6. The Porpoifes are unweildly and big; they put all their numbers into a great turmoil and tempeft, but whenever they appear in plain light (which is feldom) they are only fhapelefs and ugly monfters. I. D. C. G. I. O.

7. The Frogs are fuch as can neither walk nor fly, but can leap and bound to admiration: They live generally in the bottom of a ditch, and make a great noife whenever they thrust their heads above water. E. W. I. M. Efq; T. D. Gent.

8. The Eels are obfcure authors, that wrap themselves up in their own mud, but are mighty nimble and pert. L. W. L. T. P. M. General C.

9. The Tortoises are flow and chill, and, like paftoral writers, delight much in gardens: they have for the moft part a fine embroidered Shell, and underneath it, a heavy lump. A. P. W. B. L. E. The Right Hon. E. of S.

Thefe are the chief Characteristicks of the Bathos, and in each of these kinds we have the comfort to be bleffed with fundry and manifold choice Spirits in this our Island.

CHAP. VII.

Of the Profund, when it confifts in the

W

Thought.

E have already laid down the Principles upon which our author is to proceed, and the manner of forming his Thought by familiarizing his mind to the lowest objects; to which it may be added, that Vulgar Converfation will greatly contribute. There is no queftion but the Gar

ret or the Printer's boy may often be difcerned in the compofitions made in fuch fcenes and company; and much of Mr. Curl himself has been infenfibly infused into the works of his learned wri

ters.

The Phyfician, by the ftudy and inspection of urine and ordure, approves himself in the science ; and in like fort fhould our author accustom and exercise his imagination upon the dregs of nature.

This will render his thoughts truly and fundamentally low, and carry him many fathoms beyond Mediocrity. For, certain it is (tho' fome lukewarm heads imagine they may be fafe by temporizing between the extremes) that where there is not a Triticalnefs or Mediocrity in the Thought, it can never be funk into the genuine and perfect Bathos, by the moft elaborate low Expreffion: It can, at most, be only carefully obfcured, or metaphorically debafed. But 'tis the Thought alone that ftrikes, and gives the whole that fpirit, which we admire and ftare at. For inftance, in that ingenious piece on a lady's drinking the Bath-waters: * She drinks! She drinks! Behold the matchless dame!

To her 'tis water, but to us 'tis flame :
Thus fire is water, water fire by turns,

And the fame ftream at once both cools and burns.

What can be more easy and unaffected than the Diction of these verses? 'Tis the Turn of Thought alone, and the Variety of Imagination, that charm and furprize us. And when the fame lady goes into the Bath, the Thought (as in justness it ought) goes still deeper.

+ Venus beheld her, 'midft her croud of flaves, And thought herself just rifen from the waves.

* Anon.

+ Idem.

N 3

How

How much out of the way of common fenfe is this reflection of Venus, not knowing herself from the lady?

Of the fame nature is that noble mistake of a frighted stag in a full chace, who (faith the Poet)

Hears his own feet, and thinks they found like more; And fears the hind feet will o'ertake the fore.

So aftonishing as these are, they yield to the following, which is Profundity itself,

*None but Himfelf can be his Parallel.

Unless it may feem borrowed from the Thought of that Master of a Show in Smithfield, who writ in large letters, over the picture of his elephant,

This is the greatest Elephant in the world, except Himfelf.

However our next inftance is certainly an origi nal: Speaking of a beautiful infant,

So fair thou art, that if great Cupid be
A child, as Poets fay, fure thou art be.
Fair Venus would mistake thee for her own,
Did not thy eyes proclaim thee not her fan.
There all the lightnings of thy Mother's shine,
And with a fatal brightness kill in thine.

First he is Cupid, then he is not Cupid; first Venus would mistake him, then she would not miftake him; next his Eyes are his Mother's, and laftly they are not his Mother's, but his own.

Another author, defcribing a Poet that shines forth amidst a circle of Critics,

Thus Phoebus thro' the Zodiac takes his way,
And amid Monsters rifes into day.

* Theobald, Double Falfhood.

What

What a peculiarity is here of invention? The Author's pencil, like the wand of Circe, turns all into monsters at a ftroke. A great Genius takes things in the lump, without ftopping at minute confiderations: In vain might the ram, the bull, the goat, the lion, the crab, the scorpion, the fishes, all ftand in his way, as mere natural animals: much more might it be pleaded that a pair of fcales, an old man, and two innocent children, were no monfters: There were only the Centaur and the Maid that could be efteemed out of nature. But what of that? with a boldness peculiar to these daring genius's, what he found not monsters, he made fo.

CHA P. VIII.

Of the Profund, confifting in the Circumftances, and of Amplification and Periphrase in general.

W other writers from ours, is their chufing

HAT in a great measure diftinguishes

and feparating fuch circumstances in a description as ennoble or elevate the fubject,

The circumftances which are moft natural are obvious, therefore not aftonishing or peculiar. But those that are far-fetched, or unexpected, or hardly compatible, will furprife prodigiously. These therefore we must principally hunt out; but above all, preferve a laudable Prolixity; prefenting the whole and every fide at once of the image to view. For Choice and Diftinction are not only a curb to the fpirit, and limit the defcriptive faculty, but alfo leffen the book; which is frequently of the worst confequence of all to our author. When

‡ N 4

C

When Job fays in fhort," He washed his feet "in butter," (a circumftance fome Poets would have softened, or paft over) now hear how this butter is fpread out by the great Genius.

With teats diftended with their milky store, Such num'rous lowing herds, before my door, Their painful burden to unload did meet, That we with butter might have wash'd our feet. How cautious! and particular! He had (fays our author) fo many herds, which herds thriv'd fo well, and thriving fo well gave fo much milk, and that milk produced fo much butter, that, if he did not, he might have wash'd his feet in it.

The enfuing description of Hell is no lefs remarkable in the circumftances.

+ In flaming heaps the raging ocean rolls,
Whofe livid waves involve defpairing fouls;
The liquid burnings dreadful colours fhew,
Some deeply red and others faintly blue.

Could the most minute Dutch-painters have been more exact? How inimitably circumftantial is this alfo of a war-horse !

+ His eye-balls burn, he wounds the fmoaking plain,
And knots of fcarlet ribbond deck his mane.
Of certain Cudgel-players:

$ They brandifh high in air their threatning ftaves,
Their hands a woven guard of ozier faves.
In which they fix their hazle weapon's end.

Who would not think the Poet had paft his whole life at Wakes in fuch laudable diverfions?