the object at which they aim is interefting and important, and when the degree in which they are felt, is proper and laudable. Toilluftrate this theory, he examines, more particularly, Fear and Revenge; and fhews that even thefe degrading emotions may be ennobled by the dignity of their principle, the importance of their end, and the propriety of their expreffion. The remainder of this effay, and in our opinion the most valuable part of it, confifts in the defence of Longinus against the criticifms of Dr. Blair, in his Lectures on Rhetoric.. As Dr. Blair's treatife, though very generally and very juftly esteemed, is yet undoubtedly liable to the frictures which Dr. Stack here makes, we shall infert the paffage, premifing, for the fake of perfpicuity, that Longinus refers the fublime to five fources: bold thoughts, vehement paffion, ftriking figures, fplendid diction, and elevated compofition. Dr. Blair afferts that Longinus has made a falfe divifion of his fubject; for that of the five fources of the fublime which he has laid open, the three laft have perhaps lefs relation to the fublime than to any other fpecies of good writing, because it requires lefs the affiftance of ornament; and he calls this plan rather a treatise of rhetoric than of the fublime. This feems to me too fummary a way of deciding upon the merit of a work which has received the fanction of learning and tafte in all ages. Such a criticism ought to have been fupported by fome argument, and not advanced in its prefent undigested form. To me it appears materially defective, both becaufe Dr. Blair has mifconceived, or at leaft improperly expreffed, the great author's meaning; and also because, even admitting the three laft fources to have no peculiar relation to the fublime, yet if they be capital conflituents of this as well as other fpecies of writing (which I hope prelently to fhew) they have certainly an effential part in a complete treatise on the subject. και I fay then that Dr. Blair has mifconceived, or at least improperly expreffed, the great critic's meaning. The fifth fource of the fublime mentioned by Longinus is in thefe words, & aupari xas dan cubok, or compofition with fuitable dignity and elevation. Longinus, indeed, treating of this part of his fubject, fometimes appears to explain it by the terms bus and agua; by which we are to understand fuch a collocation of the feveral parts, both words and fentences, as may ferve to give the fublime matter its fulleft effect. And this idea, even if nothing further were intended, is furely very different from Dr. Blair's tranflation of the paffage, mufical ftructure and arrangement;" which in my opinion fuggests to every reader nothing more than the measured cadence of elaborate periods and well-tuned fentences. The tranflation indeed is not peculiarly related to the fublime, perhaps lefs than to any other species of good writing; for the fublime difdains fuch tinfel ornament. But the great critic himself meant not fuch an arrangement as pleases the ear, but fupports the thought. And hence we find him beftowing the highest commendation on this fource, as comprising and giving completion to every other excellence. He prefuppofes a proper felection of words proportioned to the thoughts, and then requires that the found may in fome fort be an echo to the fenfe. And has not not this been a law rather of nature than of artificial criticism to the fublimeft writers in the world? Can there be a doubt that the same conception fhall have different effects, according as the language in which it is clothed is mean or grand, and as the arrangement is weak, vague, and fpiritlefs, or clofe, ftrong, and animated? An idea naturally fublime might not perhaps lofe its whole fublimity under the most wretched difguife, yet it cannot be denied that fuch a disguise would confiderably impair its grandeur; and therefore the precepts given under the heads of diction and arrangement are of material import. Nor do they feem lefs neceflary to fublime compofition than to any other fpecies of good writing; it is the perfection of human genius; and every circumftance which can heighten or obfcure its glory becomes of interesting moment. Where majefty appears, we expect to find a fuitable pomp and dignity furround the throne. A single example may ferve to illuftrate what has been advanced; let it be taken from that fublime paffage in the 6th book of Milton, where the Son of God is defcribed coming forth in his chariot against the rebel angels: Under his burning wheels The ftedfaft Empyrean fhook throughout, All but the throne itself of God. • See now how the great fublime of this paffage will fink, though we should preferve the thought, and make little other change befide in the arrangement: Except the throne of God, All the firm Heav'n beneath his heated wheels Did shake throughout. If further proof were neceffary, I would only defire any man to attempt fome other form of expreffion for that divine paffage of Homer respecting Pluto's terror, d'ex Agove anтo xai lax!