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Joas laiffé pour mort frapa foudain ma vûe.
Je me figure encore fa nourrice éperdue,
Qui devant les bourreaux s'étoit jettée en vain,
Et foible le tenoit renversé fur fon fein.

Je le pris tout fanglant. En baignant fon visage
Mes pleurs du fentiment lui rendirent l'usage:
Et foit fraieur encore, ou pour me careffer.
De fes bras innocens je me fentis preffer.

Englished,

him to me,

"Alas! the ftate in which heav'n gave
"Returns each moment to my frighted foul;

"The room was fill'd around with murther'd Princes.
"Dread Athaliah, with her fword unsheath'd,
"Rouz'd her barbarian foldiers to the flaughter,
"And ftill pursued the feries of her murthers.
"Joas, now left as dead! ftruck, ftrong, my fight:
"Methinks I ftill behold his weeping nurse,
"Kneeling, in vain, before the bloody hangmen ;
"The tender babe upon her breaft reclined.
"I took him, bloody: bathing then his face,
"Soon did my tears recall his fleeting breath.
"Whether 'twas fear, or whether to embrace me,
"I felt him press me with his tender arms.

M. Flechier's description of hofpitals may ferve as a model in this kind. 'Tis in the Queen's funeral oration. "Let us behold her in these hofpitals, where "The practifed her publick acts of piety; in those "places, where all the infirmities and accidents of "human life are affembled': where the groans and

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complaints of those who suffer, and are in pain, "fill the foul with fympathetic sadness; where the "fmell that exhales from the bodies of fo many dif"eased patients, makes those who attend upon them "ready to faint away; where we fee pain and po"verty exercifing their fatal empire; and where the "image of mifery and death ftrikes almoft every "fenfe. It is there that raifing herself above the "fears and delicacies of nature, to fatisfy her charity, "though

"though at the hazard of her health, she was seen "every week drying up the tears of this object; pro"viding for the wants of that; procuring remedies "and comforts for the evils of fome, and confolations "and ease of confcience for others."

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These paffages are very well adapted to the taste of youth. We muft obferve to them, that the most certain way of fucceeding in defcriptions of this kind is to confult nature, to ftudy her well, and to take her as a guide; fo that every one, inwardly fenfible of the truth of what is fpoke, may find within himfelf the fentiments expreffed in the difcourfe. For that purpose we must represent to ourfelves, in a lively manner, all the circumftances of the thing to be defcribed, and bring it before us by the ftrength of our imagination; as if we had been fpectators of it. "And why, fays Quintilian, fhould not the imagination perform as much for the orator on this occafion, as fhe does for people, who are addicted to any kind of paffions, as, for inftance, mifers or ambitious men, who in this kind of pleafing dreams, in which they form a thousand chimerical projects of fortune and riches, abandon themfelves fo much to the object of their darling paffion, and are so strongly poffeffed with it, that they really believe they fee and poffefs it.

Quintilian himself furnishes us with a model of this way of making a defcription, which I will quote at length, because it fhews youth how they must pro

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ceed in it, in order to compofe well. Ut hominem occifum querar, non omnia, quæ in re præfenti accidiffe credibile eft, in oculis habebo? Non percuffor ille fubitus erumpet? non expavefcet circumventus? exclamabit, vel rogabit, vel fugiet? non ferietem, non concidentem videbo? non animo fanguis, & pallor, & gemitus, extremus denique expirantis hiatus infidet? This paffage feems to be copied from Cicero, who thus defcribes a like action. Nonne vobis hæc, quæ audiftis, cernere oculis videmini, Judices? Non illum miferum ignarum cafus fui, redeuntem a cœna videtis? non pofitas infidias? non impetum repentinum? Non verfatur ante oculos vobis in cæde Glaucia? Non adeft ifte Rofcius? non fuis manibus in curru collocat Automedontem illum, fui fceleris acerbiffimi nefariæque victoriæ nuncium?

IMAGE S.

