fons of polite manners, as they not only favour of vulgarity, but also breed fufpicion of a barren fancy: for he who retails proverbs, gives only what he has borrowed; that is, what he has heard from others: and borrowing generally implies poverty.

Common forms of compliment, though inno-cent in themselves, and though in fociety agreeable, because customary, must not appear in elegant writing: firft, because they are too familiar to the ear, being used on every trivial occafion; and fecondly, because they derive their meaning from the manners of particular times and places. How ridiculous would it be, if a tranflator of Virgil were to make Æneas introduce himself to Dido, with these words,

Madam, Your Majesty beholds in me
Your most obliged, obedient, humble fervant,
Æneas, prince of Troy !

A painter, who would reprefent the interview, might with equal propriety drefs the Trojan in a full-bottomed wig, with a hat and feather under his arm, and make him bend his body to the ground in all the formality of a minuetbow. There is great dignity in the complimental expreffions of Homer. Priam addreffes the moft dreadful of all his enemies, by the appellation of "Godlike Achilles.*" Achilles begins VOL. II. E e a fpeech

Iliad. xxiv.

a fpeech to Ulyffes with thefe words, "O "wife Ulyffes, defcended from Jove;" and calls Ajax (who, by the by, had spoken to him with provoking bitterness)" Divine Ajax, "fon of Telamon, prince of the people.' Milton is perhaps ftill more attentive to this decorum, as his perfons are of greater dignity than heroes. Adam addreffes Eve in these exalted terms,

Daughter of God and man, accomplish'd
Eve-

Beft image of myfelf, and dearer half-
My faireft, my efpoufed, my latest found,
Heaven's laft beft gift, my ever new de-
light-

and Eve's complaifance to her husband is equally fublime;

Offspring of heaven and earth, and all earth's Lord

O thou, in whom my thoughts find all

repose,

My glory, my perfection.

* Iliad. ix.

Such

Such compliments are not made vulgar by common use; and have, befides, a fignificancy, which all the world would acknowledge to be folemn and majestick.

A third clafs of expreffions, that by their meannefs would debafe every fort of good writing, are those idioms, commonly called cant; a jargon introduced by ignorant or affected perfons, and which the most perfect acquaintance with every good author in a language would not enable one to understand. Their nature may be better known from a few examples, than from a general definition. To fay, of a perfon, whofe conversation is tedious, that he is a bore; of a drunk man, that he is in liquor, that he is dif guifed, that he is half feas over, that he has his load, or that he clips the king's English; of one who plays with an intention to lofe, that he plays booty; of one, who has nothing to reply, that he is dumbfounded; of a tranfaction committed to writing, that it is taken down in black and white; of a perfon baffled in any enterprise, that he is beat hollow, that he has received check-mate, or that he is routed, horfe, foot, and dragoons; of one who arrives on the very point of being too late, that he has faved his distance; of one, who has enriched himself by any business, that he has feather'd his neft :-these, and the like idioms, are all cant: they derive no authority from the analogy or grammar of a language; and polite writers and speakers, unlefs when they mean to speak or write ludicrously, avoid them as vulgarities of the lowest order.

There are some profeffions, that have a peculiar dialect; or certain phrafes at least, which are not understood by people of other profeffions. Thus feamen make use of terms, which none but feamen are acquainted with: and the fame thing is true of architects, painters, muficians, and many other artists. Now, in fub

lime writings fuch words are to be avoided partly, because, being technical, they have fomething of a vulgar appearance; and chiefly, because to the great part of readers they are unintelligible. That paffage of Dryden's Virgil, in which he abfurdly imitates the fea dialect, has often been repeated and cenfured:

Tack to the larboard, and stand out to fea,
Veer ftarboard fea and land:

and is chargeable with fomething worfe than affectation; for I am affured by an experienced mariner, that it has no meaning. Milton fometimes errs in this way; efpecially when he alludes to architecture and aftronomy. He speaks of cornice, freeze, and architrave, and of rays culminating from the equator; which is very unfuitable to the heroick ftyle. For, as Addison well obferves, "It is one of the greatest beauties of

poetry to make hard things intelligible, and <c to deliver what is abftrufe of itself in "fuch eafy language, as may be understood by "ordinary readers. Befides, "continues he", the

knowledge of a poet fhould rather feem born. "with him, or inspired, than drawn from books "and fyftems." True poetry is addreffed to

all

all mankind; and therefore its ideas are general; and its language ought to be so plain, as that every perfon acquainted with the poetical dialect may understand it.

It is fcarce neceffary to add, that all phrafes are mean, which come under the denomination of barbarifm, or provincial idiom; because they fuggeft the ideas of vulgar things, and illiterate perfons. Meannefs, blended with dignity, is one of thofe incongruities that provoke laughter. And therefore provincial idioms introduced in a folemn fubject would make it, or the author at leaft, ridiculous. The fpeeches, in Ovid, of Ajax and Ulyffes contending for the armour of Achilles, cannot be called fublime; but artful they are, and elegant, in a high degree. That of Ajax has been tranflated with tolerable exactnefs into one of the vulgar dialects of North Britain. When we read the original, we are ferioufly affected but when we look into the Scotch verfion, we immediately fall a laughing. I was ftruck with this, when a fchoolboy, but could not at that time account for it. The thoughts were nearly the fame in both: what then could make the one folemn, and the other ridiculous? It is the mixture of mean words and ferious fentiments, and of clownish and heroick manners, contrafted with what we remember of the original, that produces a jumble of difcordant ideas; and fuch a jumble, as may be found in most ludicrous appearances when we analyse them.*

See an Effay on Laughter and Ludicrous Compofition, chap. 2.

The