never apprehend that it betwixt imitation and defcription, which are ideas that fhould not be confounded. Imitation is performed by means of fomewhat that has a na-, tural likeness and refemblance to the thing imitated, and of confequence is understood by all; fuch are flatues and pictures. Defcription, again, is the railing in the mind the conception of an object by means of fome arbitrary or inftituted fymbols, underflood only by thofe who agree in the inftitution of them; fuch are words and writing. Words have no natural refemblance to the ideas or objects which they are employed to fignify; but a ftatue or a picture has a natural Jikeness to the original. And, therefore,imitation and defcription differ confiderably in their nature from each other. "As far, indeed, as a poet or hiftorian introduces into his work perfons actually fpeaking; and, by the words which he puts into their mouths, reprefents the difcourfe which they might be fuppofed to hold; fo far his art may more accurately be called imitative: and this is the cafe in all dramatic compofition. But in narrative or defcriptive works, it can with no propriety be called fo. Who, for intance, would call Virgil's defeription of a tempeft, in the first neid, in imitation of a storm? If we heard of the imitation of a battle, we might naturally think of fome mock fight, or

art.

"Whether we confider poetry in particular, and difcourfe in general, as imitative or defcriptive; it is evident, that their whole power, in recalling the impreflions of real objects, is de rived from the fignificancy of words. As their excellency flows altogether from this fource, we muft, in order to make way for further enquiries, begin at this fountain head. I'fhall, there fore, in the next lecture, enter upon the confideration of language: of the origin, the progrefs, and construction of which, Ipurpofe to treat at fome length.”

In the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Lectures, our author gives a hiftory of the rife and progrefs of language in feveral particulars, from its early to its more advanced periods, together with a fimilar history of the rife and progrefs of writing-fome account of the conftruction of language, or the principles of univerfal grammar, and an application of his obfervations more particularly Though, in the execution of particular parts, poetry is certainly defcriptive rather than imitative, yet there is a qualified fenfe in which poetry, in the general, may be termed an imitative The fubject of the poet (as Dr. Gerard has thown in the Appendix to his Eifay on Tatte) is intended to be an imitation, not of things really exifting, but of the course of nature; that is, a feigned representation of fuch events, or fuch fcenes, as though they never had a being, yet might have existed; and which, therefore, by their probability, bear a refemblance to nature. It was probably, in this fenfe, that Ariftotle termed poetry a mimetic art. How far either the imitation or the defcription which poetry employs, is fuperior to the imitative powers of painting and mulic, is well shown by Mr. Harris, in his Treatife on Mufic, Painting, and Poetry. The chief advantage which poetry or difcourfe in general enjoys is, that whereas, by the nature of his art, the painter is confined to the reprefentation of a fingle moment, writing and difcourfe can trace a tranfaction through its whole progrefs. That moment, indeed, which the painter pitches upon for the fubject of his picture, he may be faid to exhibit with more advantage than the poet or the orator; mafmuch as he fets before us, in one view, all the minute concurrent circumftances of the event which happen in one individual point of time, as they appear in nature; while difcourfe is obliged to exhibit them in fucceffion, and by means of a detail, which is in danger of becoming tedious, in order to be clear; or if not tedious, is in danger of being obfcure. But to that point of time which he has chofen, the painter being entirely confined, he cannot exhibit various ftages of the fame action or event; and he is fubject to this further detect, that he can only exhibit objects as they appear to the eye, and can very imperfectly delineate characters and fentiments, which are the nobleit fubjetts of imitation or delcription. The power of reprefenting there with full advantage gives a high fuperiority to dilcourte and writing above all other imitative arts.

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particularly to the English tongue. Thefe are curious and inftructive fubjects, and treated with great perfpicuity and diftinctnefs. What is faid on the general conftruction of language will appear to many readers dry and intricate; it is, however, of great importance, and very nearly connected with the philofophy of the human mind. For, if fpeech be the vehicle, or interpreter of the conceptions of our minds, an examination of its ftructure and progrefs, as Dr. Blair obferves cannot but unfold many things concerning the nature and progrefs of our conceptions themfelves, and the operations of our faculties; a fubject that is always inftructive to man.

Having finished the fubject of language, he now enters on the confideration of style, and the rules that relate to it. All the qualities of a good ftyle may be ranged, he fays, under two heads, perfpicuity and ornament. The ftudy of perfpicuity requires attention, firft, to fingle words and phrafes, and then to the conftruction of fentences. Perfpicuity, confidered with refpect to words and phrafes, requires thefe three qualities in them, purity, propriety, and precifion.

As precifion in language is the higheft part of the quality denoted by perfpicuity, and as diftinét ideas are not commonly formed about it, our author beflows a full explication of it.

"The exact import of precision (fays he) may be drawn from the etymology of the word. It comes from precidere,' to cut off: it imports retrenching all fuperfluities, and pruning the expreffion fo, as to exhibit neither more nor less than the exact copy of his idea who ufes it. I obferved before, that it is often difficult to feparate the qualities of ftyle from the qualities of thought; and it is found fo in this inftance. For, in order to write with precifion, though this be properly a quality of ftyle, one muft poffefs a very confiderable degree of diftinctnefs and accuracy in his manner of thinking.

