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the child recovering perfectly, though flowly.-There is certainly no effectual reasoning against facts; but we confess we fhould not have expected much Bark to have got inwardly by this outward application of the grofs powder, which fhould feem to act chiefly by its friction, and might corrugate or brace a little, when thus applied. We fhould imagine a general fomentation, with a ftrong decoction of the Bark, might have imparted more of it: and as a good deal of its efficacy has been thought to refult from its conftringing the fibres like a ftyptic, perhaps it might prove no bad alternative. in this age of ufeful experiments, to foufe an adult patient, under an ague, into a good tan vat. An unexpected plunge into the cold bath, is faid to have fucceeded in fuch circumftances.

The nineteenth, by Dr. Macaulay, may be added to many other powerful effects of the Sublimate; and be alfo extended to its fafety, the Doctor having cured two pregnant women of fome high venereal symptoms by it.

The twentieth, is a letter from Dr. Bond of Philadelphia, to Dr. Fothergill, giving two inftances of the fuccefs of the Bark in fcrophulous cafes. In the first it was compleat, by the lady's taking half a drachm thrice a day, for near four months, after which fhe carried an hundred dofes with her into the country, where fhe continues well. In the fecond it was lefs perfect, the tumours being only almoft diffolved, after the girl had taken an hundred and fifty dofes, joined to fome fteel. An omiffion of the Bark for fome weeks caused the fwellings to increafe to near their former fize; but Dr. , Bond fays, they have again yielded to the Bark and Steel, by which we do not fuppofe, they have been entirely fubdued, as he calls this a lefs extraordinary inftance than the firft. Suppofe he had added a Bark-quilted ftomacher or ftays, (not to infift on fuch a quilted petticoat) on this obftinate occafion?

We fhall give an abftract of the remaining articles in our

next.

Elements

Elements of Criticifm. Concluded from page 24th of laft

Month's Review.

T may be prefumed, from the account given in the preceding articles, that our Readers are become acquainted with the nature and scope of this ingenious work: therefore, without farther preface, we fhall proceed to the third Volume, which opens with fome very accurate and judicious Remarks on the fubject of Comparisons.

Comparisons, fays his Lordship, serve two different purpofes. When addreffed to the understanding, their purpose is to inftruct; when to the heart, their aim is to give pleafure. An object of one fenfe cannot be compared to an object of another; for fuch objects are totally feparated from each other, and have no circumftance in common to admit either refemblance or contraft.-It has no good effect to compare things, by way of fimile, that are of the fame kind; nor to contraft things of different kinds.-Abstract terms can never be the fubject of comparison, otherwise than by being perfonified.

His Lordship then proceeds to illuftrate, by particular inftances, the different means by which comparison can afford pleasure, beginning with those instances which are agreeable by fuggefting fome unusual refemblance or contrast:

Sweet are the ufes of Adverfity,

Which, like the toad, ugly and venemous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in her head.

The next effect of a comparison, is to place an object in a ftrong point of view.

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' th' bud,
Feed on her damask cheek; the pin'd in thought;
And with a green and yellow melancholy,

She fat like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at Grief.

As words convey but a faint and obfcure notion of great numbers, a Poet to give a high notion of the object he defcribes with regard to number, does well to compare it to what is familiar and commonly known. Thus Homer compares the Grecian army, in point of number, to a swarm of bees.

Comparison

Comparisons which aggrandize or elevate, make stronger impreffions than any other.

Me hinks, King Kichard and myself should meet
With no lefs terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring fhock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heav'n.

It is difficult, his Lordship remarks, to lay down rules in what circumstances comparisons may be introduced, and in what circumstances they are out of place. A man in his cool and fedate moments, is not difpofed to poetical flights; nor to facrifice truth and reality to the delufive operations of the imagination: far lefs is he fo difpofed, when oppreffed with cares, or interested in fome important tranfaction that occupies him totally. In general, when any animating paffion, whether pleafant or painful, an impulfe is given to the imagination, we are in that condition wonderfully difpofed to every fort of figurative expreffion, and in particular to com- . parifon. Love, for example, in its infancy, roufing the imagination, prompts the heart to difplay itself in figurative language, and in fimiles.

Come, gentle Night: come, loving black brow'd Night!
Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,

Take him, and cut him out in little ftars,

And he will make the face of heav'n so fine,
That all the world fhall be in love with Night,
And pay no worship to the garith Sun.

