to the subject: heroic actions or sentiments require elevated language; tender sentiments ought to be expressed in words soft and flowing; and plain language void of ornament, is adapted to subjects grave and didactic. Language may be considered as the dress of thought; and where the one is not suited to the other, we are sensible of incongruity, in the same manner as where a judge is dressed like a fop, or a peasant like a man of quality. Where the impression made by the words resembles the impression made by the thought, the similar emotions mix sweetly in the mind, and double the pleasure;* but where the impressions made by the thought and the words are dissimilar, the unnatural union they are forced into is disagreeable.t

This concordance between the thought and the words has been observed by every critic, and is so well understood as not to require any illustration. But there is a concordance of a peculiar kind, that has scarcely been touched in works of criticism, though it contributes to neatness of composition. It is what follows. In a thought of any extent, we commonly find some parts intimately united, some slightly, some disjoined, and some directly opposed to each other. To find these conjunctions and disjunctions imitated in the expression, is a beauty; because such imitation makes the words concordant with the sense. This doctrine may be illustrated by a familiar example. When we have oc

casion to mention the intimate connexion that the soul hath with the body, the expression ought to be, the soul and body; because the particle the, relative to both, makes a connexion in the expression, resembling in some degree the connexion in the thought but when the soul is distinguished from the body, it is better to say the soul and the body; because the disjunction in the words resembles the disjunction in the thought. I proceed to other examples, beginning with conjunctions.

Constituit agmen; et expedire tela animosque, equitibus jussis, &c. Livy, l. 38. § 25.

Here the words that express the connected ideas are artificially connected by subjecting them both to the regimen of one verb. And the two following are of the same kind.

Quum ex paucis quotidie aliqui eorum caderent aut vulnerarentur, et qui superarent, fessi et corporibus et animis essent, &c. Livy, l. 38. § 29.

Post acer Mnestheus adducto constitit arcu,
Alta petens, pariterque oculos telumque tetendit.

Eneid. v. 507.

But to justify this artificial connexion among the words, the ideas they express ought to be intimately connected; for otherwise that concordance which is required between the sense and the expression will be impaired. In that view, a passage from Tacitus is exceptionable; where words that

signify ideas very little connected, are however forced into an artificial union. Here is the pas sage:

Germania omnis a Galliis, Rhætiisque, et Pannoniis, Rheno et Danubio fluminibus; a Sarmatis Dacisque, mutuo metu aut montibus separatur.

De Moribus Germanorum.

Upon the same account, I esteem the following passage equally exceptionable.

The fiend look'd up, and knew

His mounted scale aloft; nor more, but fled Murm'ring, and with him fled the shades of night. Paradise Lost, b. 4. at the end.

There is no natural connexion between a person's flying or retiring, and the succession of day-light to darkness; and therefore to connect artificially the terms that signify these things cannot have a sweet effect.

Two members of a thought connected by their relation to the same action, will naturally be expressed by two members of the period governed by the same verb; in which case these members, in order to improve their connexion, ought to be constructed in the same manner. This beauty is so common among good writers, as to have been little attended to; but the neglect of it is remarkably disagreeable: For example, " He did not mention "Leonora, nor that her father was dead." Better thus: "He did not mention Leonora, nor her "father's death."

Where two ideas are so connected, as to require but a copulative, it is pleasant to find a connexion in the words that express these ideas, were it even so slight as where both begin with the same letter:

The peacock, in all his pride, does not display half the colour that appears in the garments of a British lady, when she is either dressed for a ball or a birth-day.

Spectator, No. 265,

Had not my dog of a steward run away as he did, without making up his accounts, I had still been immersed in sin and sea-coal. Ibid. No. 530.

My life's companion, and my bosom-friend,
One faith, one fame, one fate shall both attend.
Dryden, Translation of Eneid.

There is sensibly a defect in neatness when uniformity in this case is totally neglected; * witness the following example, where the construction of two members connected by a copulative is unnecessarily varied.

For it is confidently reported, that two young gentlemen of real hopes, bright wit, and profound judgment, who, upon a thorough examination of causes and effects, and by the mere force of natural abilities, without the least tincture of learning, have made a discovery that there was no God, and generously communicating their thoughts for the good of the public, were some time ago, by an unparalleled severity, and upon I know not what obsolete law, broke for blasphemy.+ [Better thus:]-having made a discovery

*See Girard's French Grammar, Discourse 12.

An argument against abolishing Christianity. Swift,

that there was no God, and having generously communicated their thoughts for the good of the public, were some time ago, &c.

He had been guilty of a fault, for which his master would have put him to death, had he not found an opportunity to escape out of his hands, and fled into the deserts of Numidia. Guardian, No. 139.

If all the ends of the Revolution are already obtained, it is not only impertinent to argue for obtaining any of them, but factious designs might be imputed, and the name of incendiary be applied with some colour, perhaps, to any one who should persist in pressing this point.

Dissertation upon Parties, Dedication.

Next as to examples of disjunction and opposition in the parts of the thought, imitated in the ex-, pression; an imitation that is distinguished by the name of antithesis.

Speaking of Coriolanus soliciting the people to be made consul:

With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.

Coriolanus.

Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all free men?

Julius Cæsar.

He hath cool'd my friends and heated mine enemies. Shakespeare.

An artificial connexion among the words, is undoubtedly a beauty when it represents any peculiar connexion among the constituent parts of the