SECT. IV.

The means or inftrument conceived to be the agent.

W

Hen we furvey a number of objects connected together, that which makes the greatest figure employs chiefly our attention; and the emotion it raifès, if lively, prompts us even to exceed nature in the conception we form of the object. Take the following examples.

For Neleus' fons Alcides' rage had flain.

A broken rock the force of Pirus threw.

In these instances, the rage of Hercules and the force of Pirus, being the capital circumftances, are fo far exalted as to be conceived the agents that produce the effects,

In the following inftances, hunger being the chief circumstance in the defcription, is itself imagined to be the patient :

Whofe hunger has not tafted food these three days.

Jane Share.

As

A figure, which, among related objects, extends the properties of one to another.

His figure is not dignified with a proper

name, because it has been overlooked by writers. It merits, however, a place in this work; and muft be diftinguished from thofe formerly handled, as depending on a different principle. Giddy brink, jovial wine, daring wound, are examples of this figure. Here are adjectives that cannot be made to fignify any quality of the fubftantives to which they are joined a brink, for example, cannot be termed giddy in a sense, either proper or figurative, that can fignify any of its qualities or attributes. When we examine attentively the expreffion, we discover, that a brink is termed giddy from producing that ef fect in thofe who ftand on it: in the fame manner a wound is faid to be daring, not with re

fpect

fpect to itself, but with respect to the boldness of the person who inflicts it: and wine is faid to be jovial, as infpiring mirth and jollity. Thus the attributes of one fubject are extended to another with which it is connected; and the expreffion of fuch a thought must be considered as a figure, because the attribute is not applicable to the fubject in any proper fenfe.

How are we to account for this figure, which we see lies in the thought, and to what principle fhall we refer it? Have poets a privilege to alter the nature of things, and at pleasure to beftow attributes upon a fubject to which they do not belong? It is an evident truth, which we have had often occafion to inculcate, that the mind paffeth easily and fweetly along a train of connected objects; and, where the objects are intimately connected, that it is difpofed to carry along the good or bad properties of one to another; especially when it is in any degree inflamed with these properties *. From this principle is derived the figure under confideration. Language, invented for the communication of thought, would be imperfect, if it were not expreffive even of the flighter propenfities and more delicate feelings: but language cannot remain fo imperfect among a people who have received any polish; because language is regulated

*See chap. 2. part 1. fect.

by

by internal feeling, and is gradually fo improved as to express whatever paffes in the mind. Thus, for example, when a fword in the hand of a coward, is termed a coward fword, the expreffion is fignificative of an internal operation; for the mind, in paffing from the agent to its inftrument, is disposed to extend to the latter the properties of the former. Governed by the fame principle, we fay liftening fear, by extending the attribute liftening of the man who liftens, to the paffion with which he is moved. In the expreffion, bold deed, or audax facinus, we extend to the effect, what properly belongs to the caufe. But not to waste time by making a commentary upon every expreffion of this kind, the best way to give a complete view of the fubject, is to exhibit a table of the different relations that may give occasion to this figure. And in viewing this table, it will be observed, that the figure can never have any grace but where the relations are of the most intimate kind.

1. An attribute of the caufe expreffed as an attribute of the effect.

Audax facinus.

Of yonder fleet a bold difcovery make.

An impious mortal gave the daring wound.

-To

To my adventrous fong,

That with no middle flight intends to foar.

Paradife Loft.

2. An attribute of the effect expreffed as an attribute of the cause.

3. An effect expreffed as an attribute of the caufe.

Jovial wine, Giddy brink, Drowsy night, Mufing mid. night, Panting height, Aftonifh'd thought, Mournful gloom.

Cafting a dim religious light.

Milton, Comus.

And the merry bells ring round,

And the jocund rebecks found.

Milton, Alegro.

4. An attribute of a fubject bestowed upon one of its parts or members.

Longing arms.