h

TINUS ftiling Xerxes that cowardly Perfian King, Jupiter; and Vultures, living Sepulchres? Such Swellers too were CALLISTHENES, CLIT ARCHUS, AMPHICRATES, HEGESIAS, and MATRIS, who, while they conceited themselves even inspired, were fo far from being Sublime, that they abounded in childish Witticisms. This faulty

ANNOTATIONS.

him a Statue of folid Gold in cially his Γύπες ἔμψυχοι τάφοι, the Temple of Apollo at Delphos. Vultures are living Sepulchres. There are fome too who defend Mr. Pearce feems to think him here against Longinus, efpe- Ovid's

Flet modo, feq; vocat and Cicero's calling Pifo, Bufum Legum omnium & Religionum; and Gregory Nazianzen's naming ravenous Beafts raço Teixores, running Graves; and Eunapius ftiling Longinus v. x BiColxn, a living Library, to be full as bold.

ALLISTHE

OBS. VIII. CALLISTHE

NES was Ariftotle's Succeffor in inftructing Alexander the Great, and wrote an Hiftory of Greece. CLITARCHUS wrote Alexander the Great's Actions, having accompanied him in all his Wars: whom Demetrius Phalereus, as well as Longinus, taxes with Swelling, when he thus fpeaks of a Wafp, Karavéμται μὲν τὴν ὀρεινὴν, εἰσιπ]αται de eis ras noíñas deus, He pervades the Mountains, and flies for Shelter into bollow Trees; à Description more applicable to a wild Bull, or Erymanthian Boar, than a Fly. AMP HICRATES was an Athenian

Buftum miferabile Nati ;
Orator, who, when banish'd
to Seleucia, being afk'd to open
School, fwellingly anfwer'd,
that fuch a Dish was not capable
to hold a Dolphin: Plut. in Vit..
Lucul. HEGESIAS was a
Magnesian Hiftorian, who faid,
No wonder that the Temple of
Diana at Ephefus was burnt at
a time, when that Goddess as a
Midwife was oblig'd to attend
the Birth of Alexander the
Great: An Epiphonema, reflects
Plutarch, naraobicas Thy @up.
καὶὰν ἐκείνην ὑπὸ ψυχρίας δυνά-
μevov, frigid enough to have ex-
tinguifb'd the very Fire: A Re-
flection, Friend Plutarch, adds
Mr. Pearce, as glaringly Frigid
as Hegefias's. MATRIS, fays
Athenæus, wrote an Encomium
upon Hercules, a Profe Panegy -
ric not a Poem:- THEO.
DORUS was a Rhetorician at
Rhodes, to whom Tiberius Ca-
far retired to be taught Elo-
quence, and who among
others wrote a Book of the
Force of Oratory.

Tumour

Tumour in Stile is like an huge unpleasant Rock in a Champion Country, that's difficult to be tranfcended; and fuch abound most in it, who, to avoid being dry and flat, imitate him who faid

Μεγάλως ἀπολισθαίνειν, ἁμάρτημ ̓ εὐγενές—
The Man, who errs fublimely, nobly errs.

But as none are dryer than the Dropfical, fo this, as well as every empty Swelling in Nature, is faulty; inasmuch as it points out the direct Contrary to what it means. In fhort, Nothing can be truly Sublime, which is not great in itself, and fupported by that which is great too: Contrary to which is

II. THE FRIGID PUERILE STILE

which depreffes grand Things with low Comparisons, and harsh fenfless far-fetch'd Figures. And what's as contrary to the Sublime as either of the other, is

III. The FLASHING BOMBASTIC STILE.

THEODORUS calls it Παρένθυρσον, a mad Bluftering, when an Author without Reason or Occafion grows warm, and by affecting to raise the Paffions, madly treats Trifles and Things of no Moment, like a School-Boy, as loftily as tho' they were Tragedy. But we shall treat of managing the Paffions elsewhere.

In SECTION IV. he treats of the Frigid Puerile Stile, and taxes TIMEUS, a Cenfurer of others Faults, tho' blind to his own, as being full of it, tho' otherwise a learned polite fublime Writer. He gives an Inftance in his Encomium of Alexander the Great, Who (fays he) conquer'd all Afia in fewer Years than Ifocrates was compofing his Panegyric for making War on the Perfians. An excellent Comparison truly of fo great a King with a Sophister! But if that's good Argument, Timaus! the Lacedemonians themselves are not comparable to Ifocrates in Valour and Virtue, They were full thirty Years befieging Meffene, when t'other.

took only ten to write their Panegyric. Hear likewife how he infults the Athenians after their Defeat in Sicily --- Mercury or Hermes, fays he, to revenge the Abuses of his Statues at Athens, punished their Impiety with the total Destruction of their Army; and what made it appear to be Mercury was, that it was brought about purely by the Means of one Hermocrates, Son of Hermon, who in a long Series could trace his Family even to Hermes or Mercury. 'Tis a Wonder too, fays LONGINUS, he had not foifted in one Dion and Heraclides to have unking'd Dionyfius the Sicilian Tyrant, for his Impiety towards Dios and Heracles, that is, Jupiter and Hercules. But why do I tax Timaus, when fublime XENOPHON and divine PLATO, both Scholars of SOCRATES, fometimes trifle too, and forget themselves? The firft, as well as Timæus, (because xógn fignifies the Pupil of the Eye as well as Virgin) calling the Pupils of the Eyes Virgins, when no Part of the human Body is the Seat of more Impudence.

Οινοβαρὲς Κυνὸς ὄμματ' ἔχων. I. α. ver. 225.

--

For hence it is that Homer's Hero cries "Vile Sot, How impudent ftare your Dog's Eyes!

PLATO too calls his Tabula Legum Monuments of Cyprefs, which is but a low Term to exprefs Eternity by. And how harsh and far-fetch'd founds this of his --- As to the Walls, let 'em lie on the Ground and fleep quietly, we'll not awake them? -- Nor much better is this of HERO

9

HERODOTUS --- Beautiful Women are the Torments of our Eyes: Unless, to excuse it, it be alledg'd that thofe he makes speak it are Barbarians, and in their Cups.

In SECTION V. he afferts thefe Faults to proceed from too immoderate a Defire to invent new Ways of Expreffion. And that as the Sublimity of Stile arifes from a right Use of the Ornaments of Elocution, fo thefe from an unfkilful and too bold an Abuse of Hyperboles and other Rhetorical Decorations.

In SECTION VI. he says, That to avoid thefe Faults, we must first get a true Notion of SUBLIMITY, which is no fuch easy Matter. Ἡ γὰρ τῶν λόγων Κρίσις πολλῆς ἐςι πείρας τελευJasov Eπiyevunja, For CRITICISM, or an Ability to judge of Writings, is the last Child of long Experience. It may be therefore neceffary, hints he, to look for a fhorter Way, viz. by Precepts. And this he proposes to do in the feventh Section; with which I fhall begin my next, and am, SIR,

Your's &c.

LETTER III.

SIR,

O

Holt, Feb. 14.

UR Author, in SECTION VII. laying down theCharacteristic of SUBLIMITY, fays, That as Nothing in Life is truly great, the Contempt of which is esteem'd a great Thing, fuch as of Wealth, Dignity, Honour, Power,

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