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Analysis. "Ardentes" is intelligible when applied to love, the primary subject, which in a figurative sense, is often said to burn; but it has no meaning when applied to an arrow, which is never supposed to be hot. "Cruenta," also, may be significant figuratively of the distress of unsuccessful love, but nobody ever heard of a bloody whetstone. No admirer of Horace would defend him, by alledging the epithet was proper, because the stone made sharp the arrow which drew the blood. Horace himself would have been ashamed of such a defence.

Example 2. Boileau has introduced a strangé mixture of figurative and literal signification in the subsequent example:

"Pour moi sur cette mer, qu'ici bas nous courons
Je songe à me pouvoir d'esquif et d'avirons
A regler mes desirs, a prevenir l'orange,

Et sauver s'il se peut, ma raison du naufrage.”

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1 Analysis. These lines exhibit human life under the notion of a voyage at sea; but instead of adhering to this view of the subject, the author changes the allegorical to the literal meaning, and, with abundance of inconsistency, speaks of preparing a boat and oars, to regulate his passions, and to save his reason from shipwreck. Reason can be shipwrecked figuratively only. The hypothesis, therefore, of a man's understanding taken up at sea, and saved from drowning in a storm, is somewhat more ridiculous; it is not a little absurd. (See Analysis Ex. 3. Art. 269.)

CHAPTER VI.

APOSTROPHE.

309. APOSTROPHE is a turning off from the regular course of the subject, to address some person er thing. Apostrophe, derived from the same source with personification, is the joint work of imagination and passion, but demands not generally so bold an exertion of those faculties as personification. (Art. 290.)

Illus. 1. It is commonly satisfied with addressing living objects that are absent, or dead objects with which we are familiar while they were in life. Some of its boldest efforts exhaust the essence of personification, and call up and address the inanimate objects of

nature.

2. A well-chosen comparison, an extended metaphor, or allegory,

will please both the imagination and the passions, when greatly agitated. But let the passions rise to violence, and the gratifications of the imagination will yield them no satisfaction.

3. On this accouut, APOSTROPHES addressed to the imagination, are frequently extended to considerable length, and are not by be ing so the less agreeable; while those addressed to the passions must all be short, to correspond to the desultory and distracted condition of the mind.

310. Our arrangement, then, of examples, will naturally fall into two classes; first, those more lengthened and picturesque apostrophes, in which the pleasure of the imagination has chiefly been consulted : and, secondly, those expressive of the violence of pas

sion.

311. The bold and vigorous genius of Ossian delights in this figure, and affords many beautiful examples of the first species.

Example. His address to the moon, is one of the most pleasant pictures of this sort, which, perhaps, any language can supply. It excites melancholy emotion, and charms the fancy, but it aims not to rouse strong passion.

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Daughter of heaven, fair art thou the silence of thy face is pleasant thou comest forth in loveliness; the stars attend thy blue steps in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O Moon! and brighten their dark-brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, daughter of the night? The stars are ashamed in thy presence, and turn aside their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters failen from heaven? and are they who rejoiced with the at night no more?-Yes, they have fallen, fair light! and often dost thou retire to mourn.-But thou thyself shalt one night fail and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads; they who in thy presence were astonished will rejoice." Analysis. The solution of the change of the moon, founded on the opinion that she retired from her course to lament the loss of her sisters, adds sympathy to the picture, and captivates the heart from the resemblance between her melancholy situation and that of the poet. In this example, the objects are striking, and tender, and elevated, and excite correspondent emotions in the mind, but they cannot be said to agitate it with passion.

312. The apostrophes of the second class are the offspring of deep agitation; and the subsequent instances will illustrate the nature of their influence and operation.

Example. In the tragedy of Douglas, Lady Randolph thus accounts for the loss of her son:

That very night in which my son was born,
My nurse, the only confident I had,

Set out with him to reach ber sister's house;
But nurse nor infant have I ever seen,
Nor heard of Anna, since that fatal hour.
My murder'd child! had thy fond mother fear'd
The loss of thee, she had loud fame defied,
Despised her father's rage, her father's grief,

And wander'd with thee through the scorning world." Analysis. The apostrophe of the mother to the child, as soon as it was mentioned-the exaggerated supposition, that the unfortunate nurse bad murdered it, and made her escape to save herself-the resolution of the mother to have run every risk, bad she suspected any part of the misfortune that happened-are all the expressions of nature, and of genuine passion.

