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their many expedients of infrigidating, and let us observe the effect produced by this change. "Consider the flowers, how they gradually increase in their size, they do no manner of work, and yet I declare to you, that no king whatever, in his most splendid habit, is dressed up like them. If then God in his providence doth so adorn the vegetable productions, which continue but a little time on the land, and are afterwards put into the fire, how much more will he provide clothing for you?" How spiritless is the same sentiment rendered by these small variations? The very particularizing of to-day and to-morrow is infinitely more expressive of transitoriness than any description, wherein the terms are general, that can be substituted in

its room.

Yet to a cold annotator, a man of mere intellection without fancy, the latter exhibition of the sentiment would appear the more emphatical of the two. Nor would he want some show of reason for this preference. As a specimen, therefore, of a certain mode of criticizing, not rarely to be met with, in which there is I know not what semblance of judgment without one particle of taste, I shall suppose a critic of this stamp entering on the comparison of the preceding quotation and the paraphrase. "In the one," he would argue, "the beauty of only one sort of flowers is exalted above the effects of human industry, in the other the beauty of the whole kind. In the former one individual monarch is said not to have equalled them in splendour, in the latter it is affirmed that no monarch whatever can equal them." However specious this way of reasoning may be, we are certain that it is not solid, because it doth not correspond with the principles of our nature. Indeed what was explained above, in regard to abstraction, and the particularity of our ideas, properly so called, may serve in a great measure to account for the effect which speciality hath upon the imagination. Philosophy, which, strictly considered, addresseth only the understanding, and is conversant about abstract truth, abounds in general terms, because these alone are adequate to the subject treated. On the contrary, when the address is made by eloquence to the fancy, which requires a lively exhibition of the object presented to it, those terms must be culled that are as particular as possible, because it is solely by these that the object can be depicted. And even the most rigid philosopher, if he choose that his disquisitions be not only understood but relished (and without being relished they are understood to little purpose), will not disdain sometimes to apply to the imagination of his disciples, mixing the pleasant with the useful. This is one way of sacrificing to the Graces.

But I proceed to give examples in such of the different

Book ii. Chap. vii. Sect. 1.

parts of speech as are most susceptible of this beauty. The first shall be in the verbs.

It seem'd as there the British Neptune stood
With all his hosts of waters at command;
Beneath them to submit th' officious flood;

And with his trident shov'd them off the sand1.

The words submit and shov'd are particularly expressive of the action here ascribed to Neptune. The former of these verbs submit may indeed be called a Latinism in the signification it hath in this passage. But such idioms, though improper in prose, are sometimes not ungraceful in the poetic dialect. If in the last line instead of shov'd, the poet had used the verb rais'd, which, though not equivalent, would have conveyed much the same meaning, the expression had been fainter2.

The next examples shall be in adjectives and participles.

The kiss snatch'd hasty from the sidelong maid,
On purpose guardless3.

Here both the words sidelong and snatch'd are very significant, and contribute much to the vivacity of the expression. Taken or ta'en substituted for the latter, would be much weaker. It may be remarked, that it is principally in those parts of speech which regard life and action that this species of energy takes place.

I shall give one in nouns from Milton, who says concerning Satan, when he had gotten into the garden of Eden,

Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life
Sat like a cormorant1.

If for cormorant he had said bird of prey, which would have equally suited both the meaning and the measure, the image would still have been good, but weaker than it is by this specification.

In adjectives the same author hath given an excellent example, in describing the attitude in which Satan was discovered by Ithuriel and his company, when that malign spirit was employed in infusing pernicious thoughts into the mind of our first mother,

1 Dryden's Year of Wonders.

2 In this instance Dryden hath even improved on the original he imitated; which is not often the case either of translators or of imitators. Virgil says simply," Levat ipse tridenti."

3 Thomson's Winter.

4 Paradise Lost, B. iv.

-Him there they found

Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve3.

No word in the language could have so happily expressed the posture as that which the poet hath chosen.

It will be easy from the same principles to illustrate a remark of the Stagyrite, on the epithet rosy-finger'd, which Homer hath given to the morning. This, says the critic, is better than if he had said purple-finger'd, and far better than if he had said red-finger'd1. Aristotle hath observed the effect solely in respect of beauty, but the remark holds equally true of these epithets in respect of vivacity. This in a great measure may be deduced from what hath been said already. Of all the above adjectives the last is the most vague and general, and therefore the worst; the second is better, because more special, purple being one species comprehended under red; the first is the best, because the most particular, pointing to that single tint of purple which is to be found in the rose. I acknowledge, at the same time, that this metaphorical epithet hath an excellence totally distinct from its vivacity. This I denominate its elegance. The object whence the metaphor is taken is a grateful object. It at once gratifies two of the senses, the nose by its fragrance, and the eye by its beauty. But of this quality I shall have occasion to treat afterwards.

I proceed at present in producing examples to confirm the theory advanced. And to show how much even an adverb, that is very particular in its signification, may contribute to vivacity, I shall again have recourse to the Paradise Lost.

