. directic The Poet's reflections follow, « Nor would the Nile more watry flores contain, But that he flagnates on his Libyan plain ; " Nor would the Danube run with greater force, "But that he gathers in his tedious course Ten thoufand ftreams, and, fwelling as he goes, "In Sethian feas the glut of rivers throws *. That is, fays SCALIGER, the Po would be bigger than the Nile and Danube, if the Nile and Danube were not bigger than the Po. a What makes the Poet's remark the more im 66 proper, the very reafon why the Danube is "greater than the Po, as he afsigns it, is that which really makes the Po as great as it is; for, before its fall into the gulph, it receives into its channel the most considerable « rivers of Piedmont, Milan, and the rest of Lombardy +." Populea fluvium ripas umbraffe corona: I will Lib. ii. ver. 408. • Non minor hic Nilo, fi non per plana jacentis Non minor hic Iftro, nifi quod dum per permeat orbem Accipit, & Scythiacas exit non folus in undas. Ibid. ver. 416. + ADDISON's Travels, p. 73. Octavo edition. I will add another passage from the fame ingenious Writer: "OVID, fays he, feems parti"cularly pleafed with the fubject of this story 86 (the story of NARCISSUS) but has notoriously "fallen into a fault he is often taxed with, of not knowing when he has said enough, by his "endeavouring to excel. How has he turned "and twifted that one thought of NARCISSUS'S being the perfon beloved, and the lover too! 66 "Cunetaque miratur quibus eft mirabilis ipse. 66 Qui probat, ipfe probatur. "Dumque petit petitur, pariterque incendit, & ardet. "Ante oculos idem qui decipit incitat error. Perque oculos perit ipfe fuos Uxor amore mei, flammas moveoque feroque, &c. *” (3) In our descriptions, let us not be minute and particular in gathering up every circumftance, especially if our fubject be great and folemn. Of this fault the following lines may perhaps be justly accufed, where Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, in a description of hell, fays, In flaming heaps the raging ocean rolls, And who would have imagined, that in fo great an event as the conflagration of the world by PHAETON'S madness, and which OVID fo well Y 2 • ADDISON'S Mifcellanies, vol. i. page 250. Prince ARTHUR, page 196. defcribes "The Poet's reflections follow, "Nor would the Nile more watry ftores contain, "But that he ftagnates on his Libyan plain; "Nor would the Danube run with greater force, "But that he gathers in his tedious course "Ten thousand ftreams, and, fwelling as he goes, "In Scythian feas the glut of rivers throws *. "That is, fays SCALIGER, the Po would be bigger than the Nile and Danube, if the Nile "and Danube were not bigger than the Po. "What makes the Poet's remark the more im proper, the very reafon why the Danube is "greater than the Po, as he afsigns it, is that "which really makes the Po as great as it is; for, before its fall into the gulph, it re"ceives into its channel the most considerable "rivers of Piedmont, Milan, and the reft of Lom(c bardy +." Populea fluvium ripas umbraffe corona: I will Lib. ii. ver. 408. Non minor hic Nilo, fi non per plana jacentis Non minor hic Iftro, nifi quod dum per permeat orbem Accipit, & Scythiacas exit non folus in undas. Ibid. ver. 416. + ADDISON's Travels, p. 73. Octavo edition. I will add another passage from the fame ingenious Writer: "OVID, fays he, seems parti 66 cularly pleased with the subject of this story (the story of NARCISSUS) but has notoriously "fallen into a fault he is often taxed with, of "not knowing when he has faid enough, by his "endeavouring to excel. How has he turned "and twifted that one thought of NARCISSUS'S being the perfon beloved, and the lover too! "Cunetaque miratur quibus eft mirabilis ipse. Qui probat, ipfe probatur. 66 Dumque petit petitur, pariterque incendit, & ardet. "Ante oculos idem qui decipit incitat error. "Perque oculos perit ipfe fuos "Uxor amore mei, flammas moveoque feroque, &c. *" (3) In our descriptions, let us not be minute and particular in gathering up every circumstance, especially if our fubject be great and folemn. Of this fault the following lines may perhaps be justly accufed, where Sir RICHARD BLACKMORE, in a defcription of hell, fays, In flaming heaps the raging ocean rolls, And who would have imagined, that in fo great an event as the conflagration of the world by PHAETON'S madness, and which OVID fo well defcribes Y 2 * ADDISON'S Mifcellanies, vol. i. page 250. + Prince ARTHUR, page 196. describes in a grandeur fuitable to the occasion, we should find fuch little incidents, fuch trivials, if I may so speak, as that the fwans grew warm in the stream of Cayfter, and that the dolphins durft not leap up from the waters *? (4) Let the words of our description, as nearly as pofsible, answer our ideas. Let harfh ideas be conveyed in harsh words, magnificent ideas in fonorous language, gentle ideas in a smooth ftile, fwiftnefs in fhort and quick, and slowness in heavy and long-extended periods. 'Tis not enough, no harshness gives offence: The found muft feem an echo to the fenfe. Soft is the ftrain when zephyr gently blows, And the smooth ftream in fmoother numbers flows: But when loud furges lafh the founding fhore, The hoarfe, rough verfe fhould, like a torrent, roar. When AJAX ftrives fome rock's vaft weight to throw, The line too labours, and the words move flow; Not fo when swift CAMILLA fcours the plain, Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the plaint. Inftances of this kind might be produced in great variety, but the following shall suffice. HOMER, in verses amazingly fuitable to the fenfe, describes the labours of SISYPHUS, in his heaving Flumineæ volucres medio caluere Cayftro. Metamorph. lib. ii. ver. 253. Nec fe fuper æquora curvi Tollere confuetas audent delphines in auras. + POPE's Efay on Criticism, line 363. Ibid. ver. 265. |