CG «rous is not discovered immediately at the be ginning of his Poem in its fulleft fplendor: "it grows in the progrefs both upon himself "and others, and becomes on fire, like a cha "riot-wheel, by its own rapidity. Exact difpo "sition, juft thought, correct elocution, po «<lished numbers, may have been found in a « thousand, but this poetical fire, this vivida vis "animi, in a very few. Even in works where all thofe are imperfect or neglected, this can "overpower Criticifm, and make us admire, even while we difapprove. Nay, where this appears, though attended with abfurdities, it brightens all the rubbish about it, till we fee "nothing but its own fplendor. This fire is "difcerned in VIRGIL, but difcerned as through "a glass reflected from HOMER, more fhining than fierce, but every where equal and con"ftant. In LUCAN and STATIUS, it burfts out «in fudden, short, and interrupted flafhes. In "MILTON it glows like a furnace, kept up to "an uncommon ardor by the force of art. "SHAKESPEAR it ftrikes before we are aware, like an accidental fire from heaven: but in "HOMER, and in him only, it burns every where "clearly, and every where irresistibly +." In $6. I fhall conclude with two pafsages; one from the Prince of at leaft the Roman Órators, and the other from the Prince of Critics Every topic, fays CICERO, is often transiently - σε touched Preface to HOMER, p. 3. Octavo edition. ་ "touched upon in pleading, that the Orator's art may be concealed. In proving our point, "we collect approved examples, and range them "in an artificial form: but afterwards in plead ing, this art is to be disguised by the skill of "the Orator, that it may not break out, and. " be discovered by all his frequent and elaboaudience *" LON ཨཱ་་ GINUS tells us, that a too "rate ufe of Figures draws upon us the fufpi"cion of fhare, design, and deceit, especially when we are pleading before a Judge, from whofe fentence there lies no appeal; as Ty«rants, Monarchs, and perfons invefted with «* fupreme power. Such a Judge kindles into "rage at once, if, like a foolish boy, he finds "himself played with by the Figures of the art"ful Rhetorician.---A Figure is then in its per"fection, when it is not difcerned to be a Figure +" 49 21 12 chqe In dicendo leviter unufquifque locus plerumque tangitur, ne ars appareat. In præcipiendo exprefsè conferipta ponere oportet exempla, ut in artis formam convenire poffint; & poft in dicendo, ne poffit ars eminere, & ab omnibus videri, facultate oratoris occultatur. CICER. ad HERENNIUM, lib. iv. § 7. + Υποπλον εςιν ιδίως το δια οχημάτων πανέργεια, και προσ βάλλον υπονοιαν ενέδρας, επιβολης, παραλογισμό και ταυθ' οταν η πςω κριτην κύριον ο λόγΘ, (μαλιςα δε προ τυραννες, βασιλέας, ηγεμόνας εν υπεροχαις) αγανακτει γὰρ ευθύς, και ως τρεις αφρων, υπο τεχνιτε ξητορῶ σχηματιοις κατασοφίζεται Διοπερ και τοτε αρισον δοκει το σχημα, οταν αυτο τύτο διαλας. Darn, ott nua 854. LONGIN. de Sublimitate, § 17. 1. Jord CHAPTER CHAPTER II. The ECPHONESIS confidered. 6 § 1. The definition of an Ecphonefis, § 2. InStances of this Figure from MILTON, OVID, CICERO, and SOPHOCLES. $ 3. Upon what occafions the Ecphonefis is used in Scripture, with examples. § 4. Remarks and directions as to. the Ecphonefis. * § 1. AN Ecphonefis N Ecphonefis is a Figure, that by an exclamation fhews fome ftrong and vehement passion. It is exprefsed by fuch Interjections, as, O! Ob! Ab! Alas! and the like, which may be called the signs of this Figure. $2. Inftances of this Figure might be given in great variety: the following may fuffice, EVE, being made acquainted that she must leave. paradife, fays, O unexpected stroke! worse than of death +. From ExQwvew, I cry out. + MILTON's Paradife Loft, book xi. line 266. In In like manner PENELOPE, in OVID's Epiftles, says to her husband ULYSSES; CICERO furnishes us with an example of this Figure, when he concludes the narrative he had given of the punishment of a Roman citizen: "O delightful name of liberty! O glorious pri"vilege of Rome! O thou Portian, and ye Sempronian laws! O thou tribunitial power, fo ardently desired by the Roman people, and at "laft restored to them +." O had th' adult'rer, when he fought the shore, We have a very lively instance of this Figure in the Oedipus Tyrannus of SOPHOCLES; where that unfortunate Prince, overwhelmed with his calamities, is introduced as faying, Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Alas! Alas! I am undone : Where am I, miferable wretch? Where is my voice scatter'd that now fails me? O this cloud of night, Deteftable, oppreffive, Horrible, * O utinam tum cum Lacedæmona claffe petebat, Obrutus infanis effet adulter aquis! K OVID. Epift. i. ver. 5, 6. + O nomen dulce libertatis! O jus eximium noftræ civita. tis! O lex Portia, legefque Sempronia! O graviter defiderata, & aliquando reddita plebi Romanæ tribunitia poteftas! In VERREM, Orat. x. § 63. Horrible, hopeless, and malignant! And the fame Figure, and to a like purpose, is made ufe of by our famous MILTON, in the speech he ascribes to SAMSON, at once blind, and in the power of his enemies: Olofs of fight! of thee I moft complain ; Annulf'd, which might in part my grief have eas'd. Inferior to the vileft now become Of man or worm; the vileft here exéel me. ** * Ai, ai, ai, al. Φευ, φευ, δυσανα εγω ποι γας Ω δαίμον, κ ̓ εξηλε; L Ιω σκοτε νεφω εμον * Αποτροπον επιπλομενον, " ver. 1330. SOPHOCL. Oedip. Tyran. ver. 1330. + Samfon Agonifles, line 67. |