elements of criticism volume 2 natural law and enlightenment classics Knud Haakonssen General Editor Henry Home, Lord Kames uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ii ii ii iinatural law and iienlightenment classics ii ii ii ii ii iiElements ii iiof ii ii iiCriticism ii iivolume 2 ii ii iiHenry Home, Lord Kames ii iiThe Sixth Edition ii ii iiEdited and with an Introduction by Peter Jones ii ii iiMajor Works of Henry Home, Lord Kames ii ii ii ii iiliberty fund iiIndianapolis ii ii ii uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals. The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as the design motif for our endpapers is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 b.c. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash. Introduction, annotations ᭧ 2005 Liberty Fund, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 09 08 07 06 05 c 54321 09 08 07 06 05 p 54321 Frontispiece and cover (detail): Portrait of Henry Home, Lord Kames, by David Martin. Reproduced with permission of the National Galleries of Scotland. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kames, Henry Home, Lord, 1696–1782. Elements of criticism / Henry Home, Lord Kames; edited and with an introduction by Peter Jones. p. cm.—(Major works of Henry Home, Lord Kames) (Natural law and enlightenment classics) Originally published: 6th ed. Edinburgh: J. Bell and W. Creech; London: T. Cadell and G. Robinson, 1785. Includes bibliographical references. isbn 0-86597-466-7 (set: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-469-1 (set: soft: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-467-5 (v. 1: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-470-5 (v. 1: sc: alk. paper) 1. Criticism. 2. Style, Literary. I. Jones, Peter (Peter H.), 1935– . II. Title. III. Series. pn81.k3 2005 801Ј.95—dc22 2004063389 isbn 0-86597-468-3 (v. 2: alk. paper) isbn 0-86597-471-3 (v. 2: sc: alk. paper) liberty fund, inc. 8335 Allison Pointe Trail, Suite 300 Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-1684 contents elements of criticism The Sixth Edition Volume 2 369 Index to This Edition 779 ELEMENTS <1> of CRITICISM. TheSIXTH EDITION. with the AUTHOR’S LAST CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONS. volume ii edinburgh: Printed for JOHN BELL and WILLIAM CREECH, And for T. CADELL and G. ROBINSON, London. m,dcc,lxxxv. <2> <3> contents1 volume ii Chap. 18. Beauty of Language, 3 Sect. 1. Beauty of Language with respect to Sound, 6 Sect. 2. Beauty of Language with respect to Signification, 18 Sect. 3. Beauty of Language from a resemblance between Sound and Signification, 83 Sect. 4. Versification, 98 Chap. 19. Comparisons, <xvi> 183 Chap. 20. Figures, 227 Sect. 1. Personification, 228 Sect. 2. Apostrophe, 255 Sect. 3. Hyperbole, 259 Sect. 4. The Means or Instrument conceived to be the Agent, 267 Sect. 5. A Figure which, among related Objects, extends the Properties of one to another, 268 Sect. 6. Metaphor and Allegory, 275 Sect. 7. Figure of Speech, 299 Table 1. Subjects expressed figuratively, 305 Table 2. Attributes expressed figuratively, 312 1. The original page numbers from the sixth edition are retained here. 371 372 original contents Chap. 21. Narration and Description, 325 Chap. 22. Epic and Dramatic Compositions, 370 Chap. 23. The Three Unities, 404 Chap. 24. Gardening and Architecture, 430 Chap. 25. Standard of Taste, 487 Appendix. Terms defined or explained, 505 ELEMENTS OF CRITICISM. u chapter xviii u Beauty of Language 1 Of all the fine arts, painting only and sculpture are in their natureimitative. An ornamented field is not a copy or imitation of nature, but nature itself embellished. Architecture is productive of originals, and copies not from nature. Sound and motion may in some measure be imitated by music; but for the most part music, like architecture, is productive of originals. Lan- guage copies not from nature, more than music or architecture; unless where, like music, it is imitative of sound or motion. Thus, in the descrip- tion of particular sounds, language sometimes furnisheth words, which, beside their customary power of <4> exciting ideas, resemble by their soft- ness or harshness the sounds described; and there are words which, by the celerity or slowness of pronunciation, have some resemblance to the mo- tion they signify. The imitative power of words goes one step farther: the loftiness of some words makes them proper symbols of lofty ideas; a rough subject is imitated by harsh-sounding words; and words of many syllables pronounced slow and smooth, are expressive of grief and melancholy. 1. Kames added many new quotations to the text of this central chapter in editions after the first. 