97. The description of the External or Object World is more conducive to strength than the description of states of the mind.

It is a law of our nature that much attention directed upon the feelings of the mind has a debilitating effect; while, on the contrary, to be taken out of self, and made to regard external things, is inspiriting. In referring to humanity, the names implying its outward and bodily aspects are, as far as practicable, to be chosen. Better say, "Men (human beings, we) are disposed to over-rate distant good," than "the mind is disposed," our feelings exaggerate," &c. (See DESCRIPTION.)

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98. Every aid to the easy understanding of what is meant, contributes to strength.

All kinds of difficulty and labor, intellectual as well as bodily, are depressing; the relief from labor is cheering. Any device that easily and vividly suggests a picture, is a means of strength. An incoherent crowd of images oppresses the mind; order in the array, mutual harmony, and paucity of number, give the cheerful feeling of intellectual relief. The first stanzas of the Elegy of Gray are perhaps overcrowded. Hohenlinden is a nearer approach to perfection, in the proper number of ideas and images.

Notice has already been taken of Brevity and the Arrangement of Words, as sources of Strength.

99. The peculiar effect known as Soaring, or taking a flight, demands keeping in the language, a climax in the thought, and a cadence falling to the close.

See p. 91, and examples in Appendix.

100. The quality of strength and the sublime may appear in scientific composition, although not the direct aim of science.

The vast objects and powers of Nature are handled in science as well as in poetry. Geography embraces the sublime features of the earth, Astronomy the heavens. But the peculiar

force of science consists in the discovery of general laws, which embrace in a short statement a wide range of knowledge. Such enlargements of human insight and power may have the character that we are considering. The law of universal gravity is sublime.

101. The modes and effects of strength are commensurate with the variety of powers in the physical, the moral, and the intellectual world, whether cited on their own account, or adduced in illustration of something else.

One great aim of composition is to heighten some actual subject by the force of comparisons, allusions, and impressive circumstances and groupings; as, a scene of nature, an abode of mankind, an event in history. In some instances, a purely fictitious theme is worked up from borrowed materials, as in Paradise Lost.

102. The poet enhances the sublime of Nature by opening up new and impressive aspects of personality.

This is sometimes called Interpretation, as if it were the evoking of hidden meanings in the aspect of things. We should rather consider it as an agreeable illusion, brought about by superadding foreign attributes.

The department of Nature-poetry is best represented in modern times. Reference may be made to Thomson, Cowper, Beattie, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats, Tennyson, and, among American poets, to Bryant.

The noble lines of Coleridge on Mount Blanc exemplify the sublime. The following from Wordsworth is more akin to

Pathos :

"Then up I rose

And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash

And merciless ravage; and the shady nook

Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower,

Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up
Their quiet being."

FEELING-PATHOS.

103. In contrast to the sentiment of Power, there is a class of emotions allied to inaction, repose, and the passive side of our nature. They may flourish even under the consciousness of weakness. The generic title of these emotions is Tender Feeling.

The word feeling is sometimes used in a restricted sense, to mean tender feeling, or tenderness. Love and the warm affections are displays of tender emotions. Pathos and the Pathetic are other designations of the same quality.

Considered as a large source of human pleasure, these emotions are important. They are a bond of mutual attraction, and increase by being shared; they manifest themselves as a soothing and cheering influence in the depths of misery and depression.

104. The Tender Feelings are awakened by objects of special affection, by displays of active goodness, by humane sentiments, by pain and misery, and by pleasures, especially such as are gentle rather than acute. In highly pathetic situations, several of these modes are combined.

We have here to do with these influences, not in the actual, but as expressed in language; and the illustration of them will be determined accordingly.

(1.) As to what relates to the strong special affections of mankind. Richter says, "Unhappy is the man whose mother does not make all mothers interesting." Inasmuch as the generality of human beings have experienced some of the special attachments of family, friendship, and country, any allusion that strongly reminds them of these relationships has a tender influence. Such allusions form a principal ingredient in all kinds of poetry. The love tale is indispensable to the drama and the Romance.

