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vals of the Disease, our faint Endeavours aim at nothing but Pleasure and empty Oftentation, too weak and languid for those high Acquifitions, which take their Rise from noble Emulation, and end in real Advantage and fubftantial Glory.

Here perhaps it may be proper to drop this Subject, and pursue our Business.

2 We come

now to the Paffions, an Account of which I have promised before in a diftinct Treatife, fince they not only conftitute the Ornaments and Beauties of Discourse, but (if I am not mistaken) have a great share in the Sublime.

NOTES

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1 My dear Terentianus.] Who this Terentianus, or Pofthumius Terentianus, was, to whom the Author addreffes this Treatife, is not poffible to be difcovered, nor is it of any great Importance. But it appears, from fome Paffages in the Sequel of this Work, that he was a young Roman, a Person of a bright Genius, an elegant Taste, and a particular Friend to Longinus. What he fays of him, I'm confident, was spoken with Sincerity more than Complaifance, fince Longinus muft have difdained to flatter, like a modern Dedicator.

2 Cecilius's Treatife on the Sublime.] Cecilius was a Sicilian Rhetorician. He lived under Augustus, and was contemporary with Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, with whom he contracted a very clofe Friendship. He is thought to have been the first, who wrote on the Sublime.

3 Those who write for the World, or Speak in public.] I take all this to be implied in the original Word πολιτικοῖς.

4 The Sublime, when seasonably addressed, &c.] This Sentence is inimitably fine in the Original. Dr. Pearce has an ingenious Obfervation upon it,

"It is not

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eafy (fays he) to determine, whether the Precepts "of Longinus, or his Example, be moft to be obferv "ed and followed in the course of this Work, fince "his Stile is poffeffed of all the Sublimity of his "Subject. Accordingly, in this Paffage, to exprefs "the Power of the Sublime, he has made ufe of his "Words, with all the Art and Propriety imaginable. "Another Writer would have faid Sapope and "devutal, but this had been too dull and languid. "Our Author uses the Preterperfect Tense, the bet"ter to express the Power and Rapidity, with "which Sublimity of Difcourfe ftrikes the Minds "of its Hearers. It is like Lightning (fays our Au"thor) because you can no more look upon this, "when present, than you can upon the Flash of that. "Befides, the Structure of the Words in the Close "of the Sentence is admirable. They run along, and "are hurried in the Celerity of fhort Vowels. They "represent to the Life the rapid Motion, either of "Lightning, or the Sublime."

SECT. II.

1 Tho Nature for the most part challenges, &c.] These Obfervations of Longinus, and the following Lines of Mr. Pope, are a very proper Illuftration for one another.

First follow Nature, and your Judgment frame
By ber juft ftandard, which is ftill the fame :
Unerring Nature, ftill divinely bright,
One clear, unchang'd, and univerfal Light,
Life, Force, and Beauty must to all impart,
At once the Source, and End, and Test of Art.

Art

Art from that Fund each juft Supply provides,
Works without Shew, and without Pomp prefides:
In fome fair Body thus the fecret Soul

With Spirits feeds, with Vigour fills the whole;
Each Motion guides, and ev'ry Nerve fuftains,
Itself unfeen, but in th' Effect remains.

There are, whom Heav'n has bleft with Store of Wit,
Yet want as much again to manage it;

For Wit and Judgment ever are at Strife,

Tho' meant each others aid, like Man and Wife.
'Tis more to guide, than fpur the Mufe's Steed,
Reftrain his Fury, than provoke his Speed;
The winged Courfer, like a gen'rous Horfe,
Shews most true Mettle, when you check his Course.

SECT.

Effay on Criticism.

III.

1 Making Boreas a Piper] Shakespear has fallen into the fame kind of Bombaft:

the Southern Wind

Doth play the Trumpet to his Purposes.

First Part of Henry IV.

2 Gorgias the Leontine, &c.] Gorgias the Leontine, or of Leontium, was a Sicilian Rhetorician, and Father of the Sophifts. He was in fuch univerfal Efteem throughout Greece, that a Statue was erected to his Honour in the Temple of Apollo at Delphos, of folid Gold, tho' the Custom had been, only to gild them. His ftiling Xerxes the Perfian Jupiter, it is thought, be defended from the Cuftom of the Perfians, to falute their Monarch by that high Title. Calling

may

Vultures

Vultures Living Sepulchres, has been more feverely cenfur❜d by Hermogenes than Longinus. The Authors of fuch quaint Expreffions, as he fays, deserve themfelves to be buried in fuch Tombs. 'Tis certain that Writers of great Reputation have used Allufions of the fame Nature. Dr. Pearce has produced inftances from Ovid, and even from Cicero; and obferved further, that Gregory Nazianzen has stiled those wild Beafts that devour men, Running Sepulchres. However, at best they are but Conceits, with which little Wits in all Ages will be delighted, the great may accidentally flip into, and fuch, as Men of true Judgment may over-look, but will hardly commend.

3 Calliftenes.] He fucceeded Ariftotle in the Tuition of Alexander the Great, and wrote a Hiftory of the Affairs of Greece.

4 Clitarchus] He wrote an Account of the Exploits of Alexander the Great, having attended him in his Expeditions. Demetrius Phalereus, in his Treatise on Elocution, has cenfur'd his fwelling Description of a Wafp. "It feeds, fays he, upon the Mountains, "and flies into hollow Oaks." It feems as if he was speaking of a wild Bull, or the Boar of Erymanthus, and not of fuch a pitiful Creature as a Wafp. And for this Reason, fays Demetrius, the Description is cold and difagreeable.

5 Amphicrates.] He was an Athenian Orator. Being banished to Seleucia, and requested to set up a School there, he replied with Arrogance and Difdain, that "The Dish was not large enough for Dolphins.". Dr. Pearce.

6 Hegefias

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