The laft words of the defcription I have here cited, direct me to point out to youth in this place one of the moft common fources of oratorial beauties, which confifts in giving, as it were, body and reality to the things we are fpeaking of; and painting them by vifible ftrokes, which may ftrike the fenfes, move the imagination, and prefent a fenfible object. This method has fome relation to the precedent figure, the hypotypofis, and perhaps is a part of it. Non fuis manibus in curru collocat Automedontem illum? Thefe words, fuis manibus, produce here the effect I am speaking of, and present an image to the mind. The fame obfer. vation may be made on the two verfes above cited.

Un poignard à la main l'implacable Athalie

Au carnage animoit fes barbares foldats.

Englished,

"Fierce Athaliah, in her hand a poinard,

"Prompted her favage foldiers to the flaughter.

This touch, with a poinard in her hand, forms all the

• Quint. 1. 6. c. 2.

P Pro Rofc. Amer. n. 98.

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vivacity

vivacity of thefe lines. The objects we defcribe may be painted in this manner with infinite variety, of which I fhall give several examples, that the reader may apply to the rule I have already given.

Tendit ad vos virgo veftalis manus fupplices eafdem, quas pro vobis diis immortalibus tendere confuevit. . . . Profpicite ne ignis ille æternus, nocturnis Fonteie labıribus vigiliifque fervatus, facerdotis Vefiæ lacrymis extinctus effe dicatur.

Hæc magnitudo maleficii facit, ut, nifi pene manifeftum parricidium proferatur, credibile non fit... Pene dicam refperfas manus fanguine paterno judices videant oportet, fi tantum facinus, tam immane, tam acerbum credituri fint.

"What nation has not felt the effects of his va, lour; and which of our frontier towns has not served "as a theatre to his glory?

"In the tumult and noife of armies, he ufed to "entertain him felf with the fweet and fecret hopes "of his folitude. With one hand he fell upon the "Amalekites, while the other was lifted up to draw "down upon himself the bleffings of heaven.

“It taught him to lift up his pure, his innocent "hands to heaven.

"Before he accepted of any poft or employment, "he would know the duties of it. The first tribu"nal he afcended, was that of his confcience, there "to examine his intentions thoroughly.

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"When he reftored God's worship, in his con"quefts; and as he was marching upon thofe ramparts he had a little before demolished, his firit homage was his offering to God the laurels he had won, at the foot of his altars which he reftored.

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"I am not afraid of blending her praifes with the "facrifice offered for her; and I take from the altar "all the incenfe I burn upon her tomb... . Why "fhould I take off the veil which he threw over her "actions?

Pro M, Fort. n. 37, 38. Pro Rofc, Amer, n. 68. f Fléchier. "He

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976 He made it his ftudy to difcover truth, through the veils of falfhood and impofture with which hu ❝man lufts cover it.

* Are fuch truths learnt at court, in the army, "under the helmet, and the coat of mail?

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You think then, that anxiety and the most deadly forrows, are not to be hid under royal robes; or that a kingdom is an univerfal remedy against all evils?

Methinks I still fee that flower falling." Speaking of the death of an infant prince.

"When all things fubmitted to Lewis, and we believed the miraculous times were returning, when walls fell down at the found of trumpets; the whole nation caft their eyes on the Queen, and thought they faw the thunder, which demolished fo many cities, fly from her oratory.

sw With a calm and ferene afpect, he (Lewis XIV.) formed those thunderbolts which were heard through❝out the world, and those which still remain to be "hurled.

* Pour comble de profpérité

Il efpere (Pimpie) reviver en fa pofterité:
Et d'enfans à fa table une riante troupe
Semble boire avec lui la joie à pleine coupe.

Englished,

"The wretch, more profp'rous ftill,

66 Hopes to revive in his posterity:

"Fancies his children are converfing with him,
"And flufh'd with joy fmiles o'er the flowing bowls.

Before I conclude this article, I muft obferve in general, that figures ought to be applied with great

t Mafcar.

u Boffuet.
w Peliffon.

x Racine.

y Una in re maximè utilis, ut quotidiani & femper eodem modo

difcern

formati fermonis faftidium levet, & nos à vuigari dicendi genere defenda. Quo fi quis parcè, & cùm res pofcet,utetur, velut afperfo quodam condimento, jucund or ert. At qui nimium aff.ctaverit, ipfam

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