HENRY HOME OF KAMES,

ONE OF THE SENATORS OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE, AND ONE OF THE

FOR BELL & BRADFUTE, AND WILLIAM CREECH;

AND T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES,

LONDON.

MBTIC

LENOX LIBRARY

NEW YORK

ELEMENTS

OF

CRITICISM.

CHAPTER XVIII.

BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE.

OF

F all the fine arts, painting orly and sculpture are in their nature imitative. An ornamented field is not a copy or imitation of nature, but nature itself embellished. Architecture is productive of originals, and copies not from nature. Sound and motion may in fome measure be imitated by mufic; but for the most part mufic, like architecture, is productive of originals. Language copies not from nature, more than mufic or architecture; unless, where, like mufic, it is imitative of found or motion. Thus, in the description of particular founds, language fometimes furnisheth words, which, befide their customary power of exciting ideas, resemble by their softness or harsh