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must be introduced, and both are to be expreffed and treated according to their nature and dignity.

The fublime ftyle has the property of expreffing lofty ideas in a lofty language; that is to fay, with words that are fonorous and majeftic, and fuitable to the grandeur of the fubject.

He on the wings of cherub rode fublime

On the crystalline sky, in fapphire thron'd,
Illuftrious far and wide.

Before him pow'r divine his way prepar'd;
At his command th' uprooted hills retir'd,
Each to his place; they heard his voice, and went
Obfequious; heav'n his wonted face renew'd,
And with fresh flowrets hill and valley fmil'd.

-Up he rode,

Follow'd with acclamation and the found

Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tun'd
Angelic harmonies: the earth, the air

Refounding; (thou remember'ft, for thou heard 'ft)
The heav'ns and all the conftellations rung,
The planets in their station lift'ning ftood,
While the bright pomp afcended jubilant.
Open ye everlasting gates, they fung,
Open, ye heav'ns, your living doors, let in
The great Creator from his work return'd
Magnificent, his fix days work, a world.

MILTON.

This description of the Meffiah is to be admired for the fublimity of the thoughts, as well as for that of the ftyle; as indeed is the following defcription of a tempeft by Mr. Thomson.

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'Tis dumb amaze, and lift'ning terror all;
When to the quicker eye the livid glance
Appears far fouth, emiffive thro' the cloud;
And by the powerful breath of God inflate,
The thunder raifes his tremendous voice:

At first low muttering; but at each approach,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise aftounds: till over head a fheet
Of various flame discloses wide, then shuts

And opens wider, fhuts and opens ftill
Expanfive, wrapping Æther in a blaze.
Follows the loofen'd aggravated roar,
Enlarging, deep'ning, mingling peal on peal
Crush'd horrible, convulfing heav'n and earth.

More examples may be feen under the article of Sublime Thoughts.

The fublime ftyle is ever bold and figurative, and abounds more especially with metaphors and hyperboles, the free ufe of which requires great care and judgment; fince without it there is danger of running into bombaft, that is generally made up of empty founding words, or unnatural fentences; abfurd methaphors, or extravagant and rash hyperboles.

This caution is neceffary, and should be ever in the poet's mind; yet, where the thought is great and noble, a bold and judicious incorrectnefs, as Longinus has obferved, may be dispensed with, and will often feem rather a beauty than a blemish. The fublime poet, fired with his fubject, and borne away on the wings of fancy, difdains accuracy, and looks down with contempt on little rules-Laws are, as it were, infufficient to reftrain his boundless mind, which, having expatiated and ranfacked the whole universe, foars into other worlds, and is only loft in infinity.

Great wits fometimes may gloriously offend,
And rife to faults true critics dare not mend;
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And fnatch a grace beyond the rules of art;
Which, without paffing thro' the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its end at once attains.

POFE.

We are to obferve likewise, that though the fublime ftyle is bold and figurative, fublime thoughts may fometimes require only a plain and fimple ftyle, and may even by fuch contraft appear the more obvious and extraordinary. Many paffages of this kind we have in the facred writings; and one which is particularly applauded as a true inftance of fublimity by the great Longinus. And God faid, Let there be light, and there was light. This, as that great critic obferves, expreffes the power of the Almighty more forcibly and fully than could have been done with a parade of pompous expreffions.

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"And God faid,-What?-Let there be light, and there was light." Such is the amazing power of the great Creator, that (as the Pfalmift in the fame plain yet fublime manner obferves) He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it flood faft.

Thus we fee that fublime thoughts may fometimes appear to advantage in a common ftyle. But the reverfe will by no means hold; for words can have neither beauty nor fublimity, unless the thoughts have both. The fublime ftyle therefore will no more fuit common thoughts, than an embroider'd coat would a clown; for here ornaments are unnatural, nor indeed are mean and trivial thoughts ever thus dreffed by good authors, unless it be in works of the burlefque and doggrel kind, to heighten the ridicule.

Sublime and beautiful thoughts, however, require in ge. neral words of the fame nature, and would often feem mean and contemptible without them. For ornaments properly placed add a beauty to the most beautiful: And kings, however nature may have formed them for majefty, appear to most advantage when arrayed with the imperial

robes.

