mind, as to the eye when we behold Harlequin trimming himself with a hatchet, hewing down a tree with a rafor, making his tea in a cauldron, and brewing his ale in a tea-pot, to the incredible fatisfaction of the British spectator. Another source of the bathos is, METONYMY, the inversion of causes for effects, of inventors for inven tions, &c. Lac'd in her cofins* new appear'd the bride, The SYNECDOCHE, } which confifts in the ufe of a part for the whole. You may call a young woman fometimes pretty-face and pigseyes, and fometimes fnotty-nofe and draggle-tail. Or of accidents for perfons; as a lawyer is called fplit-caufe, a taylor prick-loufe, &c. Or of things belonging to a man, for the man himself; as a fword-man, a gownman, a t-m-t-d-man; a white-staff, a turn-key, &c. 66 The APOSIOPESIS, "what fhall I an excellent figure for the ignorant, as, fay?" when one has nothing to fay: or, "" I can no more," when one really can no more. Expreffions which the gentle reader is fo good as never to take in earneft. The METAPHOR. The first rule is to draw it from the lowest things, which is a certain way to fink the higheft; as when you speak of the thunder of heaven, fay, The Stays. + Tweezer-cafe. ** A fort of Perriwig: all words in ufe at this prefent year 1727. Pope. The Lords above are angry and talk big *. OR if you would defcribe a rich man refunding his treasures, exprefs it thus, Though he, as faid, may riches gorge, the spoil Painful in may vomit fhall recoil. Soon fhall he perish with a swift decay, Like his own ordure, caft with fcorn away †. THE fecond, that whenever you fart a metaphor, you must be sure to run it down, and purfue it as far as it can go. If f you get the scent of a state negotiation, follow it in this manner. The ftones and all the elements with thee Shall ratify a strict confederacy ; Wild beafts their favage temper shall forget, OR if you reprefent the Creator denouncing war against the wicked, be fure not to omit one circumstance ufual in proclaiming and levying war. Envoys and agents, who by my command Refide in Palestina's land, To whom commissions I have given To manage there the interefts of heaven. Ye holy heralds who proclaim Or war or peace, in mine your master's name, name, Will on his march in majesty appear, And needs the aid of no confed'rate pow'r *. UNDER the article of the confounding, we rank, 1. The MIXTURE of FIGURES, which raifes fo many images, as to give you no image at all. But its principal beauty is, when it gives an idea juft oppofite to what it seemed meant to defcribe. Thus an ingenious artift, painting the spring, talks of a fnow of blooms, and thereby raises an unexpected picture of winter. Of this fort is the following: The gaping clouds pour lakes of sulphur down, Whose livid flashes fickning fun-beams drown †. What a noble confufion? clouds, lakes, brimftone, flames, fun-beams, gaping, pouring, fickning, drowning! all in two lines. 2. The JARGON. Thy head shall rife, tho' buried in the dust, And 'midst the clouds his glittering turrets thruff ‡. Quare, What are the glittering turrets of a man's head? Upon the fhore; as frequent as the fand, To meet the prince, the glad Dimetians stand . Quere, Where thefe Dimetians stood? and of what fize they were? add also to the jargon such as the following Deftrusion's empire shall no longer last, And defontion lie for ever wafte **. * Blackm. Ifa. chep. xl. Job, p. 107. But + Pr. Arthur, p. 37° Pr. Arthur, p. 157. tt T. Cook, poems. But for variegation, nothing is more useful than 3. The PARANOMASIA, OF PUN, where a word, like the tongue of a jack-daw, speaks twice as much by being split: as this of Mr Dennis, Bullets, that wound, like Parthians as they fly f: or this excellent one of Mr Welsted, Behold the virgin lie To which thou mayft add, To fee her beauties no man needs to stoop, 4. The ANTITHESIS, OF SEE-SAW, whereby contraries and oppofitions are balanced in such a way, as to caufe a reader to remain fufpended between them to his exceeding delight and recreation. Such are these on a Lady, who made herself appear out of size by hiding a young princess under her cloaths. While the kind nymph changing her faultless shape On the maids of honour in mourning. Sadly they charm, and dismally they please §. Let in the object and let out the light ‡‡. The gods look pale to fee us look fo red . In mantles blue came tripping o'er the green §§. |