Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From youth to age a rev'rend hermit grew ;
The mofs his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the cryftal well:
Remote from man, with God he pass'd his days,
Pray'r all his bus'nefs, all his pleafure praife.
A life fo facred, fuch ferene repose,
Seem'd heav'n itself; till one fuggeftion rofe,
That vice fhould triumph, virtue vice obey,
This sprung fome doubt of Providence's sway :
His hopes no more a certain prospect boaft,
But all the tenor of his foul is loft.

So when a smooth expanfe receives impreft

Calm nature's image on its watry breaft,
Down bend the banks, the trees depending grow,
And skies beneath with anfw'ring colours glow;.
But if a ftone the gentle fea divide,

Swift ruffling circles curl on ev'ry fide,

And glimm'ring fragments of a broken sun,
Banks, trees, and skies in thick diforder run *.

4. Let us not be too lavifh of our Compari fons. We may be allowed to employ one simile after another, and an accumulation of them in fome cafes may have a very powerful effect upon the minds of our auditors; but yet it is possible we may be excefsive in the use of the Parabole, and rather debafe than adorn our difcourfes by redundance. I remember not to have ever met with more beautiful Comparisons or Metaphors, than in the following pafsage; yet perhaps if

the

PARNELL'S Hermit.

the simile that ends the paragraph was left out, it would be only lopping off a fuperfluous shoot, that the Author's judgment might appear to the greater advantage. "All counterfeit religion will fade in time, though never fo fpecious and flourishing; all dew will pass away, tho' "fome lie much longer than other; all landfloods will fail; yea, the flood of NOAH at length dried up, though it were of many "months duration but this well of water, "which our Saviour fpeaks of here" (John iv. 14. the fubject of the Author's Treatife) "will "never utterly fail; cold adversity cannot freeze "it up; fcorching profperity cannot dry it up. "The upper fprings of uncreated grace and "goodness will evermore feed thofe nether fprings of grace and holinefs in the foul. Though heaven and earth pass away, yet shall the feed of God remain, Phil. i. 6. He that "bath begun a good work, will certainly perform "it. Where the grace of God hath begotten a "divine principle and fpirit of true religion in

66

a foul, there is the central force, even of "Heaven itself, ftill attracting and carrying the "foul in its motions thitherwards, until it have lodged it in the very bofom and heart of "Gon. If any principle lower than true reli66 gion actuate a man, it will certainly wafte and be exhaufted; though it may carry him. fwiftly in a rapid motion, yet not in a steady; though it may carry him high, yet not quite

❝ through.

66

through. A meteor that is exhaled from the "earth by a foreign force, though it may mount "high in appearance, and brave it in a blaze, "enough to be envied by the poor twinkling ftars, and to be admired by ordinary spectators, yet its fate is to fall down, and fhamefully confefs its bafe original. That religion, "which men put on for a cloke, will wear out "and drop into rags, if it be not presently "thrown by as a garment out of fashion *." Would there not have been a fufficiency of Paraboles without the addition of the laft, and, I might add, is it not evidently of an inferior texture to the former? Which leads me,

tr

5. To observe that our Comparisons should ascend in a Climax. Let us not begin high, and sink low; but rather let us begin low, and rise high, if we choose to employ two or more Paraboles at the fame time. HORACE fays,

It grieves me HOMER'S mufe fhould fometimes nod f.

And is not the following passage an inconteftible proof of it, as there is evidently an AntiClimax in the fuccefsion of similies? 66 Among the Chiefs was King AGAMEMNON, in his 66 eyes

* SHAW's Immanuel, or Discovery of Religion, as it imports a living Principle in the Minds of Men; a treatise remarkable for genius and piety, and one of the finest pieces on the fubject that perhaps was ever written.

Indignor, quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus.

De Art. Poet. ver 359.

"eyes and head like JUPITER, rejoicing in his "thunder; in his belt like MARS, and in his "cheft like NEPTUNE. Like a bull that is "greatly eminent among the herd, did JuPITER on that day make AGAMEMNON il"luftrious among many, and distinguished 66 among heroes *."

Certainly after a General has been resembled to JUPITER, MARS, and NEPTUNE, it is an infufferable downfal to compare him to a bull among the herd; and therefore Mr POPE tells us, that "the liberty has been taken in his "translation to place the humble simile first, "referving the nobler one as a more magnificent "clofe of the description."

The King of kings, majestically tall,

Tow'rs o'er his armies, and outfhines them al
Like fome proud bull that round the paftures leads
His fubject-herds, the monarch of the meads.
Great as the Gods th' exalted chief was feen,
His ftrength like NEPTUNE, and like MARS his mien,
JovE o'er his eyes celestial glories spread,
And dawning conqueft play'd around his head.

"There

Μελα δε κρείων Αγαμεμνων,

Ομμαία και κεφαλην ικελῶ· Διι τερπικεραύνω,
Αρεϊ δε ζωνην, σερνον δε Ποσειδάων.
Εϋτεβες αγεληφι μεγ' εξοχΘ- επλετο πάντων
Ταυρο ο γαρ τε βρεσσι μεταπρεπει αγρομένησι
Τοιον αρ' Ατρείδην θηκε Ζευς ηματι κείνω,
Εκπρεπε εν πολλοισι και εξοχον ηρωεσσιν.

Iliad. lib. ii. ver. 477.

"There are fome," fays DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENSIS," that without any order heap <<* up Figures, being totally ignorant of the pro"per feafon for their infertion *."

Οι δε καὶ πανταχόθεν συνάγουσιν, αγνοενίες τον καιρον αυ DIONYSII HALICARNASSENS. Art. Rhetoric. vol. ii. p.112. edit. HUDSON.

των.

CHAPTER XXII.

The EPIPHONEMA Confidered.

§ 1. Its definition. § 2. Inftances of this Figure

2

from CICERO, VIRGIL, MILTON, and COBB.

"

§ 3. Examples of the Epiphonema from Scrip

ture. § 4. The use of this Figure. § 5. Directions concerning it.

N Epiphonema is a pertinent and inftructive remark at the end of a difcourfe or narration.

A

"Hence we may

§ 2. We fhall find inftances of this Figure in fome of the finest Writers. "learn, fays CICERO, that there is no duty fo "facred and folemn, which it is not ufual with

" avarice

* From wina, an acclamation.