XV.

LECT. namely, that we should try to form a picture upon them, and confider how the parts would agree, and what fort of figure the whole would prefent, when delineated with a pencil. By this means, we fhould become fenfible, whether inconfiftent circumstances were mixed, and a monstrous image thereby produced, as in all thofe faulty inftances I have now been giving; or whether the object was, all along, presented in one natural and consistent point of view.

As Metaphors ought never to be mixed, fo, in the fixth place, we fhould avoid crowding them together on the fame object. Suppofing each of the Metaphors to be preserved diftinct, yet, if they be heaped on one another, they produce a confufion fomewhat of the fame kind with the mixed Metaphor. We may

judge of this by the following paffage from
Horace :

Motum ex Metello confule civicum,
Bellique caufas, et vitia, et modos,
Ludumque fortunæ, gravesque
Principum amicitias, & arma

Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus,
Periculofæ plenum opus aleæ,

Tractas, et incedis per ignes
Suppofitos cineri dolofo *.

* Of warm commotions, wrathful jars,
The growing feeds of civil wars ;

Lib. II. 1.

This

Of

XV.

This paffage, though very poetical, is, how- LE C T. ever, harsh and obfcure; owing to no other caufe but this, that three diftinct Metaphors are crowded together, to defcribe the difficulty of Pollio's writing a history of the civil wars. First, Tractas arma uncta crucribus nondum expiatis;" next, "Opus plenum periculofæ

alex;" and then, "Incedis per ignes, fup"pofitos dolofo cineri." The mind has difficulty in paffing readily through so many different views given it, in quick fucceffion, of the fame object.

THE only other rule concerning Metaphors, which I fhall add, in the feventh place, is, that they be not too far purfued. If the refemblance, on which the Figure is founded, be long dwelt upon, and carried into all its minute circumftances, we make an Allegory instead of a Metaphor; we tire the reader, who foon becomes weary of this play of fancy: and we render our difcourfe obfcure. This

Of double fortune's cruel games,

The fpecious means, the private aims,
And fatal friendships of the guilty great,
Alas! how fatal to the Roman state!

Of mighty legions late fubdu'd,
And arms with Latian blood embru'd;
Yet unatoned (a labour vaft!

Doubtful the die, and dire the caft!)
You treat adventurous, and incautious tread
On fires with faithlefs embers overspread.

FRANCIS.
is

XV.

LECT. is called, ftraining a Metaphor. Cowley deals in this to excefs; and to this error is owing, in a great measure, that intricacy and harshnefs, in his figurative Language, which I before remarked. Lord Shaftsbury is fometimes guilty of purfuing his Metaphors too far. Fond, to a high degree, of every decoration of style, when once he had hit upon a Figure that pleased him, he was extremely loth to part with it. Thus, in his Advice to an Author, having taken up foliloquy, or meditation, under the Metaphor of a proper method of evacuation for an author, he pursues this Metaphor through feveral pages, under all the forms of difcharging crudities,

re

throwing off froth and fcum, bodily opera"tion, taking phyfic, curing indigeftion, "giving vent to choler, bile, flatulencies, " and tumours;" till, at laft, the idea becomes nauseous. Dr. Young also often tref paffes in the fame way. The merit, however. of this writer, in figurative Language, is great, and deserves to be remarked. No writer, antient or modern, had a stronger imagination than Dr. Young, or one more fertile in Figures of every kind. His Metaphors are often new, and often natural and beautiful. But his imagination was strong and rich, rather than delicate and correct, Hence, in his Night Thoughts, there prevails an obfcurity, and a hardness in his ftyle.

3.

The

XV.

The Metaphors are frequently too bold, and LECT.
frequently too far purfued; the reader is
dazzled rather than enlightened; and kept
conftantly on the ftretch to keep pace with the
author. We may observe, for instance, how
the following Metaphor is spun out:

Thy thoughts are vagabonds; all outward bound,
Midft fands and rocks, and ftorms, to cruise for pleasure,
If gain'd, dear bought; and better miss'd than gain'd,
Fancy and fenfe, from an infected shore,

Thy cargo brings; and peftilence the prize;
Then fuch the thirst, insatiable thirst,
By fond indulgence but inflam'd the more,
Fancy ftill cruises, when poor fenfe is tired.

Speaking of old age, he fays, it fhould

Walk thoughtful on the filent folemn fhore
Of that vaft ocean, it muft fail fo foon;
And put good works on board; and wait the wind
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown.

THE two first lines are uncommonly beautiful; "walk thoughtful on the filent, &c." but when he continues the Metaphor, "to

putting good works on board, and waiting "the wind," it plainly becomes ftrained, and finks in dignity. Of all the English authors, I know none fo happy in his Metaphors as Mr. Addison. His imagination was neither fo rich nor fo ftrong as Dr. Young's; but far more chaste and delicate. Perfpicuity, natural grace, and eafe, always diftinguish his

Figures.

XV.

LECT. Figures. They are neither harfh nor ftrained; they never appear to have been studied or fought after; but feem to rife of their own accord from the fubject, and conftantly embellish it.

I HAVE now treated fully of the Metaphor, and the rules that fhould govern it, a part of ftyle fo important, that it required particular illustration. I have only to add a few words concerning Allegory.

AN Allegory may be regarded as a continued Metaphor; as it is the representation of fome one thing by another that refembles it, and that is made to stand for it. Thus, in Prior's Henry and Emma, Emma in the following allegorical manner defcribes her conftancy to Henry ;

Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth furface of a fummer's fea,
While gentle zephyrs play with profperous gales,
And fortune's favour fills the fwelling fails;
But would forfake the fhip, and make the fhore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempefts roar?

WE may take alfo from the Scriptures a very fine example of an Allegory, in the 80th Pfalm; where the people of Ifrael are reprefented under the image of a vine, and the Figure is fupported throughout with great cor

rectness