Thou, mighty POMPEY, wert alarm'd with fears Left CESAR's fresh achievements should eclipfe Thine ancient triumphs, and the laurels won From Pirates to the Gallic wreaths fhould yield. The series of thy labours and fuccefs, Great CASAR, fwell'd thy fpirit, that difdain'd The fecond honours on the rolls of fame. Thy tow'ring foul could no fuperior brook, Nor POMPEY's bear a rival. Far unlike The men: the one now verging upon age, Quitting all martial toils, had long enjoy'd The calms of peace, but, fond of fame, difpers'd His frequent largeffes among the crowd; Their favour was his life, and when their shouts Refounded through the theatre his praise, His ear, his foul in raptures drunk the bliss, But no fresh vict'ries dignify'd his name; On former merits his renown relies. Thus POMPEY ftands the fhadow of himfelf. So in a fruitful country tow'rs the oak, Deck'd round with trophies, and the facred fpoils Of chiefs triumphant; but, its roots decay'd, On its own weight it refts, and throws abroad Its naked arms, and not from recent leaves, But its old trunk its total fhade derives : But though it nods to its tremendous fall By the first eastern blast, and though the woods Around it flourish in unfaded youth,

Yet this one tree is deify'd by all.

But with a gen'ral's name, and long-earn'd praise,
CASAR is not content; his reftlefs foul

No place can circumfcribe, and never feels
Shame, but when vict'ry fmiles upon his foe.
Fierce and invincible he flies to arms,

Nor

1

Nor ever fpares the havock of his fword,
Whenever hope or indignation calls.
With all his pow'r fucceffes he improves,
Seizes each gale that Heav'n propitious breathes,
Burfts all the bars afunder that oppose
To highest glory his fublime career,
And joys to fee deftruction break his way
To abfolute dominion o'er the world:
As when a thunder-bolt from rifted clouds,
Defcending with unfufferable roar,
Startling the day with its unufual fires,
Frighting mankind with its pernicious glare,
To fome majestic temple bends its flame,
Through all obftruction makes refiftless way,
Bounds and rebounds in ruin and in death,
Collects and recollects its fcatter'd fires,
Infatiable to havock and devour *.

* Tu, nova ne veteres obscurent acta triumphos, Et victis cedat Piratica laurea Gallis

I fhall

Magne, times te jam feries, ufufque laborum
Erigit, impatienfque loci fortuna fecundi.
Nec quenquam jam ferre poteft, Cæfarve priorem,
Pompeiufve parem →→

Nec coïere pares: alter vergentibus annis
In fenium, longoque togæ tranquillior ufu
Dedidicit jam pace ducem; famæque petitor
Multa dare in vulgus; totus popularibus auris
Impelli, plaufuque fui gaudere theatri:
Nec reparare novas vires, multumque priori
Credere fortunæ. Stat magni nominis umbra;
Qualis frugifero quercus fublimis in agro
Exuvias veteres populi, facrataque geftans
Dona ducum: nec jam validis radicibus hærens,
Pondere fixa fuo eft, nudofque per aëra ramos
Effundens, trunço, non frondibus, efficit umbram.

Sed

66

I fhall only produce one more inftance of the Parabole, as it ferves for illuftration, and that fhall be from DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENSIS, in which he thus defcribes and compares DEMOSTHENES. "DEMOSTHENES therefore, preferring "such a forensic and diversified stile, though he "was later in age than the above-mentioned refpectable speakers, yet would neither take them nor their ftile for his patterns; but, accounting all others as below the mark, and "far fhort of perfection, he felected from each "of them what was moft valuable and useful "to him, and framed and completed a diction "of divers kinds, a diction that, as there "was occasion, was fublime and low; copious "and concife; new and common; adorned and

"plain;

Sed quamvis primo nutet cafura fub Euro,
Tot circum fylvæ firmo fe robore tollant,
Sola tamen colitur. Sed non in Cæfare tantum
Nomen erat, nec fama ducis; fed nefcia virtus
Stare loco; folufque pudor non vincere bello.
Acer & indomitus, quo fpes, quoque ira vocâsset,
Ferre manum, & nunquam temerando parcere
Succeffus urgere fuos inftare favori

ferro:

Numinis; impellens, quicquid fibi fumma petenti
Obftaret; gaudenfque viam feciffe ruina.
Qualiter expreffum ventis per nubila fulmen
Ætheris impulfi fonitu, mundique fragore
Emicuit, rupitque diem, populofque paventes
Terruit, obliqua perftringens lumina flamma;
In fua templa furit; nullaque exire vetante
Materia, magnamque cadens, magnamque revertens
Dat ftragem late, fparfofque recolligit ignes.

