Appears far south, eruptive through the cloud;
And, following slower, in explosion vast,

The thunder raises his tremendous voice.
At first, heard solemn o'er the verge of heaven,
The tempest growls; but, as it nearer comes,
And rolls its awful burden on the wind,
The lightnings flash a larger curve, and more
The noise astounds; till, overhead, a sheet
Of livid flame discloses wide; then shuts

And opens
Expansive, wrapping ether in a blaze:

wider ; shuts and opens still

Follows the loosened, aggravated roar,

Enlarging, deepening, mingling; peal on peal
Crushed horrible, convulsing heaven and earth."

"Since concord was lost, friendship was lost; fidelity was lost; liberty was lost;-all was lost!"

"The display of this day has reflected the highest honour on himself, lustre upon letters, renown upon parliament, glory upon the country."

"It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order within the bounds of reason and religion, because that is empire !"

ANTI-CLIMAX.

Bathos, or Anti-climax, is the converse of the lastnamed figure. Here, the expression, instead of growing stronger as the poet proceeds, takes a contrary direc

T

tion, and continually descends. When used seriously, bathos adds great force to description; for example :—

"What must the King do now? Must he submit?
The King shall do it. Must he be deposed?
The King shall be contented. Must he lose
The name of King? o' God's name let it go.
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads;
My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage;
My gay apparel, for an alms-man's gown;
My figured goblets, for a dish of wood;
My sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My subjects, for a pair of carvèd saints;
And my large kingdom for a little grave;
A little, little grave, an obscure grave."

SHAKSPERE, Richard II. Act III. Scene iii.

ON ALLEGORY.

In the widest sense of the word, whenever one thing is said or expressed, and another signification is implied, the story is allegorical. A painting representing the Hours (personified) harnessing the horses to the chariot of the Sun, would be an allegory; that is, the representation would signify something more than what was painted. Swift's "Tale of a Tub" is allegorical; it is a satire on the sections of Christianity, disguised under the story of the adventures of three brothers. "The Pilgrim's Progress" is, perhaps, the longest allegory ever written; it represents the trials and struggles of a Christian in his journey through life, embodied in the adventures of an individual personage. “Gulliver's Travels” is another celebrated allegory, in which political parties and intrigues are satirised.

Fables and parables partake of the nature of this figure. They are short stories- not strictly true— but inculcating some moral principle or religious doctrine.

The following extract from Aikin's "Miscellanies" is an example of the allegory:—

"In that season of the year, when the serenity of the sky, the various fruits which cover the ground, the discoloured foliage of the leaves, and all the sweet but fading graces of inspiring autumn, open the mind to benevolence and dispose it for contemplation, I was wandering in a beautiful and romantic country, till curiosity began to give way to weariness; and I sat me down on a fragment of a wall overgrown with moss, where the rustling of the falling leaves, the dashing of waters, and the hum of the distant city, soothed my mind into the most perfect tranquillity, and sleep insensibly stole upon me as I was indulging the agreeable reveries which the objects around me naturally inspired.

"I immediately found myself in a vast extended plain, in the middle of which arose a mountain, higher than I had before any conception of. It was covered with a multitude of people, chiefly youths; many of whom pressed forwards with the liveliest expressions of ardour in their countenance, though the way was in many places steep and difficult. I observed that those who had just begun to climb the hill thought themselves not far from the top; but as they proceeded, new hills were continually rising to their view, and the summit of the highest they could before discern seemed but the foot of another, till the mountain at length appeared to lose itself in the clouds. As I

was gazing on these things with astonishment, my good genius suddenly appeared: 'The mountain before thee,' said he, is the Hill of Science. On the top is the temple of Truth, whose head is above the clouds, and a veil of pure light covers her face. Observe the progress of her votaries; be silent and attentive.'

"I saw that the only approach to the mountain was by a gate, called the gate of languages. It was kept by a woman of a pensive and thoughtful appearance, whose lips were continually moving, as though she repeated something to herself. Her name was Memory. On entering this first enclosure, I was stunned with a confused murmur of jarring voices and dissonant sounds, which increased upon me to such a degree that I was utterly confounded, and could compare the noise to nothing but the confusion of tongues at Babel.

"After contemplating these things, I turned my eyes towards the top of the mountain, where the air was always pure and exhilarating, the path shaded with laurels and other evergreens, and the effulgence which beamed from the face of the goddess seemed to shed a glory round her votaries. 'Happy,' said I, ' are they who are permitted to ascend the mountain!' —but while I was pronouncing this exclamation with uncommon ardour, I saw standing beside me a form of diviner features, and a more benign radiance.

Happier,' said she,' are those whom Virtue conducts to the mansions of content!' 'What!' said I, 'does Virtue, then, reside in the vale?' 'I am found,' said she, ' in the vale, and I illuminate the mountain. the cottager at his toil, and inspire the sage at his

I cheer

meditation. I mingle in the crowd of cities, and bless the hermit in his cell. I have a temple in every heart that owns my influence; and to him that wishes for me, I am already present. Science may raise you to eminence; but I, alone, can guide you to felicity!' While the goddess was thus speaking, I stretched out my arms towards her with a vehemence which broke my slumbers. The chill dews were falling round me, and the shades of evening stretched over the landscape. I hastened homeward, and resigned the night to silence and meditation."

The following fable of Lessing's is another specimen of an allegory: :

"The valiant Wolf.

"My father, of glorious memory,' said a young wolf to a fox, 'was a perfect hero! What a terror he made himself to the whole neighbourhood! He triumphed successively over more than two hundred enemies, and sent their wicked souls to the kingdom of perdition. No wonder, then, that at last, he himself should be conquered by one.'

'That is just the way a funeral orator would speak over a corpse,' said the fox; but the veracious historian would add: "These two hundred enemies over whom he triumphed were sheep and asses; and the one enemy by whom he was slain was the first bullock he dared to encounter."

Allegory may be occasionally introduced with very great effect in a moral essay. Dr. Johnson, in many of his essays, adopts a particular form of this figure.