ESSAY UPON UNNATURAL FLIGHTS IN POETRY.

AS when fome image of a charming face,
In living paint, an artift tries to trace,
He carefully confults each beauteous line,
Adjusting to his object his defign;

We praise the piece, and give the painter fame,
But as the just refemblance fpeaks the dame.
Poets are limners of another kind,

To copy out ideas in the mind;

Words are the paint by which their thoughts are fhown,

And Nature fits the object to be drawn;
The written picture we applaud or blame
But as the due proportions are the fame.
Who driven with ungovernable fire,
Or, void of art, beyond these bounds afpire,
Gigantic forms and monftrous births alone
Produce, which Nature, fhock'd, disdains to own,
By true reflection I would fee my face:
Why brings the fool a magnifying-glass?

"(1) But

:

(1) But Poetry in fiction takes delight, "And, mounting in bold figures out of fight, Leaves truth behind in her audacious flight: "Fables and metaphors that always lie, "And rafh hyperboles that foar fo high, "And every ornament of verfe must die." Mintake me not; no figures I exclude, And but forbid intemperance, not food. Who would with care fome happy fiction frame, So mimics truth, it looks the very fame;

Not rais'd to force, or feign'd in Nature's fcorn,
But meant to grace, illuftrate, and adorn.
Important truths ftill let your fables hold,
And moral myfteries with art unfold.
Ladies and beaux to pleafe is all the task,
But the fharp critic will inftruction ask.

(1) The poetic world is nothing but fiction; Parnaffus, Pegafus, and the Mufes, pure imagination and chimera: but being however a fyftem univerfally agreed on, all that has or may be contrived or invented upon this foundation according to Nature shall be reputed as truth; but whatsoever shall diminish from, or exceed, the just proportions of Nature fhall be rejected as falfe, and pafs for extravagance, as dwarfs and giants for monsters.

(2) As veils tranfparent cover, but not hide, Such metaphors appear when right apply'd; When thro' the phrase we plainly see the sense, Truth, where the meaning's obvious, will dispense;

The reader what in reafon 's due believes ;
Nor can we call that falfe which not deceives..
(3) Hyperboles, fo daring and fo bold,
Difdaining bounds, are yet by rules control'd:

Above

(2) When Homer, mentioning Achilles, terms him a Lion, this is a metaphor, and the meaning is obvious and true, though the literal fenfe be falfe, the poet intending thereby to give his reader fome idea of the ftrength and fortitude of his hero. Had he said that wolf, or that bear, this had been falfe, by presenting an image not conformable to the nature and character of a hero, &c.

(3) Hyperboles are of divers forts, and the manner of introducing them is different: some are, as it were, naturalized and established by a customary way of expreffion; as when we say such a one is as fwift as the wind, whiter than fnow, or the like. Homer, fpeaking of Nereus, calls him beauty itfelf; Martial of Zoilus, lewdnefs itself. Such hyperboles lie indeed, but deceive us not; and therefore Seneca terms them lies that readily conduct our imagination to truths, and have an intelligible fignification, though the expreffion be trained beyond

4

Above the clouds, but still within our fight, They mount with truth, and make a tow'ring

flight;

Prefenting things impoffible to view,

They wander thro' incredible to true :
Falsehoods, thus mix'd, like metals are refin'd,
And truth, like filver, leaves the drofs behind.
Thus poetry has ample space to foar,

Not needs forbidden regions to explore:
Such vaunts as his who can with patience read,
Who thus defcribes his hero flain and dead:
"(4) Kill'd as he was, infenfible of death,

"He fill fights on, and fcorns to yield his "breath *."

The

beyond credibility. Custom has likewise familiarized another way for hyperboles, for example, by irony; as when we fay of fome infamous woman the is a civil perfon, where the meaning is to be taken quite opposite to the letter. These few figures are mentioned only for example fake; it will be understood that all others are to be used with the like care and difcretion.

(4) I needed not to have travelled fo far for an extravagant Aight; I remember one of British growth of the like nature: See thofe dead bodies hence convey'd with care, Life may perhaps return-with change of air,

* Ariofto.

But

The noify culverin, o'ercharg'd, lets fly,
And burit unaiming in the rended sky.
Such frantic flights are like a madman's dream,
And Nature fuffers in the wild extreme.

The captive Cannibal, weigh'd down with chains,

Yet braves his foes, reviles, provokes, difdains;
Of nature fierce, untameable, and proud,
He grins defiance at the gaping crowd,

But I chufe rather to correct gently, by foreign examples, hoping that fuch as are confcious of the like excelfes will take the hint, and fecretly reprove themfelves. It may be poffible for fome tempers to maintain rage and indignation to the last gafp; but the foul and body once parted, there must neceffarily be a determination of action.

Quodcunque oftendis mihi fic incredulus odi.

I cannot forbear quoting, on this occafion, as an example for the prefent purpose, two noble lines of Jafper Maine's, in the collection of the Oxford Verfes printed in the year 1643, upon the death of my grandfather Sir Bevil Granville, flain in the heat of action at the battle of Lanfdowne. The poet, after having defcribed the fight, the foldiers animated by the example of their leader, and enraged at his death, thus concludes, Thus he being flain, his action fought anew,

And the dead conquer'd, whilst the living flew.

This is agreeable to truth, and within the compaïs of nature : it is thus only that the dead can aćt.