Nec est majus in dicendo, quam
ut Orator sic moveatur, ut impetu quodam animi, & perturbatione
magis quam concilio regatur. Plura enim multo homines judicant
odio, & amore, & cupiditate, &c. quam veritate & praescripto.
De Orat. Lib. II. c. 42.]

It is obvious, that in Lyric Poetry the Author cannot run into this
series of methodised allegory, because the subjects of the Ode are real
incidents which would be disfigured by the continued action of
fictitious personages. His descriptions therefore ought to be concise,
diversified, and adapted properly to that train of sentiment which he is
employed to illustrate. When this is the case, we are highly entertained
with frequent personifications, as these are criterions by which we
estimate the genius of the Poet.

I need not, my Lord, to suggest on this branch of my subject, that it
requires the utmost delicacy to personify inanimate objects so justly,
as to render them adapted in every circumstance to the occasion on which
they are introduced. Your Lordship however will permit me to observe,
that as the happiest effect is produced upon the mind of the reader by
the judicious introduction of an ideal personage; so he is apt to be
disgusted in an equal degree, when the conduct of the Poet in this
instance is in the smallest measure irregular or defective. When an
intellectual idea falls under the cognizance of an external sense, it is
immediately surveyed with an accuracy proportioned to its importance,
and to the distance at which we suppose it to be placed. We judge of
Virtue and Vice, when represented as persons, in the same manner as we
judge of men whose appearance is suggested by memory; and we therefore
expect that these ideal figures shall be discriminated from each other
by their dress, attitudes, features, and behaviour, as much as two real
persons of opposite characters always are in the familiar intercourse of
ordinary life. In reality we assign a particular shape, complection, and
manner to the creatures of imagination, by the same rule which leads us
to ascribe a certain assemblage of features to a person whom we have
never seen, upon seeing his character particularly displayed, or upon
listening to a minute detail of his actions. Nay, odd as it may appear,
it is yet certain, that in many instances our idea of the imaginary
person may be more distinct and particular than that of the real one.
Thus we often find that the representation exhibited