1. The chief and effential Parts of the Comparison must 435 bear an exact and true Proportion. Some small Disagreement in a lefs confiderable Circumftance will not fpoil the Grace, nor take away the Strength of the Figure. Tho' the Agreement and exacter Parellel there is in all Particulars, the greater more lively the Figure is. And therefore, generally speaking, Comparisons ought to be fhort. In running into minute Circumftances, befides the Tedioufnefs, there is Danger of difcovering fome unagreeable Difproportion.

2. Comparisons need not always be drawn from very noble and lofty Subjects. Thofe taken from meaner things are fignificant and agreeable, if they be fet off in noble Words, if they give clear Notions, and paint in ftrong and fine Colours the Thing we intend to reprefent by them. In great Subjects, Comparisons from leffer Things relieve and refresh the Mind; as when Shakespear illuftrates the Government of a Kingdom by comparing it with that of Bees.

So work the Honey Bees;

Creatures that, by a Rule in Nature, teach
The Art of Order to a peopled Kingdom.
They have a King, and Officers of State;
Where fome, like Magiftrates, correct at Home;
Others, like Merchants, venture Trade abroad;
Others, like Soldiers armed in their Stings,
Make boot upon the Summer's Velvet Buds,
Which they with merry March bring Home
To the Tent-Royal of their Emperor:
Who, bufy'd in his Majefty, furveys
The finging Mafon building Roofs of Gold,
The civil Citizens kneading up the Honey,
The poor mechanic Porters crowding in
Their heavy Burthens at his narrow Gate,
The fad-ey'd fuftice, with his furly Hum,
Delivering o'er to Execution pale
The lazy yawning Drone.

And common Subjects may be heighten'd and improv'd by ftrong and fublime Comparisons: as when the fame Author compares the Restoration of a lawful King, to the Rifing of the Sun, after a dark Night.

Know'st thou not

That when the fearching Eye of Heaven is hid Behind the Globe, and lights the lower World; VOL. I.

G &

Then

Then Thieves and Robbers range Abroad unfeen,
In Murders, and in Outrage bloody here.
But when from under this terreftrial Ball,
He fires the proud Tops of the Eastern Pines,
And darts his Light thro' every guilty Hole;
Then Murders, Treafons, and detefted Sins,
The Cloak of Night being pluck'd from off their Backs,
Stand bare and Naked, trembling at themfelves.
So when this Thief, this Traitor, Bolingbroke,
Who all this while hath revell'd in the Night,
Whilst we were wand'ring with the Antipodes,
Shall fee us rifing in our Throne, the Eaft;
His Treafons will fit blushing in his Face,
Not able to endure the Sight of Day,
But, felf-affrighted, tremble at his Sin.

For more Examples of both Kinds, I refer you to fome beautiful Paffages marked below *.

Thofe alfo are very strong and glowing Comparisons, where the nobleft Beings of the natural and moral World, where Angels, good or bad, are compared to the Luminaries of Heaven. How fublime is Milton in his Comparison of Lucifer's diminished Splendor, and faded Beauties, to the Sun over-clouded or eclips'd!

His Farm had yet not loft

All its original brightness, nor appear'd
Lefs then Archangel ruin'd, and th' Excefs
Of Glory obfcur'd: As when the Sun new rifen
Looks thro' the horizontal mifty Air

Shorn of his Beams, or from behind the Moon
In dim Eclipfe difaftrous Twilight sheds
On half the Nations, and with Fear of Change
Perplexes Monarchs. Dar kned fo, yet fhone
Above them all th' Archangel'.

§. 17. Lively Defcription is such a strong and beautiful Reprefentation of a Thing, as gives the Reader a diftinct View and fatisfactory Notion of it.

How animated and beautiful is Shakespear's Defcription of the Queen of Fairies, and her Power of caufing Dreams ?

She

* Hom. I. iv. 130, 131. Milton's Par. Loft, i. 768, &c. Virg.

Geor ii. 279, &c.

Par. Loft, i. 591, &c.

She is the Fancy's Midwife, and she comes
In Size no bigger than an Agate-ftone
On the fore Finger of an Alderman;
Drawn with a Team of little Atomies,
Athwart Men's Nofes as they lie afleep.
Her Waggon Spokes made of long Spinner's Legs;
The Cover, of the Wings of Grafhoppers;
The Traces, of the fmalleft Spider's Web;
The Collars, of the Moonshine's watry Beams;
Her Whip, of Cricket's-bone; the Lafh, of Film;
Her Waggoner, a fmall grey-coated Gnat,
Not half fo big as a round little Warm,
Prick'd from the lazy Finger of a Maid;
Her Chariot is an empty Hazzle-nut,
Made by the Joiner Squirrel, or old Grub,
Time out of mind the Fairies Coachmakers.
And in this State (he gallops, Night by Night,
Through Lovers Brains; and then they dream of Love ;
On Courtiers Knees, that dream in Curt'fies frait;
Oer Lawyers Fingers, who ftrait dream on Fees;
O'er Ladies Lips, who ftrait on Kiffes dream;
Which oft the angry Mab with Blifters plagues,
Because their Breaths with fweetmeats tainted are.
Sometimes fhe gallops o'er a Courtier's Nofe,
And then dreams he of smelling out a Suit:
And fometimes comes fhe with a Tythe-Pig's Tail,
Tickling the Parfon as he lies afleep;
Then dreams he of another Benefice.
Sometimes fhe driveth o'er a Soldier's Neck,"
And then he dreams of cutting foreign Throats,
Of Breaches, Ambufcadoes, Spanish Blades,
Of Healths five Fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his Ears, at which he starts and wakes;
And being thus frighted, fwears a Prayer or two,
And fleeps again.

In Defcriptions a judicious Author will omit low and vulgar Circumstances, and chiefly beftow his Pains to complete and beautify all the effential and mafterly Strokes. 'Tis the manner of little Verfifyers to take every Hint that prefents itself, and run out into long common Places. A Writer that wou'd live and pleafe, will cut off Superfluities, and reject the moft pleafing Thoughts and florid Lines, which wou'd come in abruptly, and quite foreign to his Subject. Many Things

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mult

muft be left to the Imagination of the Reader, and feafonable Silence has its Emphafis. Virgil m tells his Reader, that Euryidice was kill'd by a Serpent lurking in a Bank, but says noth ng more of that venomous Creature. A Poetafter would probably have spent as many Lines in a horrid Defcription of it, as compofe that admirable Poem: But that divine Poet knew there was no room for fuch a Liberty here, his Defign in this short and exquifite Piece being only to give a moving Pattern of true conjugal Affection, and to fhew the rapturous Force which good Mufic and Poetry have over the moft fierce and favage Tempers.

But he defcribes the two Serpents which deftroy'd Laocoon and his Sons in fuch particular Circumstances, and paints the devouring Monsters in fuch strong and frightful Colours, that they amaze and chill the Reader. Here his only Bufinefs was to raife Terror, and give his Reader a due Notion of the Displeasure of the Gods against Troy, which was fo fixt and implacable that they thus fignally cut off an innocent Man and his Family, for giving his Countrymen Advice, which tended to the oppofing their fevere Decree, and the Prefervation of that devoted City. The Defcription of a Perfon is called a Character, in drawing which the true Proof of Art and Judgment is to hit a beautiful Likeness; and with a delicate Touch to give thofe Features and Colours which are peculiar to the Perfon, and diftinguish him from the rest of Mankind. In every good and lively Defcription a Man muft come to an Enumeration of the chief Particulars: for Generals are often obfcure and faint; a judicious Account of Particulars fets every thing in full View, and makes a strong and lafting Impreffion upon the Reader.

§. 18. Vifion or Image is a Reprefentation of Things diftant and unfeen, in order to raife Wonder, Terror, or Compaffion, made with fo much Life and Emphafis, that as the Poet has a full View of the whole Scene he defcribes, fa he makes the Reader fee it in the fame strong Light.

Or mad Oreftes, when his Mother's Ghoft
Full in his Face infernal Torches toft;

And fbook her fnaky Locks: He fhuns the Sight,
Flies o'er the Stage furpriz'd with mortal Fright;
The Furies guard the Door, and intercept his Flight®.

}

This

This noble Image raises Confternation and Terror: An Inftance of tender Image to move Pity we have in those foft and fweet Lines of Spenser P.

Not one Ward more fhe faid;

But breaking off the End for want of Breath,
And fliding foft, as down to Sleep ber laid,
And ended all her Woe in quiet Death.

The Poet, or Orator, upon thefe Occafions is fo fully poffefs'd of, and vehemently intent upon his Subject, that he is really transported with thofe Paffions which he wou'd infpire his Readers or Hearers with: and by that Strength and noble Enthusiasm of Imagination, he is happily qualify'd to captivate their Affections. A commanding Genius can impress his own Images upon thofe he addreffes; can move the inmoft Springs of their Soul; and with a pleafing Power triumph over the whole Man,

§. 19. Profopopeia, perfonifying, or raising Qualities or Things inanimate into Perfons, has two Parts.

1. When good and bad Qualities, Accidents and Things inanimate are introduced in Difcourfe, and defcrib'd as living and rational Beings. Virtue and Pleasure addrefs young Hercules as two bright Ladies of oppofite Parties: The one wou'd fain induce him to decline the Toils of War, and indulge himself in Eafe and Luxury: The other earnestly exhorts him to shake off Sloth, and purfue true Fame and folid Glory. Take the Description of them from an elegant Poem which Mr. Spence has given us in his Polymetis.

The firft, in native Dignity furpafs'd;
Artlefs and unadorn'd, fhe pleas'd the more:
'Health, o'er her Looks, a genuine Luftre caft;
A Veft, more white than new-fall'n Snow, she wore.
Auguft fhe trod, yet modeft was her Air;

Serene her Eye, yet darting heavenly Fire.

Still he drew near; and nearer ftill more fair,
More mild appear'd: yet fuch as might infpire
Pleafure corrected with an aweful Fear
Majestically sweet, and amiably severe.

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Fairy Queen, ii. 1, 56.

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