of our most correct and temperate writers; witness that brilliant apoftrophe at the conclusion of the ninth discourse of Bishop Sherlock, than whom few or none have written with more didactic brevity and fimplicity—

Go," (fays he to the Deifts) " go to your "natural religion: Lay before her Maho"met and his difciples arrayed in armour " and in blood, riding in triumph over the fpoils of thousands and tens of thousands, "who fell by his victorious fword: Shew "her the cities which he fet in flames, the "countries which he ravaged and destroyed, "and the miferable diftrefs of all the inha"bitants of the earth. When she has "viewed him in this fcene, carry her into "his retirements; fhew her the prophet's "chamber, his concubines and wives; let "her fee his adultery, and hear him alledge "revelation and his divine commiffion to

justify his luft and oppreffion. When she "is tired with this profpect, then shew her "the bleffed Jesus, humble and meek, do

ing good to all the fons of men, patiently inftructing both the ignorant and per"verfe; let her fee him in his most retired privacies; let her follow him to the

"mount,

"mount, and hear his devotions and fuppli"cations to God; carry her to his table to "view his poor fare, and hear his heavenly "difcourfe: Let her fee him injured but "not provoked; let her attend him to the "tribunal, and confider the patience with "which he endured the fcoffs and reproaches "of his enemies: Lead her to his crofs, and "let her view him in the agony of death, "and hear his laft prayer for his perfecutors "-Father, forgive them, for they know not " what they do."

This is a lofty paffage in the high imperative tone of declamation; it is richly coloured, boldly contrasted and replete with imagery, and is amongst the strongest of those instances, where the orator addreffes himself to the senses and paffions of his hearers: But let the difciple tread this path with caution; let him wait the call, and be fure he has an occafion worthy of his efforts before he makes them.

Allegory, perfonification and metaphor will prefs upon his imagination at certain times, but let him foberly confult his judgment in those moments, and weigh their fitnefs before he admits them into his ftile.

As

.

As for allegory, it is at best but a kind of fairy form; it is hard to naturalize it, and it will rarely fill a graceful part in any manly compofition. With refpect to personification, as I am speaking of profe only, it is but an exotic ornament, and may be confidered rather as the loan of the muses than as the property of profe; let our student therefore beware how he borrows the feathers of the jay, left his unnatural finery should only serve to make him pointed at and defpifed. Metaphor, on the other hand, is common property, and he may take his share of it, provided he has difcretion not to abuse his privilege, and neither furfeits the appetite with repletion, nor confounds the palate with too much variety: Let his metaphor be appofite, fingle and unconfused, and it will ferve him as a kind of rhetorical lever to lift and elevate his ftile above the pitch of ordinary difcourfe; let him alfo fo apply this machine, as to make it touch in as many points as poffible; otherwise it can never fo poise the weight above it, as to keep it firm and steady on its proper center.

To give an example of the right use and

application

66

application of this figure, I again apply to a learned author already quoted-“ Our first parents having fallen from their native "ftate of innocence, the tincture of evil, “like an hereditary disease, infected all their pofterity; and the leaven of fin having "once corrupted the whole mafs of man“kind, all the species ever after would be "foured and tainted with it; the vicious "ferment perpetually diffufing and propa"gating itself through all generations."(Bentley, Comm. Sermon).

There will be found alfo in certain writers a profufion of words, ramifying indeed from the fame root, yet rifing into climax by their power and importance, which feems to burft forth from the overflow and impetuofity of the imagination: resembling at first fight what Quintilian characterises as the Abundantia Juvenilis, but which, when tempered by the hand of a mafter, will upon clofer examination be found to bear the ftamp of judgment under the appearance of precipitancy. I need only turn to the famous Commencement Sermon before quoted, and my meaning will be fully illuftrated"Let them tell us then what is the chain,

"the cement, the magnetifm, what they "will call it, the invifible tie of that union, whereby matter and an incorporeal mind, things that have no fimilitude or alliance "to each other, can fo fympathize by a mu"tual league of motion and fenfation. No;

they will not pretend to that, for they can "frame no conceptions of it: They are

fure there is fuch an union from the ope"rations and effects, but the cause and the 66 manner of it are too fubtle and secret to "be discovered by the eye of reafon: 'tis "myftery, 'tis divine magic, 'tis natural "miracle."

No. LXXXII.

Defunctus jam fum, nihil eft quod dicat mihi. (TERENT.)

all

IN ages of the world men have been in

habits of praifing the time past at the expence of the time prefent. This was done even in the Auguftan æra, and in that witty and celebrated period the laudator tempo