Ventidius. But you, ere love mifled your wand'ring eyes, Were, fure, the chief and beft of human race, So perfect, that the gods who form'd you wonder'd Has mended our defign. Dryden, All for Love, act 1. Not to talk of the impiety of this fentiment, it is ludicrous instead of being lofty. The famous epitaph on Raphael is not lefs abfurd than any of the foregoing paffages: Raphael, timuit, quo fofpite, vinci Rerum magna parens, et moriente mori. Imitated by Pope in his Epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller : Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie Such is the force of imitation; for Pope of himfelf would never have been guilty of a thought fo extravagant. So much upon fentiments: the language proper for expreffing them, comes next in order; and accordingly is handled in the chapter immediately following. CHAP. CHA P. XVII. LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 477 A MONG the particulars that compose the focial part of our nature, a propensity to communicate our opinions, our emotions, and every thing that affects us, is remarkable. Bad fortune and injuftice affect us greatly; and of these we are so prone to complain, that if we have no friend nor acquaintance to take part in our fufferings, we fometimes utter our complaints aloud, even where there are none to liften. But this propenfity operates not in every state of mind. A man immoderately grieved, feeks to afflict himself; and self-affliction is the gratification of the paffion: immoderate grief accordingly is mute; becaufe complaining is struggling for relief: It is the wretch's comfort ftill to have Some finall reserve of near and inward wo, Some unfuspected hoard of inward grief, Which they unfeen may wail, and weep, and mourn, And glutton-like alone devour. Mourning Bride, act 1. fc. 1. When grief fubfides, it then and no fooner finds a tongue: we complain, because complaining is an effort to disburden the mind of its diftrefs *. Surprise and terror are filent paffions for a different reafon they agitate the mind fo violently as for a time to fufpend the exercife of its faculties, and in particular the faculty of fpeech. Love and revenge, when immoderate, are not more loquacious than immoderate grief. But when these paffions become moderate, they fet the tongue free, and, like moderate grief, become loquacious: moderate love, when unfuccefsful, is vented in complaints; when fuccefs * This obfervation is finely illuftrated by a story which Herodo fus records, book 3. Cambyfes, when he conquered Egypt, took Pfammenitus the King prifoner: and to try his conftancy, ordered his daughter to be dressed in the habit of a slave, and to be em ploy'd in bringing water from the river; his fon alfo was led to execution with a halter about his neck. The Egyptians vented their forrow in tears and lamentations; Pfammenitus only, with a downcaft eye, remained filent. Afterward meeting one of his companions, a man advanced in years, who, being plundered of all, was begging alms, he wept bitterly, calling him by his name. Cambyfes, ftruck with wonder, fent for an answer to the following queftion: "Pfammenitus, thy mafter Cambyfes is defirous to know, why, after thou hadft feen thy daughter fo ignominiouf ❝ly treated, and thy fon led to execution, without exclaiming or "weeping, thou fhouldst be so highly concerned for a poor man, 66 no way related to thee?" Pfammenitus returned the following anfwer: "Son of Cyrus, the calamities of my family are too great "to leave me the power of weeping; but the misfortunes of a com"panion, reduced in his old age to want of bread, is a fit fubject "for lamentation.' ful, ful, is full of joy expreffed both by words and geftures. As no paffion hath any long uninterrupted existence *, nor beats always with an equal pulfe, the language fuggefted by paffion is alfo unequal and interrupted: and even during an uninterrupted fit of paffion, we only exprefs in words the more capital fentiments. In familiar converfation, one who vents every fingle thought, is justly branded with the character of loquacity; becaufe fenfible people exprefs no thoughts but what make fome figure: in the fame manner, we are only difpofed to exprefs the strongest pulfes of paffion, especially when it returns with impetuofity after fome interruption. I formerly had occafion to obferve †, that the fentiments ought to be tuned to the paffion, and the language to both. Elevated fentiments require elevated language: tender fentiments ought to be clothed in words that are soft and flowing: when the mind is depreffed with any paffion, the fentiments must be expreffed in words that are humble, not low. Words are intimately con nected with the ideas they reprefent: and if the former correspond not precifely to the latter, our tafte is not gratified; for example, to express an humble fentiment in high-founding words, is difagreeable by a difcordant mixture of See chap. 2. part 3. + Cliap. 16. feeling; feeling; and the discord is not lefs when elevated fentiments are dreffed in low words: Verfibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult. Horace, Ars poet. 1. 89. This however excludes not figurative expreffion, which, within moderate bounds, communicates to the sentiment an agreeable elevation. We are fenfible of an effect directly oppofite, where figurative expreffion is indulged beyond a just meafure the oppofition between the expreffion and the fentiment, makes the difcord appear greater than it is in reality *. At the fame time, figures are not equally the language of every paffion: pleafant emotions, which elevate or fwell the mind, vent themselves in strong epithets and figurative expreffion; but humbling and difpiriting paffions affect to speak plain : Et tragicus plerumque dolet fermone pedestri Și curat cor spectantis tetigiffe querela. Horace, Ars poet. 95. Figurative expreffion, being the work of an en See this explained more particularly in chap. 8. livened |