years past, been carried farther than the genius of the English tongue will justify, and has had a sensible influence in abridging the variety of its native stores of expression; but it is only of late that, in separating the primitive from the metaphorical meanings of words, it has become customary, for critics to carry their refinements farther than the mere English scholar is able to accompany them; or to appeal from the authority of Addison and Swift to the woods of Germany. *The argument against the critical utility of these etymological researches might be carried much farther, by illustrating their tendency, with respect to our poetical vocabulary. The power of this (which depends wholly on association) is often increased by the mystery which hangs over the origin of its consecrated terms; as the nobility of a family gains an accession of lustre, when its history is lost in the obscurity of the fabulous ages. A single instance will at once explain and confirm the foregoing remark. Few words, perhaps, in our language, have been used more happily by some of our older poets than Harbinger; more particularly by Milton, whose Paradise Lost has rendered even the organical sound pleasing to the fancy. "And now of love they treat, till th' evening star, How powerful are the associations which such a combination of ideas must establish in the memory of every reader capable of feeling their beauty; and what a charm is communicated to the word, thus blended in its effect with such pictures as those of the evening star, and of the loves of our first parents! When I look into Johnson for the etymology of Harbinger, I find he derives it from the Dutch Herberger, which denotes one who goes to provide lodgings or a harbour for those that follow. Whoever may thank the author for this conjecture, it certainly will not be the lover of Milton's poetry. The injury, however, which is here done to the word in question, is slight in compari The following principle may, I think, be safely adopted as a practical rule; that as mixed metaphors displease solely by the incongruous pictures they present to the imagination, they are exceptionable in those cases alone where the words which we combine appear obviously, and without a moment's reflection, to have a metaphorical signification; and, consequently, that when, from long use, they cease to be figurative, and become virtually literal expressions, no argument against their propriety can have any weight, so far as it rests on metaphysical or philological considerations concerning their primitive roots. In such cases, the ear of a person familiarized to the style of our standard authors, ought to silence every speculative argument, how plausible soever it may appear to the theorist, in point of etymological verisimilitude. In confirmation of this principle, it may be observed, that, among our metaphorical expressions, there are some where the literal sense continues to maintain its ascendant over the metaphorical; there are others where the metaphorical has so far supplanted the literal, as to present itself as the more obvious interpretation of the two. The words acuteness, deliberation, and sagacity, are examples of the latter sort;-suggesting immediately the ideas which they figuratively express; and not even admitting of a literal interpretation, without some violence to ordinary phraseolo son of what it would have been, if its origin had been traced to some root in our own language equally ignoble, and resembling it as nearly in point of orthography. gy. In all such instances, the figurative origin of the word appears to me to be entitled to no attention in the practice of composition. It is otherwise, however, where the literal meaning continues to prevail over the metaphorical; and where the first aspect of a phrase may, of course, present an unpleasing combination of things material with things intellectual or moral. The verb to handle, as employed in the expressions to han ́dle a philosophical question—to handle a point of controversy seems to me to be in this predicament. It is much used by the old English divines; more particularly by those who have been distinguished by the name of Puritans; and it is a favourite mode of speaking, not only with Lord Kames in his Elements of Criticism, but with a still higher authority, in point of style, Mr Burke, in his book on the Sublime and Beautiful. It is, perhaps, owing to some caprice of my own taste, but I must acknowledge, that I had always a dislike to the word when thus applied; more especially when the subject in question is of such a nature as to require a certain lightness and delicacy of style. For many years past, it has been falling gradually into disuse; its place being commonly supplied by the verb to treat ;-a verb which, when traced to its root (tractare) in the Latin language, is precisely of the same import; but which, in conse quence of its less obvious extraction, does not obtrude its literal meaning on the imagination, in a manner at all offensive. In most cases of the same PHILOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS. 247 sort, it will be found convenient to avail ourselves of a similar artifice. "It might be expected," says Burke, "from "the fertility of the subject, that I should consider Poetry, as it regards the Sublime and Beautiful, "more at large; but it must be observed, that in "this light it has been often and well handled al ready.”—In the following sentence, the use of the same word strikes me as still more exceptionable : "This seems to me so evident, that I am a good "deal surprised that none who have handled the subject have made any mention of the quality of "smoothness, in the enumeration of those that go to "the forming of beauty." Upon the very same principle, I am inclined to object to the phrase go to, as here employed. I know that the authority of Swift and of Addison may be pleaded in its favour; but their example has not been followed by the best of our later writers; and the literal meaning of the verb Go, when connected with the preposition to, has now so decided an ascendant over the metaphorical, as to render it at present an awkward mode of expression, whatever the case may have been in the days of our ancestors. In forming a judgment on questions of this kind, it must not be overlooked, whether the expression is used as a rhetorical ornament addressed to the fancy, or as a sign of thought destined for the communication of knowledge. On the former supposition, it is possible that the same phrase may offend; which, on the latter, would not only be unexception able, but the most simple and natural turn of expression which the language supplies. I have elsewhere contrasted some of the opposite perfections of the philosophical, and of the rhetorical or poetical style. The former, I have observed, accomplishes its purposes most effectually, when, like the language of algebra, it confines our reasoning faculties to their appropriate province, and guards the thoughts against any distraction from the occasional wanderings of fancy. How different from this is the aim of poetry! Sometimes to subdue reason itself by her syren song; and, in all her higher efforts, to revert to the first impressions and to the first language of nature ;-clothing every idea with a sensible image, and keeping the fancy for ever on the wing. Nor is it sufficient, for this end, to speak by means of metaphors or symbols. It is necessary to employ such as retain enough of the gloss of novelty to stimulate the powers of conception and imagination; and, in the selection of words, to keep steadily in view the habitual associations of those upon whom they are destined to operate. Hence, to all who cultivate this delightful art, and still more to all who speculate concerning its theory, the importance of those studies which relate to the associating principle, and to the History of the Human Mind, as exemplified in the figurative mechanism of language. Of this remark I intend to offer various illustrations in the Essays which are to follow-but, before entering upon any new topics, it yet remains for me to add a few hints, which have a more particular reference to style in those instances |