20. The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, III.-Examples of SUSPENSION; or a delaying of the Sense. 1. AS beauty of person, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in observing that all the parts have a certain elegance, and are proportioned to each other; so does decency of behaviour obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency and moderation of our words and actions. Spectator. 2. If Pericles, as historians report, could shake the firmest resolutions of his hearers, and set the passions of all Greece in a ferment, when the public welfare of his country, or the fear of hostile invasions, was the subject! what may we not expect from that orator, who, with a becoming energy, warns his audience against those evils, which have no remedy, when once undergone, either from prudence or time? -Spectator. 3. Though there is a great deal of pleasure in contemplating the material world, by which I mean that system of bodies into which nature has so curiously wrought the mass of dead matter, with the several relations which those bodies bear to one another; there is still something more wonderful and surprising, in contemplating the world of life, or those various animals with which every part of the universe in furnished. - Spectator. 4. Since it is certain that our hearts cannot deceive us in the love of the world, and that we cannot command ourselves enough to resign it, though we every day wish ourselves disengaged from its allurements; let us not stand upon a formal taking of leave, but wean ourselves from them, while we are in the midst of them.-Spec tator. 5. When a man has got such a great and exalted soul, as that he can look upon life and death, riches and poverty, with indifference, and closely adheres to honesty, in whatever shape she presents her-. self; then it is that virtue appears with such a brightness, as that all the world must admire her beauties. Cicero. 6. To hear a judicious and elegant discourse from the pulpit, which would in print make a noble figure, murdered by him who had learning and taste to compose it, but, having been neglected as to one important part of his education, knows not how to deliver it, otherwise than with a tone between singing and saying, or with a nod of his head, to enforce, as with a hammer, every emphatical word, or with the same unanimated monotony in which he was used to repeat Quæ genus at Westminster school: what can be imagined more lamentable? Yet what more common!-Burgh. 7. Having already shown how the fancy is affected by the works of nature, and afterwards considered, in general, both the works of nature and art, how they mutually assist and complete each other, in forming such scenes and prospects, as are most apt to delight the mind of the beholder, I shall, in this paper, throw together some reflections on that particular art, which has a more immediate tendency than any other, to produce those primary pleasures of the imagination, which have hitherto been the subject of this discourse. Spectator. 8. The causes of good and evil are so various and uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various relations, and so much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen; that he who would fix his condition upon incontestible reasons of preference, must live and die inquiring and deliberating.-Johnson. 9. He, who through the vast immensity can pierce, 10. In that soft season, when descending showers 11. Nor fame I slight, nor for her favours call; Then teach me, heav'n, to scorn the guilty bays; 12. As one, who long in populous city pent, Gg2 IV.-Examples of PARENTHESIS; or words interposed in Sentences. 1. THOUGH good sense is not in the number, nor always, it must be owned, in the company of the sciences; yet it is (as the most sensible of the poets has justly observed) fairly worth the seven.-Melmoth. 2. An elevated genius, employed in little things, appears (to use the simile of Longinus) like the sun in his evening declination: he remits his splendour, but retains his magnitude; and pleases more, though he dazzles less. Johnson. 3. The horror with which we entertain the thoughts of death (or indeed of any future evil) and the uncertainty of its approach, fill a melancholy mind with innumerable apprehensions and suspicions.Spectator. 4. If envious people were to ask themselves, whether they would exchange their entire situations with the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities, &c.) I presume the self-love common to all human nature, would generally make them prefer their own condition. Shenstone. 5. Notwithstanding all the care of Cicero, history informs us, that Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that nature (who, it seems, was even with the son for her prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of improving, by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of philosophy, his own endeavours, and the most refined conversation in Athens. Spectator. 6. The opera (in which action is joined with music, in order to entertain the eye at the same time with the ear) I must beg leave (with all due submission to the taste of the great) to consider as a forced conjunction of two things, which nature does not allow to go together. Burgh. 7. As to my own abilities in speaking (for I shall admit this charge, although experience has convinced me, that what is called the power of eloquence, depends, for the most part, upon the hearers, and that the characters of public speakers are determined by that degree of favour which you vouchsafe to each) if long practice, I say, hath given me any proficiency in speaking, you have ever found it devoted to my country.-Demosthenes. 