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cite Love and Complacency, the Body is affected, fo far as I could obferve, much in the following • Manner: The Head reclines fomething on one Side; the Eye-lids are more closed than usual, and the Eyes roll gently with an Inclination to the Ob'ject; the Mouth is a little opened, and the Breath drawn flowly, with now and then a low Sigh; the whole Body is compofed, and the Hands fall < idly to the Sides. All this is accompanied with an inward Sense of Melting and Languor. These Appearances are always proportioned to the Degree of Beauty in the Object, and of Senfibility in the •. Obferver. And this Gradation from the highest • Pitch of Beauty and Senfibility, even to the lowest

of Mediocrity and Indifference; and their corre• fpondent Effects ought to be kept in View, elfe this • Description will feem exaggerated, which it cer

tainly is not.' Whatever affects us in the above Manner, he proceeds to call Beautiful, in the fame Manner as he has faid the Sublime will grow on Pain. We agree with him, that the Beautiful must depend on the fofter Affections of Love and Pleafure; for what is painful can never be accounted to belong to Beauty But the Sublime will exift with Beauty, or partial Uglinefs, and may be heightened by all our Paffions as well as Terror.

Having difcuffed the Beautiful, our Author at tempts to prove, that the Effects of Poetry are not by raifing Ideas of Things. I fhall begin,' fays he, with compound abstract Words, fuch as Virtue, Honour, Perfuafion, Docility; of these I am convinced, that whatever Power they may have on the Paffions, they do not derive it from any Re⚫ presentation raised in the Mind of the Things for which they ftand.' It is very poffible, that on hearing any one of thefe Words, a Man may not inftantly have in View all the Ideas that are combined in the complex one: As for Inftance, when

Virtue

Virtue is named, he may not think of the Relations in which a Man ftands to God, his Neighbour, and himself; but he may have the general Idea of acting uprightly, and that is enough for the Poet's Purpose. If it were true that Words revive the Senfations we originally felt, without recalling the Ideas to our Mind, Dk might be as good a Poet as Akenfide; because he might ufe all the Words that are most apt to affect us, and then he would agitate our Paffions as forcibly as a Man of Genius. He who is moft picturefque and clearest in his Imagery, is ever ftiled the best Poet, because from fuch a one we see Things clearer, and of Course we feel more intenfely. It is a Difpofition to feel the Force of Words, and to combine the Ideas annexed to them with Quicknefs, that fhews one Man's Imagination to be better than another's, and diftinguishes the fine Tafte from Dullness and Stupidity. Our Author would have Poetry to operate like Mufic, by Senfation: But he fhould recollect, that Mufic has its Effects no otherwife than by an Affociation of Ideas which it affembles in the Fancy, and by that Means it is that it depreffes us with Grief, or enflames with Rage, &c. The Inftance of Blacklock the blind Poet, ferves only to prove that Poetry may be wrote mechanically, by combining Words after the Ufage of other Writers; though it is not to be doubted but Mr. Blacklock had annexed Ideas of fome Sort in his own Mind to all the vifual Objects he mentions. Our Author allows Poetry to be an imitative Art as far as it defcribes Manners and Paffions of Men; but fays, defcriptive Poetry operates chiefly by Subftitution, by Means of Sounds that ftand for Things. But all Words are fubftituted for Things, and there is as much Imitation in defcribing a Scene in Nature, as in defcribing the Actions of human Kind; for the Likenefs in both Cafes is reprefented to us.

Nothing,

Nothing,' fays our Author, is an Imitation • further than as it refembles fome other Thing; • and Words undoubtedly have no Sort of Refemblance to the Ideas for which they stand.'

But Words ftand for Manners and Paffions; and if he allows the Defcription of them to be Imitation, by Parity of Reafon he might have allowed it to defcriptive Poetry. In his laft Chapter he has made fome juft Obfervations concerning the Power of Words, but recurs again to his Theory of their not exciting Ideas; than which nothing can be more falfe. No Man perhaps has fettled with Precifion the determinate Meaning of every Word that fignifies a complex Idea; but if he has fome of the leading Ideas, that make up the compounded one, as we before observed, it is fufficient for the Writer's Purpofe; and Words will ever excite Ideas according to the Underftandings and Imaginations of Mankind.

Upon the Whole, though we think the Author of this Piece miftaken in his fundamental Principles, and alfo in his Deductions from them, yet we must fay, we have read his Book with Pleafure: He has certainly employed much Thinking; there are many ingenious and elegant Remarks, which, though they do not enforce or prove his firft Pofition, yet, confidering them detached from his Syftem, they are new and juft: And we cannot difmifs this Article without recommending a Perufal of the Book to all our Readers, as we think they will be recompenfed by a great deal of Sentiment, perfpicuous, elegant, and harmonious Stile, in many Paffages both Sublime and Beautiful.

THE

THE

LIFE of Father PAUL SARPI,

Author of The History of the Council of Trent.

FA

ATHER Paul, whofe Name, before he entered into the monaftic Life, was Peter Sarpi, was born at Venice, August 14, 1552. His Father followed Merchandize, but with fo little Success, that, at his Death, he left his Family very ill provided for; but under the Care of a Mother, whose Piety was likely to bring the Bleffing of Providence upon them, and whofe wife Conduct fupplied the Want of Fortune by Advantages of greater Value.

Happily for young Sarpi, fhe had a Brother, Master of a celebrated School, under whofe Direction he was placed by her. Here he loft no Time, but cultivated his Abilities, naturally of the first Rate, with unwearied Application. He was born for Study, having a natural Averfion to Pleasure and Gaiety, and a Memory fo tenacious, that he could repeat thirty Verfes upon once hearing them.

Proportionable to his Capacity was his Progress in Literature: At Thirteen, having made himfelf Mafter of School-Learning, he turned his Studies to Philofophy and the Mathematics, and entered upon Logic under Capella of Cremona, who, though a celebrated Mafter of that Science, confeffed himfelf in a very little Time unable to give his Pupil farther Inftructions.

As

As Capella was of the Order of the Servites, his Scholar was induced, by his Acquaintance with him, to engage in the fame Profeffion, though his Uncle and his Mother reprefented to him the Hardships and Aufterities of that Kind of Life, and advised him with great Zeal against it. But he was fteady in his Refolutions, and in 1566 took the Habit of the Order, being then only in his fourteenth Year, a Time of Life in most Persons very improper for fuch Engagements, but in him attended with fuch Maturity of Thought, and fuch a fettled Temper, that he never seemed to regret the Choice he then made, and which he confirmed by a folemn public Profeffion in 1572.

At a general Chapter of the Servites held at Mantua, Paul (for fo we fhall now call him) being then only twenty Years old, distinguished himself fo much in a public Difputation by his Genius and Learning, that William, Duke of Mantua, a great Patron of Letters, folicited the Confent of his Superiors to retain him at his Court, and not only made him public Profeffor of Divinity in the Cathedral, but honoured him with many Proofs of his Efteem.

But Father Paul finding a Court Life not agreeable to his Temper, quitted it two Years afterwards, and retired to his beloved Privacies, being then not only acquainted with the Latin, Greek, Hebrew and Chaldee Languages, but with Philofophy, the Mathematics, Canon and Civil Law, all Parts of natural Philofophy, and Chemistry itself; for his Application was unintermitted, his Head clear, his Apprehenfion quick, and his Memory retentive.

Being made a Prieft at twenty-two, he was diftinguifhed by the illuftrious Cardinal Borromeo with his Confidence, and employed by him on many Occafions, not without the Envy of Perfons of lefs Merit, who were so far exasperated as to lay a Charge against him before the Inquifition, for denying that

the

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