and lofty have chiefly proceeded from thofe, who have been remarkable for greatness of foul. For inftance; Alexander's anfwer to Parmenio is truly fublime, and clearly expreffes his elevated fentiments and the greatness of his mind. Darius having offered Alexander his daughter and half his kingdom to purchase peace, "I would accept of fuch terms," fays Parmenio, " if I were Alexander." To which Alexander made this noble reply, "And fo would I, if I were Parmenio." Many examples of the fublime may be found in the works of Homer, Virgil, Milton, Cicero and Demofthenes, and other celebrated writers. The holy fcriptures abound with inftances of inimitable fublimity. With what awful pomp and majefty is the Supreme Being represented in the eighteenth Pfalm. "He bowed the heavens and came down ; and darknefs was under his feet. He rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind." The fame vein of sublimity is to be discerned in innumerable paffages of the facred writings. I shall mention only one more from the book of Job, namely, the admirable defcription of a war-horse. "Haft thou given the horse ftrength? Haft thou cloathed his neck with thunder? Canft thou make him afraid as a grafshopper. The glory of his noftrils is terrible. He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength; he goeth on to meet the armed inen. He mocketh at fear and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the fword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering fpear and the fhield. He swalloweth the ground with fiercenefs and rage; neither believeth he that it is the found of the trumpet. He faith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he fmelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting." I fhall conclude this chapter with an inftance of the fublime, taken from a modern author, whose writings are deservedly admired by all perfons of taste and judgment; I mean Mr. Thomson, who, in his poem called Summer, thus loftily defcribes a ftorm of thunder and lightning: "'Tis lift'ning fear, and dumb amazement all: "When to the startled eye the fudden glance Appears far fouth, eruptive through the cloud; "And following flower, in explosion vast, "The Thunder raifes his tremendous voice, "At first, heard folemn o'er the verge of heav'n, "The tempeft growls; but as it nearer comes, "And rolls its awful burden on the wind, "The "The lightnings flafh a larger curve and more " Expansive, wrapping æther in a blaze. "Follows the loofen'd, aggravated roar, "Enlarging, deep'ning, mingling, peal on peal "Crush'd horrible, convulfing heav'n and earth.” THE CHAP. XCV. OF THE MEDIATE STYLE. HE mediate, called alfo the intermediate, or equable ftyle, is a fpecies of eloquence between the plain and the fublime, having neither the fimplicity of the former, nor the force and energy of the latter. It is fometimes called the embellished or florid style, because it admits of all the ornaments of art, the beauty of figures, the fplendor of metaphors, the luftre of thoughts, the grace of digreffions, the harmony of numbers and cadence. Quintilian Quintilian compares it to a beautiful river, whofe water is pure and clear, which flows gently, and is fhaded on each fide with verdant woods. The mediate ftyle is adapted to any fubject of an indifferent nature, not very high, nor very low. Cicero's orations comprehend all the fpecies of eloquence, or various forts of ftyle; but perhaps the young scholar will more easily distinguish them in Virgil, whofe Eclogues are an instance of the plain ftyle, his Georgics of the mediate, and his Eneid of the noblest sublimity. CHAP. XCVI. OF THE ASIATIC AND LACONIC STYLE, THE HE Afiatic ftyle is very diffufive or prolix, abundance of words being used to exprefs litIt was fo called by the Greeks from the people of Afia, who affected fuch redundancies. tle matter. The Laconic ftyle is quite the reverse of the former, being diftinguifhed by its extraordinary con cifenefs, cifenefs, and by comprehending a great deal of matter under a few words. It is called Laconic from Laconia, a country of Peloponnefus, of which the chief city was Lace- dæmon or Sparta, whose inhabitants were remarkable for writing and. speaking in a pithy and concife manner. The answer of Cleomenes, the Spartan general, to the ambaffador of Samos, is an inftance of this ftyle. "As to what you have faid, the first part I do not remember; the middle I do not underftand; the last I do not approve." As an example of a ftill more fententious and expreffive concifenefs, take the following letter: The Lacedæmonians to Philip. "Dionyfius is at Corinth." At the time when this was written, Dionyfius, who for his tyranny had been driven out of Sicily, taught a school at Corinth for bread. It was, therefore, a hint to Philip not to proceed, as he had be gun, to imitate Dionyfius's conduct, left he should be reduced to the fame neceffitous condition. But to carry the matter ftill farther, the Lacedæmonians fometimes anfwered a long epiftle by a fingle word, as they did that of an enemy threaten |