collective force along. He brings an inftance of the following quotation from Demofthenes. "Men, (fays he) profligates, mifcreants, and flatterers, who having feverally preyed upon the bowels of their country, at length betrayed her liberty, firft to. Philip, and now again to Alexander; who, placing the chief felicity of life in the indulgence of infamous lufts and appetites, overturned in the duft that freedom and independence, which was the chief aim and end of all our worthy ancestors-*." Ariftotle and Theophraftus feem to think it is rather too bold and hazardous to ufe metaphors fo freely, without interpofing fome mitigating phrase; fuch as, "if I may be allowed the expreffion," or fome equivalent excufe. At the fame time, Longinus finds fault with Plato for hazarding fome metaphors, which indeed appear to be equally affected and extravagant, when he fays, "the government "of a ftate fhould not resemble a bowl of hot fer"menting wine, but a cool and moderate beverage, "chaftifed by the fober deity"—a metaphor that fignifies nothing more than "mixed or lowered with "water." Demetrius Phalereus juftly obferves, that though a judicious ufe of metaphors wonderfully raifes, fublimes, and adorns oratory or elocution; yet they fhould feem to flow naturally from the fubject; and too great a redundancy of them inflates the difcourfe to a mere rhapfody. The fame obfervation will hold in poetry; and the more liberal or fparing ufe of them will depend in a great measure on the nature of the fubject. * "Ανθρωποί, φησι, μιαροί, καὶ ἀλάτορες, καὶ κόλακες, ἠκρωτηριασμένοι τὰς ἑκυλων ἕκαστοι πατρίδας, τὴν ἐλευθερίαν προπεπωκότες, πρότερον Φιλίππω, νῦν δ' Αλεξάνδρῳ, τῇ γατρὶ μερῶνες καὶ τοῖς αἰσχίσοις τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν, τὴν δ' ἐλευθερίαν, καὶ τὸ μηδένα ἔχειν δεσπότην αὐτῶν, ἃ τοῖς προτέροις, Ἕλλησιν ὅροι τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἦσαν καὶ κανόνες, &c. &c. Paffion Paffion itself is very figurative, and often bursts out into metaphors; but in touching the pathos, the poet must be perfectly well acquainted with the emotions of the human foul, and carefully diftinguish between those metaphors, which rife glowing from the heart, and thofe cold conceits, which are ingen-. dered in the fancy. Should one of these last unfortunately intervene, it will be apt to deftroy the whole effect of the most pathetical incident or fituation. Indeed it requires the most delicate tafte, and a confummate knowledge of propriety, to employ metaphors in fuch a manner, as to avoid what the Antients called the rouxpov, the frigid, or false fublime. Inftances of this kind were frequent even among the correct antients. Sappho herself is blamed for ufing the hyperbole λευκοτέροι χιόνος, whi ter than fnow. Demetrius is fo nice as to be difgufted at the fimile of fwift as the wind; though, in Ipeaking of a race-horfe, we know from experience that this is not even an hyperbole. He would have had more reason to cenfure that kind of metaphor, which Ariftotle ftiles xal svépysav, exhibiting things inanimate as endued with fenfe and reafon; fuch as that of the fharp-pointed arrow eager to take wing among the crowd. " Ο' ξυβελής καθ' ὅμιλον ἐπιπτέσθαι "μevεaívov." Not but that in defcriptive poetry this figure is often allowed and admired. The cruel fword, the ruthless dagger, the ruffian blast, are epithets which frequently occur. The faithful bofom of the earth, the joyous boughs, the trees that admire their images reflected in the ftream, and many other examples of this kind, are found diffeminated through the works of our beft modern poets: yet ftill they must be sheltered under the privilege of the poetica licentia; and, except in poetry, they would give. offence. VOL. IV. EE More More chafte metaphors are freely used in all kinds of writing; more fparingly in Hiftory; and more abundantly in Rhetoric: we have feen that Plato indulges in them even to excess. The orations of Demofthenes are animated, and even inflamed with metaphors, fome of them fo bold as even to entail upon him the cenfure of the critics. TT: TW HUAWи Tậ Πυθωνι ῥήτορι ῥέονι καθ' ὑμῶν." then I did not yield to Py"thon the orator, when he overflowed you with a "tide of eloquence." Cicero is still more liberal in the use of them; he ranfacks all nature, and pours forth a redundancy of figures, even with a lavish hand. Even the chafte Xenophon, who generally illuftrates his fubject by way of fimile, fometimes ventures to produce an expreffive metaphor, fuch as part of the phalanx fluctuated in the march; and indeed nothing can be more fignificant than this word Exúμne, to represent a body of men staggered, and on the point of giving way. Armstrong has used the word fluctuate with admirable efficacy, in his philofophical poem intituled the Art of Preferving Health. O! when the growling winds contend, and all The word fluctuate on this occafion not only exhibits an idea of ftruggling, but alfo echoes to the fenfe like the quer de μary of Homer; which, by the bye, it is impoffible to render into English: for the verb pioow fignifies not only to stand erect like prickles, as a grove of lances, but alfo to make a noife like the crafhing of armour, the hiffing of javelins, and the fplinters of fpears. Over and above an excefs of figures, a young author is apt to run into a confufion of mixed metaphors, which leave the fenfe disjointed, and distract the imagination: Shakspeare himself is often guilty of of these irregularities. The Soliloquy in Hamlet, which we have fo often heard extolled in terms of admiration, is, in our opinion, a heap of abfurdities, whether we confider the fituation, the fentiment, the argumentation, or the poetry. Hamlet is informed by the Ghoft, that his father was murdered, and therefore he is tempted to murder himself, even after he had promifed to take vengeance on the ufurper, and expreffed the utmost eagerness to atchieve this enterprize. It does not appear that he had the leaft reafon to wifh for death; but every motive, which may be supposed to influence the mind of a young prince, concurred to render life defirable-revenge towards the ufurper; love for the fair Ophelia; and the ambition of reigning. Befides, when he had an opportunity of dying without being acceffary to his own death; when he had nothing to do but, in obedience to his uncle's command, to allow himself to be conveyed quietly to England, where he was fure of fuffering death; inftead of amufing himself with meditations on mortality, he very wifely confulted the means of felf-prefervation, turned the tables upon his attendants, and returned to Denmark. But granting him to have been reduced to the loweft state of defpondence, furrounded with nothing but horror and defpair, fick of this life, and eager to tempt futurity, we shall fee how far he argues like a philofopher. In order to fupport this general charge against an author fo univerfally held in veneration, whofe very errors have helped to fanctify his character among the multitude, we will defcend to particulars, and analyse this famous Soliloquy. Hamlet, having affumed the difguife of madness, as a cloak, under which he might the more effectually revenge his father's death upon the murderer and ufurper, appears alone upon the ftage in a pen EE 2 five five and melancholy attitude, and communes with himself in thefe words: To be, or not to be? That is the question. And by oppofing, end them?-To die-to fleep- To fleep! perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub→→ For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, Is ficklied o'er with the pale cast of thought; We have already obferved that there is not any apparent circumftance in the fate or fituation of Hamlet, that should prompt him to harbour one thought of felf-murder; and therefore thefe expreffions of defpair imply an impropriety in point of character. But fuppofing his condition was truly desperate, and he faw no poffibility of repofe but in the uncertain harbour of death, let us fee in what manner he argues on |