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So aftonishing as thefe are, they yield to the following, which is Profundity itself;

* None but Himfelf can be his Parallel."

Unless it may seem borrowed from the Thought of that Master of a Show in Smithfield, who writ in large letters, over the picture of his elephant,

"This is the greatest Elephant in the world, except "Himself."

'However, our next inftance is certainly an original: Speaking of a beautiful Infant,

"So fair thou art, that if great Cupid be

"A child, as Poets fay, fure thou art he.
"Fair Venus would mistake thee for her own,
"Did not thy eyes proclaim thee not her fon.
"There all the lightnings of thy Mother shine,
"And with a fatal brightness kill in thine.”

Firft he is Cupid, then he is not Cupid; first Venus would mistake him, then fhe would not mistake him; next his Eyes are his Mother's, and laftly they are not his Mother's, but his own.

Another author, defcribing a Poet that fhines forth amidst a circle of Criticks,

"Thus Phoebus thro' the Zodiack takes his way, And amid Monsters rifes into day."

What a peculiarity is here of invention? The Author's pencil, like the wand of Circe, turns all into monsters at a stroke. A great Genius takes things in the lump, without ftopping at minute confiderations:

*Theobald, Double Falfhood.

In vain might the ram, the bull, the goat, the lion, the crab, the fcorpion, the fishes, all stand in his way, as mere natural animals; much more might it be pleaded that a pair of scales, an old man, and two innocent children, were no monfters: There were only the Centaur and the Maid that could be efteemed out of nature. But what of that? with a boldness peculiar to these daring geniufes, what he found not monfters, he made fo.

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Of the Profund, confifting in the Circumstances, and of Amplification and Periphrafe in general.

WHAT in a great measure diftinguishes other writers from ours, is their chufing and feparating fuch circumstances in a description as ennoble or elevate the fubject.

The circumftances which are most natural are obvious, therefore not aftonishing or peculiar. But those that are far-fetched, or unexpected, or hardly compatible, will furprise prodigiously. These therefore we muft principally hunt out; but, above all, preserve a laudable Prolixity; prefenting the whole and every fide at once of the image to view. For choice and diftinction are not only a curb to the spirit, and limit the defcriptive faculty, but also leffen the book; which is frequently of the worft confequence of all to our

author.

When Job fays in fhort, "He washed his feet in "butter," (a circumftance fome Poets would have foftened, or paffed over) now hear how this butter is fpread out by the great Genius.

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* With teats diftended with their milky ftore, "Such num'rous lowing herds, before my door, "Their painful burden to unload did meet, "That we with butter might have wash'd our feet.”

How cautious! and particular! He had (fays our author) fo many herds, which herds thrived fo well, and thriving fo well gave fo much milk, and that milk produced fo much butter, that, if he did not, he might have washed his feet in it.

The enfuing defcription of Hell is no lefs remarkable in the circumstances:

"In flaming heaps the raging ocean rolls,
"Whofe livid waves involve despairing fouls;
"The liquid burnings dreadful colours fhew,
"Some deeply red and others faintly blue."

Could the most minute Dutch-painters have been more exact? How inimitably circumstantial is this also of a war-horfe!

"His eye - balls burn, he wounds the fmoaking

"plain,

"And knots of Scarlet ribband deck his mane.”

Of certain Cudgel-players:

"They brandish high in air their threat'ning staves, "Their hands a woven guard of ozier faves,

"In which they fix their bazle weapon's end."

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Who would not think the Poet had paft his whole life at Wakes in fuch laudable diverfions? fince he teaches us how to hold, nay how to make a Cudgel!

Blackm. Job, p. 133.
Pr. Arth. p. 167.

† Pr. Arth. p. 89.

Anon,

Periphrafe is another great aid to Prolixity; being a diffuse circumlocutory manner of expreffing a known idea, which fhould be fo myfterioufly couched, as to give the Reader the pleasure of gueffing what it is that the Author can poflibly mean, and a firange furprise

when he finds it.

The Poet I laft mentioned is incomparable in this figure:

*

"A waving fea of heads was round me spread, "And still fresh ftreams the gazing deluge fed."

Here is a waving fea of heads, which, by a fresh ftream of heads, grows to be a gazing deluge of heads. You come at last to find, it means a great crowd.

How pretty and how genteel is the following?

+"Nature's confectioner,

"Whofe fuckets are moift alchemy:

"The ftill of his refining mold

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Minting the garden into gold."

What is this but a Bee gathering honey?

"Little Syren of the ftage,

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Empty warbler, breathing lyre,
"Wanton gale of fond defire,
"Tuneful mischief, vocal spell."

Who would think, this was only a poor gentlewoman that fung finely?

We may define Amplification to be making the most of a Thought; it is the Spinning-wheel of the Bathos, which draws out and fpreads it in the fineft thread,

* Job, p. 78. † Cleveland.

A. Philips to Cuzzona.

There are Amplifiers who can extend half a dozen thin Thoughts over a whole Folio; but for which, the tale of many a vast Romance, and the fubftance of many a fair volume might be reduced into the fize of a prim

mer.

In the book of Job are these words: "Haft thou "commanded the morning, and caufed the day-fpring "to know his place?" How is this extended by the most celebrated Amplifier of our age?

*Canft thou fet forth th' etherial mines on high, "Which the refulgent ore of light supply? "Is the celestial furnace to thee known, "In which I melt the golden metal down? "Treasures, from whence I deal out light as fast, "As all my ftars and lavish fons can wafte."

The fame Author hath amplified a paffage in the civth Pfalm; "He looks on the earth, and it trembles. "He touches the hills, and they fmoke."

ተ "The hills forget they're fix'd, and in their flight "Caft off their weight, and eafe themfelves for flight: "The woods, with terror wing'd, outfly the wind, "And leave the heavy, panting hills behind."

You here fee the hills not only trembling, but fhaking off the woods from their backs, to run the faster: After this you are prefented with a foot-race of mountains and woods, where the woods diftance the mountains, that like corpulent purfy fellows, come puffing and panting a vaft way behind them.

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