THUS much fhall fuffice for explaining the fpirit, the intent, and the diftinguishing qua

lities

hemence. Speaking of Pompey, who had rewarded the valour and public fervices of our orator's client, by making him a Roman citizen, he fays, "Utrum enim, infcientem vultis " contra fœdera feciffe, an scientem? Si fcientem, O nomen

noftri imperii, O populi Romani excellens dignitas, ✪ "Cneii Pompeii fic lati longèque diffufa laus, ut ejus gloriæ "domicilium communis imperii finibus terminetur: O ną❝tiones, urbes, populi, reges, tetrarche, tyranni, testes Cnèii

48

Pompeii non folum virtutis in bello, fed etiam religionis in pace: vos denique mutæ regiones imploro, et fola terrarum ultimarum vos maria, portus, infulæ, littoraque, quæ "ek enim ora, quæ fedes, qui locus, in quo non extent hujus cùm fortitudinis, tum vero humanitatis, tum animi, tum "confilii, impreffa veftigia? Hunc quifquam incredibili qua"dam atque inaudita gravitate, virtute, conftantia prædi

tum, fœdera fcientem neglexiffe, violaffe, rupiffe, dicere "audebit?" Here every thing confpires to aggrandize the hero, and exalt him to fomething more than mortal in the minds of the auditory; at the fame time, every thing infpires the most perfect veneration for his character, and the most entire confidence in his integrity and judgment. The whole world is exhibited as no more than a fufficient theatre for fuch a fuperior genius to act upon. How noble is the idea! All the nations and potentates of the earth are, in a manner, produced as witneffes of his valour and his truth. Thus the orator at once fills the imagination with the immenfity of the object, kindles in the breast an ardour of affection and gratitude, and by fo many accumulated evidences, convinces the understanding, and filences every doubt. Accordingly, the -effect which the words above quoted, and fome other things advanced in relation to the fame perfonage, had upon the audience, as we learn from Quintilian, was quite extraordinary. They extorted from them fuch demonstrations of

lities of each of the forementioned forts of addrefs; all which agree in this, an accommodation to affairs of a ferious and important nature,

CHA P. II.

Of wit, humour, and ridicule.

THIS article, concerning eloquence in its largest acceptation, I cannot properly dif mifs without making fome obfervations on another genus of oratory, in many things fimilar to the former, but which is naturally fuited to light and trivial matters.

THIS alfo may be branched into three forts, correfponding to thofe already difcuffed, directed to the fancy, the paffions, and the will; for that which illuminates the understanding, ferves

their applaufe and admiration, as he acknowledges to have been but ill-fuited to the place and the occafion. He excuses it, however, because he confiders it, not as a voluntary, but as a neceffary confequence of the impreffion made upon the minds of the people. His words are remarkable," Atque ego "illos credo qui aderant, nec fenfiffe quid facerent, nec fponte "judicioque plaufiffe; fed velut mente captos, et quo effent "in loco ignaros, erupiffe in hunc voluntatis affectum," lib. viii. cap. 3. Without doubt, a confiderable share of the effect ought to be afcribed to the immenfe advantage which the action and pronunciation of the orator would give to his expreffion.

as

as a common foundation to both, and has here nothing peculiar. This may be ftyled the eloquence of converfation, as the other is more ftrictly the eloquence of declamation. Not, indeed, but that wit, humour, ridicule, which are the effentials of the former, may often be fuccessfully admitted into public harangues. And, on the other hand, fublimity, pathos, vehemence, may fometimes enter the precincts of familiar converfe. To juftify the use of fuch diftinctive appellations, it is enough that they refer to thofe particulars which are predominant in each, though not peculiar to either.

SECTION I.

Of wit.

To confider the matter more nearly, it is the defign of wit to excite in the mind an agreeable. furprife, and that arifing, not from any thing marvellous in the subject, but folely from the imagery the employs, or the ftrange affemblage of related ideas prefented to the mind, This

In the latter of these the ancients excel; in the former, the moderns. Demofthenes and Cicero, not to say, Homer and Virgil, to this day, remain unrivalled, and in all antiguity, Lucian himself not excepted, we cannot find a match for Swift and Cervantes.

end

end is effected in one or other of thefe three ways: first, in debafing things pompous or feemingly grave: I fay feemingly grave, because to vilify what is truly grave, has .fomething fhocking in it, which rarely fails to counteract the end fecondly, in aggrandifing things little and frivolous: thirdly, in fetting ordinary objects, by means not only remote but apparently contrary, in a particular and uncommon point of view *. This will be better understood from the following obfervations and examples,

THE

I know no language which affords a name for this fpecies of imagery, but the English. The French efprit or bel efprit, though on fome occafions rightly tranflated wit, hath commonly a fignification more extenfive and generical. It must be owned, indeed, that in conformity to the ftyle of French critics, the term wit, in English writings, hath been fometimes ufed with equal latitude. But this is certainly a perverfion of the word from its ordinary sense, through an exceffive deference to the manner and idiom of our ingenious neighbours. Indeed, when an author varies the meaning in the fame work, he not only occafions perplexity to his reader, but falls himself into an apparent inconfiftency. An error of this kind in Mr. Pope has been lately pointed out by a very ingenious and judicious critic." In the effay on criticism it is faid,

"True wit is nature to advantage dress'd;

"But immediately after this the poet adds,

"For works may have more wit than does 'em good. "Now let us substitute the definition in the place of the thing,

and it will ftand thus: A work may have more of nature "dress'd

THE materials employed by wit in the grotesque pieces the exhibits, are partly derived from thofe common fountains of whatever is directed to the imaginative powers, the ornaments of elocution, and the oratorical figures, fimilé, apoftrophé, antithefis, metaphor; partly from thofe the in a manner appropriates to herself, irony, hyperbolé, allufion, parody, and (if the reader will pardon my defcending fo low) paronomafia, and pun. The limning of wit differs from the rhetorical painting above described in two refpects. One is, that in the latter there is not only a refemblance requifite in that particular on which the comparison is founded, but there muft alfo be a general fimilitude in the nature and quality of that which is the bafis of the imagery, to that which is the theme of difcourfe. In respect of dignity, or the impreffion they make upon the mind, they must be things

"drefs'd to advantage, than will do it good. This is impof"fible; and it is evident, that the confufion arifes from the poet's having annexed two different ideas to the fame "word." Webb's Remarks on the Beauties of Poetry, Dialogue II.

+ Paronomafia is properly that figure which the French call jeu de mots. Such as 66 Inceptio eft amentium, haud aman"tium." Ter. Andr. "Which tempted our attempt." Milt. b. i. "To begird the Almighty's throne, befeeching "or befieging." B. v.

homo