sublime, but a difference may be marked in the species of their sublimity. Homer's sublimity is accompanied with more impetuosity and fire; Ossian's with more of a solemn and awful grandeur. Homer hurries you along; Ossian elevates and fixes you in astonishment. Homer is most sublime in actions and battles; Ossian in description and sentiment. In the pathetic, Homer, when he chooses to exert it, has great power; but Ossian exerts that power much oftener, and has the character of tenderness far more deeply imprinted on his works."

Blair's dissertation on Ossian.

"Lord, when my thoughtful soul surveys
Fire, air and earth, and stars and seas,
I call them all thy slaves;
Commission'd by my Father's will
Poisons shall cure or balms shall kill;
Vernal-suns or zephyr's breath,
May burn or blast the plants to death
That sharp December saves!
What can winds or planets boast,
But a precarious power;
The sun is all in darkness lost,
Frost shall be fire and fire be frost,

When he appoints the hour."

"The diamond's and the ruby's rays
Shine with a milder finer flame,
And more attract our love and praise
Than beauty's self if lost to fame.

But the sweet tear in pity's eye

Transcends the diamond's brightest beams;
And the soft blush of modesty

More precious than the ruby seems.

The glowing gem, the sparkling stone,
May strike the sight with quick surprise;
But truth and innocence alone

Can still engage the good and wise.

No glittering ornament or show
Will aught avail in grief or pain;
Only from inward worth can flow
Delight which ever shall remain."

APORIA.

Watts's Lyrics,

FORDYCE

The APORIA (from aropia, a doubt,) is a figure by which a speaker deliberates before he resolves; as, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to Heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in Hell, thou are there likewise," Psalm cxxxix. 7, 8.

"It must be so, Plato, thou reasonest well

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after Immortality?

C

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself and startles at destruction?
'Tis the divinity that stirs within us;
'Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man."

"Deeper and deeper still, thy goodness child,
Pierceth a father's bleeding heart, and checks
The cruel sentence on my falt'ring tongue.
Oh let me whisper it to the raging winds,
Or howling deserts! for the ears of men
It is too shocking.-Yet, have I not vow'd,
And can I think the great Jehovah sleeps
Like Chemosh, and such fabled deities?

ADDISON-Cato.

Ah! no.- -Heaven heard my thoughts and wrote them down: -'tis this that racks my brain,

It must be so

And pours into my breast a thousand pangs
That lash me into madness!
Horrid thought!
My only daughter-so dear a child-doom'd
By a Father! Yes the vow is past, and

Gilead hath triumph'd o'er his foes.

Therefore, to-morrow's dawn-I can no more. JEPHTHA.

APOSTROPHE.

The APOSTROPHE (from arо, from, and orpoon, a turning,) is a figure by which the speaker turns off from the regular course of his subject to address some inanimate object, as, "O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction," Hosea xiii. 14. "O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. xv. 55.

"Sun! didst thou fly thy maker's pain? or start
At that enormous load of human guilt
That bow'd his blessed head, o'erwhelm'd his cross,
Made groan the centre, burst earth's marble womb,
With pangs, strange pangs! deliver'd of her dead?
Hell howl'd, and heaven that hour let fall a tear,
Heaven wept that man might smile! Heaven bled that man
Might never die."

"Hear it not ye stars!

And thou pale moon turn paler at the sound;
Man is to Man, the sorest, surest ill."

"Sun! couldst thou shine and see my love beset,
And didst not clothe thy clouds in fiery coats,
O'er all the heavens with winged sulphur flames,
As when thy beams, like mounted combatants,
Battled with Python in the fallow'd lays."

YOUNG.

YOUNG.

PEELE.-King Edward, 1.

Harp lift thy voice on high! shout, angels, shout!
And loudest ye redeemed! Glory to God,
And to the LAMBв who bought us with his blood,
From every kindred, nation, people, tongue,
And wash'd and sanctified and saved our souls,
And gave us robes of linen pure, and crowns
Of life; and made us kings and priests to God.
Shout back to ancient Time! Sing loud and wave
Your palms of triumph! Sing, where is thy sting
O Death! Where is thy victory, O Grave!

THE ASYNDETON.

Polluk's Course of Time.

The ASYNDETON, (from a priv, and ovvdew, to connect,) is an omission of the conjunctive-particle, for the sake of effect, or for the exhibition of haste or passion;

as,

-We fall, we rise, we reign."

"We will be revenged :-revenge! about! seek!
Burn! fire! kill! slap! let not a traitor live!

"What is death ?-'Tis to be free!
No more to love, or hope, or fear-

To join the great equality:

All alike are humbled there!
The mighty grave

Wraps lord and slave,

Nor pride, nor poverty dares come
Within that refuge house,-the tomb !

What's the grandeur of the earth

To the grandeur round thy throne !

Riches, glory, beauty, birth,

To thy kingdom all have gone.
Before thee stand

The wond'rous band,

Bards, heroes, sages, side by side,

Who darken'd nations when they died.

