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fineft thread. There are Amplifiers who can extend half a dozen thin thoughts over a whole Folio; but for which, the tale of many a vaft Romance, and the fubftance of many a fair volume might be reduced into the fize of a primmer..

In the book of Job are these words, "Haft "thou commanded the morning, and caused the "day-fpring to know his place?" How is this extended by the most celebrated Amplifier of our

age.

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* Canft thou fet forth th etherial mines on high,
Which the refulgent are of light fupply ? ·
Is the celeftial furnace to thee known,
In which I melt the golden metal down?
Treafures, from whence I deal out light as fast,
As all my ftars and lavish funs can waste.

The fame author hath amplified a paffage in the civth Pfalm; "He looks on the earth, and it trem«bles. He touches the hills, and they smoke."

+ The hills forget they're fix'd, and in their flight Caft off their weight, and ease themselves for flight: The woods, with terror wing'd, out-fly the wind, And leave the heavy, panting hills behind.

You here fee the hills not only trembling, but fhaking off the woods from their backs, to run the fafter: After this you are prefented with a foot-race of mountains and woods, where the woods distance the mountains, that, like corpulent purfy fellows, come puffing and panting a vaft way behind them.

* Job, p. 108.

+ P. 257.

CHAP.

CHA P. IX.

Of Imitation, and the Manner of Imitating.

T

HAT the true authors of the Profund are

to imitate diligently the examples in their own way, is not to be queftioned, and that divers have by this means attained to a depth whereunto their own weight could never have carried them, is evident by fundry inftances. Who fees not that De Foe was the poetical fon of Withers, Tate of Ogilby, E. Ward of John Taylor, and E-n of Blackmore? Therefore when we fit down to write, let us bring some great author to our mind, and afk ourselves this queftion; How would Sir Richard have faid this? Do I exprefs myself as fimply as Amb. Philips? Or flow my numbers with the quiet thoughtleffness of Mr. Welfted?

But it may seem fomewhat ftrange to affert, that our Proficient should also read the works of those famous Poets who have excelled in the Sublime: Yet is not this a paradox? As Virgil is faid to have read Ennius, out of his dunghill to draw gold, fo my our author read Shakespear, Milton, and Dryden for the contrary end, to bury their gold in his own dunghil. A true Genius, when he finds any thing lofty or fhining in them, will have the skill to bring it down, take off the gloss, or quite difcharge the colour, by fome ingenious Circumftance or Periphrafe, fome addition or diminution, or by fome of thofe Figures, the use of which we fhall fhew in our next chapter.

The book of Job is acknowledged to be infinitely fublime, and yet has not the father of the Bathos reduced it in every page? Is there a paffage in all Virgil more painted up and laboured than the description of Etna in the third neid?

Horrificis

Horrificis juxta tonat Etna ruinis,
Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem,
Turbine fumantem piceo, et candente favilla,
Attollitque globos flammarum, et fidera lambit.
Interdum fcopulos avulfaque vifcera montis
Erigit eructans, liquefactaque faxa fub auras
Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque ex æftuat imo.

(I beg pardon of the gentle English reader, and fuch of our writers as understand not Latin) Lo! how this is taken down by our British Poet, by the fingle happy thought of throwing the mountain into a fit of the colic.

* Etna, and all the burning mountains, find

Their kindled ftores with inbred forms of wind Blown up to rage; and, roaring out, complain, As torn with inward gripes, and tort'ring pain: Lab'ring, they caft their dreadful vomit round, And with their melted bowels fpread the ground.

Horace, in fearch of the Sublime, ftruck his head against the Stars; but Empedocles, to fathom the Profund, threw himself into Ætna. And who but would imagine our excellent Modern had also been there, from this defcription?

Imitation is of two forts; the firft is when we force to our own purposes the Thoughts of others; the fecond confifts in copying the Imperfections, or Blemishes of celebrated authors. I have feen a Play profeffedly writ in the ftyle of Skakefpear; wherein the resemblance lay in one fingle line,

And fo good morrow t'ye, good mafter Lieutenant. And fundry poems in imitation of Milton, where with the utmost exactness, and not fo much as one exception, nevertheless was conftantly nathlefs, em*Pr. Arthur, p. 75.

+ Sublimi feriam fidera vertice.

broider'd

broider'd was broider'd, hermits were eremites, difdain'd was 'fdeign'd, fhady umbrageous, enterprize emprize, pagan paynim, pinions fennons, sweet dul- ■ cet, orchards orchats, bridge-work pontifical; nay, her was hir, and their was thir thro' the whole poem. And in very deed, there is no other way by which the true modern poet could read, to any purpose, the works of fuch men as Milton and Shakespear.

It may be expected, that, like other Critics, I should next speak of the Paffions: But as the main end and principal effect of the Bathos is to produce Tranquillity of Mind, (and fure it is a better defign to promote fleep than madness) we have little to fay on this fubject. Nor will the short bounds of this discourse allow us to treat at large of the Emollients and Opiats of Poefy, of the Cool, and the manner of producing it, or of the methods used by our authors in managing the Paffions. I fhall but tranfiently remark, that nothing contributes fo much to the Cool, as the ufe of Wit in expreffing paffion: The true genius rarely fails of points, conceits, and proper fimiles on fuch occafions: This we may term the Pathetic epigrammatical, in which even puns are made ufe of with good fuccefs. Hereby our best authors have avoided throwing themselves or their readers into any indecent Transports.

But as it is fometimes needful to excite the paffions of our antagonist in the polemic way, the true ftudents in the law have conftantly taken their methods from low life, where they obferved, that, to move Anger, ufe is made of fcolding and railing; to move Love, of bawdry; to beget Favour and Friendship, of grofs flattery; and to produce Fear, of calumniating an adverfary with crimes obnoxious to the State. As for Shame, it is a filly paf

fion,

fion, of which as our authors are incapable themfelves, fo they would not produce it in others.

CHAP. X.

Of Tropes and Figures: And first of the variegating, confounding, and reverfing Figures..

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UT we proceed to the Figures. We cannot too earneftly recommend to our authors the ftudy of the Abuse of Speech. They ought to Jay it down as a principle, to fay nothing in the ufual way, but (if poffible) in the direct contrary. Therefore the Figures muft be fo turn'd, as to manifeft that intricate and wonderful Caft of Head which diftinguishes all writers of this kind; or (as I may fay) to refer exactly the Mold in which they were formed, in all its inequalities, cavities, obliquities, odd crannies, and diftortions.

It would be endlefs, nay impoffible to enumerate all fuch Figures; but we fhall content ourfelves to range the principal, which most powerfully contribute to the Bathos, under three Claffes. I. The Variegating, Confounding, or Revers ing Tropes and Figures.

II. The Magnifying, and

III. The Diminishing.

We cannot avoid giving to these the Greek or Roman Names; but in tenderness to our countrymen and fellow-writers, many of whom, however exquifite, are wholly ignorant of thofe languages, we have alfo explained them in our mother tongue.

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