If men of eminence be expofed to cenfure on the one hand, they are as much expofed to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due, they likewife receive praises which are not due.

I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which paffes fo currently with other judgements, muft at fome time or other have stuck a little with your Lordship [Better thus:] I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which paffes fo currently with others, must at fome time or other have stuck a little with your Lordfhip.

A glutton or mere fenfualift is as ridiculous as the other two characters.

Shaftesbury, vol. 1. p. 129.

They wifely prefer the generous efforts of goodwill and affection, to the reluctant compliances of fuch as obey by force.'

Remarks on the hiftory of England, Letter 5. Bolingbroke.

Titus Livius, mentioning the people of Enna demanding the keys from the Roman garrifon, makes the governor fay,

Quas fimul tradiderimus, Carthaginienfium extemplo Enna erit, fœdiufque hic trucidabimur, quam Murgantiæ præfidium interfectum est.

Letter concerning enthusiasm. Shaftesbury.

L. 24. § 38.

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Quintus

Quintus Curtius, fpeaking of Porus mounted on an elephant, and leading his army to battle:

Magnitudini Pori adjicere videbatur bellua qua vehebatur, tantum inter cæteras eminens, quanto aliis ipfe præftabat. L. 8. cap. 14.

It is a still greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only variety in the words, but also in the conftruction. Defcribing Thermopyla,

Titus Livius fays,

Id jugum, ficut Apennini dorfo Italia dividitur, ita mediam Græciam diremit.

L. 36. § 15.

Speaking of Shakespear:

There may remain a fufpicion that we over-rate the greatness of his genius, in the fame manner as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being difproportioned and mishapen.

Hiftory of G. Britain, vol. 1. p. 138.

This is ftudying variety in a period where the beauty lies in uniformity. Better thus:

There may remain a fufpicion that we over-rate the greatness of his genius, in the same manner as we overrate the greatness of bodies that are difproportioned and mishapen.

Next as to the length of the members that fignify the resembling objects. To produce a refemblance between fuch members, they ought not only to be constructed in the fame manner, but as nearly as poffible be equal in length. By neglecting this circumftance, the following example is defective in neatness.

As the performance of all other religious duties will not avail in the fight of God, without charity; fo neither will the discharge of all other minifterial duties avail in the fight of men, without a faithful difcharge of this principal duty.

Differtation upon parties, dedication.

In the following paffage, all the errors are accumulated that a period expreffing a resemblance can well admit.

Ministers are answerable for every thing done to the prejudice of the conftitution, in the fame proportion as the preservation of the conftitution in its purity and vigour, or the perverting and weakening it, are of greater confequence to the nation, than any other inftances of good or bad government.

Differtation upon parties, dedication.

Next of a comparison where things are opposed to each other. And here it must be obvious, that if resemblance ought to be ftudied in the words which exprefs two refembling objects, there is equal reason for studying opposition in the words which express contrasted objects. This

rule will be beft illustrated by examples of deviations from it:

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes.

Spectator, N° 399.

Here the oppofition in the thought is neglected in the words, which at first view seem to import, that the friend and the enemy, like a judge and a foldier, are employ'd in different matters, without any oppofition to each other. And therefore the contrast or oppofition will be better marked by expreffing the thought as follows:

A friend exaggerates a man's virtues, an enemy his crimes.

The following are examples of the fame kind.

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of thofe about him. Ibid. N° 73.

Better:

The wife man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he gains that of others.

Sicut in frugibus pecudibufque, non tantum femina ad fervandum indolem valent, quantum terræ proprietas cœlique, fub quo aluntur, mutat.

Livy, l. 38. § 17.

We

We proceed to a rule of a different kind. During the course of a period, the fame scene ought to be continued without variation: the changing from perfon to perfon, from fubject to fubject, or from perfon to fubject, within the bounds of a fingle period, diftracts the mind, and affords no time for a folid impreffion. I illustrate this rule by giving examples of deviations from it.

Honos alit artes, omnefque incenduntur ad ftudia gloriâ; jacentque ea femper quæ apud quofque improbantur.

Cicero, Tufcul. aft. l. 1.

Speaking of the diftemper contracted by Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, and of the cure offered by Philip the physician:

Inter hæc à Parmenione fidiffimo purpuratorum, literas accipit, quibus ei denunciabat, ne falutem fuam Philippo committeret.

Quintus Curtius, l. 3. cap. 6.

Hook, in his Roman history, speaking of Eumenes, who had been beat down to the ground with a ftone, fays,

After a fhort time he came to himself; and the next day, they put him on board his fhip, which conveyed him first to Corinth, and thence to the island of Ægina.

I give another example of a period which is unpleasant, even by a very flight deviation from the

rule:

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That