8. When Socrates' fetters were knocked off (as was usual to be done on the day that the condemned person was to be executed) being seated in the midst of his disciples, and laying one of his legs over the other, in a very unconcerned posture, he began to rub it where it had been galled by the iron; and (whether it was to show the indifference with which he entertained the thoughts of his approaching death, or (after his usual manner) to take every occasion of philosophising upon some useful subject) he observed the pleasure of that sensation which now arose in those very parts of his leg, that just before had been so much pained by fetters. Upon this he reflected on the nature of pleasure, and pain in general, and how constantly they succeeded one another.-Spectator. 9. Let us (since life can little more supply 10. His years are young, but his experience old; His head unmellow'd, but his judgment ripe; Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona. 11. That man i' th' world, who shall report, he has A better wife, let him in nought be trusted, For speaking false in that. Thou art alone (If thy rare qualities, sweet gentleness, Thy meekness, saint-like, wife-like government, Obeying in commanding, and thy parts Sovereign and pious, could but speak thee out) The queen of earthly queens. --Shakespeare's Henry VIII. 12. Forthwith (behold the excellence, the power, Which God hath in his mighty angels plac'd) Their arms away they threw, and to the hills (For earth hath this variety from heaven, Of pleasure situate in hill and dale) Light as the lightning's glimpse, they ran, they flew; From their foundations loos'ning ing to and fro, They pluck'd the seated hills, with all their load, Rocks, waters, woods; and, by the shaggy tops Uplifted, bore them in their hands. Paradise Lost, V.-Examples of INTERROGATION, or Questioning. 1 I see 1. ONE day, when the Moon was under an eclipse, she complained thus to the Sun of the discontinuance of his favours. My dearest friend, said she, Why do you not shine upon me as you used to do? Do I not shine upon thee? said the Sun: I am very sure that I intend it. O no, replies the Moon; but I now perceive the reason. that dirty planet the Earth is got between us. - Dodsley's Fables. 2. Searching every kingdom for a man who has the least comfort in life, Where is he to be found? In the royal palace. What, his Majesty? Yes; especially if he be a despot.-Art of Thinking. Thinking 3. You have obliged a man; very well! What would you have more? Is not the consciousness of doing good a sufficient reward?Art of Thinking. 4. A certain passenger at sea had the curiosity to ask the pilot of the vessel, what death his father died of. What death? said the pilot. Why he perished at sea, as my grandfather did before him. And are you not afraid of trusting yourself to an element that has proved thus fatal to your family? Afraid! By no means; Is not your father dead? Yes, but he died in his bed. And why then, returned the pilot, are you not afraid of trusting yourself in your bed?-Art of Thinking. 5. Is it credible, is it possible, that the mighty soul of a Newton should share exactly the same fate with the vilest insect that crawls upon the ground? that, after having laid open the mysteries of nature, and pushed its discoveries almost to the very boundaries of the universe, it should, on a sudden, have all its lights at once extinguished, and sink into everlasting darkness and insensibility?-Spectator. 6. Suppose a youth to have no prospect either of sitting in Parliament, of pleading at the bar, of appearing upon the stage, or in the pulpit: Does it follow that he need bestow no pains in learning to speak properly his native language? Will he never have occasion to read, in a company of his friends, a copy of verses, a passage of a book or newspaper? Must he never read a discourse of Tillotson, or a chapter of the Whole Duty of Man, for the instruction of his children and servants? Cicero justly observes, that address in speaking is highly ornamental, as well as useful, even in private life. The limbs are parts of the body much less noble than the tongue; yet no gentleman grudges a considerable expense of time and money, to have his son taught to use them properly; which is very commendable. And is there no attention to be paid to the use of the tongue, the glory of man?-Burgh. 7. Does greatness secure persons of rank from infirmities, either of body or mind? Will the headach, the gout, or fever, spare a prince any more than a subject? When old age comes to lie heavy upon him, will his engineers relieve him of the load? Can his guards and sentinels, by doubling and trebling their numbers, and their watchfulness, prevent the approach of death? Nay, if jealousy, or even ill-humour, disturb his happiness, will the cringes of his fawning attendants restore his tranquillity? What comfort has he in reflecting (if he can make the reflection) while the cholic, like Prometheus' vulture, tears his bowels, that he is under a canopy of crimson velvet, fringed with gold? When the pangs of the gout or stone extort from him screams of agony, do the titles of Highness or Majesty come sweetly into his ear? If he is agitated with rage, does the sound of Serene, or Most Christian, prevent his staring, reddening, and gnashing his teeth like a madman? Would not a twinge of the toothach, or an affront from an inferior, make the mighty Cæsar forget that he was emperor of the world? - Montaigne. 8. When will you, my countrymen, when will you rouse from your indolence, and bethink yourselves of what is to be done?-When you are forced to it by some fatal disaster? When irresistible necessity drives you? What think you of the disgraces which are already come upon you? Is not the past sufficient to stimulate your activity? Or, do you wait for somewhat more forcible and urgent? How long will you amuse yourselves with inquiring of one another after news, as you ramble idly about the streets? What news so strange ever came to Athens, as that a Macedonian should subdue this state and lord it over Greece? - Demosthenes. 9. What is the blooming tincture of the skin, |