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Je le pris tout sanglant. En baignant son visage,
Mes pleurs du sentiment lui rendirent l'usage:
Et soit frayeur encore, ou pour me caresser,
De ses bras innocens je me sentis presser.

"Alas! the state in which heav'n gave him to me,
"Returns each moment to my frighted soul;
"The room was fill'd around with murder'd princes.
"Dread Athaliah, with her sword unsheath'd,
"Rous'd her barbarian soldiers to the slaughter,
"And still pursued the series of her murders.

Joas, now left as dead! struck strong my sight: "Methinks I still behold his weeping nurse, "Kneeling, in vain, before the bloody hangman; "The tender babe upon her breast reclin'd. "I took him bloody bathing then his face, "Soon did my tears recal his fleeting breath. "Whether 'twas fear, or whether to embrace me, "I felt him press me with his tender arms.

M. Flechier's description of hospitals may serve as a model in this kind. "Tis in the queen's funeral oration. "Let us behold her in these hospitals, where "she practised her public acts of pity; in those places, "where all the infirmities and accidents of human life are assembled; where the groans and complaints of those who suffer, and are in pain, fill "the soul with sympathetic sadness; where the smell "that exhales from the bodies of so many diseased pa"tients, makes those who attend upon them ready to "faint away; where we see pain and poverty exer"cising their fatal empire; and where the image of "misery and death strikes almost every sense.

It is

"there, that raising herself above the fears and deli"cacies of nature, to satisfy her charity, though at "the hazard of her health, she was seen every week

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drying up the tears of this object; providing for "the wants of that: procuring remedies and com"forts for the evils of some, and consolations and "ease of conscience for others."

These

passages are very well adapted to the taste of

youth.

youth. [b] We must observe to them, that the most certain way of succeeding in descriptions of this kind is to consult nature, to study her well, and to take her as a guide; so that every one, inwardly sensible of the truth of what is spoken, may find within himself the sentiments expressed in the discourse. [c] For that purpose we must represent to ourselves, in a lively manner, all the circumstances of the thing to be described, and bring it before us by the strength of our imagination, as if we had been spectators of it. [d] And why, says Quintilian, should not the imagination perform as much for the orator on this occasion, as she does for people who are addicted to any kind of passions? as for instance, misers and ambitious men, who in this kind of pleasing dreams, in which they form a thousand chimerical projects of fortune and riches, abandon themselves so much to the object of their darling passion, and are so strongly possessed with it, that they really believe they see and enjoy it.

Quintilian himself furnishes us with a model of this way of making a description, which I will quote at length, because it shews youth how they must proceed in it, in order to compose well.. [e] Ut hominem occisum querar, non omnia, quæ in re præsenti accidisse credibile est, in oculis habebo? Non percussor ille subitus erumpet? non expavescet circumventus? exclamabit, vel rogabit, vel fugiet? non ferientem, non concidentem videbo? non animo sanguis, & pallor, & gemitus, extremus denique expirantis hiatus insidet?

[b] Naturam intueamur, hanc sequamur. Omnis eloquentia circa opera vitæ est; ad se refert quisque que audit: & id facillimè accipiunt animi, quod cognoscunt. Quint. 1. 8. c. 3.

[c]Per quas (Carradias) imagines rerum absentium ita repræsentantur animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac

præsentes habere videamur. Has quisquis bene conceperit, is erit in affectibus potentissimus. Hunc quidam dicunt, spartacíwror, qui sibi

"In order to aggra

res, voces, actus secundum verum optimè fingit. Quint. 1. 6. c. 2.

[d] Nam si inter otia animorum & spes inanes, & velut somnia quædam vigilantium, ita nos hæ de quibus loquimur imagines prosequuntur, ut peregrinari, navigare, præliari, populos alloqui, divitiarum quas non habemus usum videamur disponere, nec cogitare, sed facere: hoc animi vitium ad utilitatem non transferemus? Ibid.

[e] Quint. l. 6. c. 2.