This ftyle is moftly employed in the epic poem, tragedy, and the ode. Though, as we have already obferved, the elegy, fatire, paftoral, and other poems, may partake of it Occafionally. For no particular rule can be laid down for its ufe, but a ftri&t obfervance of nature.

In direct oppofition to this is the plain or humble style, the elegance of which depends on the propriety of its application; and it is properly applied in defcribing in a familiar and easy manner the common concerns of life.

Whence is it, Sir, that none contented lives
With the fair lot, which prudent reafon gives,
Or chance prefents, yet all with envy view
The schemes that others variously pursue?
Broken with toils, with pond'rous arms oppreft,
The foldier thinks the merchant folely bleft.
In oppofite extreme, when tempefts rife,
War is a better choice, the merchant cries;
The battle joins, and in a moment's flight,
Death, or a joyful conqueft, ends the fight,

When early clients thunder at the gate,
The barrifter applauds the ruftic's fate.

While, by fubpoenas dragg'd from home, the clown
Thinks the fupremely happy dwell in town.

Francis's HORACE,

This ftyle, though intended to exprefs common things in a common manner, may sometimes be more courtly, and admit of compliment.

If virtue's felf were loft, we might
From your fair mind new copies write;
All things, but one, you can restore;
The heart you get returns no more.

WALLER.

This ftyle agrees with comedy, fatires, paftorals and epiftles, and occafionally fills up the narration and under parts of other poems.

But the young student is here to be cautioned against defcending too low; elegance is to be preferved in every part of compofition, and where propriety of character does not demand vulgar expreffions, they are always to be avoided.

Between these, as a partition which ferves to feparate and yet at the fame time unite the other two, is the mediate or middle ftyle; which is fuitable to every species of poetry, as it admits of ornament fufficient to distinguish it from the plain and humble, and yet is not animated enough to approach the fublime. Take an example from Oteway.

Wifh'd morning's come! and now upon the plains
And diftant mountains, where they feed their flocks,
The happy fhepherds leave their homely huts,
And with their pipes proclaim the new-born day.
The lufty fwain comes with his well-fill'd fcrip
Of healthful viands, which, when hunger calls,
With much content and appetite he eats,
To follow in the fields his daily toil,
And dress the grateful glebe that yields him fruits.
The beafts that under the warm hedges flept,
And weather'd out the cold bleak night, are up,
And, looking tow'rds the neighb'ring paftures, raise
Their voice, and bid their fellow brutes good-morrow.

The chearful birds too, on the tops of trees,
Affemble all in choirs, and with their notes
Salute, and welcome up the rifing fun.

There is also a species of ftyle called the farcaftical or invective, which is peculiar to the fatire and the epigram; and when ftyle abounds with figurative expreffions, as the epic poem and fublimer ode more particularly do, we call it the florid ftyle.

A style is also faid to be concife or diffuse, easy or strong, clear or obfcure, brisk or flow, fweet, foft and fluent, or rough and unpleasant; all which are too obvious to need any explication, Abundant inftances of these are to be found in our poets, and they are all (except the obfcure) proper or improper, according to the nature and fubject of the poem in which they appear; but obscurity is never to be admitted; for as the ftyle that is clear is feldom faulty, the obscure and uncouth will always be so, and, after perplexing the mind of the reader, leave him. diffatisfied.

The rough ftyle, however disagreeable it may be when improperly applied, enters with grace into feveral of the fpecies of poetry, but especially into the epic poem and the tragedy; for where things rude and horrible are to be expreffed, fuch words must be used as will represent all their disagreeable and dreadful circumftances. The rough ftyle therefore appears often with majefty and grandeur in the epic and tragedy; where we find it frequently heightened by our best poets with a few antiquated words, which they apprehend adds a dignity and folemnity to the style but great judgment is here required; none but a masterly hand fhould make thefe bold attempts; for if too many obfolete terms are admitted, or improperly placed, instead of dignity and folemnity, dulnefs and obfcurity will fucceed.

But here we are to obferve, that the paffions have a ftyle in a manner peculiar to themfelves; for fometimes the pathetic, and even the fublime (especially when united with pity and terror) is more emphatically expreffed by a feafonable filence, or a few plain words, than by a number of pompous periods. We fhall give one inftance out of a multitude in Shakespear. After a quarrel between Brutus and Caffius, in which the juftice and generous refentment of

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