Sæpe etiam immensum cœlo venit agmen aquarum,
Et fœdam glomerant tempestatem imbribus atris
Collectæ ex alto nubes: ruit arduus æther,
Et pluviâ ingenti sata læta, boumque labores
Diluit.
Georg. lib. i. 322.
Postquam altum tenuere rates, nec jam amplius ullæ
Apparent terræ; cœlum undique et undique pontus:
Tum mihi cœruleus supra caput astitit imber,
Noctem hyememque ferens: et inhorruit unda tenebris.
Æneid. lib. iii. 191.
———————— Hinc tibi copia
Manabit ad plenum benigno
Ruris honorum opulenta cornu.
Horat. Carm. lib. 1. ode 17.
Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves
Collo trahentes languido.
Horat. Epod. ii. 63.
Here I can luckily apply Horace’s rule against himself:
Est brevitate opus, ut currat sententia, neu se
Impediat verbis lassas onerantibus aures.
Serm. lib. 1. sat. x. 9.
I close this chapter with a curious inquiry. An object, however ugly to the sight, is far from being so when represented by colours or by words. What is the cause of this difference? The cause with respect to painting is obvious. A good picture, whatever the subject be, is agreeable, because of the pleasure we take in imitation: the agreeableness of imitation overbalances the disagreeableness of the subject; and the picture upon the whole is agreeable. It requires a greater compass to explain the cause with respect to the description of an ugly object. To connect individuals in the social state, no one particular contributes more than language, by the power it possesses of an expeditious communication of thought and a lively representation of transactions. But nature hath not been satisfied to recommend language by its utility merely: it is made susceptible of many beauties that have no relation to utility, which are directly felt without the intervention of any reflection[43]. And this unfolds the mystery; for the pleasure of language is so great, as in a lively description to overbalance the disagreeableness of the image raised by it[44]. This however is no encouragement to deal in disagreeable subjects; for the pleasure is out of sight greater where the subject and the description are both of them agreeable.
The following description is upon the whole agreeable, though the subject described is in itself dismal.
Nine times the space that measures day and night
To mortal men, he with his horrid crew
Lay vanquish’d, rowling in the fiery gulf
Confounded though immortal: but his doom
Reserv’d him to more wrath; for now the thought
Both of lost happiness and lasting pain
Torments him; round he throws his baleful eyes
That witness’d huge affliction and dismay,
Mix’d with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:
At once as far as angels ken he views
The dismal situation waste and wild:
A dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As one great furnace flam’d; yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv’d only to discover sights of wo,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all; but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed
With ever burning sulphur unconsum’d:
Such place eternal justice had prepar’d
For those rebellious.
Paradise Lost, book 1. l. 50.
An unmanly depression of spirits in time of danger is not an agreeable sight; and yet a fine description or representation of it will be relished: