prefents only a vulgar idea; but it rifes and fills the imagination, when painted thus by Horace :

Or,

Pallida mors æquo pulfat pede, pauperum tabernas
Regumque turres.

Omnes eodem cogimur; omnium,
Verfatur urna, ferius, ocyus,

Sors exitura, et nos in eternum
Exilium impofitura cymba*.

In the third place, figures give us the pleafure of enjoying two objects prefented together to our view, without confufion; the principal idea, which is the fubject of the difcourfe, along with its acceffory, which gives it the figurative drefs. We' fee one thing in another, as Aristotle expresses it ; which is always agreeable to the mind. For there is nothing with which the fancy is more delighted, than with comparisons, and resemblances of objects; and all tropes are founded upon fome relation or analogy between one thing and another. When, for inftance, in place of youth," I fay, the "morning of life," the fancy is immediately entertained with all the resembling circumftances which prefently occur between these two objects. At one moment, I have in my eye a certain period of human life, and a certain time of the day, fo related to each other, that the imagination plays between them with pleasure, and contemplates two fimilar objects, in one view, without embarraffment or confufion. Not only fo, but,

In the fourth place, figures are attended with this farther advantage, of giving us frequently a much With equal pace, impartial fate

Or,

Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate.

We all must tread the paths of fate ;

And ever shakes the mortal urn:

Whofe lot embarks us, foon or late,

On Charon's boat: ah! never to return,

FRANCIS

clearer and more ftriking view of the principal object, than we could have, if it were exprefied in fimple terms, and divefted of its acceflory idea. This is, indeed, their principal advantage, in virtue of which, they are very properly faid to illuftrate a subject, or to throw light upon it. For they exhibit the object, on which they are employed, in a picturefque form; they can render an abftra& conception, in fome degree, an object of sense; they furround it with fuch circumftances, as enable the mind to lay hold of it fteadily, and to contemplate it fully. "Thofe perfons," fays one, "who gain the hearts of moft people, who are "chofen as the companions of their fofter hours, "and their reliefs from anxiety and care, are fel"dom perfons of fhining qualities, or strong vir"tues it is rather the foft green of the foul, on "which we reft our eyes, that are fatigued with

beholding more glaring objects." Here, by a happy allufion to a colour, the whole conception is conveyed clear and ftrong to the mind in one word. By a well-chofen figure, éven conviction is aflifted, and the impreffion of a truth upon the mind, made more lively and forcible than it would otherwife be. As in the following illustration of dr. Young's: "When we dip too deep in pleasure.

we always ftir a fediment that renders it impure "and noxious ;" or in this, "a heart boiling with "violent pallions, will always fend up infatuating "fumes to the head." An image that prefents fo much congruity between a moral and a fenfible idea, ferves like an argument from analogy, to enforce what the author afferts, and to induce belief.

Besides, whether we are endeavouring to raise fentiments of pleasure or averfion, we can always heighten the emotion by the figures which we introduce; leading the imagination to a train, either of

agreeable or difagreeable, of exalting or debafing ideas, correfpondent to the impreffion which we feek to make. When we want to render an objec beautiful, or magnificent, we borrow images from all the most beautiful or fplendid fcenes of nature; we thereby naturally throw a luftre over our object; we enliven the reader's mind, and difpofe him to go along with us, in the gay and pleafing impreffions which we give him of the subject. This effect of figures is happily touched in the following lines of dr. Akenfide, and illustrated by a very fublime figure :

Then the inexpreffive strain
Diffufes its enchantment. Fancy dreams
Of facred foun ains and Elysian groves,
And vales of bli's. The intellectual power
Bends from his awful throne a wond'ring ear,
And fimiles.-

Pleaf. of imaginat, I. 124.

What I have now explained, concerning the ufe and effects of figures, naturally leads us to reflect on the wonderful power of language; and, indeed, we cannot reflect on it without the highest admiration. What a fine vehicle is it now become for all the conceptions of the human mind; even for the moft fubtile and delicate workings of the imagination! What a pliant and flexible inftrument in the hand of one who can employ it skilfully; prepared to take every form which he chooses o give it! Not content with a fimple communication of ideas and thoughts, it paints thofe ideas to the eye; it gives colouring and relievo, even to the most abstract conceptions. In the figures which it uses, it fets mirrors before us, where we may behold objects, a fecond time, in their likeness. It entertains us, as with a fucceffion of the most splendid pictures; difpofes, in the moft artificial manner, of the light and fhade, for viewing every thing to the best advantage; in fine,

from being a rude and imperfect interpreter of men's wants and necellities, it has now paffed into an inftrument of the most delicate and refined luxury.

To make thefe effects of figurative language fenfible, there are few authors in the English language, whom I can refer to with more advantage than mr. Addifon, whofe imagination is, at once, remarkably rich, and remarkably correct and chafte. When he is treating, for instance, of the effect which light and colours have to entertain the fancy, confidered in mr. Locke's view of them as fecondary qualities, which have no real exiftence in matter, but are only ideas in the mind, with what beautiful painting has he adorned this philofophic fpeculation! "Things," fays he, "would make "but a poor appearance to the eye, if we faw "them only in their proper figures and motions.

Now, we are every where entertained with "pleafing shows and apparitions; we difcover imaginary glories in the heavens, and in the "earth, and fee fome of this vifionary beauty

'

poured out upon the whole creation. But what "a rough unfightly fketch of nature fhould we "be entertained with, did all her colouring difap

:

pear, and the feveral diftinctions of light and "fhade vanish? Ia fhort, our fouls are, at prefent, "delightfully loft, and bewildered in a pleasing de"lufion and we walk about like the enchanted "hero of a romance, who fees beautiful caftles, "woods, and meadows; and, at the fame time, "hears the warbling of birds, and the purling of "ftreams; but, upon the finishing of fome fecret "fpell, the fantastic fcene breaks up, and the dif"confolate knight finds himself on a barren heath,

or in a folitary defert. It is not improbable, that "fomething like this may be the ftate of the foul "after its first feparation, in refpect of the

"images it will receive from matter." No. 413. Spectator.

Having thus explained, at fufficient length, the origin, the nature, and effects of tropes, I fhould proceed next to the feveral kinds and divifions of them. But, in treating of thefe, were I to follow the common track of the fcholaftic writers on rhetoric, I should foon become tedious, and, I apprehend, useless, at the fame time. Their great bufiness has been, with a moft patient and frivolous industry, to branch them out under a vaft number of divifions, according to all the feveral modes in which a word may be carried from its literal meaning, into one that is figurative, without doing any more; as if the mere knowledge of the names and claffes of all the tropes that can be formed, could be of any advantage towards the proper or graceful ufe of language. All that I purpofe is, to give, in a few words, before finishing this lecture, a general view of the feveral fources whence the tropical meaning of words is derived: after which I fhall, in fubfequent lectures, defcend to a more particular confideration of fome of the most confiderable figures of fpeech, and fuch as are in most frequent ufe; by treating of which, I fhall give all the inftruction I can, concerning the proper employment of figurative language, and point out the errors and abuses, which are apt to be committed in this part of style.

All tropes, as I before obferved, are founded on the relation which one object bears to another; in virtue of which, the name of the one can be fubftituted inftead of the name of the other; and by fuch a fubftitution, the vivacity of the idea is commonly meant to be increased. Thefe relations, fome more, fome lefs intimate, may all give rife to tropes. One of the first and most obvious relations, is that between a cause and its effect. Hence,