fame manner as a cluster on the vine does from only one or two grapes.

§ 2. Some examples of the Allegory may be very proper to be produced. Not to be tedious in the citations of them, let the following inftances fuffice:

Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a fummer's fea,
While gentle zephyrs play in profp'rous gales,
And fortune's favour fills the fwelling fails;
But would forfake the ship, and make the fhore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempefts roar, &c. *

That is a fine Allegory in the Poem, intitled the Spleen:

Thus, thus I fteer my bark, and fail
On even keel with gentle gale;
At helm I make my reason fit,
My crew of paffions all fubmit.
If dark and bluft'ring prove fame nights,
Philofophy puts forth her lights;
Experience holds the cautious glafs,
To fhun the breakers as I pass,
And frequent throws the wary lead,
To see what dangers may be hid.
And once in seven years I'm feen
At Bath or Tunbridge to careen;
Tho' pleas'd to fee the dolphins play,
I mind my compafs and my way,
E 4

With

Judg. xiv. 14.-This obfervation fhews us, that an Allegory ought not to be ranked under the Metaphor, as it undoubtedly extends itself to other Tropes.

*PRIOR'S Henry and Emma.

.
With ftore fufficient for relief,
And wifely ftil prepar'd to reef:
Not wanting the difperfive bowl
Of cloudy weather in the foul,
I make (may Heav'n propitious fend
Such wind and weather to the end!)
Neither be calm'd nor overblown,
Life's voyage to the world unknown.

The whole fourteenth ode of the first book of HORACE is an Allegory, exquisitely wrought by that great favourite of the Mufes

O fhip! new billows foon will rife,
And bear thee off to fea again:

What madness? O in time be wife,

Make, make thy port, nor tempt the main.

Naked are all thy decks; thy mast

Thou hear'ft with horror o'er thee groan; Bending beneath the heavy blaft,

Soon must thou fee it rufhing down. In vain thy keel attempts to plow

;

The wave, and conflict with the tide No cords to bind thy planks haft thou, Tho' all are starting from thy fide.

O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus. O quid agis? Fortiter occupa
Portum. Nonne vides, ut
Nudum remigio latus,

Et malus celeri faucius Africo,

Antennæque gemant? ac fine funibus
Vix durare carinæ
Poffint imperiofius

How

Æquor?

How rent, how tatter'd are thy sheets!
Thy guardian Gods that grac'd thy prow,
Torn by the tempefts from their seats,

No more shall hear thy fuppliant vow!
Tho' Pontic pine produc'd thy frame,

The daughter of a noble wood,
Vain thy proud origin and name;

No fplendors bribe th' ingulphing flood.
Be wife, O precious fhip, at laft,
No more with Ocean's terrors ftrive;
Left thou, the fport of ev'ry blast,

Should'ft headlong to perdition drive.
Thou, long my heart-diftreffing pain,

Still my fond hope, and deareft care, Fly, fly the rocks that curfe the main, Whatever glitt❜ring charms they wear.

We meet with a moft beautiful Allegory in Pfalm lxxx. from the 8th Verfe: "Thou haft brought, fays the Pfalmift, a vine out of Egypt: "Thou haft caft out the Heathen, and planted sit. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst $ cause

Equor non tibi funt integra lintea;
Non Dii, quos iterum preffa voces malo;
Quamvis Pontica pinus,
Silvæ filia nobilis,

Jactes & genus & nomen inutile:
Nil pictis timidus navita puppibus
Fidit. Tu, nifi ventis
Debes ludidibrium, cave.

Nuper follicitum qui mihi tædium,
Nunc defiderium, curaque non levis,
Interfufa nitentes

Vites æquora Cycladas.

SS

cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the fhadow ss of it, and the boughs thereof were like the "goodly cedars. She fent out her boughs unto "the fea, and her branches unto the river. Why shaft thou broken down her hedges, fo that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth wafte it, and " the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Re$5 turn, we beseech thee, O Gon of hofts; look ss down from heaven, and behold, and visit this s vine: and the vineyard which thy right hand Shath planted, and the branch that thou madest ftrong for thyself. It is burnt with fire; it is ss cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy ss countenance,"

3. Allegories are of two forts, pure and mixed.

Pure Allegories are fuch as preferve the Trope from the beginning to the end of them without any opening, if I may fo call it, of the literal fenfe. Such an Allegory is that Ode of HORACE which we have but now recited; fo that "many "learned Commentators, fays Mr FRANCIS, in " a note upon his translation of the Ode, under"stand it in a plain historical manner; though

C

QUINTILIAN, whofe judgment we scruple not "to prefer, quotes the Ode as an example of "the Allegory, and tells us, that throughout "the whole passage, the Poet means by the fhip the commonwealth; by the waves and

“ tempests,

،،

"tempests, civil wars; and by the haven, peace "and concord t." The danger arising from a pure Allegory is that of obfcurity; and whoever frequently uses it, should take particular care that he does not involve the fenfe in hard and difficult riddles, which ought to fhine out clear and perfpicuous, as it may do even from under the veil of Tropes themselves, according to the very juft account of Metaphors, which will alike extend to Allegories, by Lord LANSDOWNE, in his Effay upon unnatural Flights in Poetry:

As veils transparent cover but not hide,
Such Metaphors appear when right apply'd;
When thro' the phrafe we plainly fee the fenfe,
Truth, where the meaning's obvious, will dispense:
The Reader what's in reafon due believes,
Nor can we call that falfe which not deceives.

§4. Mixed Allegories are fuch Allegories as are not intire, but admit of spaces in which the literal sense appears: or, in other words, proper and allegorical exprefsions are alternately used in the fame fentence or paragraph. Of this kind is that Allegory in the fpeech of PHILIP King of Macedon,

in

+ Aλanyogia, quam inverfionem interpretamur, aliud verbis, aliud fenfu oftendit, ac etiam interim contrarium. Prius, ut O navis, referent in mare te̱ novi Fluctus. O quid agis? fortiter occupa Portum

Totufque ille Horatii locus, quo navim, pro republica; fluctuum tempeftates, pro bellis civilibus; portam pro pace atque concordia dicet. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 6. § 2.