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Vaincu, chargé de fers, de regrets consumé, Brulé de plus de feux que je n'en allumai, Helas! fus-je jamais si cruel que vous l'êtes? And Orestes in the same strain:

Que les Scythes sont moins cruel qu' Hermoine. Similes of this kind put one in mind of a ludicrous French song:

Je croyois Janneton

Aussi douce que belle:
Je croyois Janneton

Plus douce qu'un mouton;

Helas! Helas!

Elle est cent fois, mille fois, plus cruelle
Que n'est le tigre aux bois.

Again :

Helas! l'amour m'a pris,

Comme le chat fait la souris.

A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus:

I have as much love in store

As there's apples in Portmore.

Where the subject is burlesque or ludicrous, such similes are far from being improper. Horace says pleasantly,

Quanquam tu levior cortice.

And Shakspeare,

L. iii. ode 9.

In breaking oaths he's stronger than Hercules.

And this leads me to observe, that beside the foregoing comparisons, which are all serious, there is a species, the end and purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples:

Falstaff, speaking to his page :

I do here walk before thee, like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.

Second Part, Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 4.

I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet, or a worm-eaten nut.

As you like it, Act III. Sc. 10.

This sword a dagger had his page,
That was but little for his age;
And therefore waited on him so,
As dwarfs upon knights-errant do.

Description of Hudibras's horse :

Hudibras, canto i.

He was well stay'd, and in his gait
Preserv'd a grave, majestic state.
At spur or switch no more he skipt,
Or mended pace than Spaniard whipt:
And yet so fiery, he would bound
As if he griev'd to touch the ground:
That Cæsar's horse, who, as fame goes,
Had corns upon his feet and toes,
Was not by half so tender hooft,
Nor trod upon the ground so soft.
And as that beast would kneel and stoop,
(Some write) to take his rider up;
So Hudibras his ('tis well known).
Would often do to set him down.

Honour is, like a widow won
With brisk attempt and putting on,
With entering manfully and urging;
Not slow approaches, like a virgin.

The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap;
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn.

Canto i.

Canto is

Part II. canto ii.

Books, like men their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and

return no more.

VOL. II.

Y

Tale of a Tub.

And in this the world may perceive the difference between the integrity of a generous author, and that of a common friend. The latter is observed to adhere close in prosperity; but on the decline of fortune, to drop suddenly off: whereas the generous author, just on the contrary, finds his hero on the dunghill, from thence by gradual steps raises him to a throne, and then immediately withdraws, expecting not so much as thanks for his pains.

Tale of a Tub.

The most accomplish'd way of using books at present is, to serve them as some do lords, learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance.

Tale of a Tub.

Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient sits,
While spouts run clatt'ring o'er the roof by fits;
And ever and anon with frightful din

The leather sounds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy chairmen bore the wooden steed,
Pregnant with Greeks, impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Instead of paying chairmen run them through),
Laocoon struck the outside with his spear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.

Description of a City Shower. Swift.

Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strow the level green.
Thus when dispers'd a routed army runs,
Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,
With like confusion, different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,
The pierc'd battalions disunited, fall

In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.

Rape of the Lock, canto iii.

He does not consider that sincerity in love is as much out of fashion as sweet snuff; nobody takes it now.

Careless Husband.

Lady Easy. My dear, I am afraid you have provoked her a little too far.

,་་

Sir Charles. O! Not at all. You shall see, I'll sweeten her, and she'll cool like a dish of tea.

Ibid.

167

CHAPTER XX.

Figures.

THE endless variety of expressions brought under the head of tropes and figures by ancient critics and grammarians, makes it evident, that they had no precise criterion for distinguishing tropes and figures from plain language. It was accordingly my opinion, that little could be made of them in the way of rational criticism; till discovering, by a sort of accident, that many of them depend on principles formerly explained, I gladly embrace the opportunity to show the influence of these principles where it would be the least expected. Confining myself therefore to such figures, I am luckily freed from much trash; without dropping, as far as I remember, any trope or figure that merits a proper name. And I begin with Prosopopœia or personification, which is justly entitled to the first place.

SECTION I.

Personification.

THE bestowing sensibility and voluntary motion upon things inanimate, is so bold a figure, as to require, one should imagine, very peculiar circumstances for operating the delusion: and yet, in the language of poetry, we find variety of expressions, which though commonly reduced to that

figure, are used without ceremony, or any sort of preparation; as, for example, thirsty ground, hungry church-yard, furious dart, angry ocean. These epithets, in their proper meaning, are attributes of sensible beings: what is their meaning when applied to things inanimate? do they make us conceive the ground, the church-yard, the dart, the ocean, to be endued with animal functions? This is a curious inquiry; and whether so or not, it cannot be declined in handling the present subject.

The mind, agitated by certain passions, is prone to bestow sensibility, upon things inanimate.* This is an additional instance of the influence of passion upon our opinions and belief.† I give examples. Antony, mourning over the body of Casar murdered in the senate-house, vents his passion in the following words:

Antony. O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, That I am meek and gentle with these butchers.

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of time.

Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 4.

Here Antony must have been impressed with a notion, that the body of Cæsar was listening to him, without which the speech would be foolish and absurd. Nor will it appear strange, considering what is said in the chapter above cited, that passion should have such power over the mind of man. In another example of the same kind, the earth, as a common mother, is animated to give refuge against a father's unkindness:

Almeria. O Earth, behold, I kneel upon thy bosom, And bend my flowing eyes to stream upon

Thy face, imploring thee that thou wilt yield!

Open thy bowels of compassion, take

Page 151.

Chapter II. Part v.

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