313. A principal error in the use of apostrophe, is to deck the object addressed with affected ornaments. It is by these ornaments that authors relinquish the expression of passion, and substitute in its stead the language of fancy.

Example. What opinion will the reader of taste form of the following quaint and laboured address of Cleopatra to the serpent, with which she was about to poison herself. It is taken from Dryden's All for Love.

"Welcome, thou kind deceiver,

Thou best of thieves, who, with an easy key,
Dost open life, and, unperceived by us,
Ev'n steal us from ourselves, discharging so
Death's dreadful office, better than himself,
Touching our limbs so gently into slumber,

That Death stands by, deceiv'd by his own image,
And thinks himself but sleep."

Analysis. Such conceits would scarcely be endured in the most cool descriptive poem. They cannot be supposed more improper than where they are. They resemble some of the obscure and forced allusions of allegorical writers, which the reader has difficulty to understand.

314. Another frequent error is, to extend this figure to too great length. The language of violent passion is always concise, and often abrupt. It passes suddenly from one object to another. It often. glances at a thought, starts from it, and leaves it un

finished. The succession of ideas is irregular, and connected by distant and uncommon relations.

Corol. On all these accounts, nothing is more unnatural than long speeches uttered by persons under the influence of strong passions. Yet this error occurs in several tragic poets of no inferior reputation.

315. Apostrophe frequently appeared in the oratory of antiquity. Demosthenes abounds in a figure so bold, and so suitable to the ardent tone of his own mind.

Illus. He often turns abruptly from the judges and his argument, and addresses himself to his antagonist, or the person accused. He seldom, however, personifies an inanimate object.

316. Cicero also affords many examples of every species of apostrophe.

Illus. 1. In his Oration for Ligarius, he addresses Tubero, the prosecutor, with vehemence, and paints in strong colours the crimi nality of his conduct, the partiality and animosity of his intentions. He personifies and addresses the sword of Tubero, and puts him in mind of being in arms against Cæsar at Pharsalia, if Ligarius, whom he accused of treason, had borne arms against Cæsar in Africa.*

2. In his speech. against Catiline in the senate, one of the most ardent and eloquent of all his orations, he bursts forth abruptly like a torrent, with an apostrophe to Catiline himself, who had the impudence to enter the senate-house, while the subject of his conspiracy was to be debated.

3. Never did an oration commence in a higher tone; and it needed all the genius and fire of one of the greatest orators to support a correspondent spirit in the sequel of the speech. Cicero, however, effected it. He was deeply interested in the suppression of a conspiracy, which his office of consul, his honour as an orator, and the safety of his country, demanded of him. He was in the prime of life, elated with the highest fame of civil honours and oratorical ability; all concurred to prompt this great effort of eloquence.

317. Apostrophe has seldom made its appearance in modern oratory, except with some French preach

* Quid enim districtus ille tuus in acie Pharsalia gladius agebat? cujus latus ille muero petebat? qui sensus erat armorum? quæ tua mens? oculi? manus? ardor animi? Quid cupiebas? quid optabas?"

ers, and some enthusiasts of that character among ourselves.

Illus. A French orator may address the cross of Christ, and implore the patronage and intercession of St. Louis with success, on account of the peculiarity of the national faith of his country men; but such eloquence could expect no better reception in this island than ridicule or contempt.

318. The British House of Parliament are at present the best theatres in the world for the display of eloquence; but many causes concur to render its appearances there less bold than it was among the ancients.

Illus. The abstract political or commercial nature of a great part of the subjects on which it is employed; the ambition of modern orators to reduce legislation and common law to the cool principles of equity and justice; their superior attention, on that account, to facts and arguments, than to the phraseology and figures of pathetic eloquence; and, finally, the insensibility, perhaps, of British constitutions, and their greater indifference, on that account, to the pleasures of imagination and passion; all cooperate to repress the more passionate exhibitions of oratory.

319. At Athens and Rome, the existence of the state sometimes depended on an oration; the most successful speaker was sure to gain every honour and advantage the public had to bestow.

Illus. He addressed large bodies of men, who had no established principles to direct their judgments, little knowledge of the theory of government, little impartiality, little discernment, little experience. Even the senate of Rome in later times, hardly merited a better character, and the assemblies of the people deserved a much worse one. They were factious, fickle, ignorant, partial, interested, and violent. They had no guides, but their appetites and passions, and the orators, to manage them, were obliged to impress these guides.

Corol. Apostrophe is, on the whole, a figure too passionate to gain much admittance into any species of composition, except poetry, and oratory.

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