In those deep folitudes and awful cells, Pope. Eloifa to Abelard. Eighthly, a long syllable made short, or a short syllable made long, raises, by the difficulty of pronouncing contrary to custom, a feeling fimilar to that of hard labour: When Ajax ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move flow. Effay on Crit. 370. Ninthly, harsh or rough words pronounced with difficulty, excite a feeling resembling that which proceeds from the labour of thought to a dull writer: Juft writes to make his barrennefs appear, And ftrains from hard-bound brains eight lines ayear. Pope's epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, I. 181. I fhall close with one other example, which of all makes the finest figure. In the first section mention is made of a climax in found, and in the fecond of a climax in fense, fenfe. It belongs to the prefent fubject to obferve, that when these coincide in the fame paffage, the concordance of found and fense is delightful. The reader is conscious not only of pleasure from the two climaxes feparately, but of an additional pleasure from their concordance, and from finding the fenfe so justly imitated by the found. In this refpect, no periods are more perfect than those borrowed from Cicero in the firft fection. The concord betwixt sense and found is not lefs agreeable in what may be termed an anticlimax, where the progress is from great to little; for this has the effect to make diminutive objects appear ftill more diminutive. Horace affords a ftriking example: Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. The arrangement here is fingularly artful. The first place is occupied by the verb, which is the capital word by its fenfe as well as found. The clofe is referved for the word that is the meanest in fenfe as well as in found. And it must not be overlooked, X x VOL. II. that that the resembling founds of the two laft fyllables give a ludicrous air to the whole. Reviewing the foregoing examples, it appears to me, contrary to expectation, that in paffing from the strongest resemblances to those that are fainter, the pleasure rises gradually in proportion. Can this be accounted for? or fhall I renounce my tafte as capricious? When I renew the experiment again and again, I feel no wavering, but the greatest pleasure constantly from the fainteft resemblances. And yet how can this be? for if the pleasure lie in imitation, muft not the strongest resemblance afford the greatest pleasure? From this vexing dilemma, I am happily relieved, by reflecting on a doctrine established in the chapter of refemblance and contraft, that the pleafure of refemblance is the greateft, where it is leaft expected, and where the objects compared are in their capital circumstances widely different. Nor will this appear furprifing, when we defcend to familiar examples. It raifeth not wonder in the smallest degree, to find the most perfect resemblance betwixt two eggs of the fame animal. It is more more rare to find fuch resemblance betwixt two human faces; and upon that account fuch an appearance raises fome degree of wonder. But this emotion rifes to a still greater height, when we find in a pebble, an aggat, or any natural production, a perfect resemblance to a tree or other organifed body. We cannot hesitate a moment, in applying these observations to the present fubject. What occafion of wonder can it be to find one found refembling another, where both are of the fame kind? It is not fo common to find a refemblance betwixt an articulate found and one not articulate; and accordingly the imitation here affords some flight pleasure. But the pleasure swells greatly, when we employ found to imitate things it resembles not otherwise than by the effects produced in the mind. I have had occafion to obferve, that to complete the resemblance betwixt found and fenfe, artful pronunciation contributes not a little. Pronunciation therefore may be confidered as a branch of the present fubject; and with some obfervations upon it I shall conclude the fection. In order to give a juft idea of pronunciation, it must be diftinguished from finging. The latter is carried on by notes, requiring éach of them a different aperture of the windpipe. The notes properly belonging to the former, are expreffed by different apertures of the mouth, without varying the aperture of the windpipe. This however doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from finging, as a man fometimes is naturally led to do, in expreffing a vehement passion. In reading, as in finging, there is a keynote. Above this note the voice is frequently elevated, to make the found correfpond to the elevation of the subject. But the mind in an elevated ftate, is difpofed to action. Therefore in order to a rest, it must be brought down to the key-note. Hence the term cadence. The only general rule that can be given for directing the pronunciation, is, To sound the words in fuch a manner as to imitate the things they reprefent, or of which they are the symbols. The ideas which make the greatest figure, ought to be expreffed |