Earth has hosts, but thou can'st shew
Many a million for her one;
Through thy gates the mortal flow

Has for countless years roll'd on :
Back from the tomb

No step has come ;

There fix'd, 'till the last thunder's sound

Shall bid thy prisoners be unbound."

CLIMAX.

YOUNG.

SHAKSPEARE.

CROLY.

The CLIMAX (from Kuat, a ladder,) is a beautiful figure, whose purpose is to elevate our ideas by a series of circumstances increasing in importance; as, "Add to

your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to know-
ledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to
patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness;
and to brotherly kindness charity," 2 Pet. i. 5-7.
"Give me the cup,

And let the kettle to the trumpets speak,
The trumpets to the cannoniers without,
The cannons to the heavens, the heavens to earth:
Now the King drinks to Hamlet."

SHAKSPEARE Hamlet.

SHAKSPEARE-Tempest.

"The cloudcapp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea all which it inherits shall dissolve,
And like the baseless fabric of a vision,
Leave not a wreck behind."
"Ah! must I dwell in infinite despair,
As many years as atoms in the air?
When these expire as many yet in store,
As grains of sand that crowd the ebbing shore;
When these are gone, as many to ensue,
As blades of grass on hills or dales that grew;
When these pass o'er, as many left behind
As leaves of forests shaken by the wind;
When these run out, as many on the march,
As brilliant lamps which gild yon azure arch;
When these are past, as many, many more,
As moments in the millions past before;
When all these dreadful years are spent in pain,
And multiplied by myriads again,

'Till numbers drown the thought: could I suppose
That then my wretched years were at a close,
This would afford some ease; but, ah! I shudder
To think upon the dreadful words for ever;
The burning gulph where I blaspheming lie,
Is time no more, but vast eternity"

RALPH ERSKINE.

“I need not ask this verdict from your mercy; I need not extort it from your compassion; I will receive it from your justice. I do conjure you, not as fathers, but as husbands;-not as husbands, but as citizens ;not as citizens, but as men ;-not as men, but as christians :-by all your obligations, public, private, moral, and religious; by the hearth profaned; by the home desolate; by the canons of the living God foully spurned; save, oh! save your firesides from the contagion, your country from the crime, and perhaps thousands yet unborn, from the shame and sin and sorrow of this example."

"

PHILLIPS.

"Ah! what Israel! sit down and tell me when you came to Town and how affairs go on at home." Bad enough, your honour, for the magpie is dead." Poor mag! so he is gone the way of all flesh. What occasioned his death?" Over ate himself Sir.' "Did he faith? gluttonous bird! why what did he get that he liked so well?"Horseflesh, Sir: he died gorging horseflesh.' "How came the silly bird to get so much carrion?" Your Father's horses, Sir.' What has he lost any?"

"And why were they

'Yes Sir, five died last Thursday by overwork.' worked so hard, Israel?" Conveying water, Sir, to quench the fire.' "Fire! what fire?" The fire at your Father's house, Sir, which is now a heap of ashes.' "My Father's house burnt to the ground! good heavens! how came it on fire?" It is generally supposed by the torches, Sir.' "Torches what torches?" Why, Sir, the torches used at your Mother's funeral.' 66 What, my Mother dead?" "Yes, Madam is no more.' "Of course you have brought a letter from my Father?" Why, Sir, he took to his bed and died yesterday, about two hours after the bad news.' "O heavens! what afflictive intelligence! what news do you allude to that affected the old gentleman so deeply?" The run upon his bank, Sir, which has stopp'd payment. The credit of the Heartwells' is gone, and you are not worth a shilling.'

The following is a beautiful example of a descending climax :

་་

It is a determined case, that whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer; it is an unquestionable truth that he who envieth his brother will soon hate him; and it is no less certain that the spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy." BISHOP HORne.

ECPHONESIS.

The ECPHONESIS (from EKQovew, to exclaim,) is an exclamation, through fear, surprise, &c., as, "Help! help!"

"O wretched state! O bosom black as death!
O limed soul! that struggling to be free
Art more engaged."

SHAKSPEARE--Hamlet.

"How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,
How complicate, how wonderful is man!
How passing wonder HE that made him such!
Who center'd in our make such strange extremes !
From diff'rent natures, marvellously mix'd,
Connexion exquisite of distant worlds!
Distinguish'd links in being's endless chain!
Midway from nothing to the Deity!
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorb'd!
Though sullied and dishonour'd still divine!
Dim miniature of greatness absolute !
An heir of glory! a frail child of dust!
Helpless immortal! insect infinite!
A worm! a God!

EPANORTHOSIS.

YOUNG.

The EPANORTHOSIS, (from επ ava, and op0ow, to make straight,) or Correction, is a figure by which the speaker retracts something before alledged, as not sufficiently forcible, and adds something more conformable to the subject,