Despair of day, or any light but ours.

This is the language of a madman :

Catiline, act 4%

Guilford. Give way, and let the gufhing torrent

come,

Behold the tears we bring to fwell the deluge,
Till the flood rife upon the guilty world
And make the ruin common.

Lady Jane Gray, act 4. near the end..

Another fpecies of falfe fublime, is still more faulty than bombaft; and that is, to force an elevation by introducing imaginary beings without preferving any propriety in their actions; as if it were lawful to afcribe every extravagance and inconfiftence to beings of the poet's creation. No writers are more licentious in this article than Johnfon and Dryden.

Methinks I fee Death and the furies waiting
What we will do, and all the heaven at leifure:
For the great spectacle. Draw then your fwords:
And if our destiny envy our virtue

The honour of the day, yet let us care
To fell ourselves at fuch a price, as may
Undo the world to buy us, and make Fate,
While fhe tempts ours, to fear her own estate.

Catiline, act 5.

The furies ftood on hills

Circling the place, and trembled to fee men
Do more than they: whilft Piety left the field,
Griev'd for that fide, that in fo bad a caufe
They knew not what a crime their valour was.
The Sun ftood ftill, and was, behind the cloud
The battle made, feen fweating to drive up

His

His frighted horfe, whom ftill the noise drove backward.. Catiline act 5.

Ofmyn. While we indulge our common happinefs,

He is forgot by whom we all poffefs,

The brave Almanzor, to whose arms we owe
All that we did, and all that we shall do ;
Who like a tempeft that outrides the wind,
Made a juft battle ere the bodies join'd..

Abdalla. His victories we scarce could keep in view,

Or polish 'em fo faft as he rough drew.
Abdemelech Fate after him below with pain did

move,

And Victory could fcarce keep pace above.
Death did at length fo many flain forget,
And loft the tale and took 'em by the great.

Conquest of Granada, act 2. at beginning. The gods of Rome fight for ye; loud Fame calls

ye,

Pitch'd on the topless Apenine, and blows
To all the under world, all nations,

The feas and unfrequented deferts,, where the fnow dwells,

Wakens the ruin'd monuments, and there
Where nothing but eternal death and fleep is,
Informs again the dead bones..

Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, a& 3, fc. 3r I close with the following obfervation, That an actor upon the ftage may be guilty of bombaft as well as an author in his clofet. A certain manner of acting, which is grand when fupported by dignity in the fentiment and force in the expreffion, is ridiculous where the fentiment is mean, and the. expreffion flat.

CHAP

TH

CHA P. V. Motion and Force..

HAT motion is agreeable to the eye without relation to purpose or defign, may appear from the amusement it gives to infants. Juvenile exercises are relished chiefly upon that account.

If to fee a body in motion be agreeable, one will be apt to conclude, that to fee it at reft is difagreeable. But we learn from experience, that this would be a rafh conclufion. Reft is one of those circumftances that are neither agreeable nor difagreeable. It is viewed with perfect indifferency. And happy it is for mankind that the matter is fo ordered. If reft were agreeable, it would difincline us to motion, by which all things are performed. If it were disagreeable, it would be a fource of perpetual uneafinefs; for the bulk of the things we fee appear to be at reft. A fimilar inftance of defigning wisdom I have had occafion to explain, in oppofing grandeur to littleness, and elevation to lownefs of place. Even in the fimpleft matters, the finger of God is confpicuous. The happy adjustment of the internal nature of man to his external circumstances, difplayed in the inftances here given, is indeed admirable.

Motion is certainly agreeble in all its varieties of quicknefs and flowness. But motion long continued admits fome exceptions. That degree of continued motion which correfponds to the natural courfe of our perceptions, is the most agreeable t. The quickest motion is for an inftant delightful. But it foon appears to be too rapid. It becomes painful, by forcibly accelerating the courfe of our perceptions. Slow continued motion becomes difagreeable

agreeable for an oppofite reafon, that it retards the natural course of our perceptions.

There are other varieties in motion, befide quickness and flowness, that make it more or lefs agreeable. Regular motion is preferred before what is irregular, witnefs the motion of the planets in orbits nearly circular. The motion of the comets in orbits lefs regular, is lefs agreeable.

Motion uniformly accelerated, refembling am afcending series of numbers, is more agreeable than when uniformly retarded. Motion upward is agreeable by the elevation of the moving body. What then shall we fay of downward motion regularly accelerated by the force of gravity, compared with upward motion regularly retarded by the fame force? Which of thefe is the most agreeable? This question is not easily folved.

Motion in a ftraight line is no doubt agreeable. But we prefer undulating motion, as of waves, of a flame, of a fhip under fail. Such motion is more free, and alfo more natural. Hence the beauty of a ferpentine river.

The eafy and fliding motion of fluids, from the lubricity and incoherence of their parts, is agreeable upon that account. But the agreeableness chiefly depends upon the following circumstance, that the motion is perceived, not as of one body, but as of an endless number moving together with order and regularity. Poets ftruck with this beauty, draw more images from fluids than from folids.

Force is of two kinds; one quiefcent, and one exerted by motion. The former, dead weight for example, must be laid afide; for a body at reft is not by that circumftance either agreeable or difagreeable. Moving force only belongs to the prefent fubject; and though it is not feparable from motion, yet by the power of abftraction, either

of

of them may be confidered independent of the other. Both of them are agreeable, becaufe both of them include activity. It is agreeable to fee a thing move to fee it moved, as when it is dragged or pushed along, is neither agreeable nor difagreeable, more than when at rett. It is agreeable to fee a thing exert force; but it makes not the thing either agreeable or difagreeable, to fee force exerted upon it.

Though motion and force are each of them agreeable, the impreffions they make are different. This difference, clearly felt, is not eafily defcribed. All we can fay is, that the emotion raifed by a moving body, resembles its caufe: it feels as if the mind were carried along. The emotion raised by force exerted, refembles alfo its caufe: it feels as if force were exerted within the mind.

To illuftrate this difference, I give the following examples. It has been explained why smoke afcending in a calm day, fuppofe from a cottage in a wood, is an agreeable object *. _Landfcapepainters are fond of this object, and introduce it upon all occafions. As the afcent is natural and without effort, it is delightful in a calm ftate of mind. It makes an impreffion of the fame fort with that of a gently flowing river, but more agreeable, because afcent is more to our taste than defcent. A fire-work or a jet d'eau roufes the mind more; because the beauty of force vifibly exerted, is fuperadded to that of upward motion. To a man reclining indolently upon a bank of flowers, afcending smoke in a still morning is delightful. But a fire-work or a jet d'eau routes him from this fupine pofture, and puts him in motion.

A jet d'eau makes an impreffion distinguishable from that of a water-fall. Downward motion being natural and without effort, tends rather to

* Chap. I.

quiet