V 1 V 



V 1 V 



is capable of bearing^ fome refc-mblance. Time and motion, 

 e. g. or whatever can admit the epithets of quick, and flow, may 

 in fome degree be imitated by fpeech. This appears with 

 particular advantage in verfe, when, without any violation 

 of the rules of profody, a greater or a lefs number of fyllables 

 is made to fuit the time. Thus Milton : — 



" When the merry bells ring round, 

 And the jocund rebecs found, 

 To many il youth Snd many 3 maid 

 Dancing in the chequer'd (hade." 



The Greek and Latin have here an advantage, at leaft in 

 their heroic meafure, fuperior to all modern tongues ; ac- 

 cordingly Homer and Virgil furniih excellent fpecimens in 

 this way. Our own tongue and metre, however, afford in- 

 ftances not unworthy of notice. We fhall feleCt the tranf- 

 lation by our Englilh bard of the following much admired 

 paffage from Homer : 



Abli; Effeija liTEjovi; KvKi^ldo Xa«j avai3>ij." Od. 



" Up the high hill he heaves a huge round {lone ; . 

 The huge round flone refulting with a bound. 

 Thunders impetuous down, and fmokes along the 

 ground." 



Vida, in his " Art of Poetry," has well exemplified this 

 beauty from his great mailer, Virgil : 



" lUe autem membris, ac mole i^^ 

 Incedit tardo moliminc fubfidendo." 



Slownefs of motion is admirably cxemphfied by Pope, in 

 the following line3 : 



" A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong, 



That, like a wounded fnake,drag5 its flow length along." 



In reprefenting uncommon fpeed, he thus expreiles him- 

 felf: 



" Not fo when fwift Camilla fcours the plain, 



Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and llcims along the 

 main." 



Thus Dryden : 



" Which urg'd, and labour'd, and forc'd up with pain, 

 Recoils, and rolls impetuous down, and fmokes along 

 the plain." 



There are alfo other affeftions of motion befides fwiftnefs 

 and flowncfs, which may, to a certain degree, be imitated in 

 the found of the dcfcriptioo : but our limits will not allow 

 us to introduce examples. Size or magnitude, difficulty 

 and eafe, arc fubjefts of imitation in language. For an in- 

 flance of difficulty, we produce the following couplet from 

 Pope : 



" When Ajax drives fome rock's vail weight to throw. 

 The line too labours, and the words move flow." 



,, Moreover, the agreeable in things may be adumbrated 

 to U3 by fmooth and pie afant founds, and the difagrccable by 

 fuch as arc harfli and grating. 



With regard to the fpccies of beauty which we have 

 been defcribing and exemplifying, we may obfervc, that it 

 ie, in many cafes, more the creature of the reader's fancy 

 than the ctfert of the writer's ingenuity ; and as it occu- 

 pies the lowell rank in the fcale of rhetorical excellence, it 

 ought always to give place to the other virtues and orna- 

 Tients of elocution, and not viu <vcrfd. The cafe? is. wliich 

 >.t ought to be aimed at are comparatively few . 



Vui. XXXVII. 



Compofitions in profe, thofe excepted which are in- 

 tended to perfunde, and which aim at a certain vehemence 

 of llyle and fentiment, fliould hardly ever be allowed to 

 exemphfy the refemblance above-mentioned ; and even in 

 poetry, this beauty feems naturally adapted only to the 

 moll pathetic paflTagcs, and mofl defcriptive parts. la 

 poems in which it is moft fuitable, it fliould be admitted only 

 in a few paflages, when it is the author's intention to de- 

 fcribe fomething that is peculiarly ilriking. 



In the inquiry how far vivacity may be affeded by the 

 number of words that are ufed, our author concurs with 

 others in laying it down as a maxim, that the fewer the 

 words are, provided neither propriety nor perfpicuity be 

 violated, the expreffion is always the more vivid. " Bre- 

 vity," fays Shakfpeare (Hamlet;, " is the foul of wit." 

 Of whatever kind the fentiment be, witty, humorous, 

 grave, animated, or fublime, it is certain that the more 

 briefly it is cxpreffed, the energy is the greater, or the fenti- 

 ment is the more enhvencd, and the particular quality for 

 which it is eminent the more difplayed. 



Among the Lacedimonians, who were remarkable for 

 concifeneis, to ufe few words, to fpeak energetically, and to 

 be laconic, were almoft fynonimous. Pope has in a pe- 

 culiar degree ftudied concifenefs, and rendered it conducive 

 to vivacity. The following example wiU be fufficient : 



" See how the world its veterans rewards ! 

 A youth of frolics, an old age of cards ; 

 Fair to no purpofe, artful to no end ; 

 Young without lovers, old without a friend : 

 A fop their paffion, but their prize a fot ; 

 Alive ridiculous, and dead forgot." 



The principa offences againft brevity of diftion are, lau- 

 iology, pleunafm, and •uerbofity ; which fee refpeftively. 



Another ciicumflance upon which vivacity of elocution 

 depends is the arrangement of words : and this might be 

 couiidered as it refpefts fimple and compound fentcnces. 

 (See Sentence and Period.) We fliall here obferve, that 

 compofition and arrangement in fentences, though nearly 

 connefted, are not entirely the fame. Compofition includes 

 arrangement, and fomething more. When two fentences 

 differ only in arrangement, the fenfe, the words, and the 

 conftruftion are the fame ; but when they differ alfo in 

 other articles of compofition, there muft be fome difference 

 in the words themfelves, or at leaft in the manner of con- 

 ftrning them. See Campbell's Philofophy of Rhetoric, 

 vol. ii. p. 158, &c. 



VIVALDI, Don Antonio, in Biography, the moil po- 

 pular compofer for the violin, as well as player on that in- 

 ilrument, of his time. He was maettro di capella of the 

 confervatorio of La Pieta, at Venice. (See Conserva- 

 TORio.) Befides fixteen operas which he fet for the Vene- 

 tian theatres, and feveral others for different parts of Italy, 

 between the year 1714 and 1737, he publiflied eleven dif- 

 ferent works for inllruments, of which a lift is given in 

 Walther, without including his pieces called " Stravaganze," 

 which among flafliy players, whofe chief merit was rapid 

 execution, occupied the higheft place of favour. H'.s 

 Cuckoo concerto, during our youth, was the wonder and 

 delight of all frequenters of country concerts ; and Wood- 

 cock, one of the Hereford waits, was fent for far and near 

 to perform it. If acute and rapid tones are evils, Vivaldi 

 has much of the fin to anfwer for. His title of Don wns 

 derived from hir, clerical charaftcr. " It is very ufual," 

 fays Mr. Wright in his 'JVavcls through Italy, from 1720 

 to 1722, " to fee pricll.- play in thcortheftra. The famous 

 Vivaldi, whom they call the Prrle Ri^ffn, very wtll knows 

 R r among 



