“bacchantis.” This manner of description supposes a sort of enthusiasm, which carries the person who describes, in some measure, out of himself; and, when well executed, must needs impress the reader or hearer strongly, by the force of that sympathy which I have before explained. But, in order to a successful execution, it requires an uncommonly warm imagination, and such a happy selection of circumstances, as shall make us think we see before our eyes the scene that is described. Otherwise it shares the same fate with all feeble attempts towards passionate figures; that of throwing ridicule upon the author, and leaving the reader more cool and uninterested than he was before. The same observations are to be applied to repetition, suspension, correction, and many more of those figurative forms of speech, which rhetoricians have enumerated among the beauties of eloquence. They are beautiful, or not, exactly in proportion as they are native expression of the sentiment or passion intended to be heightened by them. Let nature and passion always speak their own language, and they will suggest figures in abundance. But, when we seek to counterfeit a warmth which we do not feel, no figures will either supply the defect, or conceal the imposture. There is one figure (and I shall mention no more) of frequent use among all public speakers, particu * "I seem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the "earth, and the capital of all nations, suddenly involved in one "conflagration. I see before me the slaughtered heaps of citizens lying unburied in the midst of their ruined country. The "furious countenance of Cethegus rises to my view, while with a 'savage joy he is triumphing in your miseries." larly at the bar, which Quinctilian insists upon considerably, and calls Amplification. It consists in an artful exaggeration of all the circumstances of some object or action which we want to place in a strong light, either a good or a bad one. It is not so properly one figure, as the skilful management of several which we make to tend to one point. It may be carried on by a proper use of magnifying or extenuating terms, by a regular enumeration of particulars, or by throwing together, as into one mass, a crowd of circumstances; by suggesting comparisons also with things of a like nature. But the principal instrument by which it works, is by a climax, or a gradual rise of one circumstance above another, till our idea be raised to the utmost. I spoke formerly of a Climax in sound; a Climax in sense, when well carried on, is a figure which never fails to amplify strongly. The common example of this is, that noted passage in Cicero, which every school-boy knows: "Facinus est vincere civem Romanum; scelus ver"berare; prope parricidium, necare; quid dicam in "crucem tollere ?" * I shall give an instance from a printed pleading of a famous Scotch lawyer, Sir George M'Kenzie. It is in a charge to the jury, in the case of a woman accused of murdering her own child. Gentlemen, if one man had any how slain "another, if an adversary had killed his opposer, or "a woman occasioned the death of her enemy, even "these criminals would have been capitally punished * "It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in bonds; it is the "height of guilt to scourge him; little less than parricide to put him to death; what name then shall I give to crucifying "him?" 66 by the Cornelian law: but, if this guiltless infant, "who could make no enemy, had been murdered by "its own nurse, what punishments would not then "the mother have demanded? With what cries and "exclamations would she have stunned your ears? "What shall we say then, when a woman, guilty of "homicide, a mother, of the murder of her innocent "child, hath comprised all those misdeeds in one "single crime; a crime, in its own nature detestable; "in a woman, prodigious; in a mother, incredible ; " and perpetrated against one whose age called for "compassion, whose near relation claimed affection, "and whose innocence deserved the highest favour?" I must take notice, however, that such regular climaxes as these, though they have considerable beauty, have, at the same time, no small appearance of art and study; and, therefore, though they may be admitted into formal harangues, yet they speak not the language of great earnestness and passion, which seldom proceed by steps so regular. Nor, indeed, for the purposes of effectual persuasion, are they likely to be so successful, as an arrangement of circumstances in a less artificial order. For, when much art appears, we are always. put on our guard against the deceits of eloquence; but when a speaker has reasoned strongly, and, by force of argument, has made good his main point, he may then, taking advantage of the favourable bent of our minds, make use of such artificial figures to confirm our belief, and to warm our minds. 349 LECTURE XVIII. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE-GENERAL CHARACTERS OF STYLE-DIFFUSE, CONCISE-FEEBLE, NERVOUS-DRY, PLAIN, NEAT, ELEGANT, FLOWERY. HAVING treated, at considerable length, of the Figures of Speech, of their origin, of their nature, and of the management of such of them as are important enough to require a particular discussion, before finally dismissing this subject, I think it incumbent on me to make some observations concerning the proper use of Figurative Language in general. These, indeed, I have, in part, already anticipated. But, as great errors are often committed in this part of Style, especially by young writers, it may be of use that I bring together, under one view, the most material directions on this head. I begin with repeating an observation, formerly made, that neither all the beauties, nor even the chief beauties of composition, depend upon Tropes and Figures. Some of the most sublime and most pathetic passages of the most admired authors, both in prose and poetry, are expressed in the most simple style, without any Figure at all; instances of which I have before given. On the other hand, a composition may abound with these studied ornaments; the language may be artful, splendid, and highly figured, and yet the composition be on the whole frigid and unaffecting. Not to speak of sentiment and thought, which constitute the real and lasting merit of any work, if the Style be stiff and affected, if it be deficient in perspicuity or precision, or in ease and neatness, all the Figures that can be employed will never render it agreeable; they may dazzle a vulgar, but will never please a judicious, eye. In the second place, Figures, in order to be beautiful, must always rise naturally from the subject. I have shewn that all of them are the language either of Imagination, or of Passion; some of them suggested by Imagination, when it is awakened and sprightly, such as Metaphors and Comparisons; others by Passion or more heated emotion, such as Personifications and Apostrophes. Of course they are beautiful then only, when they are prompted by fancy, or by passion. They must rise of their own accord; they must flow from a mind warmed by the object which it seeks to describe; we should never interrupt the course of thought to cast about for Figures. If they be sought after coolly, and fastened on as designed ornaments, they will have a miserable effect. It is a very erroneous idea, which many have of the ornaments of Style, as if they were things detached from the subject, and that could be stuck to it like lace upon a coat: this is indeed, Purpureus late qui splendeat unus aut alter *Shreds of purple with broad lustre shine, ARS POET. FRANCIS. |