for inftruction, a thing ought to be defcribed as it appears, not as it is in reality. In running, for example, the impulfe upon the ground is accurately proportioned to the celerity of motion; though in appearance it is otherwise, for a perfon in fwift motion feems to fkim the ground, and scarcely to touch it. Virgil, with Virgil, with great taste, defcribes quick running according to its appearance; and thereby raises an image far inore lively, than it could have been by adhering fcrupulously to truth :

Hos fuper advenit Volfca de gente Camilla,

Agmen agens equitum et florentes ære catervas,
Bellatrix: non illa colo calathifve Minervæ
Fœmineas affueta manus; fed prælia virgo
Dura pati, curfuque pedum prævertere ventos.
Illa vel intactæ fegetis per fumma volaret
Gramina: nec teneras curfu læfiffet ariftas :
Vel mare per medium, fluctu fufpenfa tumenti,
Ferret iter; celeres nec tingeret æquore plantas.
Eneid. vii. 803.

This example is copied by the author of Telema chus:

Les Brutions font legeres à la courfe comme les cerfs, et comme les daims. On croiroit que l'herbe même la plus tendre n'eft point foulée fous leurs pieds; à peine laiffent ils dans le fable quelques traces de leurs pas.

Again:

Déja il avoit abattu Eufilas fi léger à la courfe, qu'à peine il imprimoit la trace des fes pas dans le sable, et qui devançoit dans fon pays les plus rapides flots de l'Eurotas et de l'Alphée. Liv. 20.

Fourthly, In narration as well as in defcription, objects ought to be painted fo accurately as to form in the mind of the reader diftin&t and lively images. Every useless circumftance ought indeed to be fuppreffed, because every fuch circumstance loads the narration; but if a circumstance be neceffary, however flight, it cannot be described too minutely. The force of language confifts in raising complete images *; which cannot be done till the reader, forgetting himfelf, be tranfported as by magic into the very place and time of the important action, and be converted, as it were, into a fpectator, behold. ing every thing that paffes. In this view, the narrative in an epic poem ought to rival a picture in the livelinefs and accuracy of its reprefentations no circumftance must be omitted that tends to make a complete image; because an imperfect image, as well as any other imperfect conception, is cold and uninteresting. I fhall illustrate this rule by feveral examples, giving the firft place to a beautiful paffage from Virgil:

Chapter 2. part 1. fect. 6.

Qualis populea morens Philomela fub umbra
Amiffos queritur fœtus, quos durus arator
Obfervans nido implumes detraxit.

Georg. lib. 4. l. 511.

The poplar, plowman, and unfledged, though not effential in the defcription, are circumftanftances that tend to make a complete image, and upon that account are an embellishment.

Again :

Hic viridem Æneas frendenti ex ilice metam
Conftituit, fignum nautis.

Horace, addreffing to Fortune:

Te pauper ambit follicita prece

Ruris colonus: te dominam æquoris,
Quicumque Bithynâ laceffit

Carpathium pelagus carina.

Eneid. v. 129.

Carm. lib. 1. ode 35.

Illum ex mœnibus hofticis

Matrona bellantis tyranni
Profpiciens, et adulta virgo,
Sufpiret: Eheu, ne rudis agminum
Sponfus laceffat regius afperum
Tactu leonem, quem cruenta
Per medias rapit ira cedes.

Carm. lib. 3. de 2.

X4

Shakespear

Shakespear fays*, "You may as well go about "to turn the fun to ice by fanning in his face "with a peacock's feather." The peacock's feather, not to mention the beauty of the object, completes the image: an accurate image cannot be formed of this fanciful operation, without conceiving a particular feather; and one is at a lofs, when this is neglected in the defcription. Again, "The rogues flighted me into the river "with as little remorfe, as they would have "drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' th' "litter +."

Old Lady. You would not be a queen?

Anne. No not for all the riches under heaven.

Old Lady. 'Tis ftrange: a three-pence bow'd would hire me, old as I am, to queen it.

Henry VIII. act 2. fc. 5.

In the following paffage, the action, with all its material circumftances, is reprefented fo much to the life, that it would fcarce appear more diftinct to a real spectator; and it is the manner of description that contributes greatly to the fublimity of the paffage :

He fpake; and to confirm his words, out-flew
Millions of flaming fwords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim; the fudden blaze

* Henry V. a&t 4. fc. 4.

Merry Wives of Windfor, at 3. fc. 15.

Far

Far round illumin'd hell: highly they rag'd

Against the Higheft, and fierce with grafped arms,
Clafh'd on their founding fhields the din of war,
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heav'n.

Milton, b. 1.

A paffage I am to cite from Shakespear, falls not much fhort of that now mentioned in particularity of description:

you

hard hearts! you
cruel men of Rome!
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb'd up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms; and there have fat
The live-long day with patient expectation
To fee great Pompey pass the streets of Rome.
And when faw his chariot but appear,

you

Have you not made an universal shout,
That Tyber trembled underneath his banks,
To hear the replication of your founds,

Made in his concave fhores ?

Julius Cafar, act 1. ft. 1,

The following paffage is fcarce inferior to either of those mentioned:

Far before the reft, the son of Offian comes; bright in the fmiles of youth, fair as the firft beams of the fun. His long hair waves on his back: his dark brow is half beneath his helmet. The fword hangs loofe on the hero's fide; and his fpear glitters as he moves. I fled from his terrible eye, King of high Temora.

Fingal.

The