The expectation and defire of seeing every thing full and complete, according to our ideas of perfection, extends much farther than to the ftyle of compofition. It often directs our hopes and fears in the most important concerns of life, and even contrary to reafon and experience. Hence the fears that men formerly had of dying in their grand climacteric; the fear that Iphigenia's brother (according to the account that Ariftotle gives of an old play) had of being facrificed, when he found himself in the fame fituation in which he believed his fifter had been facrificed. Hence the apprehension of the people of London, that, as they had had an earthquake on the fame day of two fucceeding months, and the second more violent than the firft, they fhould have a third on the fame day of the month following, more fatal than either of the former. Hence many rules that common people have with regard to the weather; as that, if it be fair or rainy on fuch a particular day, it will be fair or rainy fo, much longer. And hence the fatisfaction they receive from the accomplishment of a prediction. Rather than the event fhould not answer to it, they would take confiderable pains to bring it about. Shakespeare hath noted this weakness in Henry the Fourth.

K. Henry,

Warwick.

K. Henry.

Doth any name particular belong
Unto that lodging where I first did fwoon?

'Tis call'd Jerufalem, my noble Lord.

Laud be to God! even there my life must end.
It hath been prophefy'd to me, many years,

I fhould not die but in Jerufalem;

Which vainly I fuppofed the Holy Land.

But bear me to that chamber, there I'll lie:

In that Jerufalem shall Henry die.

Second Part of HENRY IV. Act IV. Scene last.

LECTURE XXXI.

Of CLIMAX, and the Order of Words in a Sentence.

I

N'a world constituted as this is, a view of a gradual rife and improvement in things cannot fail to make an agreeable profpect. The continual observation of this furnishes us with a ftock of pleafing ideas, which are conftantly accumulating, and which are easily transferred, by affociatiou, upon every thing, either in compofition, or in any other field of view, which presents a fimilar appearance. How agreeable to all perfons is the idea of the days growing longer, of fpring advancing, and of children growing up to men!

This is one, but not the only cause of the remarkably ftriking effect which a well-conducted climax hath in composition. When a series of terms rise, by nearly-equal degrees, above one another in greatness and ftrength, they stand in the faireft fituation for being compared and contrafted to one another; by which means the terms mentioned laft in fuch a fucceffion affect the mind much more ftrongly than if they had occurred fingly. Likewife, together with the preceding terms, they contribute (as was observed befote) to form the fublime."

Befides, that order of terms which conftitutes the happiest climax generally coincides with the order of time and nature, in which the things they express really stand related to, or are con

nected with one another. Confequently, it is agreeable to repeat that coincidence; and it is a painful interruption of a longeftablished affociation of ideas, to break that order, This we may perceive in the following climax of Cicero: In urbe luxuries creatur, ex luxuria exiftat avaritia neceffe eft, ex avaritia erumpat audacia, inde omnia fcelera ac maleficia nafcuntur. Pro Rofcio. In this paffage the terms luxury, avarice, impudence, and licentious_ nefs rife regularly above one another, both with regard to their heinousness as vices, and their pernicious effects in the ftate; and they likewife fucceed one another in the order of time and of caufe and effect, the preceding article being always the cause of the following.

The words rocks, feas, and skies stand in a happy climax in the following paffage of Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia's day:

So, when the first bold vessel dared the feas,
High on the ftern the Thracian raised his ftrain,
While Argo faw her kindred trees
Defcend from Pelion to the main.
Transported demi-gods ftood round,
And men grew heroes at the found,
Enflamed with glory's charms.
Each chief his feven-fold fhield display'd,
And half-unfheathed the fhining blade

And rocks, and feas, and fkies rebound,

To arms, to arms, to arms.

The order of climax not only adds to the strength and fublimity of style, it is likewife eafily adapted to heighten the poignancy of wit and humour. Of this Cicero, in his treatise de Oratore tells us that Craffus took a happy advantage, in quef

tioning

tor,

tioning a witness against his client. "Perhaps," fays the ora"the perfon from whom you heard this was angry when "he spoke it." The witness making no reply; he adds, "Per"haps you did not take him right." The witness still continuing filent; he adds again," Perhaps you did not hear it " at all."

As all things that can be exhibited in the fame view, fo as to be named together in a sentence, must be related to one another, (because in that fituation they must have a like dependence upon fomething going before, or coming after) and fince it is impoffible that things which are really different should have the same relations, there must always be a reason for naming fome first and others laft, and the difpofition of them cannot be quite arbitrary. The order of cause and effect, of time or place, and of worth, dignity, and importance, are of principal influence in this affair. So habitually do we attend to those relations, that a confiderable offence against them, even in common conversation, would be instantly perceived, and give a fenfible disgust.

The disgust which this inversion of order occafions is exactly fimilar to what we feel when the usual order of words in a fentence is altered, or any other grammatical mistake is made. It baulks, as it were, our expectation; and the fentence thus conftructed doth not coincide with our ideas of perfection formed by previous affociations of ideas, which was explained before. Befides, if this inversion of order gave no sensible pain, the dispofition of things which constitutes a climax is so agreeable, that it is a pity it should be neglected, when it prefents itself without our feeking for it.

The order of time is obferved in the following feries from Swift:

1

"It is a fhame for an English lady not to relish fuch discourses, "not to improve by them, and endeavour, by reading and in"formation, to have her fhare in those entertainments."

A regard to relative weight and importance may be observed in the following sentence of the fame author:

"The books read at school and colleges are full of incitements "to virtue and difcouragements from vice, and drawn from the "wisest reasons, the ftrongest motives, and the most influencing "examples.❤

The order of cause and effect is confpicuous in fuch phrases as thefe: She was in the bloom of youth and beauty; Old age and infirmities came upon him, &c. Sometimes the effect may precede the cause; but this order is not generally quite so natural. Joy fitting in every face, content in every heart. BOLINGBROKE. Though, in description, as in this cafe, there may be a propriety in mentioning the effect which is vifible firft, and the caufe which is invisible afterwards.

In this fentence of the laft-mentioned author-The genuine ef fect of esteem, confidence, and affection, the term confidence is mifplaced; because confidence is the result of esteem and affection, and therefore ought to be named after them. But the arrangement of the terms in the following fentence is much more faulty:

"No king, who is not, in the true meaning of the word, a patriot, can govern Britain with cafe, fecurity, honour, dignity, or indeed with fufficient power and ftrength."

The capital fault in this fentence is, that after a gradual rife in the ideas, from ease to dignity, the writer goes back to an article

2

pro