poffibly be. They are easily understood, becaufe borrowed from common life; and what is most familiar to us, fooneft engages our belief. Therefore when a perfon, to promote his ambitious defigns, bears ill treatment and reproaches not only with patience, but a seeming pleasure, to say that he fwallows af

fronts,

is vifible from these lines in Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet : I would have thee gone,

And yet no further than a wanton's bird,
That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves,
And with a filk thread pulls it back again,
So loving jealous of its liberty.

Mr. Addifon has made ufe of an Image of a lower nature in his Cato, where the lover cannot part with his mistress without the higheft regret; as the lady could not with her lover in the former inftance from Shakespear. He has touch'd it with equal delicacy and grace:

Thus o'er the dying lamp th' unfteady flame
Hangs quiv'ring to a point; leaps off by fits,
And falls again, as loth to quit its hold.

I have ventured to give thefe inftances of the beauty and ftrength of Images taken from low and common objects, because what the Critic fays of Terms, holds equally in regard to Images. An expreffion is not the worfe for being obvious and familiar, for a judicious application gives it new dignity and strong fignificance. All images and words are dangerous to fuch as want genius and spirit. By their management, grand words and images improperly thrown together fink into burlesque and founding nonsense, and the

eafy

fronts, is as happy and expreffive a phrase as could poffibly be invented. The following paffage from Herodotus in my opinion comes very near it *. "Cleomenes (fays he) being

"feized with madness, with a little knife "that he had, cut his flesh into small pieces, "till having entirely mangled his body, he

cc ex

eafy and familiar are tortured into infipid fuftian. A true genius will steer fecurely in either courfe, and with fuch bold rashness on particular occafions, that he will almoft touch upon rocks, yet never receive any damage. This remark, in that part of it which regards the Terms, may be illuftrated by the following lines of Shakespear, fpoken by Apemantus to Timon, when he had abjured all human fociety, and vow'd to pass the remainder of his days in a defert.

What? think'st thou

That the bleak air, thy boiftr'ous chamberlain,
Will put thy fhirt on warm? will these moift trees,
That have out-liv'd the eagle, page thy heels,
And skip when thou point'ft out? will the cold brook,
Candied with ice, cawdle thy morning taste
To cure thy o'er-night's furfeit? Call the creatures,
Whofe naked natures live in all the fpite

Of wreakful heav'n, whofe bare unhoused trunks,
To the conflicting elements expos'd,

Answer mere nature; bid them flatter thee;

Oh! thou fhalt find.

The whole is carried on with so much spirit, and fupported by fuch an air of folemnity, that it is noble and af fecting. Yet the fame expreffions and allufions, in inferior hands, might have retained their original baseness, and been * Herod. 1. 6. c. 75. quite ridiculous.

M

(1) De

expired." And again †, "Pythes remaining still in the ship, fought courageously, till ." he was hack'd in pieces." These expresfions approach near to Vulgar, but are far from having vulgar fignifications.

SECTION XXXII.

AS to a proper number of Metaphors, Cecilius has gone into their opinion, who have fettled it at two or three at moft, in expreffing the fame object. But in this alfo, let Demofthenes be observed as our model and guide; and by him we fhall find, that the proper time to apply them, is, when the paffions are so much worked up, as to hurry on like a torrent, and unavoidably carry along with them

a

(1) Demofthenes, in this inftance, burfts not out upon the traiterous creatures of Philip, with such bitterness and severity, ftrikes them not dumb, with fuch a continuation of vehement and cutting Metaphors, as St. Jude fome profligate wretches in his Epiftle, ver. 12, 13.

"These are spots in your feafts of charity, when they "feaft with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds "they are without water, carried about of winds: trees, "whofe fruit withereth, without fruit, pluck'd up by the "roots: raging waves of the fea, foaming out their own fhame: wandring ftars, to whom is reserved the blackness "of darkness for ever.

By

a whole croud of metaphors. (1) "Thofe "prostituted fouls, thofe cringing traitors, "thofe furies of the commonwealth, who " have combined to wound and mangle their country, who have drank up its liberty in healths, to Philip once, and fince to Alexander, measuring their happiness by their belly and their luft. As for those generous principles of honour, and that maxim, never to endure a mafter, which to our "brave fore-fathers, were the high ambition "of life, and the standard of felicity, these they have quite fubverted." Here, by means of this multitude of Tropes, the orator bursts out upon the traitors in the warmest indignation. It is however the precept of Ariftotle and Theophraftus, that bold Metaphors

cr

By how much the bold defence of Christianity, against the lewd practices, infatiable lufts, and impious blafphemies of wicked abandoned men, is more glorious than the defence of a petty state, against the intrigues of a foreign ty rant; or, by how much more honourable and praise-worthy it is, to contend for the glory of God and religion, than the reputation of one republic; by fo much, does this paffage of the Apostle exceed that of Demofthenes, commended by Longinus, in force of expreffion, liveliness of Allufion, and height of Sublimity.

Herod. 1. 7. c. 181.

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(2) This

phors ought to be introduced with some small alleviations; fuch as, if it may be fo exprefs'd; and as it were, and if I may speak with fo much boldness. For this excuse, say they, very much palliates the hardness of the Figures.

Such a rule has a general use, and therefore I admit it; yet ftill I maintain what I advanced before in regard to Figures, that bold (2) Metaphors, and those too in good plenty, are very seasonable in a noble compofition, where they are always mitigated and foften'd, by the vehement Pathetic and generous Sublime difperfed through the whole. For as it is the nature of the Pathetic and Sublime, to run rapidly along, and carry all before

Απομνημον, 1. 1. c. 45. ed. Oxon.
Plato in Timeo paffim.

(2) This remark fhews the penetration of the judgment of Longinus, and proves the propriety of the ftrong Metaphors in Scripture; as when " Arrows are faid to be drunk "with blood," and "a fword to devour flesh." (Deut. xxxii. 42.) It illuftrates the eloquence of St. Paul, who uses ftronger, more expreffive, and more accumulated Metaphors, than any other writer; as when, for inftance, he ftiles his converts, "His joy, his crown, his hope, his glory, his "crown of rejoicing." (Phil. iii. 9.) When he exhorts them

to put on Christ." (Rom. xiii. 14.) When he speaks against the heathens, "who had changed the truth of God

into a lye." (Rom. i. 25.) When againft wicked men, 66 whofe