And opens wider, fhuts and opens ftill Enlarging, deep'ning, mingling peal on peal More examples may be feen under the article of Sublime Thoughts. The fublime ftyle is ever bold and figurative, and abounds more especially with metaphors and hyperboles, the free ufe of which requires great care and judgment; fince without it there is danger of running into bombaft, that is generally made up of empty founding words, or unnatural fentences; abfurd methaphors, or extravagant and rafh hyperboles. This caution is neceffary, and should be ever in the poet's mind; yet, where the thought is great and noble, a bold and judicious incorrectnefs, as Longinus has observed, may be dispensed with, and will often seem rather a beauty than a blemish. The fublime poet, fired with his fubject, and borne away on the wings of fancy, difdains accuracy, and looks down with contempt on little rules-Laws are, as it were, insufficient to reftrain his boundless mind, which, having expatiated and ranfacked the whole univerfe, foars into other worlds, and is only loft in infinity. Great wits fometimes may gloriously offend, Pore. We are to obferve likewife, that though the fublime ftyle is bold and figurative, fublime thoughts may fometimes require only a plain and fimple ftyle, and may even by fuch contraft appear the more obvious and extraordinary. Many paffages of this kind we have in the facred writings; and one which is particularly applauded as a true inftance of fublimity by the great Longirus. And God faid, Let there be light, and there was light. This, as that great critic obferves, expreffes the power of the Almighty more forcibly and fully than could have been done with a parade of pompous expreffions. D "And God faid,-What?-Let there be light, and there was light." Such is the amazing power of the great Creator, that (as the Pfalmift in the fame plain yet fublime manner observes) He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it flood faft. Thus we fee that fublime thoughts may fometimes appear to advantage in a common ftyle. But the reverse will by no means hold; for words can have neither beauty nor fublimity, unless the thoughts have both. The fublime ftyle therefore will no more fuit common thoughts, than an embroider'd coat would a clown; for here ornaments are unnatural, nor indeed are mean and trivial thoughts ever thus dreffed by good authors, unless it be in works of the burlefque and doggrel kind, to heighten the ridicule. Sublime and beautiful thoughts, however, require in ge. neral words of the fame nature, and would often feem mean and contemptible without them. For ornaments properly placed add a beauty to the most beautiful: And kings, however nature may have formed them for majesty, appear to most advantage when arrayed with the imperial robes. This ftyle is moftly employed in the epic poem, tragedy, and the ode. Though, as we have already observed, the elegy, fatire, paftoral, and other poems, may partake of it occafionally. For no particular rule can be laid down for its ufe, but a ftri& obfervance of nature. In dire& oppofition to this is the plain or humble style, the elegance of which depends on the propriety of its application; and it is properly applied in defcribing in a familiar and easy manner the common concerns of life. Whence is it, Sir, that none contented lives When early clients thunder at the gate, While, by fubpoenas dragg'd from home, the clown Francis's HORACE. This ftyle, though intended to exprefs common things in a common manner, may fometimes be more courtly, and admit of compliment. If virtue's felf were loft, we might WALLER. This ftyle agrees with comedy, fatires, paftorals and epiftles, and occafionally fills up the narration and under parts of other poems. But the young student is here to be cautioned against defcending too low; elegance is to be preserved in every part of compofition, and where propriety of character does not demand vulgar expreffions, they are always to be avoided. Between thefe, as a partition which ferves to feparate and yet at the fame time unite the other two, is the mediate or middle ftyle; which is fuitable to every fpecies of poetry, as it admits of ornament fufficient to diftinguish it from the plain and humble, and yet is not animated enough to approach the fublime. Take an example from Otway. Wish'd morning's come! and now upon the plains And drefs the grateful glebe that yields him fruits. The cheatful birds too, on the tops of trees, There is also a fpecies of ftyle called the farcaftical or invective, which is peculiar to the fatire and the epigram; and when ftyle abounds with figurative expreffions, as the epic poem and fublimer ode more particularly do, we call it the florid ftyle. A ftyle is also faid to be concife or diffuse, easy or strong, clear or obfcure, brisk or flow, fweet, foft and fluent, or rough and unpleasant; all which are too obvious to need any explication. Abundant inftances of these are to be found in our poets, and they are all (except the obfcure) proper or improper, according to the nature and fubject of the poem in which they appear; but obfcurity is never to be admitted; for as the flyle that is clear is feldom faulty, the obfcure and uncouth will always be fo, and, after perplexing the mind of the reader, leave him diffatisfied. The rough ftyle, however disagreeable it may be when improperly applied, enters with grace into feveral of the fpecies of poetry, but efpecially into the epic poem and the tragedy; for where things rude and horrible are to be expreffed, fuch words must be used as will represent all their disagreeable and dreadful circumftances. The rough ftyle therefore appears often with majefty and grandeur in the epic and tragedy; where we find it frequently heightened by our beft poets with a few antiquated words, which they apprehend adds a dignity and folemnity to the style; but great judgment is here required; none but a masterly hand fhould make thefe bold attempts; for if too many obfolete terms are admitted, or improperly placed, instead of dignity and folemnity, dulnefs and obfcurity will fucceed. But here we are to observe, that the paffions have a style in a manner peculiar to themselves; for fometimes the pathetic, and even the fublime (especially when united with pity and terror) is more emphatically expreffed by a feafonable filence, or a few plain words, than by a number of pompous periods. We shall give one inftance out of a multitude in Shakespear. After a quarrel between Brutus and Caffius, in which the juftice and generous refentment of Brutus, and the hafty choler and repentance of Caffius, with their reconciliation, is nobly expressed; Brutus says, O Caffius, I am fick of many griefs. Caffius. Of your philofophy you make no use, If you give place to accidental evils. Brutus. No man bears forrow better-Portia's dead. Brutus. She is dead. Caffius. How 'fcap'd I killing when I croft you fo? Here the grief in Brutus, and the furprise in Caffius, is better expreffed than it could have been in a multitude of fine fpeeches; fince indeed both are inexpreffible in any other manner. The paffions of anger, grief and joy, as we have already obferved, are not to be loaded with ftudied metaphors, fimiles and defcriptions, as they too frequently are in our English tragedies; for here they are highly improper, and therefore inclegant and unaffecting. Nature, in a tumultuous ftate, has not time to look round her for expreffions that are delicate and pretty, but thunders out fuch as the paffion has excited, and those often in broken and interrupted fentences. Thefe paffions therefore are, in general, better expreffed by fudden ftarts, fuppreffions, apoftrophes, exclamations, and broken and unconnected fentences, than by a forced and ftudied dignity. Nor in these need the writer be afraid of expreffing himself improperly, if he feels, as he ought to do, the paffion he would excite in others; for, as we have elsewhere observed, the mind is extremely ready in culling fuch phrafes as are immediately for her purpose; and this is the reason why the common ignorant people, and even children, when under violent emotions of mind, fo often express themselves with force, propriety, and elegance. The rules and cautions we have here laid down, will at all times be found ufeful; but none are fufficient to teach this art without daily practice, and a conftant perufal of the beft authors: to which let me add, that a fertile imaginanation, a clear conception, and a good ear, are indifpenfably neceffary. Fancy is the foundation of poctry.Without a good imagination nothing can be new, and therefore not valuable; without a clear conception nothing can be clearly or elegantly expreffed; for where there is confufion in the head, perfpicuity can never flow from the |