-Trojam, genitore Adamasto

Paupere (manfiffetque utinam fortuna) profectus.

Eneid. ii. 614.

From conjunctions and disjunctions in general, we proceed to comparisons, which make one fpecies of them, beginning with families. And here alfo, the intimate connection that words have with their meaning requires, that in defcribing two refembling objects a re emblance in the two members of the period ought to be studied. To illuftrate the rule in this cafe, I fhail give various examples of deviations from it; beginning with refemblances expreffed in words that have no refemblance.

I have obferved of late, the ftyle of fome great minifters very much to exceed that of any other productions. Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift.

This, inftead of studying the refemblance of words in a period that expreffes a comparifon, is going out of one's road to avoid it. Instead of productions, which resemble not minifters great nor fmall, the proper word is writers or authors.

If men of eminence are exposed to cenfure on the one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewife receive praises which they do not deserve.

Spectator.

Here the subject plainly demands uniformity in expreffion instead of variety; and therefore it is fubaiitted, whether the period would not do better in the following

manner:

If men of eminence be exposed to cenfure on the one hand, they are as much expoted to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches that are not due, they likewife receive praises that are not due.

I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which paffes fo currently with other judgments, must at fome time or other have ftuck a little with your Lordship*. [Better

* Letter concerning enthufiafin. Shaftesbury.

[Better thus]: I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which paffes fo currently with others, muft at fome time or other have stuck a little with your Lord

Ship.

A glutton or mere fenfualift is as ridiculous as the other two characters. [Shaftesbury, vol. 1. p. 129.

They wifely prefer and affection, to the · obey by force.

the generous efforts of good will reluctant compliances of fuch as [Remarks on the history of England, letter 5. Bolingbroke.

Titus Livius, mentioning the people of Enna demanding the keys from the Roman garrifon, makes the governor fay,

Quas fimul tradiderimus, Carthaginienfium extemplo Enna erit, fædiufque hic trucidabimur, quam Murgantia præfidium interfectum eft. [1. 24. § 38.

Quintus. Curtius, fpeaking of Porus mounted on an elephant, and leading his army to battle:

Magnitudini Pori adjicere videbatur bellua qua vehebatur, tantum inter cæteras eminens, quanto aliis ipfe præftabat. [1. 8. cap. 14.

It is a ftill greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only variety in the words, but alfo in the conftruction. Defcribing Thermopyle, Titus Livius fays,

Id jugum, ficut Apennini dorfo Italia dividitur, ita mediam Græciam diremit. [1..36. § 15.

Speaking of Shakespear:

There may remain a suspicion that we over-rate the greatnefs of his genius, in the fame manner as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being difproportioned and mishapen.

Hiftory of G Britain, vol. 1. p. 138. This is ftudying variety in a period where the beauty lies in uniformity. Better thus:

There may remain a fufpicion that we over-rate the greatnefs of his genius, in the fame manner as we over

rate

rate the greatnefs of bodies that are difproportioned and mishapen.

Next as to the length of the members that fignify the refembling objects. To produce a refemblance be tween fuch members, they ought not only to be constructed in the fame manner, but as nearly as possible be equal in length. By neglecting this circunftance, the following exainple is defective in neatness.

As the performance of all other religious duties will not avail in the fight of God, without charity; to neither will the discharge of all other ministerial duties avail in the fight of men, without a faithful discharge of this principal duty,

Differtation upon parties, dedication: In the following paffage, all the errors are accumulated that a period expreffing a refemblance can well admit.

Minifters are answerable for every thing done to the prejudice of the conftitution, in the fame proportion as the prefervation of the conftitution in its purity and vigour, or the perverting and weakening it, are of greater confequence to the nation, than any other inftances of good or bad government.

Differtation upon parties, dedication.

Next of a comparifon where things are opposed to each other. And here it must be obvious, that if refemblance ought to be ftudied in the words which exprefs two refembling objects, there is equal reafon for ftudying oppofition in the words which exprefs contrafted objects. This rule will be beft illuftrated by examples of deviation from it:

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes. [Spectator, No 399.

Here the oppofition in the thought is neglected in the words, which at firft view feem to import, that the friend and the enemy are employ'd in different matters, without any relation to each other, whether of refemblance or of oppofition. And therefore the contraft or oppofition will be better marked by e::preffing the thought as follows.

A friend

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes.

The following are examples of the fame kind.

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himself to the applaufe of thofe about him. [Spectator, N° 73

Better:

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he gains that of others.

Sicut in frugibus pecudibufque, non tantum femina ad fervandum indolem valent, quantum terræ proprietas cœlique, fub quo aluntur, mutat. [Liay, 1. 38. § 17.

We proceed to a rule of a different kind. During the course of a period, the fcene ought to be continued without variation: the changing from perfon to perfon, from fubject to fubject, or from perfon to fubject, within the bounds of a fingle period, diftracts the mind, and affords no time for a folid impreffion. I illuftrate this rule by giving examples of deviations from it.

Honos alit artes, omnefque incenduntur ad ftudia gloriâ; jacentque ea femper quæ apud quofque improbantur. Cicero, Tufcul. queft. 1. 1.

Speaking of the diftemper contracted by Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, and of the cure offered by Philip the phyfician :

Inter hæc à Parmenione fidiffimo purpuratorum, literas accipit, quibus ei denunciabat, ne falutem fuam Philippo committeret. [Quintus Curtius, l. 3. cap. 6

Hook, in his Roman hiftory, fpeaking of Eumenes, who had been beat down to the ground with a stone, fays,

After a fhort time he came to himself; and the next day, they put hin on board his fhip, which convey'd him firit to Corinth, and thence to the island of Ægina.

I give another example of a period which is unpleafant, even by a very flight deviation from the rule':

That fort of inftruction which is acquired by inculcating an important moral truth, &c.

This

This expreffion includes two perfons, one acquiring, and one inculcating; and the fcene is changed without neceffity. To avoid this blemish, the thought may be expreffed thus:

That fort of inftruction which is afforded by inculcating, &c.

The bad effect of this change of perfon is remarkable in the following paffage.

The Britons, daily haraffed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence, who confequently reduced the greatest part of the island to their own power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the rest of the country, in customs, religion, and language, became wholly Sax[Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift. The following example is a change from fubject to perfon.

ons.

This profitution of praife is not only a deceit upon the grofs of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned; but alfo the better fort must by this means lose some part at least of that defire of fame which is the incentive to generous actions, when they find it promiscuously bestowed on the meritorious and undeferving. [Guardian, N° 4.

Even fo flight a change as to vary the conftruction in the fame period, is unpleasant:

Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmiffa, tranfgreffus flumen, ut quofque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat; Gallos Hifpanofque equites prope ripam lævo in cornu adverfus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum. [Tit. Liv. 1. 22. § 46. Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own army:

Eo magis ruere in fuos belluæ, tantoque majorem ftraedere quam gem inter hoftes ediderant, quanto acrius pavor confternatam agit, quam infidentis magiftri imperio regitur. [Liv. 1. 27. § 14. This paffage is alfo faulty in a different refpect, that there i no resemblance between the members of the expreffion, though they import a fimile.

VOL. II.

B

The