t

every generation, unmoved by partiality and unbiaffed by envy, awarded the laurels to these great masters, which flourish still green and unfading on their brows, and will flourish,

As long as streams in filver mazes rove,
Or Spring with annual green renews the grove.

Fenton.

A certain writer objects here, that an illwrought (2) Coloffus cannot be set upon the level with a little faultless Statue; for instance, (3) the little foldier of Polycletus; but the answer to this is very obvious. In the works of art we have regard to exact proportion; in those of nature, to grandeur and magnificence. Now speech is a gift bestowed upon us by nature. As therefore resemblance and proportion to the originals is required in sta

tues,

(2) The Coloffus was a most famous statue of Apollo, erected at Rhodes by Falyfius, of a fize so vast, that the sea ran, and ships of the greatest burden failed between its legs.

Idem.

(3) The Doryphorus, a small statue by Polycletus a celebrated statuary. The proportions were so finely observed in it, that Lyfippus professed he had learned all his art from the study and imitation of it.

N 4

(1) The

tues, so in the noble faculty of discourse there should be something extraordinary, something more than humanly great.

But to close this long digreffion, which had been more regularly placed at the beginning of the Treatise; fince it must be owned, that it is the business of art to avoid defect and blemish, and almost an impossibility in the Sublime, always to preferve the fame majestic air, the fame exalted tone, art and nature should join hands, and mutually affist one another. For from fuch union and alliance perfection must certainly refult.

These are the decisions I have thought proper to make concerning the questions in debate. I pretend not to say they are absolutely right; let those who are willing, make use of their own judgment,

SEC

+ Demofthenis feu potius Hegesippi Orat. de Haloneso, ad finem.

(1) The manner in which Similes or Comparisons differ from Metaphors, we cannot know from Longinus, because of the gap which follows in the original; but they differ only in the expreffion. To say that, fine eyes are the eyes of a dove, or that, cheeks are a bed of spices, are strong metaphors; which become comparifons, if expressed thus, are as the eyes of a dove, or as a bed of spices. These two Comparisons are taken from the description of the beloved in the Song

:

e

SECTION XXXVII.

ΤΟ return. (1) Similes and Comparisons bear so near an affinity to Metaphors, as to differ from them only in one particular * * *

***

* *

** *

As this Hyperbolé, for instance, is exceeding bad, " If you carry not your brains " in the foles of your feet, and tread upon “ them †.” One confideration therefore must always be attended to, "How far the thought

Song of Solomon (ver. 10--16.) in which there are more of great ftrength and propriety, and an uncommon sweetness.

" My beloved is sweet and ruddy, the chief among ten " thousand. His head is as the most fine gold; his locks " are bushy, and black as a raven. His eyes are as the " eyes of a dove by the rivers of water, wash'd with milk, " and fitly fet. His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet " flowers; his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. " His hands are as gold-rings set with the beryl: his belly « is as bright as ivory over-laid with sapphire. His legs are

as

"can properly be carried." For over-shooting the mark often spoils an Hyperbolé; and whatever is over-stretched, loses its tone, and immediately relaxes; nay, sometimes produces an effect contrary to that for which it was intended. Thus Ifocrates, childishly ambitious of saying nothing without enlargement, has fallen into a shameful puerility. The end and defign of his Panegyric (1) is to prove, that the Athenians had done greater service to the united body of Greece, than the Lacedemonians; and this is his beginning: "The virtue and efficacy of eloquence is so

" as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. His "countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His " mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely."

(1) Panegyric.] This is the most celebrated oration of Ifocrates, which after ten, or, as some say, fifteen years labour spent upon it, begins in so indiscreet a manner. Longinus, Sect. iii. has censured Timæus, for a frigid parallel between the expedition of Alexander and Ifocrates, yet Gabriel de Petra, an editor of Longinus, is guilty of the fame fault, in making even an elephant more expeditious than Isocrates, because they breed faster, than he wrote.

(2) The whole of this remark is curious and refined. It is the importance of a paffion, which qualifies the Hyperbolé, and makes that commendable, when uttered in warmth and vehemence, which in coolness and fedateness would be infupportable. So Caffius speaking invidiously of Cafar, in order to raise the indignation of Brutus;

Why,

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great, as to be able to render great things contemptible, to dress up trifling subjects in pomp and show, to clothe what is old and obsolete, in a new dress, and put off

new occurrences in an air of antiquity." And will it not be immediately demanded, Is this what you are going to practise with regard to the affairs of the Athenians and Lacedemonians? - For this ill-timed encomium of eloquence is an inadvertent admonition to the audience, not to liften or give credit to what he says.

(2) Those Hyperboles in short are the best

Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world
Like a Coloffus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs, and peep about
To find ourselves dishonourable graves.

So, again, in return to the swelling arrogance of a bully,

To whom? to thee? what art thou? have not I
An arm as big as thine? a heart as big?
Thy words I grant are bigger: for I wear not
My dagger in my mouth

(as

Shakespear's Cymbeline.

Hyperbolés literally are Impossibilities, and therefore can only then be seasonable or productive of Sublimity, when the circumstances may be stretched beyond their proper size, that they may appear without fail important and great.

(3) The