(2.) Acts of goodness awaken the tender sentiment both in

the recipient and in the beholder. Hence the charm of narratives illustrative of compassion, beneficence, and philanthropy. The spectacle of devotedness has in every age exercised a fascination over men's minds. Of the ideal pictures indulged in by poets, this is the most frequent. The relation of protector and protected is dwelt upon even to excess.

Burke's picture of Howard is touching :-"He has visited all Europe, to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries."

(3.) The mere expression of kindly and humane sentiments works in the same way. These sentiments are the echo and approval of active goodness, and lose their power only when offered as a substitute for the actions themselves.*

(4.) Pain, misery, calamity," all the ills that flesh is heir to "-stir the depths of our tender nature. The words pity, compassion, mean tenderness at the prompting of distress. It is most natural that the pains of the affections should awaken the feeling. The fate of mortality common to all, and its untimely arrival and untoward circumstances in the case of the greater number, keep us in constant readiness for the tender outburst. The passing away of generation after generation, the sinking into forgetfulness, the long and last farewell,—are the

*One of the most touching passages in ancient poetry is that contained in Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book xv.), where the poet, in describing the tenets of the Pythagoreans, dwells upon their feeling of the sacredness of animal life. After adverting to the deserved punishment of the wild beast for his ravages and spoliation, he exclaims, "What have ye done to be so treated, ye gentle sheep, made to provide for men, ye that bear nectar in the full teat, that give us your wool for covering, and are more helpful in life than in death? What has the ox done, a guileless innocent beast, made to endure toil?" "Unmindful he, and not worthy to be repaid with crops, who could kill the tiller of his fields, as soon as the weight of the crooked plough was removed; who struck with the axe that neck worn with labor, which had so often renewed the hard field and given so many harvests!" (116–126).

SOURCES OF PATHOS.

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touching themes of religion, the inspiration of the tragic poet, the soul-engrossing actuality.

It is a strong testimony to the power of this emotion, not merely to tranquillize, but to cause delight, that for the sake of it we can bear with tales and pictures of distress. Even death can yield a powerful fascination. Bear witness Gray's Elegy and Bryant's Thanatopsis.

(5.) Though it appears a contradiction, the tender feeling is awakened by pleasure as well as by pain; particularly by the gentle pleasures, as opposed to the fiery and exciting-by such as are compatible with repose. The example most relevant to our present object is the Beautiful in the narrow sense, as opposed to the Sublime. The characteristic elements of beauty, as will be seen, are certain sensuous pleasures of the sight and hearing, coupled with harmonies, and extended by associations. These incline to, and adopt, tenderness as a kindred quality.

Any very intense pleasure will dispose to tender feeling. Even the elation of power may show itself in affectionate condescension; and the sentiment of the sublime may be mingled with what pertains to beauty.

The vocabulary of Tenderness corresponds to these various sources of emotion.

(1.) Mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, child, lover, husband, wife, home, hearth, friend, country, God, Saviour. (2, 3.) Good, kind, benevolent, protecting, generous, humane, love, the heart, fond, devoted, sacrifice, affection, sympathy, pity, compassion, fellow-feeling, disinterestedness. (4.). Pain, agony, torment, awe, sadness, tears, distress, misery, adversity, calamity, disaster, trouble, trial, affliction, bitterness, sinking, desolation, bereavement, fatherless, widow, orphan, wretchedness, tribulation, sorrow, grief, inconsolable, tragic, pathetic, despairing, doomed, devoted, accursed, death, the grave, the tomb, the departed. (5.) Pleasure, joy, rejoicing, delight, charm, happiness, felicity, bliss, transport, glad, grateful, cordial, genial, heart-felt.

105. With allowance for difference of subject, the conditions of the employment of language to raise pathetic emotion are the same as for strength. (See p. 89.)

A mere profusion of the phraseology and images of pathos,