• He will then perhaps be fenfible that there is a fecret virtue and powerful charm in language and arrangement. The ufe of figures is perhaps of more importance than either of the precepts which we have been just confidering, for they affect rather the matter than the form of compofition. Nothing feems more finely calculated to produce fublime effects than the invention and application of bold and striking figures. Dr. Blair tells us that "it is not by hunting after tropes and figures we can expect to produce the fublime." The laboured and affected ufe of fuch ornaments I admit to be improper; but then we should confider that figurative language is the natural language of the paffions, and of courfe might be neceffarily required and happily employed in cafes where the pathetic rifes into the fublime. And for this caufe the mind fhould be ftored with a copious variety of images and figures; for when the imagination or the paffions are once heated, they will naturally ftrike out fuch as are moit appropriate to the fubject. Longinus, I think, demonftrates that figures and fublimity impart a reciprocal aid; or in other words, the fublime matter is heightened by the invention of bold figures, and figures in their turn acquire force and grandeur from their connection with the fublime. I am the more furprised at Dr. Blair's rejecting this fource, as Longinus exemplified its noble effects in more inftances than one. 12 For this this purpose he has introduced the celebrated apoftrophe of Demofthenes in his oration for the crown. The obvious ufe, fays the critic, to be made of the battle of Marathon, to his countrymen, was this: You have not erred, for those who fought at Marathon were an example to you. Instead of this cold and lifeless reafoning, he fwears by the manes of those who died at Marathon;" thus deifying the heroes of his country, roufing in them a fenfe of national glory, and carrying his hearers along with him from the prefent gloomy fcene, in a strain of bold and pathetic eloquence. Longinus himself too illuftrates the fame point by his own great example. Speaking of Homer's genius in the Odyffey, he compares him to the fetting fun, whofe grandeur remains without his fire. And again he fays, that like the ocean retiring within itfelf, fo do the ebbings of fublime genius appear even in his fabulous and incredible wanderings. I am fo far from fubfcribing to Dr. Blair's affertion, that figures have no relation to the fublime, that I think fome of them peculiarly adapted to this mode of compofition. Of thefe I fhall mention two, the climax and profopopæia. It seems to me that if the feveral circumstances of a climax be well chofen and judiciously difpofed, it has a direct tendency this way. The thought itfelf fhould certainly be grand, and the parts of proportionable ftrength and greatnefs; yet if their order be not natural, but expofe the mind to alternate fits of contraction and expanfion, the whole effect will be greatly impaired: whereas by a regular fwell and majeftic afcent, new matter of wonder and delight is continually fupplied, and the mind becomes at laft fo filled with the thought, as not to have room for the admiffion of more. The following awful paffage of Shakefpeare is perfectly of this kind: The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, The whole of this grand thought may be thus fhortly and profaically expreffed :-" The earth, with every work of art and nature which it contains, fhall in time be annihilated." Yet who can be dull enough to maintain this fundamental thought to be of equal fublimity with the figure? Dr. Blair will perhaps call this a proper felection of circumftances; but this is not its entire excellence, and if it were, his criticifm would be merely a play upon words, for it is univerfally accounted among the figures of speech. To prove the fublime effect of the profopopæia, I shall select two inftances. The firft may be found in Bishop Sherlock's Sermons:-"How defpitefully do we treat the Gospel of Christ, to which we owe that clear light which we now enjoy, when we endeavour to fet up reafon and nature in oppofition to it! Ought the withered band, which Chrift has reftored and made whole, to be lifted up against him? Or ought the dumb man's tongue, just loosened from the bonds of filence, to blafpheme the power that fet it free?” The ground of this moft eloquent paffage is the ingratitude of modern infidelity, in employing thofe advantages of light and knowledge which reafon has derived from revelation against the interefts of of the Gofpel. But is there any man of feeling upon earth, who thinks the abftract fentiment approaches in any degree to the fublimity of the figurative form? Perhaps it may not be thought refining too much here to obferve, that of the two fine figures juft men tioned, the withered hand has the fuperior excellence. Two reafons, I think, can be affigned for this; first, because it is further removed from the literal fentiment; and fecondly, it implies more action, which the mind ever delights in contemplating. If this criticifm be in any degree juft, it will furnish an additional proof in favour of bold and ftriking figures. The fecond example of the profopopxia fhall be taken from the Prophet Ifaiah, fpeaking of the fall of Babylon: "Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. All they fhall fpeak and fay unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the graveThe worm is fpread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, fon of the morn!" Nothing can exceed this in fublimity; yet what is the thought ftripped of the figure? It is only the destruction of Babylon, and the joy of all