melody, should be thrown loose, that they may not seem too much laboured: nor ought we ever to omit any proper or expressive word, for the sake of smoothing a period."* Hitherto our attention has been directed to agreeable sound or modulation in general. It yet remains to treat of a higher beauty; the sound adapted to the sense. This beauty may either be attained in prose or verse: but in illustrating ts general principle, the writings of the poets will furnish us with the most copious and striking illustrations. The resemblance of poetical numbers to the subject which they mention or describe, may be considered as general or particular, as consisting in the flow and structure of a whole passage taken together, or as comprised in the sound of some emphatical and descriptive words, or in the cadence and harmony of single verses, A general analogy between the sound and the sense. is to be found in every language which admits of poetry, in every author whose fancy enables him to impress images strongly on his own mind, and whose choice and variety of language readily supplies him with just representations. To such a writer it is natural to change his measure with his subject, even without any effort of the understanding, or intervention of the judgment. To revolve jollity and mirth, necessarily tunes the voice of a poet to gay and sprightly notes, as it fires his eye with vivacity; and reflections on gloomy situations and disastrous events, will sadden Quintilian, De Institut. Orator. lib. ix. cap. iv. ✦ See Dr. Beattie's Essay on Poetry and Music, p. 282. his numbers as it will cloud his countenance. But in such passages, there is only the similitude of pleasure to pleasure, and of grief to grief, without any immediate application of particular images. The same flow of joyous versification will celebrate the jollity of marriage, and the exultation of triumph; and the same languor of melody will suit the complaint of an absent lover, and the lamentations of a conquered king. It is scarcely to be doubted that on many occasions we produce the music which we imagine ourselves to hear; that we modulate the poem by our own disposition, and ascribe to the numbers the effects of the sense. We may observe in real life that it is not easy to deliver a pleasing message in an unpleasing manner, and that we readily associate beauty and deformity with those whom we have reason to love or hate. Yet it would be too daring to declare that all the celebrated adaptations of harmony are chimerical; that Homer, Virgil, and Milton, paid no extraordinary attention to their numbers in any of those passages where the sound is said to be an echo to the sense. There being frequently a strong resemblance of one sound to another, it will not be surprising to find an articulate sound resembling one that is not articulate. Of this resemblance we meet with an exemplification in the following passages: Un a sudden open fly, With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, Th' infernal doors, and on their hinges grate Harsh thunder. Milton. * Johnson's Rambler, No. 94. The The impetuous arrow whizzes on the wing.-Pope. The string, let fly, Tuung'd short and sharp, like the shrill swallow's cry.-Pope Loud sounds the air, redoubling strokes on strokes, At dead of night 'mid his oraison hears Aghast the voice of Time, disparting towers, Tumbling all precipitate down-dash'd, Rattling around, loud thundering to the moon.-J. Dyer. That there is any other natural resemblance of souna to signification, must not be taken for granted. There is evidently no similarity between sound and motion, or between sound and sentiment. We are apt to be deceived by an artful pronunciation. The same passage may be pronounced in many different tones, elevated or humble, sweet or harsh, brisk or melancholy, so as to accord with the sentiment or thought. This concordance must be carefully distinguished from that between sound and sense; which may sometimes subsist without any independence upon artful pronunciation. The latter is the work of the poet; the former must be attributed to the reader. There is another circumstance which contributes still more to the deceit. Sound and sense being intimately connected, the properties of the one are readily communicated to the other. Thus, for example, the quality of grandeur, of sweetness, or of melancholy, though solely belonging to the thought, is transferred to the word by which that quality is expressed. In this manner, words bear an imaginary resemblance to those objects of which they are only the arbitrary signs. It is of the greatest importance to distinguish the natural resemblance of sound and signification from those artificial resemblances which have now been described. The From the instances lately adduced, it is evident that there may be a similarity between sounds articulate, and sounds inarticulate. But we may safely pronounce that this resemblance can be carried no farther. objects of the different senses have no similarity to each other. Sound, whether articulate or inarticulate, bears no kind of analogy to taste or smell; and as little can it resemble internal sentiment, feeling, or emotion. Must we then admit that nothing but sound can be imitated by sound? Taking imitation in its proper sense, as importing a coincidence between different objects, the proposition must be admitted: and yet in many passages that are not descriptive of sound, every one must be sensible of a peculiar concord between the sound of the words and their meaning. As there can be no doubt of the fact, what remains is, to enquire into its cause. Resembling causes may produce effects which have no resemblance; and causes which have no resemblance may produce resembling effects. A magnificent building, for example, does not in any degree resemble an heroic action; and yet the emotions which they produce, are sometimes concordant, and bear a resemblance to each other. We are still more sensible of this kind of resemblance in a song where the music is properly adapted to the sentiment. There is no similarity between thought and sound; but there is the strongest similarity between the emotion excited by music tender and pathetic, and that excited by the complaint of an unsuccessful lover. When we apply this observation to the present subject, it will appear that in some instances, the sound even of a single word makes an impression similar to that which is produced by the thing it signifies. Running, rapidity, impetuosity, precipitation, are of this decription. Brutal manners produce in the spectator an emotion not unlike what is caused by a harsh and rough sound ; and hence the beauty of the figurative expression, rugged manners. The word little, being pronounced with a very small aperture of the mouth, has a weak and faint sound, which makes an impression resembling that produced by a diminutive object. This resemblance of effects is still more remarkable where a number of words are connected together in a period. Words pronounced in succession often produce a strong impression; and when this impression happens to accord with that made by the sense, we are sensible of a complex emotion, peculiarly pleasant; one proceeding from the sentiment, and one from the melody or sound of the words. But the chief pleasure arises from having these two concordant emotions combined in perfect harmony, and carried on in the mind to a full close. Except those passages in which sound is described, all the examples given by critics of sense being imitated by sound, resolve themselves into a resemblance of effects. Emotions excited by sound and signification may have a mutual resemblance: but sound itself cannot have a resemblance to any thing but sound. After |