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Medio dux agmine Turnus

Vertitur arma tenens, et toto vertice supra est.
Ceu feptem furgens fedatis amnibus altus
Per tacitum Ganges: aut pingui flumine Nilus
Cum refluit campis, et jam fe condidit alveo.

Eneid. ix. 28.

Talibus orabat, talefque miferrima fletus
Fertque refertque foror: fed nullis ille movetur
Fletibus, aut voces ullas tractabilis audit.

Fata obftant: placidafque viri Deus obftruit aures.
Ac veluti annofo validam cum robore

quercum
Alpini Boreæ, nunc hinc, nunc flatibus illinc
Eruere inter fe certant; it ftridor; et alte
Confternunt terram concuffo ftipite frondes:
Ipfa hæret fcopulis: et quantum vertice ad auras
Æthereas, tantum radice in tartara tendit.
Haud fecus affiduis hinc atque hinc vocibus heros
Tunditur, et magno perfentit pectore curas:
Mens immota manet, lacrymæ volvuntur inanes.
Eneid. iv. 437.

K. Rich. Give me the crown. Here, coufin, feize the

crown,

Here, on this fide, my hand; on that fide, thine.

Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes two buckets, filling one another;
The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unfeen and full of water;

That

That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilft you mount up on high.

Richard II. act 4. Sc.3.

King John. Oh! Coufin, thou art come to fet mine

eye;

The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burnt;

And all the shrowds wherewith my life should fail,
Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor ftring to stay it by,
Which holds but till thy news be uttered.

King John, at 5. Sc. 10:

York. My uncles both are flain in rescuing me:
And all my followers, to the eager foe
Turn back, and fly like fhips before the wind,
Or lambs purfu'd by hunger-ftarved wolves.

Third part Henry VI. at 1. c. 6.

The latter of the two fimiles is good: the former, because of the faintnefs of the resemblance, produces no good effect, and crowds the narration with an ufelefs image.

The next error I fhall mention is a capital one. In an epic poem, or in any elevated fubject, a writer ought to avoid raising a fimile upon a low image, which never fails to bring down the principal fubject. In general, it is a rule, that a grand object ought never to be resembled to one that is diminutive, however delicate the refemblance may be for it is the peculiar character of a grand object to fix the attention, and fwell the mind;

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mind; in which state, it is difagreeable to contract the mind to a minute object, however elegant. The resembling an object to one that is greater, has, on the contrary, a good effect, by raising or fwelling the mind: for one paffes with fatisfaction from a fmall to a great object; but cannot be drawn down, without reluctance, from great to small. Hence the following fimiles are faulty.

Meanwhile the troops beneath Patroclus' care,
Invade the Trojans, and commence the war.
As wafps, provok'd by children in their play,
Pour from their manfions by the broad highway,
In fwarms the guiltless traveller engage,

Whet all their stings, and call forth ali their rage;
All rife in arms, and with a general cry
Affert their waxen domes, and buzzing progeny :
Thus from the tents the fervent legion fwarms,
So loud their clamours, and fo keen their arms.

Iliad, xvi. 312.

So burns the vengeful hornet (foul all o'er)
Repuls'd in vain, and thirsty still of gore;
(Bold fon of air and heat) on angry wings
Untam'd, untir'd, he turns, attacks and stings.
Fir'd with like ardour fierce Atrides flew,
And fent his foul with ev'ry lance he threw.

Iliad, xvii. 642.

Inftant ardentes Tyrii: pars ducere muros,
Molirique arcem, et manibus fubvolvere faxa;
Pars aptare locum tecto, et concludere fulco.

Jura

Jura magiftratufque legunt, fanctumque fenatum.
Hic portus alii effodiunt : hic alta theatris
Fundamenta locant alii, immanefque columnas
Rupibus excidunt, scenis decora alta futuris.
Qualis apes æftate nova per florea rura
Exercet fub fole labor, cum gentis adultos
Educunt fœtus, aut cum liquentia mella
Stipant, et dulci diftendunt nectare cellas,
Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
Ignavum fucos pecus a præfepibus arcent.
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
Æneid. i. 427.

To defcribe bees gathering honey as refembling the builders of Carthage, would have a much better effect *.

Tum vero Teucri incumbunt, et littore celfas
Deducunt toto naves: natat uncta carina;
Frondentefque ferunt remos, et robora fylvis
Infabricata, fugæ ftudio.

Migrantes cernas, totaque ex urbe ruentes.
Ac veluti ingentem formica farris acervum

Cum populant, hyemis memores, tectoque reponunt:
It nigrum campis agmen, prædamque per herbas
Convectant calle angufto: pars grandia trudunt
Obnixæ frumenta humeris: pars agmina cogunt,
Caftigantque moras: opere omnis femita fervet.

Eneid. iv. 397.

And accordingly Demetrius Phalereus (of Elocution, fect. 85.) obferves, that it has a better effect to compare fmall things to great than great things to small.

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The following fimile has not any one beauty to recommend it. The fubject is Amata the wife of King Latinus.

Tum vero infelix, ingentibus excita monftris,
Immenfam fine more furit lymphata per urbem:
Ceu quondam torto volitans fub verbere turbo,
Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circum
Intenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habena
Curvatis fertur fpatiis: ftupet inscia turba,
Impubefque manus, mirata volúbile buxum;
Dant animos plaga. Non curfu fegnior illo
Per medias urbes agitur, populofque feroces.
Eneid. vii. 376.

This fimile seems to border upon the burlesque.

An error oppofite to the former, is the introducing a resembling image, fo elevated or great as to bear no proportion to the principal fubject. Their remarkable difparity, being the most striking circumstance, feizes the mind, and never . fails to deprefs the principal fubject by contrast, instead of raising it by refemblance and if the disparity be exceeding great, the fimile takes on an air of burlefque; nothing being more ridiculous than to force an object out of its proper rank in nature, by equalling it with one greatly fuperior or greatly inferior. This will be evident from the following comparisons.

Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
Ac veluti lentis Cyclopes fulmina maffis

Cum

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