nations at feeing that proud and infolent tyrant brought low as them feives.' Mr. Burrowes's effays on the ftyle of Dr. Johnfon, do not contain any objection to the works of that author, which has not been often made; but we think that Mr. B. has urged his obje ions with peculiar force, and in a ftyle remarkably fimilar to that which Dr. Johnfon would, on fuch an occafion, have himself employed. In fpeaking of the Doctor's obfcurity, Mr. B. obferves: I do not fpeak of a few words fcattered rarely through his works, but of the general character of his ftyle appearing in every page; not of fingle acts, but of confirmed and prevailing habits; of new raised colonies, difdaining affociation with the natives, and threatening the final deftruction of our language. The reader, at his first perufal of the Rambler, finds himself bewildered in a labyrinth of long and learned words, distracted with foreign founds, and exiled from his native fpeech, in perpetual want of an interpreter: difgufted at the intrufion of fo many phrafes to which he has been hitherto a stranger, he labours out a paffage through the palpable obfcure, and, when he has at laft gained the golden prize, laments that fo much time fhould have been wafted, in overcoming the unnecessary obstacles to its approach.' Dr. Johnfon's obfcurity has often been confidered as altogether inexcufable in a writer of familiar effavs; and as extravagant and ridiculous, when perfons of different defcriptions are to be introduced as writing or fpeaking in their own characters; and when ordinary or mean fubjects are neceffarily to be treated. Of fuch improprieties, Mr. B. gives numerous examples from the Rambler; and then proceeds to explain the means which thus mifled a judgment eminently critical: Poffeffed of the moft penetrating acutenefs and refolute precision of thought, he delights to employ himself in difcriminating what 2 common common inaccuracy had confounded, and of feparating what the groffness of vulgar conception had united. A judgment, thus employed (as he would perhaps himfelf defcribe it) in fubtilizing diftinctions, and diffociating concrete qualities to the ftate of individual exiftence, naturally called for language the moft determinate, for words of the most abstract fignifications. Of these common speech could furnish him with but a fcanty fupply. Familiar words are ufually either the names of things actually fubfifting, or of qualities denoted adjectively, by reference to thofe fubftantives to which they belong: befides, common ufe gives to familiar words fuch a latitude of meaning, that there are few which it does not admit in a variety of acceptations. Johnfon, unwilling to fubmit to this inconvenience, which, in every country, to avoid a multiplicity of terms, had been acquiefced in, fought out thofe remote and abftrufe Latin derivatives, which, as they had for the most part hitherto been used but once, were as yet appropriated to one fignification exclufively. What the natural bent of his genius thus gave birth to, his fucceffive employments ftrengthened to maturity. The fchoolmafter may plead prefcription for pedantry; the writer of a dictionary, if attached to words of any defcription, has peculiar advantages towards ftoring them in his memory; and if they be terms which occur but rarely, the difficulty of fearching out their authorities imprints them more ftrongly. The writings of Sir Thomas Browne were to Johnson the copious vocabularies of the Anglo-Latin ftyle; and the numberless quotations from them in his Dictionary, as well as the Life of Browne, which he wrote, are proofs of the attention with which he perufed them, and of the estimation in which he held their author. "Finding," as he fays, "that our language had been for near a century deviating towards a Gallic ftructure and phrafeology," he entered into a confederacy with the Latins to prevent it, without confidering that many nations had fallen beneath their own auxiliaries. As fome moralifts would recommend the overcoming of one paffion by railing up another to oppofe it, he feems to have thought the tendency of our language towards the French would be best corrected by an equal impulfe towards the Latin. That he was well veried in all the Latin learning, and minutely critical in the power of its words, is clearly manifefted in his writings. His earliest work was a tranflation of Mr. Pope's Meffiah into Latin, and the first eftablishment of his fame was his imitation of a Latin fatirist. We find too, from Mr. Bofwell, that he continued his ftudies in that language to a very late period, and thought it not too learned even for a female ear. Not confined folely to the claffics, he quotes the obfcure remains of monkish learning, and has delivered precife decifions on the performances of our English poets in that language. His Life of Milton more particularly, whom he might have confidered as a rival in learning, abounds in proof that Johnfon piqued himself not a little on his knowledge of Latin. He oppofes in form the fyftem of school-education recommended and adopted by Milton: he is happy in communicating a new authority for a particular acceptation of the word "perfona;" fuggefts incidentally whether "vir gloriofiilimus" be not an impure expreffion; and takes elpecial care to inform us that vapulandus" is a folecifm. Thus his accurate |