66 vate

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"vate the circumstances of a murder, should I not call up to my imagination every thing that might possibly happen in such a case? Shall not he that gave the blow suddenly burst forth? Shall he not "tremble when laid hold on? Will he not either cry out, or ask for pity, or attempt to escape? Shall "I not represent the one as striking, the other as falling? Will not the blood, the paleness, the groans, nay, even the last sighs of the deceased, be present "to my mind?" This passage seems to be copied from Cicero, who thus describes a like action. [f] Nonne vobis hæc, quæ audistis, cernere oculis videmini, judices? Non illum miserum ignarum casús sui, redeuntem à cœnâ videtis? non positas insidias ? non impetum repentinum? Non versatur ante oculos vobis in cæde Glaucia? Non adest iste Roscius? non suis manibus in curru collocat Automedontem. illum, sui sceleris acerbissimi nefariæque victoriæ nuncium? "Do you not, my judges, seem to behold "what has been thus related to you? Do you not

see that poor man, ignorant of his fate, returning "from supper? Do you not behold the assassins in "ambush their sudden irruption? Does not Glau- "cia secm active in this horrid scene? Is not Roscius

also there assisting? Does he not, with his own "hands, place his Automedon, if I may so speak, "that partner of his guilt, and messenger of his cruel "success, in the chariot by him?"

IMAGES.

The last words of the description I have here cited, direct me to point out to youth in this place one of the most common sources of oratorial beauties, which consists in giving, as it were, body and reality to the things we are speaking of; and painting them by visible strokes, which may strike the senses, move the imagination, and present a sensible object. This method has some relation to the precedent figure, the hypotyposis, and perhaps is a part of it. Non suis ma[f] Pro Rosc. Amer. n. 98. C

VOL. 11.

nibus

nibus in curru collocat Automedontem illum? These. words, suis manibus, produce here the effect I am speaking of, and present an image to the mind. The same observation may be made on the two verses above-cited.

Un poignard à la main, l'implacable Athalie
Au carnage animoit ses barbares soldats.

Englished.

"Fierce Athaliah, in her hand a poniard, "Prompted her savage soldiers to the slaughter." This touch, with a poniard in her hand, forms all the vivacity of these lines. The objects we describe may be painted in this manner with infinite variety, of which I shall give several examples, that the reader may apply to the rule I have already given.

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[g] Tendit ad vos virgo restalis manus supplices easdem, quas pro vobis diis immortalibus tendere consuevit... Prospicite ne ignis ille æternus, nocturnis Fonteia laboribus vigiliisque servatus, sacerdotis Vesta lacrymis extinctus esse dicatur. "The vestal stretches forth to you her suppliant hands, those "hands with which she has often implored the gods "for your safety. Be mindful, lest that eternal fire, "which has been kept alive be the nightly watchings and labours of Fonteia, should be in a manner quenched by the tears of this sacred priestess.

[h] Hæc magnitudo maleficii facit, ut, nisi penè manifestum parricidium proferatur, credibile non sit.... Penè dicam respersas manus sanguine paterno judices videant oportet, si tantum facinus, tam immane, tam acerbum credituri sint. "The great

66

ness of the crime of parricide is such, that unless "it be almost manifest, it should not be believed. I "had almost said, that the judges should even see "the murderer's hands red with his father's blood, "before they give credit to his committing a crime "so hideous and so unnatural."

[g] Pro. M. Font. n. 37, 38.

[b] Pro Rosc. Amer. n. 68,
"What

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[] What nation has not felt the effects of his "valour; and which of our frontier towns has not "served as a theatre to his glory.

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"In the tumult and noise of armies, he used to entertain himself with the sweet and secret hopes of solitude. With one hand he fell upon the Amalekites, while the other was lifted up to draw down upon himself the blessings of heaven.

"It taught him to lift up his pure, his innocent "hands, to heaven.

"Before he accepted of any post or employment, "he would know the duties of it. The first tribunal

he ascended, was that of his conscience, there to "examine his intentions thoroughly.

"When he restored God's worship in his conquests, and as he was marching upon those ramparts "he had a little before demolished, his first homage "was his offering to God the laurels he had won, at "the foot of his altars which he restored.

"I am not afraid of blending her praises with the "sacrifice offered for her; and I take from the altar "all the incense I burn upon her tomb. . . . Why "should I take off the veil which she threw over her " actions?

"He made it his study to discover truth, through "the veils of falsehood and imposture with which hu66 man lusts cover it.

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[k] Are such truths learnt at court, in the army, "under the helmet, and the coat of mail?

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[] You think then, that anxiety, and the most deadly sorrows, are not to be hid under royal robes; or that a kingdom is an universal remedy against all "evils?

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"Methinks I still see that flower falling." Speaking of the death of an infant prince.

"When all things submitted to Lewis, and we believed the miraculous times were returning, when "walls fell down at the sound of trumpets; the "whole nation cast their eyes on the queen, and [] Flechier.

[*] Mascar.
C2

[1] Bossuet. thought

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