kind, when about to defcribe the battle of LEC T. Blenheim.

But O! my Mufe! what numbers wilt thou find
To fing the furious troops in battle join'd?
Methinks, I hear the drum's tumultuous found,
The victor's fhouts, and dying groans, confound; &c.

Introductions of this kind, are a forced at-
tempt in a writer, to fpur up himself, and his
reader, when he finds his imagination begin
to flag. It is like taking artificial spirits in
order to fupply the want of fuch as are natural.
By this obfervation, however, I do not mean
to pass a general cenfure on Mr. Addison's
Campaign, which, in feveral places, is far
from wanting merit; and, in particular, the
noted comparison of his hero to the angel
who rides in the whirlwind and directs the
ftorm, is a truly Sublime image.

THE faults oppofite to the Sublime are chiefly two; the Frigid, and the Bombast. The Frigid confifts, in degrading an object, or fentiment, which is Sublime in itself, by our mean conception of it; or by our weak, low, and childish defcription of it. This betrays entire abfence, or at least great poverty of genius. Of this, there are abundance of examples, and these commented upon with much humour, in the treatife on the Art of Sinking, in Dean Swift's works; the inVOL. I. ftances

H

IV.

LECT. ftances taken chiefly from Sir Richard Blackmore. One of thefe, I had occafion already to give, in relation to mount Etna, and it were needlefs to produce any more. The Bombaft lies, in forcing an ordinary or trivial object out of its rank, and endeavouring to raife it into the Sublime; or, in attempting to exalt a Sublime object beyond all natural and reasonable bounds. Into this error, which is but too common, writers of genius may fometimes fall, by unluckily lofing fight of the true point of the Sublime. This is alfo called Fuftian, or Rant. Shakespeare, a great, but incorrect genius, is not unexceptionable here. Dryden and Lee, in their tragedies, abound with it.

THUS far of the Sublime; of which I have treated fully, because it is fo capital an excellency in fine writing, and becaufe clear and precife ideas on this head are, as far as I know, not to be met with in critical writers.

BEFORE Conclude this Lecture, there is one obfervation which I chufe to make at this time; I fhall make it once for all, and hope it will be afterwards remembered. It is with respect to the inftances of faults, or rather blemishes and imperfections, which, as I have done in this Lecture, I shall hereafter continue to take, when I can, from writers of reputa

IV.

tion. I have not the least intention thereby LECT. to difparage their character in the general. I fhall have other occafions of doing equal justice to their beauties. But it is no reflection on any human performance, that it is not abfolutely perfect. The task would be much easier for me, to collect inftances of faults from bad writers. But they would draw no attention, when quoted from books which nobody reads. And I conceive, that the method which I follow, will contribute more to make the best authors be read with pleasure, when one properly distinguishes their beauties from their faults; and is led to imitate and admire only what is worthy of imitation and admiration.

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LECTURE V.

LECT.

V.

BEAUTY, AND OTHER PLEASURES
OF TASTE.

A

S Sublimity constitutes a particular character of compofition, and forms one of the highest excellencies of eloquence and of poetry, it was proper to treat of it at fome length. It will not be neceffary to difcufs fo. particularly all the other pleasures that arise from Tafte, as fome of them have lefs relation to our main fubject. On Beauty only I fhall make feveral obfervations, both as the fubject is curious, and as it tends to improve Tafte, and to difcover the foundation of several of the graces of description and of poetry

*

BEAUTY, next to Sublimity, affords, beyond doubt, the highest pleasure to the ima

* See Hutchinfon's Enquiry concerning Beauty and Virtue.-Gerard on Tafte, chap. iii,-Enquiry into the Origin of the Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.—Elements of Criticism, chap. iii,-Spectator, vol. vi.-Essay on the Pleasures of Taste.

gination.

V.

gination. The emotion which it raifes, is LECT. very distinguishable from that of Sublimity. It is of a calmer kind; more gentle and foothing; does not elevate the mind fo much, but produces an agreeable ferenity. Sublimity

raifes a feeling, too violent, as I fhowed, to be lafting; the pleasure arifing from Beauty admits of longer continuance. It extends alfo to a much greater variety of objects than Sublimity; to a variety indeed fo great, that the feelings which Beautiful objects produce, differ confiderably, not in degree only, but also in kind, from one another. Hence, no word in the language is ufed in a more vague fignification than Beauty. It is applied to almost every external object that pleafes the eye, or the ear; to a great number of the graces of writing; to many difpofitions of the mind; nay, to several objects of mere abstract science. We talk currently of a beautiful tree or flower;

a beautiful poem ; a beautiful character; and

a beautiful theorem in mathematics.

HENCE We may eafily perceive, that, among fo great a variety of objects, to find out fome one quality in which they all agree, and which is the foundation of that agreeable fenfation they all raise, must be a very difficult, if not, more probably, a vain attempt. Objects, denominated Beautiful, are fo different, as to please,

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