The above instances may serve to shew how easily the hyperbolical style may slide into the ridiculous. The last of them is only surpassed by one which is quoted by the authors of the Bathos

"He roar'd so loud, and look'd so wondrous grim, "His very shadow durst not follow him."

Or another from the same assemblage of hu mour. The poet is speaking of a frighted stag, who

"Hears his own feet, and thinks they sound like more, "And fears the hind feet will o'ertake the fore."

One more I cannot help transcribing. It is the description of that elegant entertainment a bull-baiting, by Sir Richard Blackmore→

Up to the stars the sprawling mastiffs fly,
"And add new monsters to the frighted sky."

Nothing in short can be more fertile in the ridiculous than the awkward attempts of bad writers at the hyperbole. On this account, I can give you no better rule with respect to the use of it, than to employ it as little as possible. Irony has been classed as a figure of rhetoric by Farnaby, and other writers of equal taste

and brilliancy; but with deference to such high authorities, I would rather consider it as a style of writing than as a figure of speech. Dr. Priestley observes, that "all irony is humour, but all humour is not irony." In other words, irony is a species of humour, and if you will attend to the definition of humour, which I attempted in Letter VI. viz. that it depends upon the same principle of contrast as wit; but that in humour, the mind of the reader or auditor is left to make the comparison for itself, and form the contrast; you will find that it strictly applies to irony. This figure (if a figure we must call it) generally consists in giving undeserved praise, implying censure on the object; or conveying censure under the appearance of praise; but the former is the most common. I remember however a very pretty stroke of irony of the latter kind. When the King of Prussia, Frederic II. published his poem on the art of war, he took no notice of Marlborough. On this circumstance, the Monthly Reviewers remarked, "that they presumed his Majesty had omitted the name of Marlborough, in the catalogue of distinguised commanders, because he might deem him deficient in one branch of his

profession, having never on any occasion evin ced his skill in conducting a retreat.”

The greatest master in irony is Swift; and his "Tale of a Tub" is the most complete specimen extant of ironical composition. To select examples would be to transcribe almost half the book. Take therefore the first that occurs in the "Dedication to Prince Posterity."

"To affirm that our age is altogether unlearned, and devoid of writers of any kind, seems to be an assertion so bold and false, that I have been sometime thinking, the contrary may almost be proved by uncontroulable demonstration. It is true indeed, that although their numbers be vast, and their productions numerous in proportion, yet are they hurried so hastily off the scene, that they escape our memory, and elude our sight."

"What is then become of those immense bales of paper, which must needs have been employed in such numbers of books; can these also be wholly annihilated, and so of a sudden as I pretend? What shall I say in return to so invidious an objection; it ill befits the distance between your highness and me, to send you for ocular demonstration to a jakes or an oven;

to the windows of a bawdy-house, or to a sor did lanthern. Books, like men their authors, have no more than one way of coming into the world, but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and return no more.'

The force and delicacy of this irony may be easily understood without a comment. The sarcastic author, passes a most severe cen. sure on his contemporaries, under the colour of a very moderate and well-conducted defence.

Let it be observed that more exaggerated praise, even though it evidently appears extravagant, and meant for ridicule, is not irony. To constitute that, there must be a sarcastic archness, which, if not actual wit, must very nearly approach it, and must at least be hu mour. I shall conclude with the finest specimen of this figure extant in any language

"HERE Continueth to rot
The Body of
FRANCIS CHARTRES,

Who with an INFLEXIBLE CONSTANCY,
And INIMITABLE UNIFORMITY of Life,
"
PERSISTED,

In spite of AGE and INFIRMITIES,

T

In the Practice of EVERY HUMAN VICE,
Excepting PRODIGALITY and HYPOCRISY:
His insatiable AVARICE exempted him from the first,
His matchless IMPUDENCE from the second.
Nor was he more singular

In the undeviating Pravity of his Manners,
Than successful

In Accumulating WEALTH:

For, without TRADE or PROFESSION,
Without TRUST of PUBLIC MONEY,
And without BRIBE-WORTHY Service,
He acquired, or more properly created,
'A MINISTERIAL ESTATE.

He was the only Person of his Time
Who could CHEAT without the Mask of HONESTY,

Retain his Primæval MEANNESS

When possess'd of TEN THOUSAND a year; And having daily deserved the GIBBET for what he did, Was at last condemn'd to it for what he could not do. Oh Indignant Reader!

Think not his Life useless to Mankind;
PROVIDENCE Conniv'd at his execrable Designs,
To give to After-ages

A conspicuous PROOF and EXAMPLE,
Of how small Estimation is EXORBITANT WEALTH
In the Sight of GOD,

By his bestowing it on the most UNWORTHY of ALL

MORTALS."

A figure which the Greeks call paraleipsis,