tion,' movement,' motive power,' vigour,' propulsion '; 'powerful,'' effective,'' efficacious,' energetic,' influential,' 'vivacious, vehement,' 'impetuous,' 'impulsive'; 'convulsion,' shock,' 'strain'.

As resistance.-' Rock,' 'iron,'' adamant'; 'stubborn,' unflinching,' 'irresistible,' 'insuperable,' 'invincible,' 'unyielding,' 'inexpugnable,' impregnable '.

Special examples applicable to Space and to Time.'Expanse,' 'vastness,' 'extension,' 'range,' 'scope,' 'ubiquity,' 'diffusion,' 'immensity,' 'height,' 'loftiness,' 'depth,' 'abysm,' 'sweep,' 'scope'; 'ample,' capacious,' 'unbounded,' 'immeasurable,'infinite, inconceivable,' distant,' 'far,' ' remote,'' afar off'.

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Time,'' duration,' 'persistence,' 'perpetuity,' 'years,' 'century,' 'millennium,' 'aeon'; 'unceasing,' endless,' 'immortal,' 'everlasting,' 'enduring,' ' perennial,' 'imperishable,' ́ eternal,' ' for ever and ever'.

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Inanimate Things (the great objects and powers of Nature).-Star,' 'firmament,' 'constellation,' 'galaxy' 'ocean,' 'tide,' 'river,' 'torrent,' 'cataract'; 'mountain,' 'rock,' 'desert,' waste,' 'forest'; 'storm,' 'tempest,' 'hurricane,' whirlwind,' 'tornado,' 'cyclone,' 'blizzard,' 'thunder,' volcano,' hail,' 'rain'.

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(Artificial structures on the great scale).—'Castle,'' tower,' 'palace,' 'mansion,' 'church,' cathedral,' 'spire'; 'fort,' stockade,' 'rampart,' 'battery,' 'barricade,' 'ship of war,' 'steam-engine,' 'bridge,' 'viaduct,' 'harbour,' 'colossus'; 'cyclopean'.

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Abstract Names (Personal and Impersonal).-'Night,' 'chaos,' 'nature,' 'law,' 'force,' 'power,' 'splendour,' 'glory,' 'majesty,' 'effulgence,' 'greatness,' space,' time,' the deep,' tower of strength,' heaven's concave'; 'life,' 'death,' 'humanity,' divinity,'' excellence,' 'perfectibility,' 'superhuman might,' thought,' 'imagination, contemplation,' 'memory,' 'oblivion,' 'choice,' 'freedom,' 'liberty,' 'will,' 'fear,' 'courage,' 'love,'' hate,' 'endurance,' 'ferocity unparalleled,' 'friendship,' 'truth,' 'justice,' 'veracity,' 'virtue,' 'faith,' 'hope,' fortune,' 'chance,' 'prosperity,' 'calamity,'' necessity,' 'destruction,' 'ruin'.

Negative Terms used for Strength.—The form of negation

NEGATIVE AND NUMERICAL TERMS.

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is favourable to strength, as involving opposition, resistance, denial, refusal, defiance: qualities that by their very nature demand a surplus of energy. As-'infinite,' 'illimitable,' 'immeasurable,' unceasing'. Some are adapted to signify the mysteriousness of the world:-'unknown,' unknowable, 'inconceivable,' 'incomprehensible,' 'ineffable,' 'inexhaustible,' the uncreated night'. Of promiscuous signification are—‘unendurable,' 'incorruptible,' 'unfading,' 'undecaying,' 'inopportune,'' nonentity'.

The negative prefixes 'mis' and 'dis,' and the suffix less,' impart a similar energy. So with the employment of 'no' and 'not': 'no second place' is stronger than 'the first'.

Numerical terms, when in large aggregate numbers, contribute to energy. Homer attributes to Stentor the shout of 'fifty' men. 'Thousands' and 'tens of thousands' enter into the phraseology of vastness.

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships?

For exercise in discriminating the terms and phraseology of strength, reference may be made to Milton anywhere. Gray's Progress of Poesy' and 'The Bard' offer a wide field of choice.

CONDITIONS OF STRENGTH.

1. The Aids to Qualities in general being presupposed, there are certain conditions of STRENGTH in particular, common to all its various forms.

It is not enough for Strength simply to name one or more objects of the class that yield the emotion. All the requirements already enumerated-Representative force, Combination and Concreteness, Originality or Variety, Personality, Harmony, Ideality-must further be complied with. There is also involved the employment of the energetic Figures of Speech-Similitudes, Contrast, Epigram, Hyperbole, Climax.

In laying down the conditions more expressly belonging to the quality, we cannot help involving applications of the foregoing.

(1) Adequate delineation of the subject, with due regard to the points of interest.

For example, as regards physical strength and the personified forces of nature, the description should single out the precise features that the quality depends upon; being, at the same time, conceivable, consistent, mutually supporting, and free from distracting and irrelevant particulars.

