1 In like manner we might proceed to confider decorum, propriety, or fitness, a constituent part or quality of Eloquence, which the Right Reverend author hath omitted: but which other writers on this fubject, and those of great authority, have treated largely.- -That the language should be proportioned to the subject, is equally reasonable at this day, in France and Britain, as it was in Greece, when Aristotle wrote, or in Rome, when Quinctilian first inculcated the precept. It is no capricious or arbitrary direction, (nor is it a direction calculated for inabling the speaker to deceive) * that his language fhould not betray pride and fupercilious contempt, brutal infolence, or felf-conceit: that he should confider his own character, the character of his auditors or readers; that he should confider the occafion of his address, the time, the place, and other like circumftances: and be directed in his ftyle and compofition by these confiderations. Such prin ́ciples, and indeed all the rules and principles of elocution, can abide the ftricteft fcrutiny. They are received by every potifhed nation upon earth, not implicitly, not from prejudice, not upon the authority of Greek or Roman crities; but because they are the refult of a careful and accurate obfervation of human nature, and the means by which it is moved and influenced. And as our nature, in its general frame and conftitution, is uniform and invariable, fo must be the means of operating on that frame; fo, in general, must thofe methods and forms of addrefs be found, which engage the attention, conciliate the affections, inform the understanding, and inflame the paffions, so as to prompt and rouse us to action, the final scope and object of eloquence. * Vide Quinct. Lib. 9. C. 1. Cicero de Orat. L. 3. C. 24. Arift. Rhet. L. 3. C. 7. CHAP. VIL CHA P. VIII. BU UTI now return to confider the last and great member of his Lordships divifion of Eloquence, SUBLIMITY; which he afferts to be nothing more than "the application of “fuch images as arbitrary and casual connexions, rather than "their own native grandeur, have dignified and ennobled.” And here I take the liberty of observing, in the first place, that it might fairly be queftioned, whether Sublimity doth neceffarily confift in the application of images, or always affect and elevate the mind by exciting images. It is a point extremely well known to critics, both ancient and modern, that the enthusiasm of paffion elevates the hearer by the mere force of communication and fympathy. Demofthenes fwears by the brave fouls who fought at Marathon and Platea. The grandeur of this figure is particularly explained by Longinus *. But no part of it is attributed to any particular image or picture impreffed on the fancy. The * Sect. 16.. The concluding periods of his oration on the Crown must be allowed to be exceedingly fublime. He feems transported at the mention of thofe men whom he marks out as the enemies of his country, and at their flagitious defigns; and he thus exclaims, with all the grandeur of a pathetic emotion. Μὴ δῆτ ̓ ὦ πανες Θεοί, μηδείς ταῦθ ̓ ὑμῶν ἐπινύσειεν· ἀλλὰ μάλιτα μεν καὶ τούτοις βελτίω τινά νοῦν καὶ φρένας ἐνθείητε. Ειδ ἄρα ἔχουσιν ὅντως ανιάτως, τούτες μεν αυτές καθ ̓ ἑαυτούς, ἐξώλεις καὶ προώλεις ἐν γῇ καὶ θαλάτῃ ποιήσαι]ε, ἡμῖν δέ τοῖς λοιποῖς, τήν ταχίςην ἀπαλλαγὴν τῶς ἐπηρἴημενων φόβων δότε, και σωτηρίαν ἀσφαλῆ. "Hear me, ye immortal Gods! and let not these their de"fires be ratified in heaven! Infuse a better spirit into these "men! Infpire even their minds with purer fentiments."This is my firft prayer.-Or, if their natures are not to << be reformed; on them, on them only discharge your vengeance! Pursue them both by land and fea; pursue them " even to destruction! But to us, difplay your goodness, in a speedy deliverance from impending evils, and all the bleffings of protection and tranquility!" But the fublimity of this conclufion feems not to confift in the application of images, but in that noble pathos which leaves the hearer no leisure to attend to images or their effects : but transports and elevates at once, by fpreading the contagion of enthusiasm. There is also another fource of the fublime in what the Greeks called To HOIKON, where no particular images are applied to the fancy, but the fentiment and expreffion are therefore grand, because they indicate an extraordinary dignity of character. As in the well-known anfwer of Alexander to Parmenio. Nor are we thus affected only by greatness, but by by exalted goodness and benevolence of character: as in that exclamation of Saint Paul before Agrippa. "Would to God, "that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, were "both almoft, and altogether fuch as I am, except these "bonds!" Acts xxvi. 29. The effect of these, and many other like inftances which might be produced, confifts entirely in the violent impreffion made upon our natural fense of what is great, noble, and aimable in human conduct: nor are they at all addreffed to the imagination. The following paffage from the Apostle is also allowed to be highly elevated." All things are yours; whether Paul, "or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things prefent, or things to come; all are yours, and ye are Chrift's, and Chrift in God's." 1 Cor. xxxi, 21. But if we are to credit Longinus *, the sublimity of such paf-* Sect. 11. fages arifes from the number of great fentiments, and what he calls EПOIKONOMIA, the management, and disposition of of them, the gradual afcent, even to the very fummit of greatness. And it is generally acknowledged that there may be fublimity in the very compofition of a period, by which the mind is affected without the help of images, or even of fentiments; for common experience confirms the observation of the great Critic, that even mufical founds may have a + Longin, fimilar effect. Sect. 39 CHAP. IX. CHA P. IX. UT whatever may be the manner in which fublime B componitions act upon the mind; it is of more especial moment to the prefent queftion to confider, whether the effect be owing to fomething truly great, or, as the Right Reverend Author hath afferted, to an imaginary dignity arifing from arbitrary and cafual connexions. And first of all, I shall take the liberty of confronting this affertion with a noted paffage from Longinus, which I quote at large, as one refpectable authority in direct opposition to another. * "You are to know then," faith that elegant Critic, ad, drelling himfelf to his friend, “ that, as in common life, thofe things never can be great, which it is greatness to despise; • Εἰδέναι χρή, φίλτατε, διότι, καθάπερ κὰν τῷ κοινῷ βίῳ ἐδὲν ὑπάρχει μέγα, * τό καταφρονεῖν ἐσι μέγα οἷον πλότοι, τιμαὶ, δόξαι, τυραννίδες, καὶ ὅσα δὴ ἄλλα ἔχει πολὺ τὸ ἔξωθεν προτραγῳδόμενον, ἐκ ἂν τῷ γε φρονίμῳ δόξειεν ἀγαθὰ ὑπερβαλ <as λονία, ὧν αὐτὸ τὸ περιφρονεῖν ἀγαθὸν ἐ μέσ τριον θαυμάζεσι γῶν τῶν ἐχόντων αὐτὰ μᾶλλον τὰς δυναμένους ἔχειν, καὶ διὰ μεγα λοψυχίαν ὑπερορῶντας· Τῇ δέ πε καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ διηρμένων ἐν ποιήμασι καὶ λόγοις ἐπισ κεπλέον, μή τινά μεγέθες φαντασίαν ἔχοι τε ταύτην, |