Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

in which he fays, "I fee that cloud of a cruel "and bloody war rising in Italy. I perceive "a ftorm, big with thunder and lightning, "gathering in the weft; which, wherever the "hurricane of victory fhall carry it, will fill "all places with a fhower of blood *." The proper words war, blood, and victory, connected with the Tropes cloud, fhower, and tempeft, render the feveral parts of the Allegory clear and evident. I always thought," fays TULLY, in his defence of MILO, "that as to other ftorms and tempefts, they were only to be sustained by MILO in the commotions of our public af"femblies +." If the Orator had not used the words public affemblies, the passage had been a complete Allegory, but by its infertion there is an evident mixture of literal and allegorical language. In this kind of Allegories, as QUINTILIAN well obferves, "beauty arifes from the Tropical, and an eafy apprehension of the meaning from the proper expressions ||." But there cannot methinks be a more pleasing example of literal and allegorical meaning, than in

[ocr errors]

the

* Videre fe itaque, ait, confurgentem in Italiâ nubem illam trucis & cruenti belli: videre tonantem ac fulminantem ab occafu procellam quam in quascunque terrarum partes victoriæ tempeftas detulerit magno cruoris imbre omnia fœdaturum. JUSTIN. lib, xxix. cap. 31

+ Equidem ceteras tempeftates, & procellas in illis duntaxat fluctibus concionum femper putavi Miloni effe fubeundas, &c. Orat. pro MILO. § 2.

Quo in genere & fpecies ex arceffitis verbis venit, & intellectus ex propriis. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 16.

the four first verses of the twenty third Pfalm:

55

The LORD is my fhepherd, I fhall not want. "He makes me to lie down in green pastures. SS He leads me beside the ftill waters. He reftores my foul. He leads me in the paths of " righteousness for his name's fake. Yea, though "I walk through the valley of the fhadow of death, yet will I fear, no evil; for thou art "with me, thy rod and ftaff they comfort me." Lord--my foul---righteousness --- name's fake, are words used in their proper sense; while there is evidently an Allegory in the other expressions, taken from a fhepherd, and his kind and faithful protection and care over his flock.

Scripture will afford us alfo another instance of mixed Allegory in Ephes. vi. from the 10th to the 19th verfe: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in " the LORD, and in the power of his might. Put ss on the whole armour of GoD, that ye may be "able to ftand against the wiles of the Devil. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against s. the rulers of the darkness of this world, against fpiritual wickedness in high places. Where

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

$$

35

[ocr errors]

fore take unto you the whole armour of GoD, " that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to ftand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with "truth, and having on the breast-plate of righ"teousness, and your feet fhod with the preparastion of the gofpel of peace; above all, taking * the of faith, wherewith ye fhall be able

$3 to

sto quench all the fiery darts of the wicked:

S

[ocr errors]

and take the helmet of falvation, and the fword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always, with all prayer and fupplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all per* severance and fupplication for all faints." Upon a careful review of this pafsage it will evidently appear, that there is a mixture of allegorical and literal fenfe, and that they alternately appear and difappear throughout the whole defcription.

$5. If it fhould be fuggefted, that if our fentences should be thus made up of literal and allegorical language we shall hereby violate a rule. that has been given, namely, to continue and carry on a Metaphor in the fame manner it began, there is an easy answer to fuch an objection by obferving that there is a very great and ef fential difference between the mixture of literal and allegorical exprefsion, and the confusion arising from heterogeneous Metaphors. The mixture of literal and allegorical language is not the clustering of difcordant Metaphors together, but the infertion of one and the fame Metaphor in fome parts of a fentence or paragraph, while plain expression makes up the remainder: whereas a confusion of Metaphors is the heaping fuch Metaphors together as are abfolutely difsimilar, and contrary to one another; or an attempt to make a coalefcence where an impofsibility in nature abhors the union. A conjunction of common and metaphorical expressions, or a fentence

consifting

[ocr errors]

consifting partly of the one, and partly of the other, is like the fun in a fummer's day, fomes times fhining in a clear opening of the heavens, and fometimes darting its rays through clouds, gilded and variegated with his glories. But inconsistent Metaphors are not unlike the ancient chaos, where all the powerful principles and elements of nature were blended together, and waged irreconcilable war in one perpetual confusion and uproar.

§ 6. As we are certain that the human mind is extremely fond of variety, QUINTILIAN'S observation may be very juft, "That the most beautiful "form of speech is that which consifts of the

[ocr errors]

Comparison, Allegory, and single Trope, an “inftance of which he gives us in the following "passage from CICERO: For what ftreights, "what arm of the fea can you think of, so much "troubled with the tofsings and agitations of waves? How violent the perturbations and

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

fury of our popular afsemblies for the election "of magistrates? The fpace of only one day or "night often throws all things into confusion, " and fometimes only a finall breath of rumour "fhall quite change the whole opinion of the people *"

[ocr errors]

* Illud verò longè fpecioffimum genus orationis, in quo trium permifta eft gratia, Similitudinis, Allegoriæ, & Tranflationis. Quod enim fretum, quém euripum, tot motus, tantas tam varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum; quantas perturbationes, & quantos æftus habet ratio comitiorum? Dies intermiffus unus, aut nox interpofita, fæpe perturbat omnia

A like vein of Allegory and Comparison we may obferve in the following passage of a late excellent Divine: "As the bodies of believers "are like common tabernacles for their frailty, "fo they may be likened to the facred taberna

[ocr errors]

cle which was framed by the fpecial appoint"ment of GOD, in refpect of the use and fervice "they are devoted: to, and of the honour they "receive by grace. They are tabernacles, as "they are the tenements of their own spirits; "and facred ones, as they are the habitations of "the Spirit of God: for their bodies are conse"crated to his fervice as well as their fouls. The "members of their bodies are inftruments and "fervants of righteousness, vefsels which their "fouls pofsefs in fanctification and honour. "Some of them are peculiarly dignified in the "fervice of GOD, like thofe utensils which were both of special use and ornament in the Sanc"tuary. The head of the faint, like the candle"fticks of the Tabernacle, holds forth a conftant "light of divine truth and wisdom; while his "heart, like the sacred altar, retains an inextin"guishable fire of divine love and zeal: his or

[ocr errors]

&

gans of fpeech are like the silver trumpets and "other musical inftruments of the Sanctuary, "devoted to the glory of Gon, and employed to

[ocr errors]

praise him in the beauty of holiness; while the foul that resides in this tabernacle, like the "anointed

& totam opinionem parva nonnunquam commutat aura ru. moris. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 6. § 2. ex CICERO. pro MUREN. $17.

« ZurückWeiter »