"colours, in the symmetry and proportion of parts, "in the arrangement and disposition of bodies, or "in a just mixture and concurrence of all toge "ther. Among these several kinds of beauty, the takes most delight in colours."

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eye

To the language here I see no objection that can be made.

"We no where meet with a more glorious or "pleasing show in nature, than what appears in "the heavens at the rising and setting of the sun, "which is wholly made up of those different stains "of light, that shew themselves in clouds of a "different situation."

THE chief ground of criticism on this sentence, is the disjointed situation of the relative which. Grammatically, it refers to "the rising and setting "of the sun." But the author meant, that it should refer to the show which appears in the heavens at that time. It is too common among authors, when they are writing without much care, to make such particles as this, and which, refer not to any particular antecedent word, but to the tenour of some phrase, or perhaps the scope of some whole. sentence, which has gone before. This practice saves them trouble in marshalling their words, and arranging a period: but though it may leave their meaning intelligible, yet it renders that meaning much less perspicuous, determined, and precise,

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than it might otherwise have been. The error I have pointed out, might have been avoided by a small alteration in the construction of the sentence, after some such manner as this: "We no where "meet with a more glorious and pleasing show in nature, than what is formed in the heavens at "the rising and setting of the sun, by the different "stains of light which show themselves in clouds "of different situations." Our author writes, "in "clouds of a different situation," by which he means, clouds that differ in situation from each other. But as this is neither the obvious nor grammatical meaning of his words, it was necessary to change the expression, as I have done, into the plural number.

"For this reason, we find the poets, who are always addressing themselves to the imagination, "borrowing more of their epithets from colours "than from any other topic."

On this sentence nothing occurs, except a remark similar to what was made before, of loose connection with the sentence which precedes. For, though he begins with saying, "for this reason," the foregoing sentence, which was employed about the clouds and the sun, gives no reason for the general proposition he now lays down. The reason to which he refers, was given two

when he observed, that the eye

sentences before, takes more delight

in colours than in any other beauty; and it was

with that sentence that the present one should have stood immediately connected.

"As the fancy delights in every thing that is

great, strange, or beautiful, and is still more pleased, the more it finds of these perfections in "the same object, so it is capable of receiving a "new satisfaction by the assistance of another sense."

Another sense here means grammatically, another sense than fancy. For there is no other thing in the period to which this expression, another sense, can at all be opposed. He had not for some time made mention of any sense whatever. He forgot to add, what was undoubtedly in his thoughts, another sense than that of sight.

"Thus any continued sound, as the music of birds, or a fall of water, awakens every moment "the mind of the beholder, and makes him more " attentive to the several beauties of the place which "lie before him. Thus, if there arises a fragrancy "of smells or perfumes, they heighten the plea66 sures of the imagination, and make even the co

lours and verdure of the landscape appear more "agreeable for the ideas of both senses recom"mend each other, and are pleasanter together, "than when they enter the mind separately; as "the different colours of a picture, when they are well-disposed, set off one another, and receive

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an additional beauty from the advantage of their * situation."

WHETHER Mr. Addison's theory here be just or not, may be questioned. A continued sound, such as that of a fall of water, is so far from "awaken"ing, every moment, the mind of the beholder," that nothing is more likely to lull him asleep. It may, indeed, please the imagination, and heighten the beauties of the scene; but it produces this effect, by a soothing, not by an awakening influence. With regard to the style, nothing appears exceptionable. The flow, both of language and of ideas, is very agreeable. The author continues, to the end, the same pleasing train of thought, which had run through the rest of the paper; and leaves us agreeably employed in comparing toge, ther different degrees of beauty.

LECTURE XXII.

CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE STYLE IN No. 413. OF THE SPECTATOR.

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THOUGH

HOUGH in yesterday's paper we considered "how every thing that is great, new, or beautiful, " is apt to affect the imagination with pleasure, we “must own, that it is impossible for us to assign "the necessary cause of this pleasure, because we "know neither the nature of an idea, nor the sub"stance of a human soul, which might help us "to discover the conformity or disagreeableness of "the one to the other; and, therefore, for want "of such a light, all that we can do in specula"tions of this kind, is, to reflect on those opera❝tions of the soul that are most agreeable, and to

'

range, under their proper heads, what is pleasing

or displeasing to the mind, without being able to 66 trace out the several necessary and efficient causes "from whence the pleasure or displeasure arises."

THIS sentence, considered as an introductory one, must be acknowledged to be very faulty. An introductory sentence should never contain any