[ *3 ] 



troduced the celebrated apoftrophe of Demofthenes in his oration 

 for the crown. The obvious ufe, fays the critic, to be made 

 of the battle of Marathon, to his countrymen, was this : 

 You have not erred, for thofe who fought at Marathon were 

 an example to you. Inftead of this cold and lifelefs reafon- 

 ing, he fwears " by the manes of thofe who died at Marathon ;" 

 thus deifying the heroes of his country, roufing in them a 

 fenfe of national glory, and carrying his hearers along with him 

 from the prefent gloomy fcene, in a ftrain of bold and pathetic 

 eloquence. Longinus himfelf too illuftrates the fame point by 

 his own great example. Speaking of Homer's genius in the 

 Odyfley, he compares him to the fetting fun, whofe grandeur 

 remains without his fire. And again he fays, that like the 

 ocean retiring within itfelf, fo do the ebbings of fublime genius 

 appear even in his fabulous and incredible wanderings. I am 

 fo far from fubfcribing to Dr. Blair's affertion, that figures have 

 no relation to the fublime, that I think fome of them pecu- 

 liarly adapted to this mode of compofition. Of thefe I fhall 

 mention two, the climax and profopopseia. It feems to me that 

 if the feveral circumftances of a climax be well chofen and 

 judicioufly difpofed, it has a dired tendency this way. The 

 thought itfelf fhould certainly be grand, and the parts of propor- 

 tionable ftrength and greatnefs ; yet if their order be not natural, 

 but expofe the mind to alternate fits of contradion and expan- 

 fion, the whole effedt will be greatly impaired : Whereas by a 

 regular fwell and majeftic afcent, new matter of wonder and 

 delight is continually fupplied, and the mind becomes at laft 

 fo filled with the thought, as not to have room for the admiffion 

 of more. The followina; awful paffage of Shakefpeare is perfeflly 

 of this kind : 



The 



