reafon is not always a fufficient counterbalance to indolence: fome principle over and above is neceffary, to excite our industry, and to prevent our stopping fhort in the middle of the courfe.

We need not lofe time, to defcribe the cooperation of the foregoing propenfity with furprife, in producing the effect that follows any unufual resemblance or diffimilitude. Surprise first operates, and carries our opinion of the resemblance or diffimilitude beyond the truth. The propenfity we have been defcribing carries us ftill farther; for the wishing every thing to be completed, forces upon the mind a conviction, that the refemblance or diffimilitude is complete. We need no better illuftration, than the refemblance that is fancied in fome pebbles to a tree or an infect; which refemblance, however faint in reality, is conceived to be wonderfully perfect. This tendency to complete a resemblance acting jointly with furprife, carries the mind fometimes fo far, as even to prefume upon future eIn the Greek tragedy intitled Phineides, those unhappy women, feeing the place where it was intended they should be flain, cried out with anguish, "They now faw their cruel destiny had "condemned them to die in that place, being "the fame where they had been exposed in their infancy *."

vents.

This remarkable propenfity which inclines us

Ariftotle, poet. cap. 17.

to

to advance every thing to its perfection, not only co-operates with furprise to deceive the mind, but of itself is able to produce that effect. Of this we fee many inftances where there is no place for furprise; and the first I fhall give is of refemblance. Unumquodque eodem modo diffol vitur quo colligatum eft, is a maxim in the Roman law that has no foundation in truth; for tying and loofing, building and demolishing, are acts oppofite to each other, and are performed by oppofite means: but when thefe acts are connected by their relation to the same subject, their connection leads us to imagine a fort of refemblance between them, which the foregoing propensity makes us conceive to be as complete as poffible. The next inftance fhall be of contraft. Addison obferves *, "That the palest "features look the most agreeable in white; "that a face which is overflushed appears to ad"vantage in the deepest fcarlet; and that a dark "complexion is not a little alleviated by a black "hood." The foregoing propenfity ferves to account for these appearances; to make which evident, one of the cafes fhall fuffice. A complexion, however dark, never approaches to black: when these colours appear together, their oppofition strikes us; and the propensity we have to complete the opposition, makes the darkness of complexion vanish out of fight.

Spectator, N° 265.

The

The operation of this propensity, even where there is no ground for furprife, is not confined to opinion or conviction: fo powerful it is, as to make us fometimes proceed to action in order to complete a refemblance or diffimilitude. If this appear obfcure, it will be made clear by the following inftances. Upon what principle is the lex talionis founded, other than to make the punishment refemble the mifchief? Reafon dictates, that there ought to be a conformity or refemblance between a crime and its punishment; and the foregoing propenfity impels us to make the resemblance as complete as poffible. Titus Livius, influenced by this propenfity, accounts for a certain punishment by a refemblance between it and the crime, far too fubtile for common apprehenfion. Speaking of Mettus Fuffetius, the Alban general, who, for treachery to the Romans, his allies, was fentenced to be torn to pieces by horfes, he puts the following fpeech in the mouth of Tullus Hoftilius, who decreed the punishment. "Mette Fuffeti, inquit, fi ip"fe difcere poffes fidem ac fœdera fervare, vivo "tibi ea difciplina a me adhibita effet. Nunc,

quoniam tuum infanabile ingenium eft, at tu "tuo fupplicio doce humanum genus, ea fanéta "credere, que a te violata funt. Ut igitur pau"lo ante animum inter Fidenatem Romanam"que rem ancipitem geffifti, ita jam corpus paffim diftrahendum dabis *" By the fame in* Lib. I. § 28.

fluence,

fluence, the fentence is often executed upon the very spot where the crime was committed. In the Electra of Sophocles, Egiftheus is dragged from the theatre into an inner room of the fuppofed palace, to fuffer death where he murdered Agamemnon. Shakespear, whofe knowledge of nature is not lefs profound than extensive, has not overlooked this propensity:

Othello. Get me fome poifon, Iago, this night; I'll not expoftulate with her, left her body and her beauty unprovide my mind again; this night, Iago.

Iago. Do it not with poison; ftrangle her in her bed, even in the bed she hath contaminated.

Othello. Good, good: The juftice of it pleases; very good.

Othello, act 4. fc. 5.

Warwick. From off the gates of York fetch down the

head,

Your father's head, which Clifford placed there,

Inftead whereof let his supply the room.

Measure for measure must be answered.

Third Part of Henry VI. act 2. fc. 9.

Perfons in their last moments are generally feized with an anxiety, to be buried with their relations. In the Amynta of Taffo, the lover, hearing that his mistress was torn to pieces by a wolf, expreffes a defire to die the fame death *.

Upon the fubject in general, I have two re

* Act 4. fc. 2.

marks

marks to add. The firft concerns resemblance, which when too entire hath no effect, however different in kind the things compared may be. This remark is applicable to works of art only; for natural objects of different kinds, have scarce ever an entire refemblance. And to give an example in a work of art, marble is a fort of matter, very different from what composes an animal; and marble cut into a human figure, produces great pleasure by the refemblance: but if a marble ftatue be coloured like a picture, the refemblance is fo entire as at a distance to make the statue appear a real perfon: we difcover the mistake when we approach; and no other emotion is raised, but furprise occafioned by the deception: the figure still appears a real person, rather than an imitation; and we must use reflection to correct the mistake. This cannot happen in a picture; for the refemblance can never be fo entire as to difguife the imitation.

The other remark belongs to contraft. Emotions make the greatest figure when contrafted in fucceffion; but then the fucceffion ought neither to be precipitate, nor immoderately flow: if too flow, the effect of contraft becomes faint by the distance of the emotions; and if precipitate, no fingle emotion has room to expand itfelf to its full fize, but is ftifled, as it were, in the birth by a fucceeding emotion. The funeral oration of the Bishop of Meaux upon the Duchefs of Orleans, is a perfect hodge-podge of chearful and melancholy reprefentations