enchants and deceives the reader; and either leaves him dissatisfied, or excites, perhaps, his risibility. Another error, frequent in descriptive personifications, consists in introducing them, when the subject of discussion is destitute of dignity, and the reader is not prepared to relish them. One can scarcely peruse, with composure, the following use of this figure. It is the language of our elegant poet Thomson, who thus personifies and connects the bodily appetites, and their gratifications,

Then sated Hunger bids his brother Thirst
Produce the mighty bowl :
Nor wanting is the brown October, drawn
Mature and perfect, from his dark retreat
Of thirty years: and now his honest front
Flames in the light refulgent.

It is to be remarked, concerning this figure, and short metaphors and similes, which also have been allowed to be the proper language of high passion, that they are the proper expressions of it, only on those occasions when it is so far moderated as to admit of words. The first and highest transports seem to overwhelm the mind, and are denoted by silence or groans: next succeeds the violent and passionate language, of which these figures constitute a great part. Such agitation, however, cannot long continue; the passions having spent their force; the mind subsides into that exhausted and dispirited state, in which all figures are improper.

APOSTROPHE is a turning off from the regular course of the subject, to address some person or thing: as, "Death is swallowed up in victory. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?"

The following is an instance of personification and apostrophe united; "O thou sword of the Lord! how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put thyself up into thy scabbard, rest and be still! How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon, and against the sea-shore? there hath he appointed it." See also an extraordinary example of these figures, in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, from the 4th to the 19th verse, where the prophet describes the fall of the Assyrian empire.

A principal error, in the use of the Apostrophe, is, to deck the object addressed with affected ornaments; by which authors relinquish the expression of passion, and substitute for it the language of fancy.

Another frequent error is, to extend this figure to too great length. The language of violent passion is always concise, and often abrupt. It passes suddenly from one object to another. It often glances at a thought, starts from it, and leaves it unfinished. The succession of ideas is irregular, and connected by distant and uncommon relations. On all these accounts, nothing is more unnatural than long speeches, uttered by persons under the influence of strong passions. Yet this error occurs in several poets of distinguished reputation.

The next figure in order, is ANTITHESIS. Comparison is founded on the resemblance; antithesis, on the contrast or op. position of two objects. Contrast has always the effect to make each of the contrasted objects appear in the stronger light. White, for instance, never appears so bright as when it is opposed to black; and when both are viewed together. An author, in his defence of a friend against the charge of murder, expresses himself thus: "Can you believe that the person whom he scrupled to slay, when he might have done so with full justice, in a convenient place, at a proper time, with secure impunity; he made no scruple to murder against justice, in an unfavourable place, at an unseasonable time, and at the risk of capital condemnation."

The following examples further illustrate this figure.
Tho' deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull;
Strong without rage; without o'erflowing, full.

"If you wish to enrich a person, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires."

"If you regulate your desires according to the standard of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the standard of opinion, you will never be rich."

A maxim, or moral saying, very properly receives the form of the two last examples; both because it is supposed to be the fruit of meditation, and because it is designed to be engraven on the memory, which recalls it more easily by the help of such contrasted expressions. But where such sen. tences frequently succeed each other; where this becomes an author's favourite and prevailing manner of expressing himself, his style appears too much studied and laboured; it gives us the impression of an author attending more to his manner of saying things, than to the things themselves.

"If

The following is a beautiful example of Antithesis. Cato may be censured, severely indeed, but justly, for aban

doning the cause of liberty, which he would not, however, survive; what shall we say of those, who embrace it faintly, pursue it irresolutely, grow tired of it when they have much to hope, and give it up when they have nothing to fear?"The capital antithesis of this sentence, is instituted between the zeal of Cato for liberty, and the indifference of some others of her patrons. But, besides the leading antithesis, there are two subordinate ones, in the latter member: "Grow tired of it when they have much to hope; and give it up, when they have nothing to fear."

The eloquent Burke bas exhibited a fine instance of this figure, in his eulogium of the philanthropic Howard.

" He has visited all Europe, not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; nor to collect metals, or collate manuscripts:-but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infections of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and compare and collate the dis tresses of all men, in all countries."

