18. Another foot paffes under the fame name, compofed of two long fyllables and two fhort: calcaribus, poffeffory.

19. CHORIAMBUS, two fhort fyllables between two long: nobilitas.

20. ANTISPASTUS, two long fyllables between two fhort: Alexander.

21. PEON Ift, one long fyllable and three short: temporibus, ordinary, inventory, temperament.

22. PEON 2d, the fecond fyllable long, and the other three short: rapidity, folemnity, minority, confidered, imprudently, extravagant, refpectfully, accordingly.

23. PAON 3d, the third fyllable long and the other three short: animatus, independent, condefcendence, facerdotal, reimbursement, manufacture.

24. PAON 4th, the last fyllable long and the other three short: celeritas,

25, EPITRITUS 1ft, the first fyllable short and the other three long: voluptates.

26. EPITRITUS 2d, the fecond fyllable fhort and the other three long: pœnitentes.

27: EPI

27. EPITRITUS 3d, the third fyllable fhort and the other three long: difcordias.

28. EPITRITUS 4th, the last fyllable short and the other three long: fortunatus.

29. A word of five fyllables compofed of a Pyrrhichius and Dactylus: minifterial.

30. A word of five fyllables composed of a Trochæus and Dactylus: fingularity.

31. A word of five fyllables compofed of a Dactylus and Trochæus: precipitation, exa

mination.

32. A word of five fyllables, the second only long: fignificancy.

33. A word of fix fyllables compofed of two Dactyles: impetuofity.

34. A word of fix fyllables composed of a Tribrachys and Dactyle: pufillanimity.

N. B. Every word may be confidered as a profe foot, because every word is diftinguished by a paufe; and every foot in verfe may be confidered as a verfe word, compofed of fyllables pronounced at once without a paufe.

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CHA P. XIX.

COMPARISONS.

OMPARISONS, as obferved above *, ferve two purposes: when addreffed to the understanding, their purpose is to instruct; when to the heart, their purpofe is to please. Various means contribute to the latter: first, the fuggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast; fecond, the fetting an object in the strongest light; third, the affociating an object with others that are agreeable; fourth, the elevating an object; and, fifth, the depreffing it. And that comparisons may give pleafure by these various means, appears from what is faid in the chapter above cited; and will be made still more evident by examples, which fhall be given after premifing fome general obfervations.

Objects of different fenfes cannot be compared together; for fuch objects are totally separated from each other, and have no circumstance in common to admit either refemblance or contrast. Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also of taste, of fmell, and of touch: but the chief fund of comparifon are objects of fight; be

⚫ Chap. 8.

eaufe,

cause, in writing or fpeaking, things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of fight are more diftinct and lively than those of any other fenfe.

When a nation emerging out of barbarity begins to think of the fine arts, the beauties of language cannot long lie concealed; and when difcovered, they are generally, by the force of novelty, carried beyond all bounds of moderation. Thus, in the earliest poems of every nation, we find metaphors and fimiles founded on the flightest and most distant refemblances, which, lofing their grace with their novelty, wear gradually out of repute; and now, by the improvement of taste, no metaphor nor fimile is admitted into any polite compofition but of the most striking kind. To illustrate this obfervation, a fpecimen fhall be given afterward of fuch metaphors as I have been defcribing: with refpect to fimiles take the following specimen.

Behold, thou art fair, my love: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead: thy teeth are like a flock of fheep from the washing, every one bearing twins: thy lips are like a thread of scarlet: thy neck like the tower of David built for an armoury, whereon hang a thousand shields of mighty men: thy two breafts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies thy eyes like the fish-pools in Hesbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbin: thy nofe like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damafcus.

Song of Solomon.

Thou art like fnow on the heath; thy hair like the mift of Cromla, when it curls on the rocks and fhines to the beam of the weft: thy breasts are like two smooth rocks feen from Branno of the ftreams: thy arms like two white pillars in the hall of the mighty Fingal.

Fingal.

It has no good effect to compare things by way of fiinile that are of the fame kind; nor to contraft things of different kinds. The reafon is given in the chapter cited above; and the reafon fhall be illuftrated by examples. The first is a comparison built upon a refemblance fo obvious as to make little or no impreffion.

This juft rebuke inflam'd the Lycian crew,
They join, they thicken, and th' affault renew;
Unmov'd th' embody'd Greeks their fury dare,
And fix'd fupport the weight of all the war;
Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian pow'rs,
Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian tow'rs.
As on the confines of adjoining grounds,
Two stubborn fwains with blows dispute their bounds;
They tugg, they fweat; but neither gain, nor yield,
One foot, one inch, of the contended field:
Thus obftinate to death, they fight, they fall;
Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall.

Iliad xii. 505.

Another, from Milton, lies open to the fame objection. Speaking of the fallen angels fearching for mines of gold:

A