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lime, always to preferve the fame majestic Air, the fame exalted Tone, Art and Nature fhould join hands, and mutually affift one another, For from fuch Union and Alliance Perfection muft certainly refult.

These are the Decifions I have thought proper to make concerning the Questions in debate. I pretend not to fay they are abfolutely right; let those who are willing, make ufe of their own Judgment.

SECTION XXXVII,

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TO return. Similes and Comparisons bear fo near an affinity to Metaphors, as to differ from them only in one Particular * * * * [The Remainder of this Section is

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SECTION XXXVIII.

** [The Beginning of this Sec

tion on Hyperboles is loft.] *

* *

* As this Hyperbole, for inftance, is exceeding bad," If you carry If you carry not your Brains in the Soles of your Feet, and tread upon "them *." One Confideration therefore muft always be attended to, "How far the Thought

finem.

can

Demofthenis feu potius Hegefippi Orat. de Halonefo, ad

« can properly be carried." For over-fhooting the Mark often fpoils an Hyperbole; and whatever is over-ftretched, lofes its Tone, and immediately relaxes; nay, relaxes; nay, fometimes produces an Effect contrary to that for which it was intended. Thus Ifocrates, childishly am-bitious of faying nothing without Enlargement, has fallen into a fhameful 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 "fo 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 obfolete, in a new Drefs, 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 fays.

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2 Those Hyperboles in fhort are the beft (as I have before obferyed of Figures) which have neither the Appearance nor Air of Hyperboles.

And

And this never fails to be the State of thofe, which in the heat of a Paffion flow out in the midst of some grand Circumftance. Thus Thucydides has dextroufly applied one to his Countrymen that perifhed in Sicily*. "The "Syracufans (fays he) came down upon them, "and made a Slaughter chiefly of those who

were in the River. The Water was im"mediately discoloured with Blood. But the "Stream polluted with Mud and Gore, de"terred them not from drinking it greedily,

nor many of them from fighting desperately "for a Draught of it." A Circumstance fo uncommon and affecting gives thofe Expreffrons of drinking Mud and Gore, and fighting defperately for it, an Air of probability.

Herodotus has ufed a like Hyperbole concerning those Warriors who fell at Thermopyla†: "In this Place they defended themselves, with "the Weapons that were left, and with their "Hands and Teeth, till they were buried un"der the Arrows of Barbarians." Is it poffible, you will fay, for Men to defend themfelves with their Teeth, against the Fury and Violence of armed Affailants? Is it poffible that Men could be buried under Arrows? Notwith

Thucydid. 1. 7. p. 446. ed Oxon.

+Herod. 1. 7. c. 225.

Notwithstanding all this, there is a feeming probability in it. For the Circumftance does not appear to have been fitted to the Hyperbole, but the Hyperbole feems to be the neceffary Production of the Circumftance. For applying these strong Figures, only where the heat of Action, or impetuofity of Paffion, demands them (a Point I fhall never cease to infift upon) very much foftens and mitigates the Boldness of too daring Expreffions. 3 So in Comedy, Circumftances wholly abfurd and incredible pafs off very well, because they answer their end, and raise a Laugh. As in this Paffage: "He was Owner of a Piece of "Ground not fo large as 4 a Lacedemonian "Letter." For Laughter is a Paffion arifing from fome inward Pleasure.

But Hyperboles equally ferve to two Purposes; they enlarge, and they leffen. Stretching any Thing beyond its natural Size is the Property of both. And the Diafyrm (the other Species of the Hyperbole) increases the Lowness of any Thing, or renders Trifles more trifling, 5

PART

PART V.

SECTION XXXIX.

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WE have now, my Friend, brought down our Enquiries to the fifth and last Source of Sublimity, which, according to the Divisions premised at first, is the Compofition or Structure of the Words. And tho' I have drawn up, in two former Treatifes, whatever Obfervations I had made on this Head, yet the present Occafion lays me under a neceffity of making fome Additions here.

Harmonious Compofition has not only a natural tendency to please and to perfuade, but infpires us, to a wonderful degree, with generous Ardor and Paffion. 2 Fine Notes in Mufic have a furprizing Effect on the Paffions of an Audience. Do they not fill the Breaft with inspired Warmth, and lift up the Heart into heavenly Tranfport? The very Limbs receive Motion from the Notes, and the Hearer, tho' he has no Skill at all in Mufic, is fenfible however, that all its Turns make a strong Impreffion on his Body and Mind. The Sounds of any mufical Inftrument are in themselves infignificant, yet by the Changes of the Air, the Agreement of the Chords, and Sympho

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