same manner as a cluster on the vine does from only one or two grapes.

§ 2. Some examples of the Allegory may

be very proper to be produced. Not to be tedious in the citations of them, let the following instances suffice :

Did I but purpose to embark with thee
On the smooth surface of a summer's fea,
While gentle zephyrs play in prosp’rous gales,
And fortune's favour fills the swelling fails ;
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore,
When the winds whiftle, and the tempefts roar, &c. *

That is a fine Allegory in the Poem, intitled the Spleen :

Thus, thus I steer my bark, and sail
On even keel with gentle gale ;
At helm I make my reason fit,
My crew of passions all submit.
If dark and blust'ring prove some nights,
Philosophy puts forth her lights ;
Experience holds the cautious glass,
To fhun the breakers as I pass,
And frequent throws the wary lead,
To see what dangers may be hid.
And once in seven years. I'm feen
At Bath or Tunbridge to caréen;
Tho' pleased to fee the dolphins play,
I mind my compafs and my way,
E 4

With Judg. xiv. 14.- This observation thews us, that an Allegory ought not to be ranked under the Metapher, as it undoubtediy extends itself to other Tropes.

Wich store fufficient for relief,
And wisely stiil prepard to reef:
Not wanting the dispersive bowl
Of cloudy weather in the soul,
I make (may Heav'n propitious send
Such wind and weather to the end !)
Neither be calm'd nor overblown,
Life's voyage to the world unknown.

The whole fourteenth ode of the first book of Horace is an Allegory, exquisitely wrought by that great favourite of the Muses *

.

O fhip! new billows foon will rise,

And bear thee off to sea again :
What madness? O in time be wite,

Make, make thy port, nor tempt the main.
Naked are all thy decks; thy mast
Thou hear’ft with horror o'er thee

groan; Bending beneath the heavy blast,

Soon muft thou see it rushing down. In vain thy keel attempts to plow

The wave, and conflict with the tide; No cords to bind thy planks hast thou,

Tho' all are starting from thy fide.

How

# O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus. O quid agis ? Fortiter occupa

Portum. Nonne vides, et

Nudum remigio latus,
Et malus celeri faucius Africo,
Antennæque gemant ? ac fine funibus

Vix durare carinæ
Postint imperiosius

Æquor ? How rent, how tatter'd are thy sheets !

Thy guardian Gods that grac'd thy prow,
Torn by the tempests from their seats,

No more shall hear thy suppliant vow!
Tho' Pontic pine produc'd thy frame,

The daughter of a noble wood,
Vain thy proud origin and name;

No splendors bribe th’ingulphing flood.
Be wise, O precious ship, at last,

No more with Ocean's terrors'Arive;
Left thou, the sport of ev'ry blast,

Should'st headlong to perdition drive.
Thou, long my heart-distresfing pain,

Still my fond hope, and dearest care,
Fly, fly the rocks that curse the main,

Whatever glitt'ring charms they wear.
We meet with a most beautiful Allegory in
Psalm lxxx. from the 8th Verse: - Thou haft

brought, says the Pfalmift, a vine out of Egypt: . Thou hast cast out the Heathen, and planted ss it. Thou preparedft room before it, and didst

55 cause

Æquor ? non tibi funt integra lintea;
Non Dii, quos iterum preffa voces malo;

Quamvis Pontica pinus,

Silvæ filia nobilis,
Jaces & genus & nomen inutile :
Nil pictis timidus navita, poppibus

Fidit. Tu, nisi ventis

Debes ludidibrium, cave.
Nuper sollicitum qui mihi tædium,
Nunc defiderium, curaque non levis,

Interfusa nitentes
Vites æquora Cycladas.

.

s cause it to take deep root, and it filled the

land.. The hills were covered with the shadow ss of it, and the boughs thereof were like the

goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto is the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why ss halt thou broken down her hedges, so that all

they which pass by the way do pluck her? $ The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and ss the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Ress turn, we befeech thee, O God of hosts; look ss down from heaven, and behold, and visit this ss vine: and the vineyard which thy right hand 58 hath planted, and the branch that thou madest

strong for thyself. It is burnt with fire; it is ss cut down. They perish at the rebuke of thy

countenance," :

SS

$ 3. Allegories are of two forts, pure and mixed.

Pure Allegories are such as preserve the Trope from the beginning to the end of them without any opening, if I may so call it, of the literal sense. Such an Allegory is that Ode of HORACE which we have but now recited; so that many « learned Commentators, says Mr Francis, in

a note upon his translation of the Ode, under“ stand it in a plain historical maŋner; though

QUINTILIAN, whose judgment we scruple not “ to prefer, quotes the Ode as an example of “ the Allegory, and tells us, that throughout " the whole passagė, the Poet means by the ship the commonwealth ; by the waves and

“ tempests, tempefts, civil wars; and by the haven, peace « and concord +." The danger arising from a pure Allegory is that of obscurity; and whoever frequently uses it, should take particular care that he does not involve the sense in hard and difficult riddles, which ought to shine out clear and perspicuous, as it may do even from under the veil of Tropes themselves, according to the very just account of Metaphors, which will alike extend to Allegories, by Lord LANSDOWNE, in his Elay upon unnatural Flights in Poetry:

As veils transparent cover but not hide,
Such Metapbors appear when right apply'd ;
When thro' the phrase we plainly see the sense,
Truth, where the meaning's obvious, will dispense:
The Reader what's in reason due believes,
Nor can we call that falfe which not deceives.

$ 4. Mixed Allegories are such Allegories as are not intire, but admit of spaces in which the litera! sense appears: or, in other words, proper and allegorical expressions are alternately used in the same fentence or paragraph. Of this kind is that Allegory in the speech of Philip King of Macedon,

in

+ Anayyogia, quam inverfionem interpretamur, aliud verbis, aliud sensu oftendit, ac etiam interim contrarium. Prius, ut

O navis, referent in mare te novi
Fluctus. O quid agis ? fortiter occupa

Portum
Totusque ille Horatii locus, quo navim, pro republica ; fluc.
tuum tempeftates, pro bellis civilibus; portum pro pace atque
concordia dicet. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 6. 2.