Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	blood_n	part_n	vein_n	7,575	5	9.7132	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49144	A treatise of the loftiness or elegancy of speech written originally in Greek by Longin, and now translated out of French by Mr. J.P.; Ars rhetorica. English. 1680	Longinus, Cassius, ca. 213-273.; J. P.	1680 (1680)	Wing L3001; ESTC R31704	42,960	188

that fundamentall and wholsom Law of levelling wherein consisted the felicity of the ancient Greeks With this band of Metaphors our Orator falls furiously upon those Traytors Yet Aristotle and Theophrastes are of opinion that to alleviate the boldness of these figures 't is convenient to use some such expression as If I may so say as it were to go yet further For say they very well the previous excuse is an Attonement for their boldness But I still stick to my first position that there is no excuse so natural or allowable for the abundance or boldness either of Metaphors or any other Figures as the using 'em to a fit purpose that is the being pathetical and lofty both which requiring strong and weighty expressions have a natural force and violence wherewith they hurry every thing after them and will not give the audience time to criticize upon the number of the Metaphors being at that instant possessed with the same fury as he that says them And many times in common places and descriptions there is nothing so advantageous as a chain of Metaphors well linkt together 'T is with the Assistance thereof that Xenophon has so delicately anatomized mans body though not altogether so well as Plato This calls the Head of a Man a Cittadel the Neck an Isthmus plac'd between it and the body the Joynts are as Hinges upon which it turns Pleasure is the bait for all misfortunes that happen to mankind the Tongue is the Judge of Tast The Heart is the Root of the veins the fountain of bloud which flows from thence through all the other parts and is in a place every way fortified He calls the Pores narrow streets The Gods says he willing to preserve the Heart from Batteries which are made by a suddain surprize of frightfull objects or from the violent flames of choller have plac'd underneath it the Liver which is of a soft bloudless substance but full of little holes like a spunge which serve for conveyances to the Heart that it be not choak'd up and disturb'd from doing its office when the choler is too much enflam'd He calls the seat of the affections the Womens Nursery and the seat of the Passions the Mens Apartment The spleen he says is the Kitchen of the Entralls which being full of the excrements of the Liver swells and boyls up afterwards continues he the Gods cover'd all these parts with flesh as a Bulwark and defence against the assaults of heat and Cold or any other accident and is says he like soft wool which encompasses the body and yields to any impression The Bloud he calls the food of the flesh and to the end says he that every part shou'd be nourish'd there are several Pipes like Conduit Pipes in a Garden through which the little streams of bloud flowing from the heart as the Spring-Head run into every part of the Body And when death comes he says that the Organs are unty'd like the Ropes of the Ship and so let the soul go a drift There are many more no less pleasant and admirable but these shall suffice to shew the natural loftiness of such figures to shew I say how material they are not only to the being lofty and pathetical but excellent in description Now that these figures as well as all other elegancies of speech are apt to transport a thing to excess is a most undeniable truth and not to be learn'd of me Hence is it that divine Plato has been much found fault with for suffering himself to be sometimes hurried away by extravagant and harsh Metaphors to a vain allegorical Ostentation 'T will not easily be conceived says he that 't is with a City as with a Vessel wherein if Wine be powred which is never so strong and heady yet of a sudden entring into the Society of another sober divinity which corrects it it becomes mild and fit to be drunk To call Water a sober Divinity to use the word correct in stead of Temperate and to affect such odd conceits savours too much say they of a Poet who himself is not very sober And this perhaps was it that gave occasion to Cecilius in his Commentaries upon Lycias to conclude that in the whole Lycias was a better Orator then Plato induced thereunto by two distinct motives both equally unreasonable for though he lov'd Lycias dearer than himself yet he hated Plato more than he loved Lycias being therefore byas'd by a strong inclination for the one and as strong an aversion for the other he has not pass'd that true and impartial Judgment upon several points in these Authors as probably he may imagine For he accuses Plato of growing flat in many places but speaks of the other as a most correct and unquestionable writer which is so far from being true that there is not the least glimpse of reason for what he says and where shall we meet with an Author that does not now and then forget himself and let slip something justly to be carp'd at CHAP. XXVII Whether that which is plain and profitable is to be preferr'd to Loftiness which is defective IT may not perhaps be unseasonable to examine in this place whether is most to be preferr'd be it in Prose or Poetry that which is Lofty and Defective or that which is Plain but withall very compleat and again whether a piece is most to be valued according to the number or quality of the good things contained therein For these Questions being naturally incident to the present Subject must inevitably be resolv'd First then that which is extoarrdinary Great and Lofty cannot have that naturall purity that which is plain and easie for that a too great care of being Polite and Elegant does oftentimes degenerate into lowliness and as those who have vast Estates must though unwillingly neglect some one part or other so those who aime at an extroardinary Loftiness cannot possibly but be careless in some few particulars On the contrary 't is very hard if not impossible to finde any faults in a stile that is plain and indifferent for the fancy not venturing to mount too high but observing a just Medium remains secure whereas in Loftiness it soares to so great a pitch that 't is apt to grow Giddy and so be in continuall danger of falling Nor am I ignorant of what may be Objected that 't is natural to judge of mens Writing according to what is worst in them and that the faults which are observed leave a strong impression upon the mind when that which is exact and smooth passes currantly off and though I have taken notice of severall faults in Homer and the most remarkable Authors and am perhaps one who will as little countenance them as any body yet give me leave to say that I look upon them to be very slight and not so much to be accounted faults as insignificant mistakes which while their thoughts were wholly intended upon great things they have carelesly let slip