or Demofthenes have thought of this piece? or what Judgment would they have pass'd upon it? It is really a noble Enterprize to frame fuch a Theatre and Tribunal to fit on our own Compofitions, and submit them to a Scrutiny, in which fuch celebrated Heroes must preside as our Judges, and be at the fame time our Evidence. There is yet another Motive which may yield moft powerful Incitements, if we ask ourselves, rity form of this Work, and of me the Author? For if any one in the Moments of compofing, apprehends that his Performance may not be able to furvive him, the Productions of a Soul, whofe Views are fo fhort and confined, that it cannot promise the Esteem and Applause of fucceeding Ages, muft needs be imperfect and abortive.

What Character will Pofte

VISIONS, which by fome are called Images, contribute very much, my deareft Youth, to the Weight, Magnificence, and Force of Compofitions. The Name of an Image is generally given to any Idea however represented in the Mind, which is communicable to others by Discourse, but a more particular Sense of it has now prevailed; "When "the

D 4

"the Imagination is fo warm'd and affected, "that you seem to behold yourself the very

things you are defcribing, and to display "them to the life before the Eyes of an Au"dience."

You cannot be ignorant that Rhetorical and Poetical Images have a different Intent. The Design of a poetical Image is Surprize, that of a rhetorical is Perfpicuity. However to move and ftrike the Imagination is a Design common to both.

Pity thy Offspring, Mother, nor provoke
Thofe vengeful Furies to torment thy Son.

What borrid Sights! how glare their bloody Eyes!
How twisting Snakes curl round their venom'd Heads!
In deadly Wrath the biffing Monsters rise,
Forwards they spring, dart out, and leap around me.

And again,

Alas-fhe'll kill me! -whither fhall I fly! +

The Poet here actually faw the Furies with the Eyes of his Imagination, and has compell'd his Audience to fee what he beheld himfelf. Euripides therefore has labour'd very much in his Tragedies to defcribe the two Pasfions of Madnefs and Love, and has fucceed

*

Euripid. Oreft. ver. 255.

† Euripid. Iphigen. Taur. ver. 408.

ed

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ed much better in thefe, than (if I am not mistaken) in any other. Sometimes indeed he boldly aims at Images of different kinds. For tho' his Genius was not naturally great, yet in many Instances he even forced it up to the true Spirit of Tragedy; and that he may always rife where his Subject demands it, (to borrow an Allufion from the Poet), *

Lafb'd by bis Tail his beaving Sides incite
His Courage, and provoke himself for Fight.

The foregoing Affertion is evident from that Paffage where Sol delivers the Reins of his Chariot to Phaeton;

• Drive on, but cautious fhun the Libyan Air ; That bot unmoiften'd Region of the Sky

2 Thence let the Pleiads point thy wary Course. †
Thus fpoke the God. The impatient Youth with hafte
Snatches the Reins, and vaults into the Seat.
He starts; the Courfers whom the lashing Whip
Excites, outstrip the Winds, and whirl the Car
High thro' the airy Void. Behind the Sire

Born on his Planetary Steed, pursues

With

Il. u. ver. 170.

++ Two Fragments of Euripides.

With Eye intent, and warns him with his Voice,

Drive there! now bere!-- bere! turn the Charioi

bere!

Who would not fay that the Soul of the Poet mounted the Chariot along with the Rider, that it shar'd as well as in Danger, as in Rapidity of Flight with the Horses? For had he not been hurried on with equal Ardour thro' all this æthereal Courfe, he could never have conceived fo grand an Image of it. There are fome parallel Images in his 3 CafSandra,

Ye martial Trojans, &c.

Æfchylus has made bold Attempts in noble and truly heroic Images, as in one of his Tragedies, the feven Commanders against Thebes, without betraying the leaft fign of Pity or Regret, bind themselves by Oath not to furvive Eteacles.

4 The Seven, a warlike Leader each in chief,
Stood round, and o'er the brazen Shield they flew
A fullen Bull; then plunging deep their Hands
Into the foaming Gore, with Oaths invok'd
Mars, and Enyo, and blood-thirsting Terror.

Sometimes indeed the Thoughts of this Author are too grofs, rough and unpolished; yet

Euripides

Euripidis himself, fpurr'd on too fast by Emulation, ventures even to the brink of like Imperfections. In Æschylus the Palace of Lycurgus is furprizingly affected by the fudden Appearance of Bacchus,

The frantic Dome and roaring Roofs convuls'd
Reel to and fro, instinct with Rage divine. 5

Euripides has the fame Thought, but he has turn'd it with much more Softnefs and Propriety.

The vocal Mount in Agitation fbakes, 5
And echoes back the Bacchanalian Cries.

Sophocles has fucceeded nobly in his Images, when he describes his Oedipus in all the Agonies of approaching Death, and burying himfelf in the midst of a prodigious Tempeft; when he gives us a Sight of the 6 Apparition of Achilles upon his Tomb, at the Departure of the Greeks from Troy. But I know not whether any one has described that Apparition more divinely than 7 Simonides. To quote all these Instances at large would be endless.

To return, Images in Poetry are push'd to a fabulous Excefs, quite furpaffing the Bounds of Probability; whereas in Oratory, their Beauty confifts in the most exact Propriety and

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