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CHAPTER XIX.

The HYPOTYPOSIS Confidered.

§ 1. Its definition. § 2. Examples from ORPHEUS, ARATUS, CATULLUS, MILTON, WATTS, and BURNET. 3. Two inftances of this Figure S from HORACE and CASIMIRE, in their defcriptions of a country life. § 4. Examples from Scripture. § 5. QUINTILIAN'S fentiments upon the Hypotypofis. § 6. Directions concerning the ufe of this Figure.

$1.

Hypotypofis is a Figure, by which we give fuch a distinct and lively reprefentation of what we have occasion to describe, as furnishes our hearers with a particular, fatisfactory, and complete knowledge of our subject.

§ 2. A vaft variety of instances of the Hypotypofis might be produced from ancient and modern Writers; but that I may neither, on the one hand, indulge to an extravagant and needlefs profusion, nor, on the other, be wanting in the recital of examples of a Figure fo animated and entertaining,

* From UroTurow, I delineate, or represent.

entertaining, I fhall mention the following instances. What a magnificent description have we of the Deity in the following verses, afcribed to ORPHEUS?

Only to pious minds I fing. Be gone, All ye profane; but thou, MUSEUS, hear, Thou facred offspring of the radiant moon: Truth I declare; nor let thy gen'rous mind, In error long involv'd, deprive thy life: Of its fupreme enjoyment. Eye the Word Divine, and this with all thy might purfue, And let its light direct thine inmoft pow'rs: In the right path unweari'd urge thy way: Contemplate the great Ruler of the world: The GOD is one, with felf-existence crown'd, While nature to his will its being owes, And his pervading prefence always feels Thro' all her realms, tho' never mortal eye Has feen that Gop whofe eye furveys us all. He, tho' of goodness the exhaustless source, Scatters on finful men unnumber'd ills, Wide-wafting war, and forrows drench'd in tears. There's not a potentate on earth but sways His fceptre in dependence on his pow'r. I fee him not in darknefs deep immur'd; Grofs is the keeneft edge of human fight, Nor can we trace that GOD who rules in all. He, on a golden throne, refides in heav'n, Whose pavement, like the polifh'd mirror, fhines: He walks the ample circuit of the earth, His right-hand grafps the wide-extended deep Majeftic mountains, rivers wat'ring wide The pregnant glebe, the ocean's dire abyfs,

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With billows foaming high, confefs the GOD,
And tremble when he rolls his thunders round *.

I cannot but also admire in the fame light the invocation of ARATUS to JUPITER, in the introduction to his poem, concerning the Stars; in the fifth line of which by the way is that memorable passage, which the Apostle PAUL quotes from him, in his fpeech to the Athenians, Acts xvii. 28. ss For in Him we live, and more, and have our

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being; as certain also of your own Poets have faid, For we are alfo his offspring."

* Φθείξομαι οις θέμις εσι, θυρας δ' επίθεσθε βέβηλοι
Πανίες όμως σύ δ' ακουε φαεσφόρου εκγινε μηνης
Μουσαι" εξερέω γαρ αληθέα· μηδε σε τα πριν
Ἐν σήθεσσι φανενία φίλης αιωνα αμερση.
Εις δε λογον θειον βλέψας, τουίω προσέδρευε,
Ιθυνων κραδίης νοερόν κυλ@· εν δ' επιβαινε
Ατραπόλε, μουνον δ' έσορα κοσμοιο ανακλα
Εις ες' αυλογενης ενα εκδόνα πανία τελυκίας,
Εν δ' αυτοις αυτά περιγιγνεται εδε τις αυλού
Εισορία θνητων, αυτά δε με πανίας οράται.
Ουλ δ' εξ αγαθοιο κακον θνητοις, δίδωσι
Και πολεμον κρυοενία, και αλγεα δακρυόενία.
Οι δε τις επ' ετερα χωρις μεγάλου βασιλης,
Αυτον δια
ουχ οροω περι γαρ νεφα ετηρεκλακια
Πασιν γαρ θνητοις θνηται κοραί εισιν εν όσσοις,
Ασθενεες δ' ίδεσιν Δια τον πανίων μεδεονία.

