We proceed to a rule of a different kind. During the course of a period, the scene ought to be continued without variation: the changing from perfon to perfon, from fubject to fubject, or from person to subject, within the bounds of a fingle period, diftracts the mind, and affords no time for a folid impreffion. I illuftrate this rule by giving examples of deviations from it. Honos alit artes, omnefque incenduntur ad ftudia gloriâ; jacentque ea femper quæ apud quofque improban tur. Cicero, Tufcul. quæft. 1, 1. Speaking of the diftemper contracted by Alexander bathing in the river Cydnus, and of the cure offered by Philip the physician: Inter hac à Parmenione fidiffimo purpuratòrum, literas accipit, quibus ei denunciabat, ne falutem fuam Philippo committeret. Quintus Curtius, l. 3. cap. 6. Hook, in his Roman history, speaking of Eumenes, who had been beat to the ground with a ftone, fays, After a short time he came to himself; and the next day, they put him on board his ship, which conveyed him first to Corinth, and thence to the island of Ægina. I give another example of a period which is unpleasant, even by a very flight deviation from the rule: That That fort of inftruction which is acquired by inculcating an important moral truth, &c. This expreffion includes two perfons, one acquiring, and one inculcating; and the scene is changed without neceffity. To avoid this blemish, the thought may be expreffed thus: That fort of inftruction which is afforded by inculcating, &c. The bad effect of fuch change of person is remarkable in the following paffage. The Britons, daily haraffed by cruel inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their. defence, who confequently reduced the greatest part of the island to their own power, drove the Britons into the most remote and mountainous parts, and the rest of the country, in cuftoms, religion, and language, became wholly Saxons. Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift. The following paffage has a change from fubject to perfon. This prostitution of praise is not only a deceit upon the grofs of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned; but alfo the better fort must by this means lofe fome part at leaft of that defire of fame which is the incentive to generous actions, when they find it promifcuously beftowed on the meritorious and undeferving. Guardian, N° 4. Even fo flight a change as to vary the conftruction in the fame period, is unpleasant: Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmiffa, tranfgreffus flumen, ut quofque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat; Gallos Hifpanofque equites prope ripam lævo in cornu adverfus Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum. Tit. Liv. l. 22. § 46. Speaking of Hannibal's elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own army: Eo magis ruere in fuos belluæ, tantoque majorem ftragem edere quam inter hoftes ediderant, quanto acrius pavor confternatam agit, quam infidentis magiftri impe rio regitur. Liv. 1. 27. § 14. This paffage is also faulty in a different respect, that there is no resemblance between the members of the sentence, though they express a fimile. The present head, which relates to the choice of materials, shall be closed with a rule concerning the use of copulatives. Longinus obferves, that it animates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the following example from Xenophon. Clofing their shields together, they were push'd, they fought, they flew, they were flain. Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16. The reason I take to be what follows. VOL. II. D A conti nued nued found, if not loud, tends to lay us afleep: an interrupted found roufes and animates by its repeated impulfes. Thus feet compofed of fyllables, being pronounced with a fenfible interval between each, make more lively impreffions than can be made by a continued found. A period of which the members are connected by copulatives, produceth an effect upon the mind approaching to that of a continued found; and therefore the fuppreffing copulatives muft animate a defcription. It produces a different effect akin to that mentioned: the members of a period connected by proper copulatives, glide smoothly and gently along; and are a proof of fedateness and leisure in the speaker: on the other hand, one in the hurry of paffion, neglecting copulatives and other particles, expreffes the principal image only; and for that reafon, hurry or quick action is beft expreffed without copulatives: Veni, vidi, vici. -Ite: Ferte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos. Eneid. iv. 593 Quis globus, O civis, caligine volvitur atra? Hoftis adeft, eja. Eneid. ix. 37. In this view Longinus juftly compares copula Treatife of the Sublime, cap. 16. tives in a period to strait tying, which in a race obftructs the freedom of motion. It follows, that a plurality of copulatives in the fame period ought to be avoided for if the laying afide copulatives give force and liveliness, a redundancy of them muft render the period languid. I appeal to the following instance, though there are but two copulatives. Upon looking over the letters of my female correfpondents, I find several from women complaining of jealous husbands; and at the fame time protesting their own innocence, and defiring my advice upon this occafion. Spectator, N° 170. I except the cafe where the words are intended to express the coldness of the speaker; for there the redundancy of copulatives is a beauty : Dining one day at an alderman's in the city, Peter observed him expatiating after the manner of his brethren, in the praises of his firloin of beef. "Beef," faid the Lage magistrate, "is the king of meat: Beef compre"hends in it the quinteffence of partridge, and quail, "and venifon, and pheafant, and plum-pudding, and "cuftard." Tale of a Tub, § 4. And the author fhows great delicacy of tafte by varying the expreffion in the mouth of Peter, who is represented more animated: Bread," fays he, " dear brothers, is the ftaff of life; " in which bread is contained, inclufivè, the quinteffence D 2 "of |