CHA P. II. WE E may extend this enquiry ftill farther, and examine thofe forms of figurative language, which Rhetoricians point out as inftances of most exquifite address and refinement in the Orator. A little attention will convince us that these, as they were not originally the inventions of artifice, but naturally and neceffarily arofe, in the natural and neceffary progress of human fpeech, fo they owe the principal part of their beauty, and their whole power of affecting, to their being conceived as the obvious, unstudied result of mind labouring with violent emotions, and earnest to convey the whole force of it's conceptions. One of the highest ornaments of Style is faid to arise from a mixture and combination of Metaphor, Similitude and Allegory. Of this we have an instance in the following passage from Cicero, in his oration for Muræna. "Quod fretum, quem Euripum tot motus, tantas, tam "varias habere putatis agitationes fluctuum, quantas pertur"bationes, et quantos æftus habet ratio Comitiorum? Dies intermiffus unus aut Nox interpofita fæpe perturbat omnia, C et et totam opinionem parva nonnunquam commutat aura "rumoris.' " Is the beauty of this admired paffage derived wholly from the striking images and exactness of fimilitude? These may be beautiful, or rather grand and affecting. But this. grandeur, this power of affecting, is fo clofely connected with CM propriety and juftness of application, that the very fame combination of figures, ufed on a mean and unworthy fubject, would displease and even excite our ridicule. The effect would be nearly the fame, were it fo applied or introduced as to betray an affectation of ornament.-But this fenfe of propriety, and this disgust at affectation, plainly imply, that there are paffions and fentiments to which the boldest and liveliest ftrains of Eloquence are peculiarly fuited; which cannot be justly expreffed but by fuch glowing forms of speech as are here exemplified; that these have their genuine force and fignification previous to all fictitious abufe: they are in × themselves the real and natural effufions of the mind, elfe hypocrify and affectation never would attempt to imitate them, and never could be detected by an injudicious imi tation. If one fingle violent emotion hath fuch an effect in warming and animating the expreffion, what may be expected from that conflict of paffions, which oftentimes rages in the human breaft? It extorts from us all that boldness and affecting vehemence of diction, all thofe hardy figures, which Rhetoricians have fo exactly analyzed, and marked by various names, as the most distinguished instances of the oratorial art. Epic and Dramatic writers of all languages have affigned fuch modes of expreffion, and fuch only, to Characters fo circumftanced and affected. Let us confider the paffionate speeches and and foliloquies of Dido in that temper of mind which the poet thus defcribes. Æftuat ingens Imo in corde pudor, mixtoque infania lučtu ; Perhaps there is no one fpecies of figurative style, which we poet; and CHAP. II. So general is the conviction of Mankind, as to the real and natural fignification of tender and impaffioned, vehement and animated forms of elocution, that these are confidered as marks of fincerity; and every thing cold and unaffecting in words and action, where the subject is of an interesting nature, we fometimes find urged as a proof of hypocrify and falfehood. The first thing we look for in any perfon, who profeffes to be affected, is the figns of paffion, which nature herself hath impreffed on the countenance and voice, the glaring look of anger, the ftern brow of indignation, the windy fufpiration of forc'd breath, the fruitful river in the eye, Together with all forms, moods, fhews of grief. SHAK. Altho' they are actions which, as the poet obferves, a man might play, or counterfeit, like all the other marks of truth. In the tragedy of Richard the Second, the Dutchess of York thus impeaches the fincerity of her husband. Pleads Pleads he in earnest? look upon his face. His eyes His words come from his mouth: our's from our breast. He prays but faintly, and would be deny': We pray with heart and foul In like manner, Demofthenes pleads against his adversary in the famous cause relative to the CROwn. Πολλὰ τοίνυν, ὦ ἄνδρες Αθηναῖοι, καὶ ἄλλα κατηγορηκότα αὐτοῦ καὶ κατεψευσμένο, ἓν μάλιστ ̓ ἐθαύμασα ἀπανων· ὅτι τῶν συμβεβηκόντων τότε τῇ πόλι ἀναμνησθεὶς οὐχ ὡς ἂν εὔνες ὐδὲ δίκαιΘ. πολίτης ἔχε τὴν γνώμην, εδ' ἐδάκρυσεν, εδ ̓ ἔπαθεν ἐδὲν τοῦτον τῇ ψυχῇ· ἀλλ' ἐπαρας τὴν φωνὴν, καὶ γεγηθώς, καὶ λαρυγγίζων, ᾤετο μὲν ἐμὲ κατηγορεῖν δηλονότι, δεῖγμα δε ἐξέφερα καθ ̓ ἑαυτῷ ὅτι τοῖς γεγενημένοις ανιαροις οὐδὲν ὁμοίως ἔχε τοῖς aλλois. DEMOST. Ed. Taylor. T. 2. p. 579. "Of all the various inftances of falfebood in this his pro"fecution, one there is which most surprizes me. In recall ing the misfortunes of that fatal period to our minds, he "hath felt no part of that fenfibility, which befpeaks a zea"lous or an honeft citizen. He never dropped one tear; "never difcovered the leaft tender emotion. No! his voice "was elevated, he exulted, he ftrained and fwelled, with all "the triumph of a man who had convicted me of some no"torious offence. But in this he hath given evidence against "himself, that he is not affected by our public calamities. "in the fame manner with his Fellow-citizens." But it is not only from the countenance, the tones or inflections of the voice, that we judge of the fincerity of a fpeaker, but from his style and language. The ftory of the Athenian Orator and his Client is well known. The man explains |