carried to a great extent, is managed with evident propriety and skill. This figure requires to be used with greater moderation in prose than in poetry: for, in prose, the same assistances cannot be obtained for raising passion to its proper height by the force of numbers and the glow of style. Yet from this species of composition, ad dresses to objects inanimate are by no means excluded: they have their place in the loftier kind of oratory. A public speaker may on some occasions very properly address religion or virtue, or his country, or some city or province, which has suffered, perhaps, great calamities, or been the scene of some memorable event. But it ought to be remembered, that, as such addresses are among the highest efforts of eloquence, they should never be attempted, unless by persons of more than } ordinary genius. Of all frigid things, the most frigid are the awkward and unseasonable attempts sometimes, made towards such kinds of personification, especially if they be long continued. We perceive the writer labouring to imitate the language of some passion which he neither feels himself, nor is capable of exciting in others. "If," says the elegant and accomplished Mr. Roscoe, "the moderns excel the ancients in any department of poetry, it is in that now under consideration. It must not indeed be supposed that the ancients were insensible of the effects produced by this powerful charm. But it may safely be asserted, that they have availed themselves of this creative faculty, much more sparingly, and with much less success, than their modern competitors. The attribution of sense to inert objects is indeed common to both; but the still bolder exertion which embodies abstract existence, and renders it susceptible of ocular representation, is almost exclusively the boast of the moderns."* CHAP. XIV. OF APOSTROPHE. APOSTROPHE is a figure nearly allied to personification. It consists in bestowing an ideal presence upon real persons, either dead or absent. We address them as if they stood before us listening to the overflowing of our passion. Never, O little flock! from which I was torn by the cruel fate of war, never shall I be unmindful of the sacred ties that united us, of the uninterrupted harmony which we enjoyed, and of those fruits of the Spirit, goodness, righteousness, and truth, which exhibited among you the most convincing proofs of the energy of the gospel: Never shall I forget that melancholy day on which I was separated from you, without one public opportunity of "cominending you to God, and to his grace," without one affectionate expression, without one adieu.-Brown's Sermons. Strike the harp in praise of Bragela, whom I left in the isle of mist, the spouse of my love. Dost thou raise thy fair face from the rock to find the sails of Cuchullin? The sea is rolling far distant, and its white foam shall deceive thee for my sails. Retire, for it is night, my love, and the dark winds sigh in thy hair Re tire to the hall of my feasts, and think of the times that are past for I will not return till the storm of war is gone.-Ossian. Roscoe's Life of Lorenzo de Medici, vol. i. p. 357. In these examples, an address is made to persons that are absent: but addresses are also made to the dead. Farewell, too little, and too lately, known, Departed spirits of the mighty dead! Ye that at Marathan and Leuctra bled! Friends of the world! restore your swords to man, and lead the van! Yet for Sarmatia's tears of blood atone, And make her arm puissant as your own! Oh! once again to Freedom's cause return The Patriot Tell, the Bruce of Bannockburn! Campbell. Oh thou! with whom my heart was wont to share With whom, alas! I fondly hoped to know The humble walks of happiness below; If thy blest nature now unites above An angel's pity with a brother's love, Still o'er my life preserve thy mild controul, Correct my views, and elevate my soul. Art thou, my Gregory, for ever fled ? Rogers. When fortune's storms assail this weary head, Beattie. Phillips! whose touch harmonious could remove Rest here, distrest by poverty no more, Find here that calm thou gav'st so oft before; Till angels wake thee with a note like thine. Johnson. In all the precedent examples, the persons addressed are supposed to be either present, or at least to listen to the speakers. It requires a less violent effort of imagination to suppose persons present who are absent or dead, than to animate insensible beings, and direct our discourse to them. This figure may therefore be introduced where personification in its highest degree would be improper. It must not, however, be employed except when the mind is in some measure under the dominion of passion. CHAP. XV. OF HYPERBOLE. THE hyperbole consists in magnifying or diminishing an object beyond reality. This figure is in common use both among the learned and unlearned. The human mind does not rest satisfied with the simple truth, but has a strong propensity to add or diminish.* An object either very little or very great in its kind, strikes us with surprise; and this emotion forces upon the mind a momentary conviction that the object is greater or less than it is actually found to be. Hence the hyperbole, which expresses that momentary conviction. A writer taking advantage of this natural delusion, enriches his description by the use of hyperboles : * Quintilian, de Institut. Orator. lib. viii. cap. vì. and and the reader, even in his coolest moments, relishes that figure; he is sensible that it is the operation of nature upon a warm fancy. Even in common conversation, hyperbolical expressions very frequently occur; as swift as the wind, as white as snow, and the like; and our ordinary forms of compliment are almost all of them extravagant hyperboles. Yet these exaggerated expressions scarcely strike us as hyperbolical. In an instant we make the proper abatement, and know how to form a just estiBut when there is something striking and unusual in the form of a hyperbolical expression, it is'exalted into a figure of speech which draws our attention. mate. It cannot have escaped observation, that a writer is generally more successful in magnifying by a hyperbole than in diminishing. A minute object contracts the mind, and fetters its powers; whereas a grand. object dilates and inflames it. The following quotations will exemplify the manner in which this figure is used. For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.-Genesis. Me miserable! which way shall I fly, Swift Camilla scours the plain, Milton. Flies o'er th' unbending corn and skims along the main.-Pope. Longinus |