Antithesis makes the most brilliant appearance in the delineation of characters, particularly in history. The author, in the performance of this delicate part of his task, has an opportunity of displaying bis discernment, and knowledge of human nature; and of distinguishing those nice shades, by which virtues and vices approach each one another. It is by such colours that a character may be strongly painted: and Antithesis is necessary to denote these distinctions. The following character of Atticus, delineated by Pope, is a very lively and forcible example of this figure.

"Should such a man, too fond to rule alone,
Bear, like the Turk, no brother near his throne,
View him with scornful, yet with jealous eyes,
And hate for arts that caused himself to rise :
Blame with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer :
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike;
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike;
Alike resolv'd to blame, or to commend,
A timorous foe, and a suspicious friend;
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged,
And so obliging, that he ne'er obliged:
Who would not smile, if such a man there be?
Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?"

No figure, perhaps, has been so anxiously sought, and with so little success, as Antithesis. It is much suited to impose on an unskilful reader; and an author is very apt to employ it, who abounds not with solid and important matter. Many readers are apt to consider the surprise and brilliancy it presents as certain marks of genius; and they are inclined to believe, that they have been amused and instructed, because their admiration has been excited. It is not easy, in an enlightened age, to shine in writing, by solidity and novelty of matter, simplicity and elegance of manner. Much reading, much reflection, much practice, and much careful and laborious criticism, must be employed before this important end can be attained. Authors who possess, perhaps, some genius, but who are defective in correct taste and judgment, seem to wish to take a shorter path to same: to compensate for the slightness of their matter, they endeavour to dazzle by the liveliness and attraction of their style. But if we may judge from the history of ancient literature, an extravagant attachment to ornaments of this sort, forms the first stage towards the corruption of taste.

The next figure concerning which we are to treat, is called HYPERBOLE OF EXAGGERATION. It consists in magnifying an object beyond its natural bounds. In all languages, even in common conversation, hyperbolical expressions very frequently occur: as swift as the wind; as white as the snow; and the like; and the common forms of compliment; are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles. If any thing be remarkably good or great in its kind, we are instantly ready to add to it some exaggerating epithet, and to make it the greatest or best we ever saw. The imagination has always a tendency to gratify itself, by magnifying its present object. and carrying it to excess. More or less of this byperbolical turn will prevail in language, according to the liveliness of imagination among the people who speak it. Hence young people deal much in hyperboles. Hence the language of the Orientals was far more hyperbolical than that of the Europeans, who are of more phlegmatic, or perhaps we may say, of more correct imagination. Hence, among all writers in early times, and in the rude periods of society, we may expect this figure to abound. Greater experience, and more cultivated society, abate the warmth of imagination, and chasten the manner of expression.

Hyperboles are of two kinds; either such as are employed in description, or such as are suggested by the warmth of pas

sion. All passions without exception, love, terror, amazement, indignation, and even grief, throw the mind into confusion, aggravate their objects, and of course prompt a hyperbolical style. Hence the following sentiments of Satan in Milton, as strongly as they are described, contain nothing but what is natural and proper; exhibiting the picture of a mind agitated with rage and despair.

Me, miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell, myself am Hell;
And in the lowest depth, a lower deep,
Still threat'ning to devour me, opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.

The fear of an enemy augments the conceptions of the size of the leader. " I saw their chief," says the scout of Ossian, " tall as a rock of ice; his spear, the blasted fir; his shield, the rising moon: he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the hill."

The errors frequent in the use of hyperboles, arise either from overstraining, or introducing them on unsuitable occasions. Dryden, in his poem on the Restoration of king Charles the Second, compliments that monarch, at the expense of the sun himself.

That star that at your birth shone out so bright,
It stain'd the duller sun's meridian light.

This is indeed mere bombast. It is difficult to ascertain, by any precise rule, the proper measure and boundary of this figure. Good sense and just taste must determine the point, beyond which, if we pass, we become extravagant.

VISION is another figure of speech, which is proper only in animated and warm composition. It is produced when, instead of relating something that is past, we use the present tense, and describe it as actually passing before our eyes. Thus Cicero, in his fourth oration against Cataline: "I seem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all nations, suddenly involved in one conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citizens, lying unburied in the midst of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethegus rises to my view, while with a savage joy, he is triumphing in your miseries."

This manner of description supposes a sort of enthusiasm which carries the person who describes, in some measure out