one or two from the Essay on Man, the gravest and most instructive of all his performances: And hence one master passion in the breast, Epist. II. 1. 131. And again, talking of this same ruling or master passion: Nature its mother, habit is its nurse; Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse; As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour. Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of historians: Ib. 1. 145. Where their sincerity as to fact is doubtful, we strike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel. Let us vary the phrase a very little, and there will not remain a shadow of resemblance. Thus, We discover truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel. Racine makes Pyrrhus say to Andromaque, Vaincu, chargé de fers, de regrets consumé, And Orestes in the same strain: Que les Scythes sont moins cruels qu' Hermoine. Similes of this kind put one in mind of a ludicrous French song: Again: Je croyois Janneton Aussi douce que belle: Je croyois Janneton Plus douce qu'un mouton; Hélas! Hélas! Elle est cent fois, mille fois, plus cruelle Que n'est le tigre aux bois. Hélas! l'amour m'a pris, A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus: I have as much love in store Where the subject is burlesque or ludicrous, such similes are tar from being improper. Horace says pleasantly, And Shakspeare, Quanquam tu levior cortice.* In breaking oaths he's stronger than Hercules. L. 3. Ode 9. 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 gayety or mirth. Take the following examples: Falstaff, speaking to his page: I do here walk hefore thee, like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter Second Part Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 2. but one. * Although you are of less value than the rind. 1.hink 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. 4. This sword a dagger had his page, Description of Hudibras's horse: Hudibras, Canto I. He was well stay'd, and in his gait And as that beast would kneel and stoop, The sun had long since in the lap Canto I. Canto I. 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. 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 fortane, 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. Ibid. 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. Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient sits, Ibid. Description of a City Shower. Swift. Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen, The pierc'd battalions disunited, fali 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 Careless Husband. snuff; nobody takes it now. Lady Easy. My dear, I am Sir Charles. O! not at all. a dish of tea. afraid you have provoked her a little too far. Ibid. CHAPTER XX. FIGURES. The bestowing of sensibility and voluntary motion upon inanimate things, a bold figure-Illustrations-Personification of two kinds-The former attended with conviction-Abstract terms not well adapted to poetry-The difficulty of distinguishing between descriptive personification and a figure of speech-Dispiriting passions unfavorable to passionate personification-Passionate personification to be exclusively confined to the gratification of the passionDescriptive personification-The writer always to confine himself to easy personification-Personification of low objects, ridiculous-The same remark applicable to abstract terms-Terms of dignity excepted-Preparation necessary to personification-Descriptive personification to be especially restrained within due bounds-Descriptive personification to be dispatched in few words. 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 now 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 Prosopopia or personification, which is justly entitled to the first place. SECTION 1-PERSONIFICATION. THE bestowing of 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 churchyard, 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 sensi bility, 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 Cæsar murdered in the senate-house, vents his passion in the following words: Antony. O pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth, Thou art the ruins of the noblest man That ever lived in the tide of time. Julius Cæsar, Act III. Sc. 1. 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! Into thy womb the last and most forlorn Of all thy race. Hear me, thou common parent; Mourning Bride, Act IV. Sc. 7. Plaintive passions are extremely solicitous for vent; and a soliloquy commonly answers the purpose: but when such passion becomes excessive, it cannot be gratified but by sympathy from others; and if denied that consolation in a natural way, it will convert even things inanimate into sympathising beings. Thus Philoctetes complains to the rocks and promontories of the isle of Lemnos; and Alcestes dying, invokes the sun, the light of day, the clouds, the earth, her husband's palace, &c. Moschus, lamenting the death of Bion, conceives, that the birds, the fountains, the trees, lament with him. The shepherd, who in Virgil bewails the death of Daphnis, expresseth himself thus: For him the lofty laurel stands in tears, And hung with humid pearls the lowly shrub appears. And cold Lycæus wept from every dropping stone. That such personification is derived from nature, will not admit the least remaining doubt, after finding it in poems of the darkest ages and remotest countries. No figure is more frequent in Ossian's works; for example: The battle is over, said the king, and I behold the blood of my friends. Sad is the heath of Lena, and mournful the oaks of Cromla. Again: The sword of Gaul trembles at his side, and longs to glitter in his hand. King Richard having got intelligence of Bolingbroke's invasion, says, upon landing in England from his Irish expedition, in a mixture of joy and resentment : -I weep for joy To stand upon my kingdom once again. Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand, Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs As a long parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting; And, when they from thy bosom pluck a flower, Richard II. Act III. Sc. 1. After a long voyage it was customary among the ancients to salute the natal soil. A long voyage being of old a greater enterprise than at present, the safe return to one's country after much fatigue and danger, was a delightful circumstance; and it was natural to give the natal soil a temporary life, in order to sympathise with the traveller. See an example, Agamemnon of Eschilus, Act III. in the beginning. Regret for leaving a place to which one has been accustomed, has the same effect.* Terror produces the same effect: it is communicated in thought to every thing around, even to things inanimate : Speaking of Polyphemus, Clamorem immensum tollit, quo pontus et omnes Italiæ. Eneid, III. 672. |