published, because I was told I might please such as it was a credit to please."-Pope's Preface. 85. The periodic style, on account of the close and connected train of thought, and of the suspension of the meaning to the close, is better adapted to fix the attention and to show the relation that exists between the ideas; but for this very reason it is liable to become tiresome and fatiguing.-Thus Cicero occasionally breaks away into the style coupé with very happy effect, especially in narration or when he wishes to press an argument home to the understanding of his hearers. The general harmony of the discourse is best consulted by the judicious mixture of these two kinds of style. SECT. II. OF IMITATIVE HARMONY. 86. It is, however, not only allowable, but, sometimes, even necessary to sacrifice mere mechanical harmony, and to interrupt this agreeable combination of sounds which please the ear, in order to gratify this organ with the pleasures of imitative harmony. 87. Imitative harmony consists in the resemblance of the sounds of the words and expressions to the things which they express. 88. We may imitate by the sounds of the words and expressions, 1. Natural sounds. Example. "On a sudden, open fly, With impetuous recoil, and jarring sound, The infernal doors; and on their hinges grate "Heaven opened wide Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, 2. Slow or rapid, solemn or light, easy or painful, uniform or interrupted motions. Example. "A needless Alexandrine ends the song, And like a wounded snake drags its slow length along." Pope. "Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain, Flies o'er the unbending corn and skims along the main." Pope. "Illi inter sese magna vi brachia tollunt."—Virgil. "Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum." Virgil. "First march the heavy mules securely slow, O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go." Pope's Homer. 3. The passions and emotions of the soul.-As music has the power of exciting and expressing the different passions and emotions, so harmony by means of melody, and by grave, abrupt, solemn, sprightly, sweet, or brilliant cadences, represents or excites the different emotions of the mind, such as grief, anger, fear, joy, love, admiration, etc. Example. "Cunetæque profundum “Come, thou goddess fair and free, "Hail, thou goddess, sage and holy, Hail, divinest melancholy," etc.-Milton. Dryden's Ode on St. Cecilia's day. "Namque ipsa decoram Cæsariem nato genetrix, lumenque juventæ (Nam) "diversa opus est veluti dare versibus ora, Ecce aliquis subit egregio pulcherrimus ore, ART. III. OF THE ORNAMENTS OF STYLE. 89. Clearness and harmony ought to reign throughout every composition, because the mind rejects what it does not comprehend, and the ear is offended with whatever is harsh or grating. But if we wish to keep up an interest that never flags throughout the piece, if we wish to produce great effects, to subjugate the mind, to captivate the imagination, to charm the heart, or to inflame the passions, we must clothe our expressions and our thoughts with those ornaments of style which Cicero calls, " insignia quædam et lumina orationis," and which are so incorporated with language that they form a constituent part of it. These ornaments consist in figures of speech and in the transitions which form the bonds of union between the thoughts. SECT. I. OF FIGURES. 90. Figures (fingo) are expressions or turns of style which give to the thought or sentiment a grace, a strength, or a beauty that it would not possess when otherwise presented. 91. There are two kinds of figures: 1. Figures of words which exist in the words themselves, so that if the word is changed the figure disappears. 2. Figures of thought which consist merely in the turn given to the thought, so that the figure remains the same, although the expression is changed. Ex. 1. "Youth and beauty shall be laid in dust." Here we have a figure of words. Substitute other words, as the young and beautiful instead of youth and beauty, and the figure is destroyed. 2. "Cæcis erramus in undis."-Virg. "I weep for joy To stand upon my kingdom once again: Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs. Plays fondly, with her tears, and smiles in meeting, Here we have a figure of thought. If we change the expressions, if we curtail them, if we add to them, the figure would still subsist. "Levis ætheries de lapsus Somnus ab astris I. FIGURES OF WORDS. 92. Among figures of words some consist in a change of the signification of the words, and are called Tropes, (Tpera, verto). Others consist in the mere arrangement of the words, and still retain the name of figures of words. 1. OF TROPES. We shall only mention some of the principal tropes. 93. The Metaphor, (uɛrapopa, translatio,) implies a change from the proper signification of a word to one which does not naturally belong to it; it being made to bear this meaning by virtue of the comparison between the two ideas which takes place in the mind. Ex. When it is said of some great man that "he upholds the state, like a pillar which supports the weight of a whole edifice," a comparison is made; but when it is said of such a man that "he is the pillar of the state," it has now become a metaphor. "Achille s'elance comme un lion," is a comparison. "Ce lion s'elance," is a metaphor. "Irarumque omnes effundit habenas."-Virg. "Duo fulmini nostri imperii, Scipiones in Hispania extincti sunt."-Cic. 94. A metaphor is faulty, 1, when it is taken from low and disgusting objects, or drawn from trivial circumstances. |