Englished : "This word expreffes Sloth; Inftant her tongue is frozen in her mouth: "Now dead to speech, finging beneath her efforts, "She stretches, fighs, the fhuts her eyes, and fleeps.' 2. The defcriptions I have hitherto given are short, and only exhibit a fingle object. But there are others. of a greater length, and more circumftantiated, which refemble those pictures where feveral figures are reprefented, all the attitudes of which strike and command our attention. Such is that description of a riotous entertainment, mentioned in an harangue of Cicero which is loft: Videbar mihi videre alios intrantes, alios autem exeuntes, partim ex vino vacillantes, partim heferna potatione ofcitantes. Verfabatur inter hos Gallius unguentis oblitus, redimitus coronis. Humus erat immunda, lutulenta vino, coronis languidulis & fpinis cooperta pifcium. Quintilian, who preferved this beautiful fragment, difplays its beauty and value by a very lively expreffion, which comprises the whole: Quid plus videret, qui intrâffet? He himself gives an excellent defcription of a town taken by storm, and plundered, which is well worth reading. We find a great number of this kind in Cicero, which will not escape the observation of a diligent mafter. Our French poets, as well as orators, abound alfo with a multitude of these. i Jofabeth, in Racine's Athaliah, gives us a wonderful description of the manner in which the faved Joafh from the slaughter: * Helas! l'état horrible où le ciel me l'offrit, i Qu'nt. 1, 8. c. 3. k Racine. Joas, Joas, laiffé pour mort frapa foudain ma vûe. Je le pris tout fanglant. En baignant fon vifage, Englished: "Alas! the ftate in which Heav'n gave him to me, "Returns each moment to my frighted foul; "The room was fill'd around with murder'd princes. "Dread Athaliah, with her sword unfheath'd, "Rous'd her barbarian foldiers to the flaughter, "And ftill purfu'd the series of her murders. "Joafh, now left as dead? ftruck, ftrong my fight: "Methinks I ftill behold his weeping nurse, "Kneeling, in vain, before the bloody hangmen ; "The tender babe upon her breast reclin'd. "I took him, bloody bathing then his face, "Soon did my tears recall his fleeting breath. "Whether 'twas fear, or whether to embrace me, "I felt him prefs me with his tender arms." a M. Flechier's defcription of hofpitals may ferve as model in this kind. It is in the queen's funeral oration: "Let us behold her in these hofpitals, where "the practifed her public acts of pity; in thofe places, where all the infirmities and accidents of ❝ human life are affembled; where the groans and "complaints of those who fuffer, and are in pain, fill the foul with fympathetic fadnefs; where the "fmell that exhales from the bodies of fo many dif"eafed patients, makes thofe who attend upon them "ready to faint away; where we see pain and po"verty exercifing their fatal empire; and where the image of mifery and death ftrikes almost every "fenfe. It is there, that raifing herself above the "fears and delicacies of nature, o fatisfy her charity, 66 though "though at the hazard of her health, fhe was feen "every week drying up the tears of this object; pro"viding for the wants of that; procuring remedies "and comforts for the evils of fome, and confo"lations and ease of conscience for others." These paffages are very well adapted to the taste of youth. We must obferve to them, that the most certain way of fucceeding in defcriptions of this kind is to confult nature, to ftudy her well, and to take her as a guide; fo that every one, inwardly fenfible of the truth of what is spoke, may find within himfelf the fentiments expreffed in the difcourfe. m For that purpose we must represent to ourselves, in a lively manner, all the circumftances of the thing to be defcribed, and bring it before us by the ftrength of our imagination, as if we had been fpectators of it. "And why, fays Quintilian, fhould not the imagination perform as much for the orator on this occafion, as fhe does for people who are addicted to any kind of paffions as for inftance; mifers or ambitious men, who in this kind of pleafing dreams, in which they form a thousand chimerical projects of fortune and riches, abandon themselves fo much to the object of their darling paffion, and are so strongly poffeffed with it, that they really believe they fee and poffefs it. Quintilian himself furnishes us with a model of this way of making a defcription, which I will quote at length, because it fhews youth how they must pro Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur. Omnis eloquentia circa opera vitæ eft: ad fe refert quifque quæ audit: & id facillime accipiunt animi, quod cognofcunt. Quint. 