373 374 chapter xviii Words have a separate effect on the mind, abstracting from their signifi- cation and from their imitative power: they are more or less agreeable to the ear, by the fulness, sweetness, faintness, or roughness of their tones. These are but faint beauties, being known to those only who have more than ordinary acuteness of perception. Language possesseth a beauty su- perior greatly in degree, of which we are eminently sensible when a thought is communicated with perspicuity and sprightliness. This beauty of lan- guage, arising from its power of expressing thought, is apt to beconfounded with the beauty of the thought itself: the beauty of thought, transferred to the expression, makes it appear more beautiful.* But these beauties, if we wish to <5> think accurately, must be distinguished from each other. They are in reality so distinct, that we sometimes are conscious of the highest pleasure language can afford, when the subject expressed is disagreeable: a thing that is loathsome, or a scene of horror to make one’s hair stand on end, may be described in a manner so lively, as that the disagreeableness of the subject shall not even obscure the agreeableness of the description. The causes of the original beauty of language, considered as significant, which is a branch of the present subject, will be explained in their order. I shall only at present observe, that this beauty is the beauty of means fitted to an end, that of communicating thought: and hence it evidently appears, that of several expressions all conveying the same thought, the most beautiful, in the sense now mentioned, is that which in the most perfect manner an- swers its end. The several beauties of language above mentioned, being of different kinds, ought to be handled separately. I shall begin with those beauties of language that arise from sound; after which will follow the beauties of lan- guage considered as significant: this order appears natural; for the <6> sound of a word is attended to, before we consider its signification. In a third section come those singular beauties of language that are derivedfrom * Chap. 2. part 1. sect. 5. Demetrius Phalereus (of Elocution, sect. 75.) makes the same observation. We are apt, says that author, to confound the language with the subject; and if the latter be nervous, we judge the same of the former. But they are clearly dis- tinguishable; and it is not uncommon to find subjects of great dignity dressed in mean language. Theopompus is celebrated for the force of his diction; but erroneously: his subject indeed has great force, but his style very little. beauty of language 375 a resemblance between sound and signification. The beauties of verse are handled in the last section: for though the foregoing beauties are found in verse as well as in prose, yet verse has many peculiar beauties, which for the sake of connection must be brought under one view; and versification, at any rate, is a subject of so great importance, as to deserve a place by itself. section i Beauty of Language with respect to Sound. This subject requires the following order. The sounds of the differentletters come first: next, these sounds as united in syllables: third, syllables united in words: fourth, words united in a period: and in the last place, periods united in a discourse. With respect to the first article, every vowel is sounded with a single expiration of air from the wind-pipe, through the cavity of the mouth. By varying this cavity, the different vowels are sounded: for the air in passing through cavities differing in size, produceth various sounds, some high or <7> sharp, some low or flat; a small cavity occasions a high sound, a large cavity a low sound. The five vowels accordingly, pronounced with the same extension of the wind-pipe, but with different openings of themouth,form a regular series of sounds, descending from high to low, in the following order, i, e, a, o, u.* Each of these sounds is agreeable to the ear: and if it be required which of them is the most agreeable, it is perhaps safest to hold, that those vowels which are the farthest removed from the extremes, will be the most relished. This is all I have to remark upon the first article: for consonants being letters that of themselves have no sound, serve only in conjunction with vowels to form articulate sounds; and as every articulate sound makes a syllable, consonants come naturally under thesecondarticle; to which we proceed. A consonant is pronounced with a less cavity than any vowel; and con- * In this scale of sounds, the letter i must be pronounced as in the word interest, and as in other words beginning with the syllable in; the letter e as in persuasion; the letter a as in hat; and the letter u as in number.