ticular fenfe, they would multiply words exceedingly, without adding any thing to the clearness of fpeech. Those words, therefore, that in their proper fignification denote the objects of one fenfe, they often apply tropically to the objects of another; and fay, fweet tafte, fweet fmell, fweet found;" fharp point, fharp tafte, fharp found; harmony of founds, harmony of colours, harmony of parts; foft filk, foft colour, foft found, foft temper; and fo in a thousand inftances; and yet thefe words, in their tropical fignification, are not lefs intelligible than in their proper one; for fharp taste and fharp found, are as expreffive as sharp fword; and harmony of tones is not better underftood by the mufician, than harmony of parts by the architect, and harmony of colours by the painter. Savages, illiterate perfons, and children, have comparatively but few words in proportion to the things they may have occafion to fpeak of; and muft therefore recur to tropes and figures more frequently, than perfons of copious elocution. A feaman, or mechanic, even when he talks of that which does not belong to his art, borrows his language from that which does; and this makes his diction figurative to a degree that is fometimes entertaining enough. "Death (fays a "feaman in one of Smollet's novels) has not yet boarded my comrade; but they "have been yard arm and yard arm thefe " three ex de open, "three glaffes. His ftarboard eye is the "but faft jamm'd in his head; and the ere "haulyards of his under jaw have given way." These phrases are exaggerated; but we allow them to be natural, because a we know that illiterate people are apt to make nd ufe of tropes and figures taken from their har own trade, even when they speak of things that are very remote and incongruous. In thofe poems, therefore, that imitate the converfation of illiterate perfons, as in comedy, farce, and pastoral, fuch figures judiciously applied may render the imitation more pleaa fing, because more exact and natural. bar rd. Words that are untuneable and harsh the poet is often obliged to avoid, when perhaps. he has no other way to express their meaning than by tropes and figures; and fometimes the measure of his verse may oblige him to reject a proper word that is not harfh, merely on account of its being too long, or too fhort, or in any other way unfuitable to the rhythm, or to the rhime. And hence another use of figurative language, that it contributes to poetical harmony. Thus, to prefs the plain is frequently used to signify to be flain in battle; liquid plain is put for ocean, blue ferene for fky, and fylvan reign for country life. 2. Tropes and Figures are favourable to delicacy. When the proper name of a thing is in any respect unpleasant, a well-chosen trope will convey the idea in fuch a way as ta to give no offence. This is agreeable, and even neceffary, in polite conversation, and cannot be difpenfed with in elegant writing of any kind. Many words, from their being often applied to vulgar ufe, acquire a meannefs that difqualifies them for a place in ferious poetry; while perhaps, under the influence of a different fyftem of manners, the correfponding words in another language may be elegant, or at least not vulgar. When one reads Homer in the Greek, one takes no offence at his calling Eumeus by a name which, literally rendered, fignifies Swine-herd; firft, because the Greek word is well-founding in itself; fecondly, because we have never heard it pronounced in conversation, nor confequently debafed by vulgar ufe; and, thirdly, because we know, that the office denoted by it was, in the age of Eumeus, both important and honourable. But Pope would have been blamed, if a name fo indelicate as fwine-herd had in his tranflation been applied to fo eminent a perfonage; and therefore he judiciously makes use of the trope fynecdoche, and calls him Swain*; a word both elegant and poetical, and not likely to lead the reader into any mistake about the perfon fpoken of, as his employment had been defcribed in a preceding paffage. The fame Eumeus is faid, in the fimple, but melodious language of the ori * Pope's Homer's Odyffey, book 14. verf. 41. I ginal, ginal, to have been making his own fhoes when Ulyffes came to his door; a work which in those days the greatest heroes would often find neceffary. This too the tranflator foftens by a tropical expreffion : Here fat Eumeus, and his cares applied A hundred other examples might be quoted from this tranflation; but these will explain my meaning. There are other occafions, on which the delicacy of figurative language is still more needful as in Virgil's account of the effects of animal love, and of the plague among the beasts, in the third Georgic; where Dryden's style, by being lefs figurative than the original, is in one place exceedingly filthy, and in another fhockingly obfcene. Hobbes could conftrue a Greek author but his fkill in words must have been all derived from the dictionary: for he seems not to have known, that any one articulate found could be more agreeable, or any one phrafe more dignified, than any other. In his Iliad and Odyffey, even when he hits. the author's fenfe, (which is not always the cafe), he proves, by his choice of words, that of harmony, elegance, or energy of style, he had no manner of conception. And hence that work, tho' called a Tranflation of Homer, does not even deferve the name of VOL. II. K k poem poem; because it is in every refpect unpleaJing, being nothing more than a fictitious narrative delivered in mean profe, with the additional meannefs of harsh rhyme, and untuneable measure.-Trapp understood Virgil well enough as a grammarian, and had a tafte for his beauties; yet his Tranflation bears no resemblance to Virgil; which is owing to the fame caufe, an imprudent choice of words and figures, and a total want of harmony. for I grant, that the delicacy we here contend may, both in converfation and in writing, be carried too far. To call killing an innocent man in a duel an affair of honour, and a violation of the rights of wedlock an affair of gallantry, is a proftitution of figurative language. Nor do I think it any credit to us, that we are faid to have upwards of forty figurative phrafes to denote exceffive drinking. Language of this fort generally implies, that the public abhorrence of fuch crimes is not fo ftrong as it ought to be and I am not certain, whether even our morals might not be improved, if we were to call these and fuch like crimes by their proper names, murder, adultery, drunkennefs, gluttony; names, that not only exprefs our meaning, but also betoken our difapprobation. As to writing, it cannot be denied, that even Pope himself, in the excellent verfion juft now quoted, has fometimes, for the fake of his numbers, or for : fear |