The waves behind impel the waves before, Wide-rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the fhore. Iliad, xiii. 1004. The last shall be of rapid motion prolonged : Not fo when swift Camilla fcours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main. Effay on Crit. 373. Again, fpeaking of a rock torn from the brow of a mountain: Still gath'ring force, it smokes, and, urg'd amain, Sixthly, A period confifting moftly of long fyllables, that is, of fyllables pronounced flow, produceth an emotion resembling faintly that which is produced by gravity and folemnity, Hence the beauty of the following verse: Olli fedato refpondit corde Latinus. Seventhly, A flow fucceffion of ideas is a circumstance that belongs equally to fettled melancholy, and to a period compofed of polyfyllables pronounced flow; and hence, by fimilarity of emotions, the latter is imitative of the former: In thofe deep folitudes and awful cells, Pope. Eloifa to Abelard. Eighthly, A long fyllable made short, or a fhort fyllable made long, raises, by the difficulty of pronouncing contrary to custom, a feeling fimilar to that of hard labour : When Ajax strives fome rock's vaft weight to throw, Efay on Crit. 37°' Ninthly, Harsh or rough words pronounced with difficulty, excite a feeling resembling that which proceeds from the labour of thought to a dull writer; Just writes to make his barrenness appear, And ftrains from hard-bound brains eight lines a-year. Pope's epiftle to Dr Arbuthnot, I. 181. I fhall close with one example more, which of all makes the finest figure. In the first section mention is made of a climax in found; and in the fecond of a climax in fenfe. It belongs to the prefent fubject to observe, that when these coincide in the fame paffage, the concordance of found and fenfe is delightful; the reader is confcious not only of pleasure from the two climaxes separately, but of an additional pleasure from their concordance, and from finding the fense fo justly justly imitated by the found. In this respect, no periods are more perfect than those borrowed from Cicero in the firft fection. The concord between fenfe and found is not lefs agreeable in what may be termed an anticlimax, where the progrefs is from great to little; for this has the effect to make diminutive objects appear still more diminutive. Horace affords a ftriking example: Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. The arrangement here is fingularly artful: the first place is occupied by the verb, which is the capital word by its fenfe as well as found: the clofe is referved for the word that is the meanest in fenfe as well as in found: and it muft not be overlooked, that the refembling founds of the two last fyllables give a ludicrous air to the whole. Reviewing the foregoing examples, it appears to me, contrary to expectation, that in paffing from the strongest resemblances to those that are fainter, every step affords additional pleasure. Renewing the experiment again and again, I feel no wavering, but the greatest pleasure constantly from the faintest resemblances. And yet how can this be for if the pleafure lie in imitation, muft not the strongest resemblance afford the greatest pleasure From this vexing dilemma I ? happily relieved, by reflecting on a doctrine efta am blished blished in the chapter of refemblance and contraft, that the pleasure of refemblance is the greatest, where it is leaft expected, and where the objects compared are in their capital circumftances widely different. Nor will this appear furprising, when we defcend to familiar examples it raiseth not wonder in the smallest degree, to find the most perfect resemblance between two eggs of the fame bird: it is more rare to find fuch resemblance between two human faces; and upon that account fuch an appearance raises fome degree of wonder: but this emotion rifes to a still greater height, when we find in a pebble, an aggat, or other natural production, any refemblance to a tree or other organised body. We cannot hesitate a moment, in applying these obfervations to the prefent fubject: what occafion of wonder can it be to find one found refembling another, where both are of the fame kind? it is not fo common to find a refemblance between an articulate found and one not articulate; and accordingly the imitation here affords fome Light pleasure but the pleafure fwells greatly, when we employ found to imitate things it refembles not otherwife than by the effects produced in the mind. I have had occafion to obferve, that to complete the resemblance between found and fenfe, artful pronunciation contributes not a little. Pronunciation therefore may be confidered as a branch branch of the present fubject; and with fome obfervations upon it, the fection fhall be conclu-· ded. In order to give a juft idea of pronunciation, it must be distinguished from finging: the latter is carried on by notes, requiring each of them a different aperture of the windpipe: the notes properly belonging to the former, are expreffed by different apertures of the mouth, without varying the aperture of the windpipe. This howeever doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from finging, as one fometimes is naturally led to do, in expreffing a vehement paffion. In reading, as in finging, there is a key-note: above this note the voice is frequently elevated, to make the found correfpond to the elevation of the fubject: but the mind in an elevated state, is disposed to action; therefore, in order to a reft, it must be brought down to the key-note. Hence the term cadence. The only general rule that can be given for directing the pronunciation, is, To found the words in fuch a manner as to imitate the things they fignify. In pronouncing words fignifying what is elevated, the voice ought to be raised above its ordinary pitch; and words fignifying dejection of mind, ought to be pronounced in a low note: to imitate a stern and impetuous paffion, the words ought to be pronounced rough and loud a fweet and kindly paffion, on the contrary, ought to be imitated by a foft and melodious |