the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noise whenever they thrust their heads above water. E. W. I. M. Efq, T. D. Gent. 8. The Eels are obfcure authors, that wrap themselves. up in their own mud, but are mighty nimble and pert. L. W. L. T. P. M. General C. 9. The Tortoifes are flow and chill, and, like pastoral writers, delight much in gardens: they have for the most part a fine embroidered shell, and underneath it, a heavy lump. A. P. W. B. L. E. The Right Hon. E. of S. These are the chief Characteristicks of the Bathos and in each of these kinds we have the comfort to be bleffed with fundry and manifold choice Spirits in this our island. જ્ CHAP. VII. Of the Profund, when it confifts in the Thought. WE E have already laid down the Principles upon which our author is to proceed, and the manner of forming his Thought by familiarizing his mind to the lowest -objects; to which it may be added, that Vulgar converfation will greatly contribute. There is no queftion but the Garret or the Printer's boy may often be difcerned in the compofitions made in fuch fcenes and company; and much of Mr. Curl himself has been insensibly infused into the works of his learned writers. The Phyfician, by the study and inspection of urinę and ordure, approves himself in the fcience; and in like fort should our author accuftom and exercise his imagination upon the dregs of nature. This will render his thoughts truly and fundamentally low, and carry him many fathoms beyond Mediocrity. For For, certain it is (though fome lukewarm heads imagine. they may be fafe by temporizing between the extremes) that where there is not a Triticalnefs or Mediocrity in the Thought, it can never be funk into the genuine and perfect Bathos, by the moft elaborate low Expreffion. It can, at moft, be only carefully obfcured, or metaphotically debafed. But 'tis the Thought alone that ftrikes, and gives the whole that fpirit, which we admire and ftare at. For inftance, in that ingenious piece on a lady's drinking the Bath-waters: * "She drinks! She drinks ! Behold the matchless dame! "To her 'tis water, but to us 'tis flame: Thus fire is water, water fire by turns, "And the fame ftream at once both cools and burns.” What can be more eafy and unaffected than the Diction of these verses? 'Tis the Turn of Thought alone, and the Variety of Imagination, that charm and furprife us. And when the fame lady goes into the Bath, the Thought (as in juftnefs it ought) goes ftill deeper. Venus beheld her, 'midft her crowd of flaves, "And thought herself just risen from the waves.' How much out of the way of common sense is this reflection of Venus, not knowing herself from the lady? Of the fame nature is that noble mistake of a frighted ftag in a full chace, who (faith the Poet) "Hears his own feet, and thinks they found like more; "And fears the hind feet will o'ertake the fore." So aftonishing as these are, they yield to the following, which Profundity itself; # "None but himself can be his Parallel.". Anon. + Idem. Theobald, Double Falfhood. Unless Unless it may feem 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 "Himfelf." 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. First he is Cupid, then he is not Cupid; firft Venus would miftake him, then fhe would not miftake 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 Zodiac 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 ftroke. A great Genius takes things in the lump, without ftopping at minute confiderations: In vain might the ram, the bull, the goat, the lion, the crab, the scorpion, the fishes, all ftand 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 esteemed out of nature. But what of that? with a boldness peculiar to these daring geniuses, what he found not monsters, he made fo. VOL. III. U CHAP. CHAP. VIII. Of the Profund, confifting in the Circumftances, and of Amplification and Periphrafe in general. WHAT in a great measure distinguishes other writers from ours, is their choofing and feparating fuch circumftances in a difcription as ennoble or elevate the fubject. The circumstances which are most natural are obvious, therefore not astonishing or peculiar. But those that are far-fetched, or unexpected, or hardly compatible, will furprise prodigioufly. These therefore we muft principally hunt out; but, above all, preferve a laudable Prolixity; presenting the whole and every fide at once of the image to view. For choice and diftinction are not only a curb to the fpirit, and limit the defcriptive faculty, but alfo leffen the book; which is frequently of the worst confequence of all to our author. When Job fays in fhort, "He washed his feet in but"ter," (a circumftance fome poets would have foftened, or paffed over) now hear how this butter is fpread out by the great Genius. With teats diftended with their milky store, "Such num'rous lowing heards, before my door, "Their painful burden to unload did meet, "That we with butter might have wafh'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, Blackm. Job, p. 133 The The enfuing description of Hell is no lefs remarkable in the circumstances: "In flaming heaps the raging ocean rolls, Could the moft minute Dutch-painters have been more exact? How inimitably circumftantial is this also of a war-horse! "His eye-balls burn, he wounds the smoaking plain, "And knots of fearlet ribband deck his mane." Of certain Cudgel-players: "They brandish high in air their threatning ftaves, "Their hands a woven guard of ozier faves, "In which they fix their hazle weapon's end.” 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! Periphrafe is another great aid to Prolixity; being a diffused circumlocutory manner of expreffing a known idea, which should be fo myfteriously couched, as to give the reader the pleasure of gueffing what it is that the author can poffibly mean, and a ftrange furprise when he finds it. The poet I laft mentioned is incomparable in this figure. "A waving fea of heads was round me spread, |