And pining Difcontent, a rueful train,(00300dp Dwell on my brow, all hideous and forlorn.ja Jane Shore, act 1. fc. 2.

With refpect to these and numberless other inftances of the fame kind, whether they be examples of perfonification or of a fi gure of speech merely, feems to be an ar bitrary question. They will be ranged une) der the former clafs by thofe only who are endued with a fprightly imagination. Nor will the judgement even of the fame perfon be fteady: it will vary with the present state of the fpirits, lively or compofed.

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Having thus at large explained the prefent figure, its different kinds, and the principles from whence derived; what comes next in order is to afcertain its proper province, by fhowing in what cafes it is fuitable, in what unfuitable. I begin with obferving, upon paffionate perfonification, that this figure is not promoted by every paffion indifferently, All difpiriting paffions are averse to it. Remorfe, in particular, is too serious and fevere, to be gratified by

a phantom of the mind. I cannot therefore, approve the following fpeech of Enobarbus, who had deferted his master Antony.

Be witness to me, O thou bleffed moon,'
When men revolted fhall upon record
Bear hateful memory, poor Enobarbus did
Before thy face repent

Oh fovereign mistress of true melancholy,
The poisonous damp of night difpunge upon me,
That life, a very rebel to my will,

May hang no longer on me.

Antony and Cleopatra, att 4. fc.7.

If this can be juftified, it must be upon the Heathen fyftem of theology, which converted into deities the fun, moon, and ftars.

Secondly, After a paffionate perfonification is properly introduced, it ought to be confined strictly to its proper province, that of gratifying the paffion; and no sentiment nor action ought to be exerted by the animated object, but what anfwers that purpofe. Perfonification is at any rate a bold figure, and ought to be employed with great referve. The paffion of love, for exVOL. III. ample,

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ample, in a plaintive tone, may give a momentary life to woods and rocks, that the lover may vent his diftrefs to them: but no paffion will fupport a conviction fo far ftretched, as that these woods and rocks should be living witneffes to report the diftrefs to others:

Ch'i' t'ami piu de la mia vita,

Se tu nol fai, crudele,

Chiedilo à quefte felve,

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Che te'l diranno, et te'l diran con effettiv

Le fere loro e i duri fterpi, e i falli

Di quefti alpeftri monti,

Ch'i' ho fi fpeffe volte

Inteneriti al fuon de' miei lamenti.

Paftor fido, alt 3. sc. 3.

No lover who is not crazed will utter fuch à fentiment it is plainly the operation of the writer, indulging his imagination without regard to nature. The fame obferva tion is applicable to the following paffage.

In winter's tedious nights fit by the fire
With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales
Cf woful ages, long ago betidan omat

And

And ere thou bid goodnight, to quiet their grief,
Tell them the lamentable fall of me,

And fend the hearers weeping to their beds,
For why! the fenseless brands will sympathise
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,
And in compaffion weep the fire out.

Richard II. a 5. Sc. v.

One must read this paffage very seriously to avoid laughing. The following paffage is quite extravagant: the different parts of the human body are too intimately connected with felf, to be perfonified by the power of any paffion; and after converting fuch a part into a fenfible being, it is still worse to make it be conceived as rifing in rebellion against self,

Cleopatra. Hafte, bare my arm, and rouze the ferpent's fury.

Coward flefh

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Would'ft thou confpire with Cæfar, to betray me, As thou wert none of mine? I'll force thee to't. Dryden, All for Love, act 5.

Next comes defcriptive perfonification; upon which I must observe in general, that

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it ought to be cautiously used. A perfon age in a tragedy, agitated by a strong paffion, deals in ftrong fentiments; and the reader, catching fire by sympathy, relishes the boldest personifications. But a writer, even in the most lively defcription, ought to take a lower flight, and content himself with fuch easy personifications as agree with the tone of mind infpired by the description. In plain narrative, again, the mind, ferious and fedate, rejects perfonification altogether. Strada, in his hiftory of the Belgic wars, has the following paffage, which, by a ftrained elevation above the tone of the fubject, deviates into burlesk. "Vix de

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fcenderat a prætoria navi Cæfar; cum fœda illico exorta in portu tempeftas, "claffem impetu disjecit, prætoriam haufit: quafi non vecturam amplius Cæfarem, Cæfarifque fortunam *" Neither do I approve, in Shakespear, the fpeech of King John, gravely exhorting the citizens of Angiers to a furrender; though a tragic writer has much greater latitude than a hi

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Dec. 1. 1. 1.

ftorian,