Here is a waving fea of heads, which, by a fresh ftream of heads, grows to be a gazing deluge of heads. You come at laft to find, it means a great crowd. How pretty and how genteel is the following? **Nature's confectioner, "Whose fuckets are moist alchemy: "The ftill of his refining mold Minting the garden into gold." What is this but a Bee gathering honey? + "Little Syren of the ftage, "Tuneful mischief, vocal fpell." Who would think this was only a poor gentlewoman that fung finely. We may define Amplification to be making the most of a Thought; it is the Spinning-wheel of the Bathos, which draws out and fpreads it in the fincft thread.. There are Amplifiers who can extend half a dozen thin thoughts over a whole Folio; but for which, the tale of many a vast Romance, and the fubftance of many a fair volume, might be reduced into the fize of a primmer. In the book of Job are thefe words, "Haft thou "commanded the morning, and caufed the day-fspring to "know his place?" How is this extended by the most celebrated Amplifier of our age? "Can't thou fet forth th'ethereal mines on high, "Which the refulgent ore of light supply? Is the celeftial furnace to thee known, In which I melt the golden metal down? "Treafures, from whence I deal out light as faft, "As all my ftars and lavish fons can wafte." Cleveland, †A. Phillips to Cuzzona. + Job, p. 108. The The fame author hath amplified a paffage in the civth Pfalm; "He looks on the earth, and it trembles. He "touches the hills and they fmoke." $"The hills forget they are fix'd, and in their flight "Caft off their weight, and ease themselves for flight: "The woods, with terror wing'd, outfly the wind, "And leave the heavy panting hills behind." You here fee the hills not only trembling, but shaking 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 diftance the mountains, that like corpulent purfy fellows, come puffing and panting a vast way behind them. CHA P. IX. Of Imitation, and the Manner of imitating. THAT 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 fome great author to our mind, and ask ourselves this question; How would Sir Richard have faid this? Do I exprefs myself as fimply as Amb. Philips? Or flow my numbers with the quiet thoughtlessness of Mr. Welfted. But it may feem fomewhat ftrange to affert, that our Proficient fhould alfo read the works of thofe famous § Job, p. 267 Poets 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 may our author read Shakefpear, Milton, and Dryden, for the contrary end, to bury their gold in his own dunghill. A true Genius when he finds any thing lofty or fhining in them, will have the fkill to bring it down, take off the glofs, or quite difcharge the colour, by fome ingenious circumftance or Periphrase, some addition or diminution, or by fome of those Figures, the ufe 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 defcription of Etna in the third Æneid? "Horrificis juxta tonat Ætna ruinis, "Interdumque atram prorumpit ad æthera nubem, "Turbine fumantem piceo, et candente favilla, "Attollitque globos flammarum, et fidera lambit. "Interdum fcopulos avulfaque viscera montis "Erigit eructans, liquefactaque faxa fub auras "Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exæftuat imo." (I beg pardon of the gentle English reader, and such of our writers as understand not Latin.) Lo! how this is taken down by our British Poet, by the single happy thought of throwing the mountain into a fit of the colic. * Etna, and all the burning mountains, find Pr. Arthur, p. 75%. Horace Horace, in fearch of the Sublime, ftruck his head a gainst 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 description? 7 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 Imperfection or Blemishes of celebrated authors. I have feen a Play profeffedly writ in the ftyle of Shakespear, wherein the refemblance 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 so much as one exception, nevertheless was conftantly nathlefs, embroider'd was broider'd, hermits were eremites, difdain'd was 'dain'd, fhady umbrageous, enterprise emprije, pagan paynim, pinions pennons, sweet dulcet, orchards orchats, bridge-work pontifical; nay, her was hir, and there 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 purpofe, the works of fuch men as Milton and Shakespear. It may be expected, that, like other Criticks, I fhould 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 difcourfe allow us to treat at large of the Emollients and the 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 epigrammacical, in which even puns are made + Sublimi feriam fidera vertice. ufe afe of with good fuccefs. Hereby our beft authors have avoided throwing themfelves 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 observed, that, to move Anger, use 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 paffion, of which as our authors are incapable themfelves, fo they would not produce it in others. C.HA P. X. Of Tropes and Figures: And firft of the variegating, confounding, and reverfing Figures. BUT we proceed to the Figures. We cannot too earneftly recommend to our authors the study of the Abufe of Speech. They ought to lay it down as a principle, to fay nothing in the usual way, but (if poffible) in the direct contrary. Therefore the Figures must be fo turned, 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 endless, nay impoffible to enumerate all fuch Figures; but we shall content ourselves to range the principal, which most powerfully contribute to the Bathos, under three Claffes. I. The Variegating, Confounding, or Reverfing Tropes and Figures. 4 II. The |