foundation of the metaphor, be clear and perfpicuous, not far-fetched, nor difficult to difcover. The tranfgreffion of this rule makes, what are called, harfh or forced metaphors, which are always difpleafing, because they puzzle the reader, and inftead of illuftrating the thought, render it perplexed and intricate. With metaphors of this kind, Cowley abounds. He, and fome of the writers of his age, feem to have confidered it as the perfection of wit, to hit upon likeneffes between objects which no other perfon could have difcovered; and, at the fame time, to purfue thofe metaphors fo far, that it requires fome ingenuity to follow them out, and comprehend them. This makes a metaphor refemble an ænigma; and is the very reverfe of Cicero's rule on this head:" verecunda debet

effe tranflatio; ut deducta effe in alienum locum, non irruiffe, atque ut voluntario non vi veniffe, "videatur." How forced and obfcure, for inftance, are the following verfes of Cowley, fpeaking of his mistress ::

Wo to her ftubborn heart, if once mine come
Into the felf-fame room,

Twill tear and blow up all within,

Like a granada, fhot into a magazine.
Then fhall love keep the afhes and torn parts
Of both our broken hearts;

Shall out of both one new one make;
From her's th' alloy, from mine the metal take:
For of her heart, he from the flames will find
But little left behind;

Mine only will remain entire ;

No drofs was there, to perish in the fire.

In this manner he addreffes fleep:

In vain, thou drowfy God, I thee invoke
For thou, who doft from fumes arife,

Every metaphor fhould be modeft, fo that it may carry the appearance of having been led, not of having forced itfelf into the place of that word whofe room it occupies; that it may feem to have come thither of its own accord, and not by constraint." De oratore, lib. iii. c. 53.

Thou, who man's foul doft overfhade,
With a thick cloud by vapours made;
Canft have no power to fhut his eyes,

Whofe flame's fo pure, that it fends up no fmoke,
Yet how do tears but from fome vapours rife?
Tears that bewinter all my year;

The fate of Egypt I fuftain,
And never feel the dew of rain,
From clouds which in the head appear
But all my too much moisture owe
To overflowings of the heart below

Trite and common refemblances fhould indeed be avoided in our metaphors. To be new, and not vulgar, is a beauty. But when they are fetched from fome likenefs too remote, and lying too far out of the road of ordinary thought, then, befides their obfcurity, they have alfo the difadvantage of appearing laboured, and, as the French call it "re"cherche:" whereas metaphor, like every other ornament, lofes its whole grace, when it does not feem natural and eafy.

It is but a bad and ungraceful foftening, which writers fometimes ufe for a harfh metaphor, when they palliate it with the expreffion, as it were. This is but an aukward parenthefis; and metaphors, which need this apology of an as it were, would, generally, have been better omitted. Metaphors, too, borrowed from any of the fciences, efpecially fuch of them as belong to particular profeffions, are almost always faulty by their obfcurity.

In the fourth place, it must be carefully attended to, in the conduct of metaphors, never to jumble metaphorical and plain language together; never to conftruct a period fo, that part of it must be understood metaphorically, part literally: which always produces a moft difagreeable confufion. Inftances, which are but too frequent, even in good

* See an excellent criticifm on this fort of metaphyfical poetry, in dr. Johnfon's life of Cowley.

authors, will make this rule, and the reafon of it, be clearly understood. In mr. Pope's tranflation of the Odyffey, Penelope, bewailing the abrupt departure of her fon Telemachus, is made to fpeak thus:

This, though not fo grofs, is a fault, however, of the fame kind. It is plain, that, had not the rhyme misled him to the choice of an improper plurale, he would have faid,

The harvest early, but mature the crop

And fo would have continued the figure which he had begun. Whereas, by dropping it unfinished, and by employing the literal word, preife, when we were expecting fomething that related to the. harvest, the figure is broken, and the two members. of the fenteng have no proper correfpondence with each other'

The hard arly, but mature the praise.

The works of Offian abound with beautiful and correct metaphors; ach as that on a hero: "In peace, thou art the gate of var, the "mountain ftorm." Or t's, on a woman-4-4 She was covered with light of beauty; but her heart: σε was the houfe of pride." They afford, howe ver, one inftance of the fault we are now cenfuring: "Trothal went forth with the ftream of his

people but they met a rock: for Fingal ftood uned broken they rolled back from his "fidea Nor did they roll in fafety; the fpear of "the king purftetl their flight." At the beginning, the metaphor is very beautiful. The ftream, the un moved rock, the waves rolling back broken, are expreffions employed in the proper and confiftent language of figure; but, in the end, when we are told, "they did not roll in fafety, becaufe the "fpear of the king pursued their flight," the lite ral meaning is improperly mixed with the metaphor: they are, at one and the fame time, prefented to us, as waves that roll, and men that may be purfued and wounded with a fpear. If it be faulty to