LUCAN. Pharfal. lib. i. ver. 121.

plain; rugged, and fmooth; inflamed, and « cool; pleafant, and bitter; mild, and impas« fioned, exactly like the PROTEUS, fo much "celebrated by the ancient Poets, who, without "any fort of trouble, transformed himself into « all kinds of fhapes, and fo deceived the sight, that it was impofsible to determine whether he was a God, or demon, or only a man, who "charmed every ear with all the vast variety of « language --- I have juft the fame opinion of "the ftile of DEMOSTHENES, and attribute to him an afsemblage of every kind of language "in his orations +."

66

fhew that the Parabole The following inftances

§ 5. We fhall next conduces to fublimity. fhall fuffice. In the number, let me mention

the

Η Τοιαύτην δη καλαλαβών την πολιτικην λέξιν ο Δημοσθένης, εδω κεκινημένην ποικίλως, και τηλικείοις επεισελθων ανδρασιν, ενώ έθενα ηξίωσε γενέσθαι ζηλωτης, στο χαρακτηρα, είτε άνδρα ημιεργος τινας απαντας οιομενΘ είναι και αλελεις· εξ απαντων δια αυλων οσα κρατισα και χρησμιωίαία ην, εκλεγομενα, συνυφαινε, και μιαν εκ πολλών διαλεκτον απελελεί, μεγαλοπρεπη, λίην σε ριτίην, απεριττον εξηλλαγμένην, συνηθη πανηγυρικην, αληθινες αυτῆραν, ιλαραν: συντονον, ανειμένην ηδείαν, πικραν ηθικην, πα θηλικην· δε διαλλατίεσαν τε μεμυθευμενε πάρα τοις αρχαιοις ποιηταις Πρωτέως· Θ απασαν ιδεαν μορφής αμογης μελέλαμε βανεν είχε θεα η δαιμων τις εκεινΘ αρα ην, παρακρουομενα υψεις τας ανθρωπινας· είτε διαλεκίε ποικιλον δη χρημα εν ανδρι αρφω, πάσης απαίηλον ακοης τοιαυλην τινα δοξαν υπερ της Δημοσθένες λεξεως έχω, και τον χαρακτηρα τε τον αποδιο δωμί αύλω, τον εξ απασης μικτον ιδέας. NASSENS. vol. ii. p. 273. HUDSON. Edit.

Εγώ μεν

DIONYSII HALICAR

the Comparison of a profpect of the camp of XERXES, to that of the billows of the unbounded ocean, by moonshine:

With him the leaders climb the arduous hill, From whence the dreadful profpect they command, Where endless plains, by white pavilions hid, Spread like the vaft Atlantic, when no fhore, No rock or promontory ftops the fight, Unbounded as it wanders; but the moon, Refplendent eye of night, in fulleft orb Throughout th' interminated furface throws Its rays abroad, and decks in fnowy light The dancing billows; fuch was XERXES' camp *.

I

"Who knows, fays Doctor YoUNG, whether "SHAKESPEAR might not have thought less if "he had read more? Who knows if he might "not have laboured under the load of JOHN"SON's learning, as ENCELADUS under Etna? "His mighty genius indeed, through the most "mountainous oppreffion, would have breathed "out fome of his inextinguishable fire; yet pofsibly he might not have rifen up into that

giant, that much more than common man, at "which we now gaze with amazement and delight †.”

66

What would MILTON be in many places of his great poem, Paradife Loft, without the assistance of the Parabole? It is by this Figure, as by JAE e

GLOVER's Leonidas, book ii. lire 236.

COB'S

+YOUNG'S Conjectures on original Compofition. See his Works, vol. iv. page 312.