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If the poet, instead of saying askance, had said aside, which properly enough might have been said, the expression would have lost much of its energy. This adverb is of too general signification, and might have been used with equal propriety, if the plane of the ecliptic had been made perpendicular to that of the equator; whereas the word askance, in that case, could not have been employed, it denoting just such an obliquity in. the inclination of these two planes as actually obtains. We have an example of the same kind in the description which Thomson gives us of the sun newly risen.

Lo! now apparent all,

Aslant the dewbright earth, and colour'd air,
He looks in boundless majesty abroad 7.

5 Paradise Lost, B. iv.

* Arist. Rhet. L. 3. Διαφέρει δ' ειπειν, οἷον ῥοδοδάκτυλος πως μάλλον η φοινικοδάκτυλος,

* έτι φαυλότερον ερυθροδακτυλος.

7 Summer.

U

Further, it will sometimes have a considerable effect in enlivening the imagery, not only to particularize, but even to individuate the object presented to the mind. This conduct Dr. Blair, in his very ingenious Dissertation on the poems of Ossian, observes to have been generally followed by his favourite bard. His similitudes bring to our view the mist on the hill of Cromla, the storm on the sea of Malmor, and the reeds of the lake of Lego. The same vivacious manner is often to be found in holy writ, swift as a roe or as a fawn upon mount Bether, white as the snow in Salmon, fragrant as the smell of Lebanon1. And in the passage lately quoted from the gospel, the introduction of the name of Solomon hath an admirable effect in invigorating the sentiment, not only as it points out an individual, but one of great fame in that country among the people whom our Saviour addressed; one, besides, who was universally esteemed the wisest, the richest, and the most magnificent prince that ever reigned over Israel. Now this is a consideration which was particularly apposite to the design of the speaker.

It may indeed be imagined, that this manner can enliven the thought only to those who are acquainted with the individuals mentioned; but, on mature reflection, we may easily discover this to be a mistake. Not only do we, as it were, participate by sympathy in the known vivid perceptions of the speaker or the writer, but the very notion we form of an individual thing known or unknown, from its being conceived as an individual, or as one thing, is of a more fixed nature than that we form of a species, which is conceived to be equally applicable to several things, resembling indeed in some respects, though unlike in others and for the same reason, the notion we have of a species is of a more steady nature than that we form of a genus, because this last is applicable to a still greater number of objects, amongst which the difference is greater and the resemblance less.

I mean not however to assert, that the method of individuating the object ought always to be preferred by the poet or the orator. If it have its advantages, it hath its disadvantages also; and must be used sparingly by those who choose that their writings should be more extensively known than in their own neighbourhood. Proper names are not in the same respect essential to the language as appellatives. And even among the former, there is a difference between the names known to fame, and the names of persons or things comparatively obscure. The last kind of names will ever appear as strangers to the greater part of readers, even to those who are masters of the language. Sounds to which the ear is not

8 Cant. ii. 17.

9 Psalm lxviii. 14.

1 Hosea xiv. 6.

accustomed, have a certain uncouthness in them, that renders them, when occurring frequently, fatiguing and disagreeable. But that nevertheless, when pertinently introduced, when neither the ear is tired by their frequency, nor the memory bur thened by their number, they have a considerable effect in point of vivacity, is undeniable.

This holds especially when, from the nature of the subject, the introduction of them may be expected. Every one is sensible, for instance, that the most humorous or engaging story loseth egregiously, when the relater cannot or will not name the persons concerned in it. No doubt the naming of them has the greatest effect on those who are acquainted with them, either personally or by character; but it hath some effect, even on those who never heard of them before. It must be an extraordinary tale indeed which we can bear for any time to hear, if the narrator proceeds in this languid strain, "A certain person who shall be nameless, on a certain occasion, said so and so, to which a certain other person in the company, who likewise shall be nameless, made answer."-Nay, so dull doth a narrative commonly appear wherein anonymous individuals only are concerned, that we choose to give feigned names to the persons rather than none at all. Nor is this device solely necessary for precluding the ambiguity of the pronouns, and saving the tediousness of circumlocution; for where neither ambiguity nor circumlocution would be the consequence, as where one man and one woman are all the interlocutors, this expedient is nevertheless of great utility. Do but call them any thing, the man suppose Theodosius, and the woman Constantia, and by the illusion which the very appearance of names, though we know them to be fictitious, operates on the fancy, we shall conceive ourselves to be better acquainted with the actors, and enter with more spirit into the detail of their adventures, than it will be possible for us to do, if you always speak of them in the indefinite, the general, and therefore the unaffecting style of the gentleman and the lady, or he and she. This manner, besides, hath an air of concealment, and is ever reminding us, that they are people we know nothing about.

It ariseth from the same principle that whatever tends to subject the thing spoken of to the notice of our senses, especially of our eyes, greatly enlivens the expression. In this way the demonstrative pronouns are often of considerable use.

2 The choice however is not quite arbitrary even in fictitious names. It is always injudicious to employ a name which, from its customary application, may introduce an idea unsuitable to the character it is affixed to. This error I think Lord Bolingbroke chargeable with in assigning the name Damon to his philosophical antagonist (Let. to M. De Pouilly). Though we read of a Pythagorean philosopher so called, yet in this country we are so much accustomed to meet with this name in pastorals and amorous songs, that it is impossible not to associate with it the notion of some plaintive shepherd or love-sick swain.

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