The rising of the fun, or the morning, is thus magnificently defcribed by STATIUS:

Aurora, rifing from her eastern bed,

Glanc'd on the skies, and night before her fled;
Then shook her locks, that dropp'd with filver dew,
And glow'd refulgent with the fun in view.
Bright Lucifer imbib'd the orient beam,
And turn'd to other fkies his ling'ring team.
Now the replenish'd fun his orb reveals,
And dims the filver on his fifter's wheels *.

VIRGIL, instead of faying it is near fun-fet, thus describes that feafon of the day,

See from the villas tops the smoke ascend,
And broader shadows from the hills extend +!

PINDAR thus represents the moon at full:

The full-grown moon upon her throne of gold
Now thro' the vaft of heav'n her progrefs roll'd,

* Et jam Mygdoniis elata cubilibus alto
Impulerat cœlo gelidas Aurora tenebras,
Rorantes excuffa comas, multumque fequenti
Sole rubens: illi rofeus per nubila feras
Advertit flammas, alienumque æthera tardo
Lucifer exit equo; donec Pater igneus orbem
Impleat, atque ipfi radios vetet effe forori.

And

STATII Thebaid. lib. ii. ver. 134.

+ Et jam fumma procul villarum culmina fumant,

Majorefque cadunt altis de montibus umbra.

VIRGIL. Eclog. i. ver. 83, 84,

Q 2

i

And pour'd her rays, that fhone ferenely bright,

Full on the eye that guides the train of night t.

In the poem, intitled, Bishop Ridley's Ghoft, printed in the year 1745, we have the following Periphrafis :

Her court*, detested fight! exulting fwarm'd
With Rome's tyrannic Vandals, from the wretch
Unfhod, to him who wears with gorgeous pride
Th' empurpled garb of prelacy:

I fhall conclude the inftances of circumlocution, as used for the purposes of elegance and beauty, with fome lines that I have fomewhere met with, in which our country is thus defcribed:

This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,
This earth of majesty, this feat of Mars,
This other Eden, demy paradife;

This fortress built by nature for herself,
Against infection, and the hand of war;
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious ftone fet in the filver fea.

* Διχομηνις όλον χρυσαρματα

Εσπέρας οφθαλμον ανέφλεξε μηνα.

$4.

Olymp. od. iii. ver. 35, 36.

Mr BLACKWALL, by somegas oplaλμor, understands the evening-ftar, as is evident from his translation of the passage,

The night's bright emprefs, in her golden car,

Darting full glories from her lovely face,
Kindles fresh beauties in the eye of Helper.

* Queen MARY'S.

§ 4. Many are the examples of this Figure, that might be produced from Scripture, but the following fhall fuffice: Job iv. 19. "Our bodies "are ftiled houses of clay;" and 2 Cor. v. 1. "The earthly houfe of this tabernacle." The grave is described, Job xi. 21. as "the land of darkness, and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself, and of the shadow " of death, without any order, and where the

light is as darknefs." DAVID's resolution not to go to his house, and go to reft, is exprefsed in a Periphrafis : Pfalm cxxxii. 3, 4. " Surely, I ss will not come into the tabernacle of my houfe, "nor go up into my bed: I will not give sleep

to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eye-lids, " until I find out a place for the LORD, an habitation for the mighty GoD of Jacob:" and Job. xxiii. 14. Behold, this day, fays JOSHUA, I " am going the way of all the earth;" that is, I am about to die. "The Disciple whom JESUS " loved, and who leaned on his breast at supper," is a Periphrafis of the Apostle JOHN, John xxi. 20. And Job xviii. 13. "the plague," or some very deadly disease, is stiled "the first-born of death;" and verfe 14. Death is ftiled " the king of ter

́ ́rors."

$5. LONGINUS has a fection upon the Periphrafis, which I shall give my Readers. "None, "in my opinion, can doubt whether the Periphrafis is not a fource of fublimity. For as in mufic, an important word is rendered more sweet

by the divifions which are run harmoniously upon "it; fo a Periphrasis Sweetens a difcourfe, car"ried on in propriety of language, and contributes "very much to the ornament of it, especially if "there be no jarring or difcord in it, but every "part be judiciously and mufically tempered. PLATO "is fufficient to confirm this obfervation, from "a passage in the beginning of his Funeral Orav

tion. They truly receive from us the honours they deferve; and, after they have received "them, they go the way that fate ordains; "being led out publickly by the city, and pri"vately by their friends. He calls Death, the

way that fate ordains; and funeral rites, he

files a public conducting from our country. Does "not PLATO greatly heighten the sense by these means? he takes a common low thought, and enriches it with melody and sweetness. In "like manner XENOPHON fays, You think labour "the guide to a pleafant life: your fouls are en“ dowed with the best qualification, and what be«comes warriors. You prefer fame to every other

confideration. In the room of, you love to labour, he uses a Periphrafis, and fays, you think labour the guide to a pleafant life; and, by a like circumlocution, he gives a fublimity to his praise *"

*

§ 6.

Και μέντοι, Περιφρασις ως εχ υψηλοποιον, εδεις αν, οιμαι, δισαειεν. Ως γαρ εν Μεσικη δια των Παραφωνων καλυμένον ο κυριά φθοίγω ηδίων αποτελείται, όπως η Περίφρασις πολλάκις συμφθείκειαν τη κυριολογία, και εις κοσμον επιπολυ συνήχει

και

§ 6. The ufes of this Figure may be learnt from its definition. I will add, that the Periphrafis not only guards our discourses from offence, and beautifully embellishes them, but that it also gives an agreeable variety to our compositions, and fometimes, as LONGINUS has fhewn, conduces much to elevate them. But let us beware of a cumbrous circumlocution of words, without any of the abovementioned uses anfwered by them, fome inftances of which we have in Mr POPE's Art of Sinking in Poetry. Who would think that the following lines,

1

Bring forth fome remnant of Promothean theft
Quick to expand th' inclement air congeal'd
By Boreas' rude breath,

fhould mean no more than light the fire?

και μάλισα αν μη εχη φυσωδές τι και αμεσον, αλλ' ηδέως κεκράμενον. Ικανο δε τελο τεκμηρίωσαι και Πλαίων κατα την εισβολην τε Επιταφιά, σε έργω μεν ημιν οι δ' έχεσι τα προσησε κοντα σφισιν αυτοίς, ων τυχοντες πορεύονία, την ειμαρμένην πορείαν προπεμφθέντες κοινη μεν απο της πολεως ίδια δε εκαςΘ άπο των προσηκοντων." Ουκ εν τον θανατον είπεν, σε ειμαρμένην πορείαν, το δε τετυχηκεναι των νομιζομένων, προπομπην τινα δημοσιαν υπο της πατρίδα. Αρα δη τέλοις μετριως αγοσε την νοησιν; η ψιλήν λαβων την λέξιν εμελοποίησε, καθαπερ αρμονιαν τινα τη την εκ της Περιφράσεως περιχεαμένο

ευμελίαν. Και Ξενοφων, « Πονον δε τε ζην ηδεως ηγεμονα νομί σε ζελε καλλισον δε πανίων και πολεμικωτατον κλημα εις τας - σε ψυχας συγκεκομίσθε· επαινέμενοι γαρ μάλλον, η τοις άλλοις απασι χαιρέτες” Άντι τ8, πονειν θελετε, το πανου ηγεμόνα

66

το ζην ηδεως ποιειθε,” ειπών, και τ' αλλ' ομοίως επεκλεινας, μεγαλην τινα εννοιαν τω επαινώ προσπεριωρισαίο. LONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 28.