Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

"against the extremities of heat and cold, "soft throughout like a cushion, and gently giving way to outward impressions. The "blood he calls the pasture of the flesh; and "adds, that for the sake of nourishing the "remotest parts, they opened the body into

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

a number of rivulets, like a garden well "stocked with plenty of canals, that the "veins might by this means receive their supply of the vital moisture from the heart, as the common source, and convey "it through all the sluices of the body. "And at the approach of death, the soul, " he says, is loosed, like a ship from her ca❝bles, and left at the liberty of driving at

66

pleasure." Many other turns of the same nature in the sequel might be adjoined, but these already abundantly shew, that the Tropes are naturally endued with an air of grandeur, that Metaphors contribute very much to Sublimity, and are of very important service in descriptive and pathetic compositions.

That the use of Tropes, as well as of all other things which are ornamental in discourse, may be carried to excess, is obvious enough, though I should not mention it. Hence it comes to pass, that many severely

censure

censure Plato, because oftentimes, as if he was mad to utter his words, he suffers himself to be hurried into raw undigested Metaphors, and a vain pomp of Allegory. "For " is it not (says he) * easy to conceive, that "a city ought to resemble a goblet reple"nished with a well-tempered mixture? "where, when the foaming deity of wine is poured in, it sparkles and fumes; but "when chastised by another more sober divinity, it joins in firm alliance, and composes a pleasant and palatable liquor." For (say they) to call water a sober divinity, and the mixture chastisement, is a shrewd argument, that the author was not very sober himself.

66

66

66

4

Cecilius had certainly these trifling flourishes in view, when he had the rashness in his Essay on Lysias, to declare him much preferable to Plato; biassed to it by two passions equally indiscreet. For though he loved Lysias as well as his own self, yet he

4

* Plato, 1. 6. de legibus, p. 773. ed. Par.

Lysias was one of the ten celebrated orators of Athens. He was a neat, elegant, correct, and witty writer, but not sublime. Cicero calls him propè perfectum, almost perfect. Quinctilian says he was more like a clear fountain than a great river.

hated

[ocr errors]

hated Plato with more violence than he could possibly love Lysias. Besides, he was hurried on by so much heat and prejudice, as to presume on the concession of certain points, which never will be granted. For Plato being oftentimes faulty, he thence takes occasion to cry up Lysias for a faultless and consummate writer, which is so far from being truth, that it has not so much as the shadow of it.

SECTION XXXIII.

BUT let us for once admit the possibility of a faultless and consummate writer; and then, will it not be worth while to consider at large that important question, Whether in poetry or prose, what is truly grand in the midst of some faults, be not preferable to that which has nothing extraordinary in its best parts, correct however throughout, and faultless? And further, Whether the excellence of fine-writing consists in the number of its beauties, or in the grandeur of its strokes? For these points, being peculiar to the Sublime, demand an illustration.

[ocr errors]

I readily allow, that writers of a lofty and

towering

towering genius are by no means pure and correct, since whatever is neat and accurate throughout, must be exceedingly liable to flatness. In the Sublime, as in great affluence of fortune, some minuter articles will unavoidably escape observation. But it is almost impossible for a low and grovelling genius to be guilty of error, since he never endangers himself by soaring on high, or aiming at eminence, but still goes on in the same uniform secure track, whilst its very height and grandeur exposes the Sublime to sudden falls. Nor am I ignorant indeed of another thing, which will no doubt be urged, that 'in passing our judgment upon the works of an author, we always muster his imperfections, so that the remembrance of his faults sticks indelibly fast in the mind, whereas that of his excellencies is quickly worn out. For my. part, I have taken notice of no inconsiderable number of faults in Homer, and some other of the greatest authors, and cannot by any means be blind or partial to them;

'In passing our judgment, &c.] So Horace, Ep. 1. ii. Ep. i. 262.

Discit enim citiùs meminitque libentiùs illud,

Quod quis deridet, quàm quod probat & veneratur.

however,

[ocr errors]

however, I judge them not to be voluntary faults, so much as accidental slips incurred through inadvertence; such as, when the mind is intent upon things of a higher nature, will creep insensibly into compositions. And for this reason I give it as my real opinion, that the great and noble flights, 3 though they cannot every where boast an equality of perfection, yet ought to carry off the prize, by the sole merit of their own intrinsic grandeur.

4 Apollonius, author of the Argonautics, was a writer without a blemish: and no one

ever

I judge them, &c.] So Horace, Ars Poet. 351.
-Ubi plura nitent in carmine, non ego paucis
Offendor maculis, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit natura-

3 Though they cannot every where boast, &c.] So Mr. Pope, in the spirit of Longinus :

4

Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend,
And rise to faults true critics dare not mend
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And snatch a grace beyond the rules of art;
Which, without passing thro' the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its end at once attains.

ESSAY ON CRITICISM.

Apollonius was born at Alexandria, but called a Rhodian, because he resided at Rhodes. He was the scholar of Callimachus, and succeeded Eratosthenes as keeper of Ptolemy's library: He wrote the Argonautics, which are still extant. Of this poet Quinctilian has thus given

his

« PreviousContinue »