For the moral hero, the method of delineation combines laudatory epithets with narrated conduct; all properly chosen, and fulfilling the several requisites of Ideality, Harmony and Originality or freshness. The poets of Greece afford the earliest examples of success in depicting moral prowess, whether maleficent or beneficent in its employ

ment.

It is under this head that we may see the propriety of attending to the ultimate Constituents of the quality, as made up of maleficent or beneficent adjuncts, together with the more neutral attributes.

(2) The introduction of circumstances that re-act upon the quality; more especially, Effects and Comparisons.

Strength has no absolute value; it subsists upon comparison, like height or depth. Hence the need of constant reference to some standard of judgment—either the effects produced, or some examples of contrasting inferiority.

(3) Harmonizing supports and surroundings.

This condition belongs to Strength in common with other poetic attributes, and is brought forward by way of reminder.

(4) The Subjective Feeling of the supposed spectator.

This aid, also, has its value everywhere; and abundance of cases may be quoted where it is either overdone or misapplied.

(5) A certain degree of Restraint and Suggestiveness.

The mildness of a powerful man, when his power is unmistakeable, may be more impressive than a show of energy. The laws of effective suggestion will appear in the examples.

2. The conditions of Strength are further illustrated by a review of the faults to be avoided in the endeavour to produce it.

(1) The designations Turgidity, Inflation, Bombast, Fustian, Falsetto, Bathos, Magniloquence (in the bad sense), point to the danger of overdoing the language of strength without the requisite supports.

FAILURES IN STRENGTH.

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(2) Arid and uninteresting description, from relying too much on neutral strength, and dispensing with its unctuous emotional accompaniments.

(3) The opposite extreme of pushing malevolence to the horrible, or beneficence to the maudlin. Also making too exclusive use of the emotions, and not doing justice to the grandeur of strength in its neutral character. To work up an imposing picture of pure strength is a great triumph of poetic art.

STRENGTH EXEMPLIFIED.

In the detailed examination of illustrative passages, there is a choice of arrangement-namely, by Classes or by Constituents. If the classes were chosen-Physical, Moral, &c., there would still be wanted a reference to the modes of producing strength, according to its ultimate elements. Whence the preferable course seems to be to follow the order of constituents, under which will fall the several classes as may happen. Moreover, it is only a little way that we can go in obtaining passages under any one head exclusively. In the end, the choice will have to be promiscuous, and the illustration scattered over the classes and constituents at random.

Nevertheless, it is desirable, in the first instance, to exemplify separately Maleficent Strength (including the special case of War or Conflict), Beneficent Strength and Neutral Strength.

MALEFICENT STRENGTH.

MALIGNITY PURE AND SIMPLE.

In the Literature of the world, a large place has always been allowed to the interest of Malignity, regard being had to the necessity of disguising it in a greater or less degree.

As everywhere else, the requirement of adequate, select and consistent representation is supposed: although the strength of the passion allows this to be in a measure dispensed with. The more express artistic condition is to keep within the bounds that each age can tolerate, and to

veil the nakedness of the malignant pleasure by pretexts, diversion, poetic glitter and all the known means of refining the grosser kinds of pleasure.

The foremost pretext for malignant infliction is always Retribution or Revenge, which must be made to appear sufficient, according to the feeling of the time. As the sympathetic side of our nature makes progress, the justification needs to be more ample. A considerable interval divides Malignant Revenge from Righteous Indignation.

Adverting first to the literature of antiquity, we note, as regards Homer, that his audience enjoyed thoroughly, as we do partially, the malignity and cruelty of the leading The harsh conduct of Achilles, however, is personages. glossed over by the provocation he received, by his tragic fate, and by the nobler parts of his character,-that is to say, the intensity of his friendship and his bursts of generosity. Moreover, the poet adorns him with gifts of person and a splendid intellect. These mixtures and palliatives were quite enough to appease the twitchings of sympathy for his victims.

The Greek Tragedians had to set forth dreadful incidents of malignant fury, and to record many undeserved calamities happening to individuals. To give these last the appearance of retribution, they had to resort to fictitious crimes and hereditary liabilities. The arts of poetry being superadded, the mixture proved sufficient. When the disasters seem too great for a family curse, they are dealt with theologicallythat is, by the view of divine government that allows a share to Fate; desert being entirely abandoned.

Any theory of the pleasure of Tragedy that leaves out men's disinterested delight in the infliction of suffering is unequal to the explanation of the phenomenon. The poet is not called upon to choose subjects that grate upon our sympathies, and would not do so unless he could light upon some adequate compensation. By striking the malignant chord of our nature, he does much more than allay the sympathetic pain.

Both Tragedy and Comedy alike repose upon the gratification of our malevolence. The difference between the two will be apparent afterwards.

In middle age Literature-as, for example, in Dantesuffering is for the most part related to misdeeds; but, in