Where'er he swims, he leaves along the lake
Such frothy furrows, fuch a foamy track,
That all the waters of the deep appear
Hoary-with age, or grey with fudden fear *.

}

But perhaps even these are excelled by the enfuing.
Now the refifted flames and fiery store,
By winds affaulted, in wide forges roar,
And raging feas flow down of melted ore,
Sometimes they hear long iron bars remov'd,
And to and fro huge heaps of cinders shov'd †·

2. The VULGAR.

is also a species of the diminishing: by this a spear flying into the Air is compared to a boy whistling as he goes on an errand.

The mighty Stuffa threw a maffy fpear,

Which, with its errand pleas'd, fung thro' the air‡
A Man raging with grief to a Mastiff-dog:
I cannot stifle this gigantic woe,

Nor on my raging grief a muzzle throw ¶.

And Clouds big with water to a Woman in great neceffity:

Diftended with the waters in 'em pent,

The clouds hang deep in air, but hang unrent. 3. The INFANTINE.

This is when a poet grows fo very simple, as to think and talk like a child. I fhall take my examples from the greatest master in this way. Hear how he fondles like a mere ftammerer.

*Blackm. Job. p. 197. † Pr. Arthur. p. 157. ‡ Pr. Arthur. ¶ Blackm. Job. p. 41.

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Little

Little charm of placid mien,
Miniature of Beauty's Queen,
Hither, British mufe of mine,
Hither, all ye Grecian Nine,
With the lovely Graces Three,
And your pretty nurfeling fee.
When the meadows next are seen,
Sweet enamel, white and green,
When again the lambkins play,
Pretty Sportlings full of May.

Then the neck fo white and round,
(Little neck with brilliants bound).
And thy gentleness of mind,
(Gentle from a gentle kind), dc.
Happy thrice, and thrice agen,
Happiest he of happy men, &c *.

And the rest of thofe excellent lullabies of his compofition.

How prettily he afks the fheep to teach him to bleat?
Teach me to grieve with bleating moan, my sheept.
Hear how a babe would reafon on his nurse's death;
That ever fhe could die! Oh most unkind!
To die, and leave poor Colinet behind?
And yet,----why blame I her? ‡----

With no lefs fimplicity does he suppose that fhepherdeffes tear their hair, and beat their breafts, at their own deaths:

Ye brighter maids, faint emblems of my fair, With looks caft down, and with dishevel'd hair, *Amb. Philips on Mifs Cuzzona. † Philipis paftorals. Ibid.

In

In bitter angiush beat your breasts, and moan
Her death untimely, as it were your own *

4. The INANITY, or NOTHINGNESS.

Of this the fame author furnishes us with most beautiful instances:

Ah filly I, more filly than my fheep, (Which on the flow'ry plain I once did keep) †. To the grave fenate fhe could counsel give, (Which with astonishment they did receive). He whom loud cannon could not terrify, Falls (from the grandeur of his majesty) ¶. Happy, merry as a king,

Sipping dew, you fip, and fing

**

The noife returning with returning light, What did it?

Difpers'd the filence, and difpell'd the night ††. You eafily perceive the Nothingness of every se

cond verfe.

The glories of proud London to furvey,

The fun himself fhall rife--by break of day ‡‡. 5. The EXPLETIVE.

admirably exemplified in the epithets of many authors.

Th' umbrageous fhadow, and the verdent green, The running current, and odorous fragrance, Cheer my lone folitude with joyous gladness.

Or in pretty drawling words like these,

All men his tomb, all men his fons adore,
And his fons' fons, till there shall be no more*.

The rifing fun our grief did fee,

The fetting fun did fee the fame,
While wretched we remember'd thee,
O Sion, Sion, lovely name f.

6. The MACROLOGY and PLEONASM

are as generally coupled, as a lean rabbit with a fat one; nor is it a wonder, the fuperfluity of words and vacuity of fenfe, being just the fame thing. I am pleafed to fee one of our greatest adverfaries employ this figure.

The growth of meadows, and the pride of fields The food of armies, and fupport of wars: Refuse of fwords, and gleanings of a fight, Leffen his numbers, and contract his hoft. Where'er his friends retire, or foes fucceed, Cover'd with tempefts, and in oceans drown'd ‡. Of all which the perfection is

The TAUTOLOGY.

**

Break thro' the billows, and----divide the main In smoother numbers, and----in fofter verfe ¶. Divide---and part---the fever'd world---in two With ten thousand others equally mufical, and plentifully flowing through most of our celebrated modern poems.

* T. Cook's poems. ↑ Ibid. Mifcel. vol. iv. p. 291. 4th edit.

+ Camp. ¶Tonf. **lbid. vol. iv. p. 121.

СНАР.

CHAP. XII.

Of Expreffion, and the feveral Sorts of Style of the prefent age.

HE Expreffion is adequate, when it is proportionably low to the profundity of the thought. It must not be always grammatical, left it appear pedantic and ungentlemanly; nor too clear, for fear it become vulgar; for obfcurity beftows a caft of the wonderful, and throws an oracular dignity upon a piece which hath no meaning.

For example, fometimes ufe the wrong number; The fword and peftilence at once devours, instead of devour. Sometimes the wrong cafe; And who more fit to footh the god than thee? * instead of thou and rather than fay, Thetis faw Achilles weep, the beard him weep.

:

We must be exceeding careful in two things: firft, in the choice of low words; fecondly, in the fober and orderly way of ranging them. Many of our poets are naturally bleffed with this talent, infomuch that they are in the circumstance of that honest citizen, who had made profe all his life without knowing it. Let verses run in this manuer, just to be a vehicle to the words: (I take them from my laft-cited author, who, though otherwife by no means of our rank, feemed once in his life to have a mind to be fimple.)

If not, a prize I will myself decree,
From him, or him, or else perhaps from thee †.

*Ti. Hom. Il. 1,

† Idem. p. 11.

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