(Which from the ftubborn ftone a torrent rends)
Precipitate the pond'rous mafs defcends :

From fteep to fteep the rolling ruin bounds:
At every fhock the crackling wood refounds;
Still gath'ring force, it fmoaks; and, urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain :
There ftops -So Hector. Their whole force he prov❜d,
Refiftless when he rag'd; and when he stopt, unmov'd.
Iliad, xiii. 187.

The image of a falling rock is certainly not elevating *; and yet undoubtedly the foregoing fimile fires and fwells the mind: it is grand therefore, if not fublime. And that there is a real, though nice diftinction, between these two feelings, will be illuftrated from the following fi mile:

So faying, a noble stroke he lifted high,

Which hung not, but so swift with tempeft fell
On the proud creft of Satan, that no fight,
Nor motion of fwift thought, lefs could his fhield
Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge

He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee
His maffy fpear upftaid; as if on earth
Winds under ground or waters forcing way,
Sidelong had pufh'd a mountain from his feat
Half funk with all his pines.

Milton, b. 6.

A comparison by contraft may contribute to grandeur or elevation, not lefs than by refem

* See chap. 4.

blance;

blance; of which the following comparifon of Lucan is a remarkable instance:

Victrix caufa diis placuit, fed victa Catoni.

Confidering that the Heathen deities poffeffed a rank but one degree above that of mankind, I think it scarce poffible, by a fingle expreffion, to elevate or dignify more one of the human fpecies, than is done by this comparison. I am fenfible, at the fame time, that such a comparison among Christians, who entertain more exalted notions of the Deity, would justly be reckoned extravagant and abfurd.

The last article mentioned, is that of leffening or depreffing a hated or difagreeable object; which is effectually done by refembling it to any thing low or defpicable. Thus Milton, in his description of the rout of the rebel-angels, happily expresses their terror and difmay in the following fimile:

As a herd

Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-ftruck, purfu'd
With terrors and with furies to the bounds
And cryftal wall of heav'n, which op'ning wide,
Rowl'd inward, and a fpacious gap difclos'd
Into the wasteful deep; the monstrous fight
Strook them with horror backward, but far worfe
Urg'd them behind; headlong themfelves they threw

Down

Down from the verge of Heav'n.

Milton, b. 6.

In the fame view, Homer, I think, may be juftified in comparing the fhouts of the Trojans in battle, to the noise of cranes *, and to the bleating of a flock of sheep † it is no objection, that these are low images; for by oppofing the noify march of the Trojans to the filent and manly march of the Greeks, he certainly intended to leffen the former. Addifon, defcribing the figure that men make in the fight of a fuperior being, takes opportunity to mortify their pride by comparing them to a fwarm of pifmires.

up

A comparison that has none of the good effects mentioned in this difcourfe, but is built on common and trifling circumstances, makes a mighty filly figure :

Non fum nefcius, grandia confilia a multis plerumque caufis, ceu magna navigia a plurimis remis, impelli. Strada de bello Belgico.

By this time, I imagine, the different purpofes of comparison, and the various impreffions it makes on the mind, are fufficiently illuftrated by proper examples. This was an eafy work. It is more difficult to lay down rules about the pro

*Beginning of book 3. Guardian, N° 153.

+ Book. 4. 1. 498.

priety or impropriety of comparisons; in what circumftances they may be introduced, and in what circumstances they are out of place. It is evident, that a comparifon is not proper upon every occafion: a man in his cool and fedate moments, is not difpofed to poetical flights, nor to facrifice truth and reality to the delufive operations of the imagination: far lefs is he fo difpofed, when oppreffed with care, or interested in fome important tranfaction that occupies him totally. On the other hand, it is obfervable, that a man, when elevated or animated by any paffion, is difpofed to elevate or animate all his objects: he avoids familiar names, exalts objects by circumlocution and metaphor, and gives even life and voluntary action to inanimate beings. In this warmth of mind, the higheft poetical flights are indulged, and the boldest fimiles and metaphors relished *. But without foaring fo high, the mind is frequently in a tone to relish chafte and moderate ornament; fuch as comparisons that fet the principal object in a strong point of view, or that embellish and diverfify the narration. In general, when by any animating paffion, whether pleafant or painful, an impulfe is given to the imagination; we are in that condition difpofed to every fort of figurative expref

It is accordingly obferved by Longinus, in his treatife of the Sublime, that the proper time for metaphor, is when the paffions are fo fwelied as to hurry on like a torrent.

fion, and in particular to comparisons. This in a great meafure is evident from the comparisons already mentioned; and fhall be further illuftrated by other instances. Love, for example, in its infancy, roufing the imagination, prompts the heart to difplay itself in figurative language, and in fimiles:

Troilus. Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we ?

Her bed is India, there fhe lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where the refides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself the merchant, and this failing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.
Troilus and Creffida, act 1. fc. 1.

Again:

Come, gentle Night; come, loving black-brow'd Night!
Give me my Romeo; and, when he fhall die,

Take him, and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of Heav'n fo fine,
That all the world shall be in love with Night,
And pay no worship to the garish fun.

Romeo and Juliet, act 3. fc. 4.

The dread of a misfortune, however imminent, involving always fome doubt and uncertainty, agitates the mind, and excites the imagination:

Nay, then, farewell;

Wolfey.
I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness.

And