And _Virgil_:
_Ostendent terris hunc tantum Fata, neque ultra
Esse sinent._
Him the Fates shall shew
To Earth, and only shew him; nor shall there
Permit his longer Stay.
In which, and many other Places, the Words are without Ornament, but
the Thought sublime. Thus Beauty sometimes appears the most amiable in
its native Charms, and unaffected Neatness: Thus Majesty has been seen
to beam forth the strongest when all the Ensigns of it have been laid
aside, and it stood supported by its own Strength. Words, then, are to
the Thought, what Cloaths are to the Body; what I have to say farther
upon this Head, shall be illustrated by this Comparison.
On the other Hand, there are many sublime and beautiful Thoughts that
require Words of the same Nature; they appear pitiful without them, and
fall short of their proper Dignity. Witness those Instances we have
produced from _Ovid_ of the creeping Style, and many more might be
produced. Thus frequently, I may say generally, rich Attire, and costly
Ornaments, add to the Beauty even of the most beautiful; and Kings
who appear by Nature formed for Majesty, display it usually to most
Advantage, when deck'd with the Imperial Purple.
But tho' the Thoughts may be beautiful or sublime, while the Words that
express them are plain and simple; yet the Rule will not hold inverted:
Words can have neither Beauty, nor Sublimity, unless the Thoughts have
both. I mean _true_ Beauty, and _true_ Sublimity; because if these are
wanting in the Thought, that Sparkling which appears in the Diction, is
only a false Light; as fine Cloaths are no longer fine when bestowed
upon some dishonest Form; they are far from being an elegant Dress, when
they ill become the Wearer. And if the Thought, in this Case, is not
sublime, all the Magnificence of Diction is ridiculous Affectation, and
mere Bombast. Only one Kind of Poem ought to be excepted; which tho' it
has no _Latin_ Name, is well enough known in all the modern Languages of
_Europe_: The _Doggrel_ Kind I mean; which abounds much in an ingenious
Liberty of Jesting, and dressing up little Things in pompous Words. But
in all serious Writing, this Rule holds universally.
But tho' beautiful Expressions cannot make the Thought beautiful, yet
they strongly recommend its Beauty, and even improve it; as Dress and
Ornament cannot create a Face, yet they may assist its Charms, and add
to those that Nature has bestow'd upon it. In Proof of this, I might
produce innumerable Examples that are to be met with every where in the
Writings of the best Poets. When _Virgil_ had excellently described
the broken and shattered Condition of _Sergestus's_ Ship, which we
mention'd above, it was undoubtedly a beautiful Thought to compare it
working along with one Bank of Oars, to the labour'd Motion of a wounded
Serpent. But how does the Poet heighten the Beauty of the Comparison in
the following Manner of describing it?
_Qualis sæpe viæ deprensus in aggere serpens,
Ærea quem obliquum rota transiit, aut gravis ictu
Seminecem liquit, saxo lacerumque, viator:
Nequicquam longos fugiens dat corpore tortus;
Parte ferox, ardensque oculis, & sibila colla
Arduus attollens; pars vulnere clauda retentat
Nexantem nodos, seque in sua membra plicantem._
As when a Snake
Is catch'd (as oft it happens) on a Ridge
Of rising Ground; whose Body cross'd aslant
A brazen Wheel has mangled on the Road;
Or some sour Passenger, with heavy Blow,
Has left half dead, and shatter'd with a Stone:
He flying twists his Length in tortuous Wreaths,
Part fierce with ardent Eyes, and hissing Tongue,
Uprears aloft his swelling Neck in Air;
Part damag'd in the Wound retards him crush'd
Wriggling his Spires, and knitting Knots in vain.
_Aristæus_'s Entrance into the subterraneous Grotto's of the Water Nymph
_Cyrene_, is thus described by the same Poet:
----_Simul alta jubet discedere late
Flumina, qua juvenis gressus inferret; at illum
Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda,
Accepitque sinu vasto, misitque sub amnem.
Jamque domum mirans genitricis, & humida regna,
Speluncisque lacus clausos, lucosque sonantes,
Ibat, & ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum,
Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra
Spectabat diversa locis_, &c.
At once she bids on either Side retire
The Rivers, that the Youth unhurt might pass:
Him, like a Mountain, arch'd, the standing Waves
Surround; their spacious Bosom open wide,
And spread his Entrance to the hoary Deep.
And now admiring at his Mother's Court,
And liquid Realms, the Lakes in Caverns pent,
And sounding Groves, he goes, and wond'ring hears
The rumbling Billows; nor less wond'ring sees
The various Streams, which subterraneous glide
Thro' the vast Globe.
The Thought, the Fiction, is perfectly beautiful; but who is so blind,
as not to see that these poetical Ideas receive no small Embellishment
from the Elegance of the Expression; or so dull, as not to love and
admire both the Art and Ingenuity of the Writer? We see, then, that the
Elegance of Thought is much promoted by that of Diction; and this is
true of all Sorts of Thought, as well the beautiful, as the sublime,
but more particularly of that which consists of _Comparison_ and
_Description_. On the other Hand, that the Elegance and Sublimity of
Thought conduces much to the Elegance and Sublimity of Expression, is
too clear to need either Proof or Example; Thought being, as it were,
the Life of Words, and (as the Schoolmen speak) that which gives them
their _essential Form_. Upon the whole, then, beautiful Thoughts and
Expressions mutually help and adorn each other, as a goodly Personage
and a rich Attire. Wherein consists the Beauty of Thought, shall be the
Subject of our next Enquiry.