His Lordship, in the next place, proceeds to give examples where comparifons are improperly introduced: and very juftly obferves, that the fertility of Shakespear's vein betrays him frequently into this error. Rooted grief, deep anguish, terror, remorfe, defpair, and all the fevere difpiriting paffions, are declared enemies, perhaps not to figurative language in general, but undoubtedly to the pomp and folemnity of comparifon. Upon this account, the fimile' pronounced by young Rutland under terror of death from an inveterate enemy, and praying mercy, is unnatural.

So looks the pent up lion o'er the wretch
That trembles under his devouring paws;
And fo he walks infulting o'er his prey,
And fo he comes to rend his limbs afander.
Ah, gentle Clifford, kill me with thy fword,
And not with such a cruel threat'ning look.

We may add, that this fimile is not only faulty by being im

properly

properly introduced, but is, in itself, far from being appofite or well fupported.

Nothing can be more erroneous than to inftitute a comparifon too faint:

York. My uncles both are flain in refcuing me:
And all my followers, to the eager foe

Turn back, and fly like fhips before the wind,

Or lambs purfu'd by hunger ftarved wolves.

The latter of the two fimiles is good. The former, because of the faintness of the resemblance, produces no good effect, and crowds the narration with an ufelefs image.

In an epic poem, or any elevated fubject, a Writer ought to avoid raising a fimile upon a low image, which never fails to bring down the principal fubject. An error oppofite to the former is, the introducing a resembling image, fo elevated or great, as to bear no proportion to the principal fubject. The ftrongeft objection that can be against a comparison, is, that it confifts in words only, and not in sense.

The noble fifter of Poplicola,

The moon of Rome; chafte as the ificle
That's curled by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian's temple.

There is evidently, his Lordship remarks, no resemblance betwixt an ificle and a woman, chaste or unchaste. But chastity is cold in a metaphorical fenfe, and an ificle is cold. in a proper fense; and this verbal resemblance, in the hurry and glow of compofing, has been thought a fufficient foundation for the fimile. Where the fubject is burlesque or ludicrous, fuch fimiles are far from being improper.

We confefs, however, that we cannot be difpleafed with the foregoing fimile: and, indeed, if we attend to the phyfical caufes of chastity, the resemblance, with great deference to his Lordship, will appear to be more than verbal.

In the fucceeding chapter his Lordship makes fome very judicious remarks on the ufe and effect of figures, beginning with Perfonification, which, by a bold delufion, gives life to things inanimate, where that violent effect is necessary to gratify paffion.

Antony. O pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth,

That I am meek and gentle with thefe butchers.

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of times.

i..

The

The example here cited by Lord Kaims, is by no means a ftrong illuftration. For it was no " bold delufion" of mind in Antony, to bestow fenfibility on the dead body of Cæfar bleeding before him with recent wounds. The next example, indeed, is fully applicable to his Lordfhip's purpose, where Almeria beftows fenfibility on the very ground on which she kneels.

Ame. O Earth, behold I kneel upon thy bofom,
And bend my flowing eyes to stream upon

Thy face, imploring thee that thou wilt yield;
Open thy bowels of compaffion, take

Into thy womb the last and most forlorn

Of all thy race.

Plaintive paffions are extremely folicitous for vent. A Soliloquy commonly anfwers the purpose. But when a paffion fwells high, it is not fatisfied with fo flight a gratification. Among the many principles that connect individuals in society, one is remarkable: it is that principle which makes us earneftly with, that others fhould enter into our concerns, and think and feel as we do. This focial paffion, when inflamed by a plaintive paffion, will, for want of a more compleat gratification, prompt the mind to give life even to things inanimate.

Earl Rivers, carried to execution, fays,

O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prifon,
Fatal and ominous to noble Peers!
Within the guilty clofure of thy walls

Richard the fecond, here, was hack'd to death:
And, for more flander to thy difmal feat,
We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.

Terror produceth the fame effect.

As when old Ocean roars,

And heaves huge furges to the trembling fhores.

Joy, likewife, is naturally communicated to all objects around, animate or inanimate.

Our Author obferves, that Perfonification is not always fo compleat as in the foregoing inftances. In the following example, it does not come up to a conviction, even momentary, of life and intelligence.

But look, the moon, in ruffet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high castward hill.

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