66 1 prostituted souls, those cringing traitors, "those furies of the commonwealth, who "have combined to wound and mangle their "country, who have drunk up its liberty in "healths, to Philip once, and since to Alex"ander, measuring their happiness by their 66 66 belly and their lust. As for those gene rous principles of honour, and that maxim, "never to endure a master, which to our "brave forefathers were the high ambition "of life, and the standard of felicity, these "they have quite subverted." Here, by means of this multitude of Tropes, the orator bursts out upon the traitors in the warmest 66 "feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: "clouds they are without water, carried about of winds: "trees, whose fruit withereth, without fruit, plucked up "by the roots: raging waves of the sea, foaming out "their own shame: wandering stars, to whom is re"served the blackness of darkness for ever." By how much the bold defence of Christianity, against the lewd practices, insatiable lusts, and impious blasphemies of wicked abandoned men, is more glorious than the defence of a petty state, against the intrigues of a foreign tyrant; or, by how much more honourable and praise-worthy it is, to contend for the glory of God and religion, than the reputation of one republic; by so much does this passage of the Apostle exceed that of Demosthenes, commended by Longinus, in force of expression, liveliness of allusion, and height of Sublimity. indigna indignation. It is, however, the precept of Aristotle and Theophrastus, that bold Metaphors ought to be introduced with some small alleviations; such as, if it may be so expressed; and as it were, and if I may speak with so much boldness. For this excuse, say they, very much palliates the hardness of the figures. Such a rule hath a general use, and therefore I admit it; yet still I maintain what I advanced before in regard to Figures, that bold 2 Metaphors, and those too in good plenty, are very seasonable in a noble composition, where they are always mitigated and 2 This remark shews the penetration of the judgment of Longinus, and proves the propriety of the strong Metaphors in Scripture; as when "Arrows are said to "be drunk with blood," and "a sword to devour flesh." (Deut. xxxii. 42.) It illustrates the eloquence of St. Paul, who uses stronger, more expressive, and more accumulated Metaphors, than any other writer; as when, for instance, he styles his converts, "His joy, "his crown, his hope, his glory, his crown of rejoic- "ing." (Phil. iii. 9.) When he exhorts them "to "put on Christ." (Rom, xiii. 14.) When he speaks against the heathens, "who had changed the truth of "God into a lie." (Rom. i. 25.) When against wicked men, "whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is their shame." (Phil. iii. 19.) See a chain of strong ones, Rom. iii. 13-18. softened, softened, by the vehement Pathetic and generous Sublime dispersed through the whole. For as it is the nature of the Pathetic and Sublime, to run rapidly along, and carry all before them, so they require the figures, they are worked up in, to be strong and forcible, and do not so much as give leisure to a hearer, to cavil at their number, because they immediately strike his imagination, and inflame him with all the warmth and fire of the speaker. But further, in Illustrations and Descriptions, there is nothing so expressive and significant, as a chain of continued Tropes. By these has Xenophon* described, in so pompous and magnificent terms, the anatomy of the human body. By these has Plato † described the same thing, in so unparalleled, so divine a manner. 3 The head of man * *Απομνημον, 1. 1. c. 45. ed. Oxon. + Plato in Timæo passim. he 3 The Allegory or chain of Metaphors that occurs in Psalm lxxx. 8, is no way inferior to this of Plato. The royal author speaks thus of the people of Israel, under the Metaphor of a vine: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast "cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou madest "room for it, and when it had taken root, it filled the "land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, " and "he calls a citadel. The neck is an isthmus 66 placed between the head and the breast. "and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedarShe stretched out her branches unto the sea, ❝ trees. " and her boughs unto the river." -DR. PEARce. St. Paul has nobly described, in a continuation of Metaphors, the Christian armour, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, chap. vi. 13———— The sublime description of the horse, in Job, chap. xxxix. 19-25, has been highly applauded by several writers. The reader may see some just observations on it, in the Guardian, No 86. But the xxixth chapter of the same book will afford as fine instances of the beauty and energy of this figurc, as can any where be met with. "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days "when God preserved me!-when the Almighty was 66 yet with me, when my children were about me: "when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock "poured me out rivers of oil!-When the car heard 66 me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, "it gave witness to me. The blessing of him "that was ready to perish came upon me, and I "caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on " righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as "a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet "was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor." There is another beautiful use of this Figure in the latter part of the lxvth Psalm. The description is lively, and what the French call riante, or laughing. It has indeed been frequently observed, that the Eastern writings abound very much in strong Metaphors, but in Scripture they are always supported by a ground-work of masculine and nervous strength, without which they are apt to swell into ridiculous bombast. "The "The vertebra, or joints, on which it turns, 66 are so many hinges. Pleasure is the bait, "which allures men to evil, and the tongue "is the informer of tastes. The heart, be ing the knot of the veins, and the fountain "from whence the blood arises, and briskly "circulates through all the members, is a "watch-tower completely fortified. 66 66 The pores he calls narrow streets. And because "the heart is subject to violent palpitations, "either when disturbed with fear of some impending evil, or when inflamed with "wrath, the gods, says he, have provided against any ill effect that might hence "arise, by giving a place in the body to the 66 lungs, a soft and bloodless substance, fur"nished with inward vacuities, like a sponge, "that whenever choler inflames the heart, "the lungs should easily yield, should gra"dually break its violent strokes, and pre"serve it from harm. The seat of the concupiscible passions, he has named the "apartment of the women; the seat of the "irascible, the apartment of the men. "spleen is the sponge of the entrails, from "whence, when filled with excrements, it is "swelled and bloated. Afterwards pro"ceeds he) the gods covered all those parts "with flesh, their rampart and defence 66 The against |