awaken, or to assist certain passions, and, according as its strain is varied, to introduce one train of ideas, rather than another. This indeed, logically speaking, cannot be called a resemblance between the sense and the sound, seeing long or short syllables have no natural resemblance to any thought or passion. But if the arrangement of syllables, by their sound alone, recal one set of ideas more readily than another, and dispose the mind for entering into that affection which the poet means to raise, such arrangement may, justly enough, be said to resemble the sense, or be similar and correspondent to it. I admit, that, in many instances, which are supposed to display this. beauty of accommodation of sound to the sense, there is much room for imagination to work; and, according as a reader is struck by a passage, he will often fancy a resemblance between the sound and the sense, which others cannot discover. He modulates. the numbers to his own disposition of mind; and, in effect, makes the music which he imagines himself to hear. However, that there are real instances of this kind, and that poetry is capable of some such expression, cannot be doubted. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, affords a very beautiful exemplification of it, in the English language. Without much study or reflection, a poet describing pleasure, joy, and agreeable objects, from the feeling of his subject, naturally runs into smooth, liquid, and flowing numbers:

'Or,

Namque ipsa decoram

Cæsariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventæ
Purpureum, et lætos oculis afflârat honores.

Devenêre locos lætos & amæna vireta,
Fortunatorum memorum, sedesque beatas ;

En. I.

Melancholy and gloomy subjects naturally express themselves in slow measures, and long words:

J

In those deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells,

Et caligantem nigrå formidine lucum.

I have now given sufficient openings into this subject a moderate acquaintance with the good poets, either ancient or modern, will suggest many instances of the same kind. And with this, I finish the discussion of the Structure of Sentences; having fully considered them under all the heads I mentioned; of Perspicuity, Unity, Strength, and Musical Arrangement.

LECTURE XIV.

ORIGIN AND NATURE OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

HAVING now finished what related to the construction of sentences, I proceed to other rules concerning Style. My general division of the qualities of Style,

was into Perspicuity and Ornament. Perspicuity, both in single words and in Sentences, I have considered. Ornament, as far as it arises from a graceful, strong, or melodious construction of words, has also been treated of. Another, and a great branch of the ornament of Style, is, Figurative Language; which is now to be the subject of our consideration, and will require a full discussion.

Our first inquiry must be, what is meant by Figures of Speech? *

In general, they always imply some departure from simplicity of expression; the idea which we intend to convey, not only enunciated to others, but enunciated in a particular manner, and with some circumstance added which is designed to render the impression more strong and vivid. When I say, for instance, “That a good man enjoys comfort in the "midst of adversity;" I just express my thought in the simplest manner possible. But when I say, "To "the upright there ariseth light in darkness;" the same sentiment is expressed in a Figurative Style; a new circumstance is introduced; light is put in the place of comfort, and darkness is used to suggest the idea of adversity. In the same manner to say, " It is "impossible by any search we can make, to explore

*On the subject of Figures of Speech, all the writers who treat of rhetoric or composition, have insisted largely. To make references, therefore, on this subject, were endless. On the foundations of Figurative Language, in general one of the most sensible and instructive writers appears to me to be M. Marsais, in his Traité des Tropes pour servir d' Introduction à la Rhetorique, & à la Logique. For observations on particular Figures, the Elements of Criticism may be consulted, where the subject is fully handled, and illustrated by a great variety of examples.

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"the divine nature fully," is to make a simple proposition. But when we say, "Canst thou, by "searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? It is high as Heaven, "what canst thou do? deeper than Hell, what canst "thou know?" This introduces a Figure into Style; the proposition being not only expressed, but admiration and astonishment being expressed together with it.

But, though Figures imply a deviation from what may be reckoned the most simple form of Speech, we are not thence to conclude, that they imply any thing uncommon or unnatural. This is so far from being the case, that on very many occasions, they are both the most natural, and the most common. method of uttering our sentiments. It is impossible to compose any discourse without using them often; nay, there are few sentences of any length, in which some expression or other, that may be termed a Figure, does not occur. From what causes this happens, shall be afterwards explained. The fact, in the mean time, shews that they are to be accounted part of that Language which nature dictates to men. They are not the inventions of the schools, nor the mere product of study: on the contrary, the most illiterate speak in Figures, as often as the most learned. Whenever the imaginations of the vulgar are much awakened, or their passions inflamed against one another, they will pour forth a torrent of Figurative Language, as forcibly as could be employed by the most artificial declaimer.

What then is it, which has drawn the attention of critics and rhetoricians so much to these forms of Speech? It is this: They remarked, that in them

consists much of the beauty and the force of Language; and found them always to bear some characters, or distinguishing marks, by the help of which they could reduce them under separate classes and heads. To this, perhaps, they owe their name of Figures. As the figure or shape of one body distinguishes it from another, so these forms of Speech have, each of them, a cast or turn peculiar to itself, which both distinguishes it from the rest, and distinguishes it from Simple Expression. Simple Expression just makes our idea known to others; but Figurative Language, over and above, bestows a particular dress upon that idea; a dress which both makes it to be remarked, and adorns it. Hence, this sort of Language became early a capital object of attention to those who studied the powers of Speech.

Figures, in general, may be described to be that Language, which is prompted either by the imagination, or by the passions. The justness of this description will appear, from the more particular account I am afterwards to give of them. Rhetoricians commonly divide them into two great classes; Figures of Words, and Figures of Thought. The former, Figures of Words, are commonly called Tropes, and consist in a word's being employed to signify something that is different from its original and primitive meaning; so that if you alter the word, you destroy the Figure. Thus, in the instance I gave before; " Light ariseth to the upright in dark"ness." The Trope consists in "light and darkness," being not meant literally, but substituted for comfort and adversity, on account of some resemblance or analogy which they are supposed to bear to these conditions of life. The other class, termed Figures