mony, fays the hiftorian, which this infeparable union of interests produced between married perfons; while each of them confidered the inevitable neceffity by which they were linked together, and abandoned all prospect of any other choice or establishment.

The exclufion of polygamy and divorces fufficiently recommends our present EUROPEAN practice with regard to marriage.

ESSAY

ESSAY XX.

OF SIMPLICITY AND REFINEMENT IN WRITING.

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INE writing, according to Mr. ADDISON, confifts of fentiments, which are natural, without being obvious.. There cannot be a jufter, and more concife definition of fine writing.

Sentiments, which are merely natural, affect not the mind with any pleasure, and seem not worthy of our attention. The pleasantries of a waterman, the obfervations of a peasant, the ribaldry of a porter or hackney coachman; all these are natural, and disagreeable. What an infipid comedy should we make of the chit-chat of the tea-table, copied faithfully and at full length? Nothing can please persons of taste, but nature drawnwith all her graces and ornaments, la belle nature; or if we copy low life, the ftrokes must be ftrong and remarkable, and muft convey a lively image to the mind. The abfurd naivety of Sancho Pancho is represented in such inimitable colours by CER VANTES, that it entertains as much as the picture of the most. magnanimous hero or fofteft lover.

any

The cafe is the fame with orators, philofophers, critics, or author who speaks in his own perfon, without introducing other speakers or actors. If his language be not elegant, his VOL. I

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obferva

obfervations uncommon, his fenfe ftrong and mafculine, he will in vain boaft his nature and fimplicity. He may be correct; but he never will be agreeable. 'Tis the u happiness of such authors, that they are never blamed nor cenfured. The good fortune of a book, and that of a man, are not the fame. The fecret deceiving path of life, which HORACE talks of, fallentis femita vita, may be the happieft lot of the one; but is the greatest misfortune, which the other can poffibly fall into.

On the other hand, productions, which are merely furprising, without being natural, can never give any lafting entertainment to the mind. To draw chimeras is not, properly speaking, to copy or imitate. The juftness of the representation is loft, and the mind is displeased to find a picture, which bears no refemblance to any original. Nor are fuch exceffive refinements more agreeable in the epiftolary or philofophic ftile, than in the epic or tragic. Too much ornament is a fault in every kind of production. Uncommon expreffions, ftrong flashes of wit, pointed fimilies, and epigrammatic turns, especially when they recur too frequently, are a disfigurement rather than any embellishment of discourse. As the eye, in furveying a GOTHIC building, is distraced by the multiplicity of ornaments, and lofes the whole by its minute attention to the parts; fo the mind, in perusing a work overflocked with wit, is fatigued and difgufted with the conftant endeavour to fhine and furprize. This is the cafe where a writer overabounds in wit, even though that wit, in itself, fhould be juft and agreeable. But it commonly happens to fuch writers, that they seek for their favourite ornaments, even where the fubject affords them not; and by that means, have twenty infipid conceits for one thought which is really beautiful.

There

There is no fubject in critical learning more copious, than this of the juft mixture of fimplicity and refinement in writing; and therefore, not to wander in too large a field, I fhall confine myself to a few general obfervations on that head.

First, I obferve, That though exceffes of both kinds are to be avoided, and though a proper medium ought to be ftudied in all productions; yet this medium lies not in a point, but admits of a very confiderable latitude. Confider the wide distance, in this respect, between Mr. POPE and LUCRETIUS. These seem to lie in the two greatest extremes of refinement and fimplicity, in which a poet can indulge himself, without being guilty of any blameable excefs. All this interval may be filled with poets, who may differ from each other, but may be equally admirable, each in his peculiar style and manner. CORNEILLE and CONGREVE, who carry their wit and refinement fomewhat farther than Mr. POPE (if poets of fo different a kind can be compared together) and SOPHOCLES and TERENCE, who are more fimple than LUCRETIUS, feem to have gone out of that medium, in which the most perfect productions are found, and to be guilty of fome excefs in these oppofite characters. Of all the great poets, VIRGIL and RACINE, in my opinion, lie neareft the center, and are the fartheft removed from both the extremities.

My fecond obfervation on this head is, That it is very difficult, if not impofible, to explain by words, where the juft medium be- · tween the exceffes of fimplicity and refinement lies, or to give any rule, by which we can know precifely the bounds between the fault and the beauty. A critic may difcourfe not only very judiciously on this head, without inftructing his readers, but even

without understanding the matter perfectly himself. There is not a finer piece of criticism than the differtation on paftorals by FONTENELLE; where, by a number of reflections and philofophical reasonings, he endeavours to fix the just medium, which is fuitable to that fpecies of writing. But let any one read the pastorals of that author, and he will be convinced that this judicious critic, notwithstanding his fine reasonings, had a falfe tafte, and fixed the point of perfection much nearer the extreme of refinement than pastoral poetry will admit of. The fentiments of his fhepherds are better fuited to the toilettes of PARIS, than to the forefts of ARCADIA. But this it is impoffible to discover from his critical reafonings. He blames all exceffive painting and ornament as much as VIRGIL could have done, had he wrote a differtation on that species of poetry. However different the taftes of men may be, their general difcourses on these fubjects are commonly the fame. No criticifm can be very instructive, which defcends not to particulars, and is not full of examples and illuftrations. 'Tis allowed on all hands, that beauty, as well as virtue, lies always in a medium; but where this medium is placed, is the great question, and can never be fufficiently explained by general reasonings.

I shall deliver it as a third observation on this subject, That we ought to be more on our guard against the excess of refinement than that of fimplicity; and that because the former excess is both lefs beautiful, and more dangerous than the latter.

'Tis a certain rule, that wit and paffion are intirely inconfiftent. When the affections are moved, there is no place for the imagination. The mind of man being naturally limited, 'tis impoffible, that all its faculties can operate at once: And

the