gures vanish; but let never fo much alteration be -made as to the words in Figures of fentiment, the Figures will still continue; for as the Figures reft upon the ideas, it is impofsible that they fhould be destroyed by a mutation of language *. The firft clafs of Figures is only the body, the laft is the very foul of our compositions †

§4. As to the necefsity and ufe of Figures, Ifhall only for the prefent transiently observe, that they are of great férvice to animate, adorn, entertain, and illuftrate. "It is of great importance, fays "the ingenious Mr ROLLIN, to make youth ob

ferve, in reading good Authors, the ufe which "true eloquence makes of Figures, and the as"siftance it draws from them, not only to please, "but to perfuade, and move the affections; "and that without them exprefsion is weak, and “falls into a kind of monotony, and is almost "like a body without a foul t." QUINTILIAN gives a very just idea of the power of Figures by a very natural comparison; "The Statuary's art, fays he, is very little feen in an upright body,

"when

Formantur autem & verba & fententiæ pœne innumerabiles, quod fatis fcio notum effe vobis; fed inter conformationem verborum & fententiarum hoc intereft, quod verborum tollitur, fi verba mutaris; fententiarum permanet, quibufconverbis uti velis CICER. de Orat. lib. iii. p. 52. que

+Sunt igitur Schemata feu Figuræ duplicis generis, ut à plerifque ftatuuntur, dictionis, & fententiæ. Illæ ad mate riam, ac veluti corpus orationio pertinent; hæ vero ad formam. & quafi animam, hoc eft, ad fententiam, GLASS11 Philalog. Sacra, P. 1422.

ROLLIN on the Belles Lettres, vol. ii. p. 141.

"when the face is made direct, when the hands "hang down, when the feet are set close toge«ther, and when a ftiff air prevails over the "whole image from head to foot. The grace"ful bending, and, as I may call it, the motion' " of a statue, gives life to it. The hands are "formed in different postures, and the counte"nance is infinitely varied. And the fame beauty "and pleafure which ftrike us in the works of <<the Statuary, ftrike us alfo in the Figures of "the Rhetorician +."

"

§ 5. Before I finish my difcourfe on the general nature of Figures, I fhall give a few directions as to the proper management of them.

(1) Let our difcourfes be founded upon reafon, and let us establish every thing we advance with folid and convincing arguments. We are first to labour to enlighten the understanding, and inform the judgment, and then introduce our Figures to affect and engage the passions, and thereby fecure a complete triumph over our audience. It is a kind of infult to the reafon of a man to endeavour to excite his passions, before he is fatisfied of the truth and juftice of our ecause

+ Nam refti quidem corporis vel minima gratia eft. Neque enim adverfa fit facies, & demiffa brachia, & juncti 'pedes,' & à fummis ad ima rigens corpus. Flexus ille, &, ut fic dixerim, motus dat a&um quendam effectis. Ideo nec ad unum modum formatæ manus, & în vultu mille fpecies Quam : quidem gratiam & delectationem afferunt Figutæ, quæque in fenfibus, quæque in verbis funt. QUINTIL. lib.i. cap. 14. $2.

caufe, but when he is once thoroughly convinced by the clear light of argument, he is prepared to catch the flame, and our eloquence and pathetic addrefs, which consift fo much in the ufe of Figures, will fcarce fail to have a commanding efficacy and prevalence over his foul, at least this is the proper place for employing them.

(2) Let us be fparing in the ufe of Figures. We fhould not needlefsly multiply them, and teem in our difcourfes over-wrought, and, as I might say, encumbered with Figures, as if we had fer ourselves in the vain-glory of our hearts to difplay all the riches of our imagination, while we should be inftructing our hearers, and making a rational progrefs towards the conqueft of their passions. Never let our Figures have place in our arguments, except for illustration. Let our reasoning be clear and concife, and as void of rhetorical embellishment as pofsible. Never let us hide or disguise the chain of truth by the pomp of Rhetoric, or varnish our difcourfes with fuch kind of ornaments as we fee in the windows of Gothic cathedrals, whofe gaudy paintings injure the pure light of the day, which would otherwife be tranfmitted in a gentle and unfullied luftre. And Figures, even in their proper situation, as a reinforcement to reafon and evidence, fhould not in general be lavishly expended, but difcreetly and moderately used; "for, as Mr BLACKWALL "well obferves, a pafsion defcribed in a multi

tude of words, and carried on to a dispropor

❝tionate

tionate length, fails of the end propofed, and tires inftead of pleasing. Contract your force, fays that ingenious Writer, into a moderate compafs, and be nervous rather than copious. But if at any time there be occasion for you to indulge a copioufnefs of ftile, beware it does not run into loofenefs and luxu"riance *" "An Author, fays the Arch““ bishop of CambrAY, is not satisfied with plain * reason, native graces, and lively fentiments, which are the true perfection of a discourse. *Self-love makes him overfhoot_the_mark.--1

They who have a just tafte, avoid excels in every thing even in wit itfelf. He fhews “Imost wit who knows when to check its fallies, 15 that he may adapt himself to peoples capaci rigs, and fmooth the way for them. --- I would havena i fublime fo familiar, fo fweet, and fo Sisimple, that at firft every Reader would be apt to think he could easily have hit on it himself, though few are capable of attaining it +."

(3) Let not our Figures be too much adorned and refined into too nice an exactness. The lefs art the better. And it becomes an Orator, even when he employs it, to conceal it as much as pofsible, that he may not appear ambitious to make a parade of his abilities, when he should inflamme the pafsions; and may not be neglected and traduced as a trifler, when he is treating upon

JJAY..

BLACKWALL'S Introduction to the Claffics, page 187, + Letter to the French Academy, p. 247, 248.

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upon momentous and interesting fubjects Let us feel our fubject in all its importance: let it glow, like a living coal, at our hearts; and dee the Figures we make ufe of be as it were the powerful and fpontaneous flanjes of this internal fire. Nature and vehement fenfation will admit of no affectation or artifice; and there is as much difference between the Orator who nicely adjusts his fentences, and delicately contrives and polifhes his Figures, and the Orator who fpeaks in the pathos and tranfport of his foul, as there is be tween a painted flame and a real conflagration, or between an artificial fountain spouting up its little ftreams into the air, and the ftrong majestic current of a river haftening to pour its ample trea fures into the ocean. When a perfon is powerfully possessed with the pafsion he would infpire into others, he delivers himself with spirit and energy; he naturally breaks out into lively and bold figures, and all the fuitable exprefsions of a ftrong and commanding eloquence. I have admired that paragraph (not wholly foreign to our purpose) in Mr POPE's Preface to his transla tion of HOMER'S Iliad; though perhaps the characters of the feveral great Writers he inftances are not perfectly juft. In the passage we may both obferve the great excellency of a Writer, I mean this internal ardor, and how Mr PORE, in his various defcriptions of feveral Authors, has beautifully exemplified the very excellency he describes. It is remarkable, fays he, that HOMER'S fancy, which is every where vigo

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rous,