He reafons well, his eyes their fierceness lofe,
And vows his keepers his wrong'd sense abuse:
But if you hit the caufe that hurts his brain,
Then his teeth gnafh; he foams, he shakes his chain;
His eye- balls roll, and he is mad again.

So again,

I laugh to think how your unfhaken CATO
Will look aghaft, while unforeseen destruction
Pours in upon him thus from ev'ry fide.
So, where our wide Numidian waftes extend,
Sudden th' impetuous hurricanes descend,
Wheel thro' the air, in circling eddies play,
Tear up the fands, and fweep whole plains away;
The helpless traveller, in wild furprise,

Sees the dry defert all around him rise,
And smother'd in the dufty whirlwind dies t.

}

}

(3) Thofe Paraboles may claim diftinguished honour, in which two purposes are answered at once. No Comparison of this kind occurs to my remembrance finer than that in Mr FITZGERALD's poem, entitled Bedlam; in which he compares the joys of a madman in his imaginary monarchy, to the joys of CESAR on fome triumphal day; and at the fame time represents that celebrated hero, with all the proud ideas he entertained of himself, under a distraction of a worfe kind than that of the lunatic.

Within this lonely lodge, in folemn port, An awful monarch keeps his fhiv'ring court,

And

+ ADDISON'S Mifcellaneous Works, vol. ii. page 73. Octavo edition.

And far and wide as boundless thought can ftray,
Extends a vaft imaginary sway.

Utopian princes bow before his throne,
Lands unexifting his dominion own,
And airy realms, and regions in the moon.
The pride of dignity, the pomp of state,
The darling glories of the envy'd great,
Rife to his view, and in his fancy fwell,
And guards and courtiers crowd his empty cell.
See how he walks majestic thro' the throng!
(Behind he trails his tatter'd robes along)
And cheaply bleft, and innocently vain,
Enjoys the dear delufion of his brain:
In this fmall spot expatiates unconfin'd,
Supreme of monarchs, firft of human kind.
Such joyful ecftasy as this possest
On fome triumphal day great CÆSAR's breast:
Great CÆSAR, fcarce beneath the Gods ador'd,
The world's proud victor, Rome's imperial lord,
With all his glories in their utmost height,
And all his pow'r difplay'd before his fight:
Unnumber'd trophies grace the pompous train,
And captive kings indignant drag their chain.
With laurel'd enfigns glitt'ring from afar,
His legions, glorious partners of the war,

His conqu❜ring legions march behind the golden car;
While fhouts on fhouts from gather'd nations rife,
And endless acclamations rend the fkies.

For this to vex mankind with dire alarms,
Urging with rapid speed his restless arms,
From clime to clime the mighty madman flew,
Nor tafted quiet, nor contentment knew,
But fpread wild ravage all the world abroad,
The plague of nations, and the scourge of God,

(4) Com

clares, that he would take away the remnant " of the house of JEROBOAM, as a man takes away dung, till it be all gone *." And again, in the fame prophecy, it is said, ss the LORD fhall "fmite Ifrael, as a reed is fhaken in the water +." And SOLOMON fays, "As the door turns upon

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his hinges, fo doth the slothful upon his bed 1." What can be more just and apt than this Comparison for though there is motion both in the sluggard and the door, yet there is no advance made by either of them: and as the door upon its hinges grates heavily and fullenly, and is, as it were, reluctant and querulous, upon its being forced into motion, it gives us a juft reprefentation of the flugggard; and accordingly it is added, SS The slothful hides his hand in his bofom, and s it grieves him to bring it again to his mouth ||," I will only add one more inftance from the Scriptures of humble Comparison; the propriety of which the more we consider, the more we may admire. Confidence (fays the wife man) in an ss unfaithful man in a time of trouble, is like a "broken tooth, and a foot out of joint §. Not only is there no relief, no help from an unfaithful

fumitur, Exod.

per vermiculum, qua fignificatione vox viii. 16-Vidit hoc loco Cl. de Dieu, vertitque, tanquam pediculus. Defumitur metaphora ab infecto contemptibili, exiguæ durationis, interitu deftinato, quod in hiftoria Mofaica ex pulvere (qui hominibus ortum dedit) produ&tum effe fertur. VITRING in loc.

* Kings xiv. 10, xxvi. 14.

|| Verse 15.

+1 Kings xiv. 15.
§ Prov. xxv. 19.

Prov.

ful man, when we most need his affiftance, but to our non-affiftance is added, as we placed our confidence in him, certain and excruciating pain, not unlike the pain we feel in trying to use a broken tooth, or venturing our weight upon a foot out of joint.

(2) Thofe Paraboles may be entitled to a peculiar praife, which not only illuftrate, or dignify, or infuse a pleasure into our discourses, but which contain in them a new and lively defcrip-tion. Of this fort, if iny tafte does not mifguide me, are the following.

The image of a giant ftriking a club into the ground, is thus illuftrated by SPENSER:

As when almighty Jove, in wrathful mood, To wreak the guilt of mortal fins is bent, Hurls forth his thund'ring dart with deadly food, Enroll'd in flames, and fmould'ring dreariment *, Thro' riven clouds, and molten firmament; The fierce three-forked engine making way,

Both lofty tow'rs, and higheft trees hath rent, And all that might his angry paffage stay, Ánd fhooting in the earth cafts up a mount of clay t.

A madman is thus reprefented by Mr LEE, in a fimile:

To my charm'd ears no more of woman tell
Name not a woman, and I fhall be well:

;

(4) Comparisons may be either simple or compound. A simple Comparison is that in which one thing only is compared to another; as, when DEMOSTHENES fays, "That decree scat"tered the danger that then hung, like a cloud "over the city *." "As fwallows, fays CICERO, "are present with us in fummer, but are gone "in winter; fo falfe friends attend us in the "funshine of profperity, but in the winter of "affliction they all fly away +." A compound Comparison is that in which one thing is compared to two or more things. As fnow in fum"mer, and as rain in harvest, so honour is not feemly for a fool ‡. SAUL and JONATHAN are faid to be fwifter than eagles, and stronger "than lions . Though I fpeak (fays the Apo"ftle PAUL) with the tongues of men and of an

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gels, and have not charity, I am become as founding brass, or a tinkling cymbal §. Like ss the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, fhall they (the locufts) leap, like the "noife of a flame of fire that burns the ftubble;

ss as

Τόλο το ψηφισμα τον τότε τη πόλει περιτανία κινδύνου παρελθειν εποίησεν ωσπερ νεφώ Orat. de CORON. pag. 14,

edit. Oxon.

+ Ut hirundines æftivo tempore præftò funt, frigore pulfa recedunt; ita falfi amici fereno vitæ tempore præftò funt; fimulatque hiemem fortunæ viderint, devolant omnes. CICER. ad HEREN. lib. iv. § 48.

+ Prov. xxvi. 1.

§ 1 Cor. xiii. 1.

2 Sam. i. 23.