1. 8. c. 3. m Per quas (pavracías) imagines rerum abfentium ita repræfentantur.animo, ut eas cernere oculis ac præfentes habere videamur. Has quifquis bene conceperit, is erit in affectibus potentiffimus. Hunc quidam dicunt supavrae VOL. II. Tov qui fibi res, voces, actus fe. cundum verum optime fingit. Quint. 1. 6. cap. 3. Nam fi inter otia animorum, & fpes inanes, & velut fomnia quædam vigilantium, ita nos hæ de quibus loquimur imagines profe. quuntur, ut peregrinari, navigare, præliari, populos alioqui, divitiarum quas nos habemus ufum vide. amur difponere, nec cogitare, fed facere: hoc animi vitium ad utilitatem non transferemus? Ibid. I ceed ceed in it, in order to compofe well: Ut hominem occifum querar, non omnia, quæ in re præfenti accidiffe credibile eft, in oculis habebo: Non percuffor ille fubitus erumpet? non expavefcet circumventus? exclamabit, vel rogabit, vel fugiet? non ferientem, non concidentem videbo? non animo fanguis, & pallor, & gemitus, extremus denique expirantis hiatus infidet? This paffage feems to be copied from Cicero, who thus defcribes a like action: Nonne vobis hæc, quæ audiftis, cernere oculis videmini, Judices? Non illum miferum, ignarum cafus fui, redeuntem à cœna videtis? non pofitas infidias, non impetum repentinum? Non verfatur ante oculos vobis in cade Glaucia? Non adeft ifte Rojcius? non fuis manibus in curru collocat Automedontem illum, fui fceleris accerbifimi nefariæque victoriæ nuncium? P IMAGE S. The laft words of the defcription I have here cited direct me to point out to youth, in this place, one of the most common fources of oratorial beauties, which confifts in giving, as it were, body and reality to the things we are speaking of; and painting them by vifible ftrokes, which may ftrike the fenfes, move the imagination, and prefent a fenfible object. This method has fome relation to the precedent figure, the hypotypofis; and perhaps is a part of it. Non fuis manibus in curru collocat Automedontem illum? These words, fuis manibus, produce here the effect I am feaking of, and prefent an image to the mind. The fame obfervation may be made on the two verses above-cited: Un poignard à la main l'implacable Athalie Englished: Fierce Athaliah, in her hand a poinard, Prompted her favage foldiers to the flaughter." This touch, with a poinard in her hand, forms all the o Quint, 1, 6. c. 2. Р Pro Rofc. An er, n. 98. vivacity vivacity of these lines. The objects we defcribe may be painted in this manner with infinite variety, of which I fhall give feveral examples, that the reader may apply to the rule I have already given: Tendit ad vos virgo Veftalis manus fupplices eafdem, quas pro vobis diis immortalibus tendere confuevit Profpicite ne ignis ille æternus, nocturnis Fonteiæ laboribus vigiliifque fervatus, facerdotis Veftæ lacrymis extinctus effe dicatur. · Hæc magnitudo maleficii facit, ut, nifi pene manifeftum parricidium proferatur, credibile non fit ... Pene dicam refperfas manus fanguine paterno judices videant oportet, fi tantum facinus, tam immane, tam acerbum credituri fint. "What nation has not felt the effects of his va"lour; and which of our frontier towns has not "ferved as a theatre to his glory? "In the tumult and noife of armies, he used to "entertain himself with the sweet and fecret hopes of "his folitude. With one hand he fell upon the "Amalekites, while the other was lifted up to draw "down upon himself the bleffings of Heaven. "It taught him to lift up his pure, his innocent "hands to Heaven. "Before he accepted of any poft or employment, " he would know the duties of it. The firft tribu"nal he afcended was that of his confcience, there "to examine his intentions thoroughly. 66 "When he reftored God's worship in his con"quefts, and as he was marching upon thofe ram66 parts he had a little before demolished, his firft homage was his offering to God the laurels he had 66 won, at the foot of his altars which he restored. "I am not afraid of blending her praises with the "facrifice offered for her; and I take from the altar "all the incense I burn upon her tomb. . . Why "fhould I take off the veil which the threw over her " actions? q Pro M. Font. n. 37, 38. r Pro. Rofc. Amer. n. 68. I 2 $ Fléchier. "He |