"The words which a man ufes to exprefs his ideas, may be faulty in three refpects: they may either not exprefs that idea which the author intends,

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but fome other which only refembles, or is akin to it; or they may exprefs pletely; or, they may express it, tothat idea, but not quite fully and comgether with fomething more than he intends. Precision ftands oppofed to all these three faults; but chiefly to the laft. In an author's writing with propriety, his being free of the two former faults feem implied. The words which he ufes are proper; that is, they exprefs that idea which he intends, and they exprefs it fully; but to be precife, fignifies, that they exprefs that idea, and words which introduces any foreign no more. There is nothing in his idea, any fuperfluous unfeafonable acthe principal object, and thereby to ceffory, fo as to mix it confufedly with render our conception of that objec writer to have, himfelf, a very clear loofe and indiftinct. This requires a apprehenfion of the object he means to prefent to us; to have laid faft hold of it in his mind; and never to waver in fection to which, indeed, few writers any one view he takes of it: a perattain.

cifion, may be deduced from the nature "The ufe and importance of preof the human mind. It never can view, clearly and diftinctly, above one object three together, especially objects among at a time. If it matt look at two or

which there is refemblance or conembarraffed. It cannot clearly perceive nection, it finds itself confufed and in what they agree, and in what they differ. Thus, were any object, fuppofe fome animal, to be prefented to me, of whofe ftructure I wanted to form a trappings to be taken off, I would redistinct notion, I would defire all its quire it to be brought before me by itfelf, and to stand alone, that there might be nothing to diftract my atten tion. The fame is the cafe with words. If, when you would inform me of your meaning, you alfo tell me more than what conveys it; if you join foreign circumstances to the principal object; fion, you fhift the point of view, and if, by unneceffarily varying the exprefmake me fee fometimes the object itfelf, and fometimes another thing that is connecled with it; you thereby oblige 322

me

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me to look on feveral objects at once, and I lofe fight of the principal. You load the animal you are showing me with fo many trappings and collars, and bring fo many of the fame fpecies before me, fomewhat refembling, and yet fomewhat differing, that I fee none of them clearly.

"This forms what is called a loofe ftyle; and is the proper oppofite to precifion. It generally arifes from ufing a fuperfluity of words. Feeble writers employ a multitude of words to make themselves understood, as they think, more diftinctly; and they only confound the reader. They are fenfible of not having caught the precife expreffion, to convey what they would fignify; they do not, indeed, conceive their own meaning very precifely themfelves; and, therefore, help it out, as they can, by this and the other word, which may, as they fuppofe, fupply the defect, and bring you fomewhat nearer to their idea: they are always going about it, and about it, but never juft hit the thing. The image, as they fet it before you, is always feen double; and no double image is diftinct. When an author tells me of his hero's courage in the day of battle, the expreffion is precife, and I understand it fully. But if, from the defire of multiplying words, he will needs praife his courage and fortitude; at the moment he joins thefe words together, my idea begins to He means to exprefs one quality more ftrongly; but he is, in truth, expreffing two. Courage refills danger; fortitude fupports pain. The occafion of exerting each of thefe qualities is different; and being led to think of both together, when only one of them view is renview, my should be in my dered unfteady, and my conception of the object indiftinct.

waver.

"From what I have faid, it appears that an author may, in a qualifed fenfe, be perfpicuous, while yet he is far from being precife. He ufes proper words, and proper arrangement; he gives you the idea as clear as he conceives it himself; and fo far he is perfpicuous: but the ideas are not very clear in his own mind; they are loofe

and general; and, therefore, cannot be expreffed with precifion. All fubjects do not equally require precifion. It is fufficient, on many occafions, that we have a general view of the meaning. The fubject, perhaps, is of the known and familiar kind; and we are in no hazard of mistaking the fenfe of the author, though every word which he ufes be not precife and exact.

"Few authors, for instance, in the English language, are more clear and perfpicuous, on the whole, than Archbifhop Tillotfon, and Sir William Temple; yet neither of them are remarkable for precifion. They are loofe and diffufe; and accuftoined to exprefs their meaning by feveral words, which fhew you fully whereabouts it lies, rather than to fingle out those expreflions which would convey clearly the idea they have in view, and no more.

Neither, indeed, is precifion the prevailing character of Mr. Addifon's tyle; although he is not fo deficient in this refpect as the other two authors.

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"Lord Shaftesbury's faults, in point of precifion, are much greater than Mr. Addifon's; and the more unpardonable, because he is a profeffed philofophical writer; who, as fuch, ought, above all things, to have ftudied precifion. His ftyle has both great ties, and great faults; and, on the whole, is by no means a fafe model for imitation. Lord Shaftesbury was well acquainted with the power of words; thofe which he employs are generally proper and well founding; he has great variety of them; and his arrangement, as fhall be afterwards fhown, is commonly beautiful. His defect, in precifion, is not owing fo much to indiftinct or confufed ideas, as to perpetual affectation. He is fond, to excels, of the pomp and parade of language; he is never fatisfied with exprefling any thing clearly and fimply; he muit al ways give it the drefs of ftate and majetty. Hence perpetual circumlocutions, and many words and phrafes employed to deferibe fomewhat, that would have been defcribed much better by one of them. If he has occafion to mention any perfon or author, he very rarely

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