From

Ουλα γαρ χαλκειον ας ουρανόν εξηρικίας
Χρυσέω εινι θρόνω, γαιης δ' επι ποσσι βέβηκε,
Χειρα τε δεξιτερην επι τερμαλ©- ωκεανοιο
Πάντοθεν εκτελακεν· περι γαρ τρεμει ουρία μακρα,
Και ποταμοί, πολίης τε βαθω χαροποιο θαλασσης.
Vide JUSTINI MARTYR. Oper. p. 15. Fol. edit.
Lutet. Parif. 1615.

From Jove begin the fong. Him all mankind
Should celebrate in never-ceafing praise:
The God attends us in our common walks,
And public councils. Intimate he fills
Th' expanded fea, and all its bufy ports
With his all-pow'rful presence. On his hand
We always hang, his bleffings we enjoy,
For we are ev❜n his offspring. He in love
Paternal points us to the good of life,

And, careful that his children should not want,
Enkindles them to labour: he inftructs

The proper time to break the ftubborn earth
With the sharp plough, or turn it with the spade.
He too directs the season when to dig

The trench for plants, and when to caft the feed
Into the genial bosom of the ground;

For he in heav'n has fix'd th' unerring figns,
And wifely marshalling the host of stars,
Has giv'n thofe radiant orbs to guide the year,
And teach mankind the hours for ev'ry toil.
Hail, thou Almighty! whose propitious smile
We first and last invoke: hail, Sire of all!
Thou, the great wonder, and great friend of man f.

† Εκ Δια αρχωμεθα τον εδέποτ' ανδρες εωμεν
Αρρητον. Μεται δε Δια πασαι μεν αγυιάς
Πασαι δ' ανθρωπων αγοραν μέση δε θάλασσα
Και λιμένες παντη δε Δια κεχρημεθα πανίες.
Τα γαρ και γενΘ εσμεν. Ο δε ηπια ανθρώποισι
Δεξια σημαίνει λαες δ' επι έργον εγείρει,
Μιμνησκων βιολόγο" λέγει δ' οτε βωλα αρτη
Βεσι τε και μακελησι· λέγει δ' ότε δεξιαι ωραι
Και φυτα γυρωσαι, και σπέρματα πανιά βαλέθαι.
Αυτα γαρ τα γε σημαί' εν ερανω στηριξεν,

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It is a very strong and affecting description of the deep degeneracy of mankind, which we meet with in a poem of CATULLUS.

At length the earth with crimes was delug'd o'er,
And all thro' selfish luft confpir'd t' erase

The principles of juftice from their minds.
One brother's hands fmok'd with another's blood;
Children o'er parents afhes dropt no tear:

The father wifh'd his eldest fon's decease,
That from the clogs his marriage had entail'd
He might live free, and fome young nymph enjoy,
The wicked mother to her lewd embrace

Tempted her fon, too young to know the crime;
While the pale Houshold-gods, amaz’d, aghast,
Beheld the monstrous deed. The facred lines.
Of right and wrong, amidft their impious rage,
Were all confounded; till at laft the Gods,
Patrons of righteoufnefs, forfook our world,
In juft abhorrence of th' enormous crimes *.

Our

Ατρα διακρινάς εσκεψαίο δ' εις ενιαύλου
Αγέρας, οίκε μαλιςα τελεγμένα σημαίνοιεν
Ανδράσιν, ωραων, οφρ' εμπεδα παντα φυωνται
Τω μιν αει πρωλον τε και υταῖον ιλασκονίας
Χαίρε παλέρ, μεγα θαύμα, μεγ' ανθρωποισιν ονειαρ.
ARATUS Solenfis de Phænomenis:

*Sed poftquam tellus fcelere eft imbuta nefando,
Juftitiamque omnes cupida de mente fugarunt:
Perfudere manus fraterno fanguine fratres;
Deftitit extinctos natus lugere parentes :
Optavit genitor primævi funera nati,
Liber ut innuptæ potiretur flore novercæ.'
Ignaro mater fubfternens fe impia nato
Impia non verita eft Divos fcelerare parentes.

Omnia

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