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When ev'ry zephyr fleeps; then the shrouds drop;
The downy feather, on the cordage hung,
Moves not; the flat fea fhines like yellow gold
Fus'd in the fire, or like the marble floor
Of fome old temple wide.

The third fet of objects, which I mentioned the found of words as capable of reprefenting, con fifts of the paffions and emotions of the mind. Sound may, at firft view, appear foreign to these ; but, that here, alfo, there is fome fort of con- 0 nexion, is fufficiently proved by the power which mufic has to awaken, or to affift certain paffions, and, according as its ftrain is varied, to introduce one train of ideas, rather than another. This, indeed, logically speaking, cannot be called a refemblance between the fenfe and the found, feeing long or fhort fyllables have no natural refemblance to any thought or paffion. But if the arrangement of fyllables, by their found alone, recal one fet of ideas more readily than another, and difpofe the mind for entering into that affection which the poet means to raife, fuch arrangement may, juftly enough, be faid to refemble the fenfe, or be fimilar and correspondent to it. I admit, that, in many inftances, which are fupposed to difplay this beauty of accommodation of found to the fenfe, there is much room for imagination to work; and, according as a reader is ftruck by a paffage, he will often fancy a refemblance between the found and the fenfe, which others can not difcover. He modulates the numbers to his own difpofition of mind; and, in effe&t, makes the music which he imagines himself to hear. However, that there are real inftances of this kind, and that poetry is capable of fome fuch expreffion, cannot be doubted. Dryden's ode on St. Cecilia's day, affords a very beautiful exemplification of it, in the English language. Without much study or re

flexion, a poet, defcribing pleasure, joy, and agreeable objects, from the feeling of his fubject, naturally runs into fmooth, liquid, and flowing numbers,

Namque ipfa decoram

Cæfariem nato genetrix, lumenque juvente
Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflarat honores,

Or,

Devenere locos lætos et amena vireţa
Fortunatorum nemorum, fedefque beatas

Largior hic campos æther, et lumine vestit
Purpureo, folemque fuum, fua fidera norant.

EN. I.

EN. VI,

Brifk and lively fenfations exact quicker and more animated numbers.

Juvenum manus emicat ardens

Littus in Hefperium.

EN. VII.

Melancholy and gloomy fubjects naturally exprefs themselves in flow meafures, and long words:

In thofe deep folitudes and awful cells,
Where heavenly penfive contemplation dwells.
Et caligantem nigra formidine lucum,

I have now given fufficient openings into this fubject: a moderate acquaintance with the good poets, either ancient or modern, will fuggeft many inftances of the fame kind. And with this, I finish the difcuffion of the ftructure of fentences; having fully confidered them under all the heads I mentioned; of perfpicuity, unity, ftrength, and musical arrangement.

LECTURE XIV.

ORIGIN AND NATURE OF FIGURATIVE

LANGUAGE.

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AVING now finished what related to the construction of fentences, I proceed to other rules concerning ftyle. My general divifion of the qualities of ftyle, was into perfpicuity and ornament. Perfpicuity, both in fingle words and in fentences, I have confidered. Ornament, as far as it arifes from a graceful, ftrong, or melodious conftruction of words, has alfo been treated of. Another, and a great branch of the ornament of style, is, figurative language; which is now to be the fubject of our confideration, and will require a full difcuffion.

Our firft enquiry muft be, what is meant by figures of speech?

In general, they always imply fome departure

On the fubject of figures of fpeech all the writers who treat of rhetoric or compofition, have infifted largely. To make references, therefore, on this fubject, were endless. On the foundations of figurative language, in general, one of the moft fenfible and inftructive writers appears to me to be

from fimplicity of expreffion; the idea which we intend to convey, not only, enunciated to others, but enunciated in a particular manner, and with fome circumftance added, which is defigned to render the impreffion more ftrong and vivid. When I fay, for instance, "That a good man enjoys "comfort in the midst of adverfity;" I juft exprefs my thought in the fimpleft manner poffible. But when I fay," To the upright there arifeth "light in darknefs;" the fame fentiment is expressed in a figurative style; a new circumstance is introduced; light is put in the place of comfort, and darknefs is ufed to fuggeft the idea of adverfity. In the fame manner, to fay, "It is im"pollible, by any fearch we can make, to explore "the divine nature fully," is to make a fimple propofition. But when we fay, "Canft thou, by "fearching, find out God? Canft thou find out "the Almighty to perfection? It is high as heaven, what canft thou do? deeper than hell, "what canft thou know?" This introduces a figure into ftyle; the propofition being not only expreffed, but admiration and aftonishment being expreffed together with it.

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But, though figures imply a deviation from what may be reckoned the most simple form of speech, we are not thence to conclude, that they imply any thing uncommon, or unnatural. This is fo far from being the cafe, that, on very many occafions, they are both the most natural, and the most common method of uttering our fentiments. It is impoffible to compofe any difcourfe without ufing them often; nay, there are few sentences of any

M. Marfais, in his Traité des tropes, pour fervir d'introduction a la rhetorique, et a la logique. For obfervations on particular figures, the Elements of criticifm may be confulted, where the fubject is fully handled, and illuftrated by a great variety of examples,

length, in which fome expreffion or other, that may be termed a figure, does not occur. From what caufes this happens, fhall be afterwards explained. The fact, in the mean time, thows, that they are to be accounted part of that language which nature dictates to men. They are not the invention of the schools, nor the mere product of study: on the contrary, the most illiterate fpeak in figures, as often as the most learned. Whenever the imaginations of the vulgar are much awakened, or their paffions inflamed against one another, they will pour forth a torrent of figurative language, as forcible as could be employed by the most artificial declaimer..

What then is it, which has drawn the attention of critics and rhetoricians fo much to thefe forms of speech? It is this: They remarked, that in them confifts much of the beauty and the force of language; and found them always to bear fome characters, or diftinguishing marks, by the help of which they could reduce them under feparaté claffes and heads. To this, perhaps, they owe their name of figures. As the figure, or fhape of one body, diftinguishes it from another, fo these forms of fpeech have, each of them, a caft or turn peculiar to itfelf, which both distinguishes it from the reft, and diftinguishes it from fimple expreffion. Simple expreffion juft makes our idea known tô others; but figurative language, over and above, bestows a particular drefs upon that idea-a drefs, which both makes it to be remarked, and adorns it. Hence, this fort of language became early a capital object of attention to those who ftudied the powers of speech.

Figures, in general, may be defcribed to be that language, which is prompted either by the imagination, or by the pallions. The juftness of this de fcription will appear, from the more particular ac

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