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language of passion or strong emotions only. Among the poets Apostrophe is frequent; as in Virgil.

Pereunt Hypanisque Dymasque

Confixi a sociis; nec te, tua plurima, Pantheu
Labentem pietas, nec Apollinis infula texit! *

The poems of Ossian are full of the most beautiful instances of this Figure: "Weep on the rocks of "roaring winds, O maid of Inistore; bend thy fair "head over the waves, thou fairer than the ghost of "the hills, when it moves in a sunbeam at noon over "the silence of Morven! He is fallen! Thy youth "is low; pale beneath the sword of Cuthullin !" + Quinctilian affords us a very fine example in prose; when, in the beginning of his sixth book, deploring the untimely death of his son, which had happened during the course of the work, he makes a very moving and tender Apostrophe to him. "Nam quo "ille animo, qua medicorum admiratione, mensium "octo valetudinem tulit? ut me in supremis conso"latus est? quam etiam jam deficiens, jamque non "noster, ipsum illum alienatæ mentis errorem circa "solas literas habuit? Tuosne ergo, O meæ spes "inanes! labentes oculos, tuum fugientem spiritum "vidi? Tuum corpus frigidum, exangue complexus, "animam recipere, auramque communem haurire amplius potui? Tene, consulari nuper adoptione "ad omnium spes honorum patris admotum, te, avun"culo prætori generum destinatum; te, omnium spe "Atticæ eloquentiæ candidatum, parens superstes

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* Nor Pantheus! thee, thy mitre, nor the bands
Of awful Phoebus, sav'd from impious hands.

DRYDEN.

+ Fingal, B. I.

" tantum ad pœnas amisi!" In this amisi!"* In this passage, Quinctilian shews the true genius of an orator, as much as he does elsewhere that of the critic.

For such bold Figures of discourse as strong Personifications, addresses to personified objects, and Apostrophes, the glowing imagination of the ancient Oriental nations was particularly fitted. Hence, in the sacred Scriptures, we find some very remarkable instances: "O thou sword of the Lord! how long "will it be ere thou be quiet; put thyself up into "the scabbard, rest and be still! How can it be "quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against "Ashkelon, and against the sea-shore? there he hath appointed it." There is one passage in particular, which I must not omit to mention, because it contains a greater assemblage of sublime ideas, of bold and daring Figures, than is perhaps any where to be met with. It is in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah, where

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*With what spirit, and how much to the admiration of the "physicians, did he bear throughout eight months his lingering "distress! With what tender attention did he study, even in the "last extremity, to comfort me! And, when no longer himself "how affecting was it to behold the disordered efforts of his "wandering mind, wholly employed on subjects of literature ! "Ah! my frustrated and fallen hopes! Have I then beheld your "closing eyes, and heard the last groan issue from your lips? "After having embraced your cold and breathless body, how it in my power to draw the vital air, or continue to drag a "miserable life? When I had just beheld you raised by consular "adoption to the prospect of all your father's honours, destined "to be son-in-law to your uncle the Prætor, pointed out by "general expectation as the successful candidate for the Prize "of Attic eloquence, in this moment of your opening honours, "must I lose you for ever, and remain an unhappy parent, surviving I only to suffer woe."

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† Jer. xlvii. 6, 7.

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the prophet thus describes the fall of the Assyrian empire: "Thou shalt take up this proverb against "the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the " oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The "Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and "the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke: he that "ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none "hindereth. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, "Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up "against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee, "to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the "dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth : "it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of "the nations. All they shall speak, and say unto "thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou "become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down "to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm "is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. "How art thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son "of the morning! how art thou cut down to the

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ground, which didst weaken the nations! For "thou hast said in thine heart; I will ascend into "Heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars "of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the con"gregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend "above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the "Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to Hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee "shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to "tremble, that did shake kingdoms? that made the

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"world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities "thereof? that opened not the house of his prisoners? "All the kings of the nations, even all of them lie in "glory, every one in his own house. But thou art "cast out of thy grave, like an abominable branch: "and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stone's "of the pit, as a carcase trodden under feet." This whole passage is full of sublimity. Every object is animated; a variety of personages are introduced: we hear the Jews, the fir-trees, and cedars of Lebanon, the ghosts of departed Kings, the King of Babylon himself, and those who look upon his body, all 'speaking in their order, and acting their different parts without confusion.

LECTURE XVII.

COMPARISON, ANTITHESIS, INTERROGATION, EXCLAMATION, AND OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH.

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WE are still engaged in the consideration of Figures of Speech; which, as they add much to the beauty of style when properly employed, and are at the same time liable to be greatly abused, require a careful discussion. As it would be tedious to dwell on all the variety of figurative expressions which rhetoricians have enumerated, I chose to select the capital Figures, such as occur most frequently, and

to make my remarks on these; the principles and rules laid down concerning them will sufficiently direct us to the use of the rest, either in prose or poetry. Of Metaphor, which is the most common of them all, I treated fully; and in the last Lecture I discoursed of Hyperbole, Personification, and Apostrophe. This Lecture will nearly finish what remains on the head of Figures.

Comparison, or Simile, is what I am to treat of first a Figure frequently employed both by Poets and Prose-writers, for the ornament of Composition. In a former Lecture, I explained fully the difference betwixt this and Metaphor. A Metaphor is a Comparison implied, but not expressed as such; as when I say, " Achilles is a Lion," meaning that he resembles one in courage or strength. A Comparison is, when the resemblance between two objects is expressed in form, and generally pursued more fully than the nature of a Metaphor admits; as when I say, The actions of princes are like those great

rivers, the course of which every one beholds, "but their springs have been seen by few." This slight instance will shew, that a happy Comparison is a kind of sparkling ornament, which adds not a little lustre and beauty to discourse; and hence such Figures are termed by Cicero, "Orationis lumina."

The pleasure we take in Comparisons is just and natural. We may remark three different sources whence it arises. First, from the pleasure which nature has annexed to that act of the mind by which we compare any two objects together, trace resemblances among those that are different, and difference among those that resemble each other; a pleasure, the final cause of which is, to prompt us to remark

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