LECTURE IV, V, VI, VII. Of the Style of Poetry. (continued 2)
Reading edition
Aristæus's Entrance into the subterraneous Grotto's of the Water Nymph Cyrene, is thus described by the same Poet:
[137] —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.