- The bird,' ungrafping his fierce talons, drops His prey into the flood Our LORD commands his Apoftles, Mark xvi. 15. to "go into all the world, and preach "the gospel to every creature," that is, to all mankind.. (4) The Synecdoche puts a particular name for a general. Thus the Cretan fea signifies in HoRACE the fea in general; I, in the mufes favour blefs'd, In like manner the acorns of Chaonia are used for acorns in general by VIRGIL, Ye pow'rs divine, who gave mankind to change In Pfal. xlvi. 9. the Almighty is faid to " break "the bow, and cut the fpear in funder, and to ss burn the chariot in the fire," that is, God deftroys all the weapons of war, and blefses the world Prædamque ex unguibus alas Mufis amicus triftitiam & metus Tradam protervis in mare Creticum #! Veftro fi munere tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arifta. HORAT. Od. lib. i. od. 26. VIRGIL, Georg. lib. i. ver. 7. SS world with peace. In Dan. xii. 14. by many we are to understand all. Many of them that sleep in the duft fhall awake, fome to everlafting life, and fome to fhame and everlasting " contempt." SS SS $3. It may be observed farther, that to the Synecdoche the ufage of a certain number for an uncertain is to be afcribed: ACHILLES' wide-deftroying wrath that pour'd Ten thousand woes on Greece, O Goddess, fing *. § 4. To the fame Trope we may refer the liberty of using the plural number for the singular, and the singular number for the plural; as when CICERO tells BRUTUS, "We misled the "People, and gained the reputation of Ora"tors, when he intends only himself: and when, on the contrary, Livy often fays, "that "the Roman was Conqueror in the battle t," whereas he designs that the Romans were Conquerors. $5. Under the Synecdoche we may alfo range the Antonomafia II, which is a Trope by which we put a proper for a common name, or a common name for a proper. $ 6. Μηνιν αειδε Θεα Πηληιαδεω Αχιληθ Populus impofuimus, & oratores vifi fumus. Romanus prælio victor. From ati and oropaw, the putting one name in the room of another. for a §6. (1): An Antonomafia puts a proper common name. Thus, that man is an Hercules, that is, an uncommonly strong man. Or he is a Job, that is, a remarkably patient man. Or he is a Nero, that is, a monftrously cruel man. Or he is a Croefus, that is, an immensely rich man. (2) An Antonomafia puts a common for a proper name. Thus, he is gone to the City, or he is come from the City, meaning London. In like manner the Poet fhall intend HOMER, the Orator, CICERO, and the Apostle, St PAUL. Thus CHRIST is called "the fon of man," Matt. ix. 6. and the mafter," John xi. 28. SS $ 7. When we use the Antonomafia, we should take care that whatever epithet, title, or denomination ftands in the room of the ufual name, fhould be fuch as is either eafy and familiar, or fuch as is more emphatical and ftriking; for there is no fmall excellency in an Antonomafia, when properly conceived and applied according to these directions: as when I call a good Orator a DEMOSTHENES, or a good Poet a VIRGIL, I am bestowing upon the perfon the highest praise, and leading the mind to a comparison of his talents with the peculiar and tranfcendent endowments of those famous Writers; and when, on the other hand, I fay fuch a man is a CATILINE, or a CALIGULA, I thereby call up the ideas of the most deteftable characters, and brand the person with much deeper infamy, than if I was only in plain language to fay, that he was very worthless or wicked. wicked. But if the Antonomofia has neither the advantage of ease and familiarity, nor of empha sis nor ftrength, plain exprefsion is to be preferred; at least I fee not any benefit that can arife from the use of this Trope: but we may, be fore we are aware, deserve the lash of our great Satirift, who has reckoned up feveral Antonomafias of this kind; but which are too ludicrous to be inferted in graver compositions than that of his Art of Sinking in Poetry +. $8. The value of the Synecdoche appears to lie in the bold and manly freedom it gives to our difcourfes, by which we fhew that we are so full of our ideas, and fo powerfully impressed with them, that we difdain to attend to little accura cies, and nice adjustments of expression. Language alfo acquires a vaft variety by the afsiftance of the Synecdoche; and variety prevents fatigue, and is the fource of perpetual entertainment. And it may be added, that the Synecdoche more especially compliments the underftanding, by leaving it to investigate and determine the whole of our meaning from only a part of it, or ascerrain and fix our precife meaning, when only couched under a general exprefsion. + POPE's Works, vol. vi. p. 191, 192. CHAPTER § 1. The definition of an Irony. § 2. How known to be an Irony. § 3. Inftances of the Irony from the facred Writings. § 4. Examples of the Irony from CICERO, HORACE, DRYDEN, and TILLOT SON. § 5. The definition of a Sarcasm, with inftances. $6. The ujes of Ironies and Sarcafms. $7. Cautions to be observed concerning them. §. 8. The foundation in nature for the Irony and Sarcafm. $ 1. CHAPTER VI. * Α' N Irony is a Trope, in which one con trary is signified by another; or, in which we speak one thing, and design another, in order to give the greater force and vehemence to our meaning.. §2. The way of distinguishing an Irony from the real fentiments of the speaker or writer, are by the accent, the air, the extravagance of the praise, the character of the perfon, the nature of the thing, or the vein of the difcourfe: for if in any of these respects there is any disagreement from From sgwrsvoμary. I use a diffimulation in my speech |