Next as to examples of disjunction and oppofition in the parts of the thought, imitated in the expreffion; an imitation that is diftinguished by the name of antithefis. Speaking of Coriolanus foliciting the people to be made conful: With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds. Coriolanus. Had' you rather Cæfar were living, and die all flaves, than that Cæfar were dead, to live all free men? Julius Cafar. He hath cool'd my friends and heated mine enemies. Shakespear. An artificial connection among the words, is undoubtedly a beauty when it represents any peculiar connection among the constituent parts of the thought; but where there is no fuch connection, it is a pofitive deformity, as above obferved, becaufe it makes a difcordance between the thought and expreffion. For the fame reason, we ought alfo to avoid every artificial oppofition of words where there is none in the thought. This laft, termed verbal antithefis, is ftudied by low writers, because of a certain degree of livelinefs in it. They do not confider how incongruous it is, in a grave compofition, to cheat the reader, and to C 3 make make him expect a contrast in the thought, which upon examination is not found there. A light wife doth make a heavy husband. Merchant of Venice. Here is a studied oppofition in the words, not only without any oppofition in the fenfe, but even where there is a very intimate connection, that of cause and effect; for it is the levity of the wife that torments the husband. Will maintain Upon his bad life to make all this good. King Richard II. a&t 1. sc. 3. Lucetta. What, fhall these papers lie like tell-tales here? Julia. If thou respect them, best to take them up. Lucetta. Nay, I was taken up for laying them down. Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 1. fc. 3. A fault directly oppofite to that last mentioned, is to conjoin artificially words that express ideas opposed to each other. This is a fault too grofs to be in common practice; and yet writers are guilty of it in fome degree, when they conjoin by a copulative things tranfacted at different periods of time. Hence a want of neatness in the following expreffion. The nobility too, whom the King had no means of retaining by suitable offices and preferments, had been feized with the general discontent, and unwarily threw themselves into the fcale which began already too much to preponderate. Hiftory of G. Britain, vol. i. p. 250. In periods of this kind, it appears more neat to express the past time by the participle paffive, thus: The nobility having been seized with the general difcontent, unwarily threw themselves, &c. (or,) The nobility, who had been seized, &c. unwarily threw themfelves, &c. It is unpleasant to find even a negative and affirmative propofition connected by a copulative: Nec excitatur claffico miles truci, Forumque vitat, et fuperba civium Potentiorum limina. Horace, Epod. 2. 1, 5. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Shakespear. In mirth and drollery it may have a good effect to connect verbally things that are oppofite to each other in the thought. Example: Henry the Fourth of France introducing the Marefchal Biron to fome of his friends, "Here, Gentlemen," fays he," is the Marefchal Biron, whom I freely pre"sent both to my friends and enemies.” C 4 This This rule of ftudying uniformity between the thought and expreffion, may be extended to the conftruction of fentences or periods. A fentence or period ought to exprefs one entire thought or mental propofition; and different thoughts ought to be feparated in the expreffion by placing them in different sentences or periods. It is therefore offending against neatness, to crowd into one period entire thoughts requiring more than one; which is joining in language things that are separated in reality. Of errors against this rule take the following examples. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant; also our bed is green. Cæfar, defcribing the Suevi: Atque in eam fe confuetudinem adduxerunt, ut locis frigidiffimis, neque veftitus, præter pelles, habeant quidquam, quarum propter exiguitatem, magna eft corporis pars aperta, et laventur in fluminibus. Commentaria, 1. 4. prin. Burnet, in the hiftory of his own times, giving Lord Sunderland's character, fays, His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great expence. I have seen a woman's face break out in heats, as the has been talking against a great lord, whom he had ne ver seen in her life; and indeed never knew a party-woman that kept her beauty for a twelvemonth. Spectator, N° 57 Lord Bolingbroke, fpeaking of Strada: I fingle him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish prefumption to cenfure Tacitus, and to write history himself; and your Lordship will forgive this short excurfion in honour of a favourite writer. Letters on hiftory, vol. i. let. 5 It seems to me, that in order to maintain the moral fyftem of the world at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for we are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of attaining), but however fufficient upon the whole to conftitute a ftate easy and happy, or at the worst tolerable: I fay, it seems to me, that the Author of nature has thought fit to mingle from time to time, among the focieties of men, a few, and but a few, of those on whom he is graciously pleased to bestow a larger proportion of the etherial spirit than is given in the ordinary courfe of his providence to the fons of men. Bolingbroke, on the spirit of patriotism, let. 1. To crowd into a fingle member of a period different fubjects, is ftill worse than to crowd them into one period: -Trojam, genitore Adamasto Paupere (manfiffetque utinam fortuna) profectus. Eneid. iii. 614. From |