HERMOGENES," animates our speech, and seems " to be dictated from the foul only; as where "DEMOSTHENES fays, Then as to myself --- but I "am unwilling to speak any thing fevere, especially "at the beginning of my addrefs, And on ano"ther occasion, For not concerning these --- but I "will fupprefs what occurred to my mind * ̧” *. To an Orator that successfully uses this Figure, I may apply, with fome variation, a line of Dr Young's, in his epitaph on Lord AUBREY BEAUCLERK; who, upon receiving a mortal wound in an engagement of his ship with the Spaniards, ordered his fuccefsor in command still to maintain the fight against the enemy.

The foul ftill feels him when he speaks no more t.

"

Και η Αποσιώπησις δε ενδιάθετες λόγε, και ως αληθώς, οιον, εμψυχε. Παραδειγμα ταύτης· “ Αλλ' εμοι μεν, ου βουλομαι σε δε δυχερες ουδεν ειπειν αρχομενώ τε λόγου.” Και εν τω υπες μεγαλοπολίτων, Ου γαρ περι τουτων αλλ' εάσω το σε επελθον ειπειν μου.” HERMOGEN. de Ideis, lib. ii. § 7. de

66

vera Oratione.

+ The epitaph of Dr Young, though the last line only is what I have taken the liberty to accommodate to my purpose, is as follows:

While Britain boasts her empire o'er the deep,
This marble fhall compel the brave to weep:
As men, as Britons, and as foldiers mourn,
O'er dauntless, loyal, virtuous BEAUCLERK's urn.
Sweet were his manners, as his foul was great;
And ripe his worth, tho' immature his fate.
Each tender grace that love and joy infpires,
Living, he mingled with his martial fires;
Dying, he bid Britannia's thunder roar,
And Spain ftill felt him when he breath'd no more.

§ 1. The definition of the Apophafis. § 2. C1'CERO's account of it, with examples from him of this Figure; and an instance of it from VIRGIL. §3. An example of the Apophafis from Scripture. § 4. The ufe of the Apophafis.

CHAPTER VI.

The APOPHASIS confidered.

$1. A Pophafis*, or denial, is a Figure by

which an Orator pretends to conceal or omit what he really and in fact declares.

§ 2. CICERO gives us a definition of this Fiand furnishes us at the fame time with ingure, stances of it in the following passage. " Omis

sion, fays he, is when we say we pass over, or "do not know, or will not mention, that which "we declare with the utmost force. As in this I might fpeak concerning your youth, which you have spent in the most

"manner

"abandoned

*

From aro and caw, which Prepofition and Verb joined together, fignify to deny, and are of the fame fenie with aroφημία

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« abandoned profligacy, if I apprehended this "was a proper season, but I now purposely wave " it. I pass by the report of the Tribunes, who "declared that you was defective in your mili"tary duty. The affair about the fatisfaction " concerning the injuries you had done to LA"BEO does not belong to the matter in hand : "I fay nothing of these things; I return to the fubject of our prefent debate. So again, I ❝ do not say that you was bribed by the allies. "It is foreign to my purpose to mention how "you plundered the cities, kingdoms, and the "houfes of all wherever you came: all your " robberies and rapine I pafs over in silence *." And as CICERO has thus taken notice of this Figure, and illuftrated it by examples, so we fhall find that he has grafted it into his Orations, particularly in that for CLUENTIUS, which lays open a scene of fuch complicated villanies, by poison, murder, incest, fubornation of witnefses, and corruption of judges, as the Poets may

* Occupatio eft cum dicimus non præterire, aut non fcire, aut nolle dicere id quod tunc maxime dicimus, hoc modo. Nam de pueritia quidem tua quam tu omni intemperantia addixifti, dicerem, fi hoc tempus idoneum putarem; nunc confultò relinquo. Et illud prætereo quod te tribuni rei militaris înfrequentem tradiderunt. Deinde quod injuriarum fatisfeeifti Lucio Lebeoni, nihil ad rem pertinere puto. Horum nihil dico; revertor ad illud, de quo judicium eft. Item, non dico te ab fociis pecunias accepiffe: non fum in eo occupatus, quod civitates regna, domos omnium depeculatus Furta, rapinas tuas omnes omitto. CICER. ad HEREN. lib. iv $37.

es.

may have never feigned in any one perfon, all contrived by the mother of CLUENTIUS against the life and fortunes of her fon; in speaking of which monster CICERO fays, "There is no mis"chief, there is no wickedness, which this wo"man has not from the beginning willed, wifhed, framed, and practifed against her fon. I "omit that firft injury fhe did him by her luft:

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66

I pass by her incestuous marriage with her "fon-in-law: I fhall not mention how the "daughter was expelled from lawful wedlock. "by the wantonnefs of the mother; as these things rather relate to the common difgrace "of the family, than to her murderous inten"tions towards her fon *." Thus the fame illuftrious Orator, in his defence of SEXTIUS, introduces his character in this manner, with a design no doubt to recommend his client to the favour of the court: "I might fay many "things of his liberality, of his kindness to "his domeftics, of his command in the army, "of his moderation during his office in the province; but the honour of the state is the point in view, which, by attracting my re"gard to that only, prevents the mention of

66

"these

* Nihil eft enim mali, nihil fceleris quod illa non ab initio filio voluerit, optaverit, cogitaverit effecerit. Mitto illam primam libidinis injuriam, mitto nefarias generi nuptias, mitto cupiditate matris expulfam ex matrimonio filiam; quæ nondum ad hujufce vitæ periculum, fed ad commune familiæ dedecus pertinebant. CICER. pro CLUENT. § 66.

"these less important matters +." We have an inftance of the Apophafis, in the complaint of VENUS to JUPITER of the cruelties of JUNO against the Trojans.

Why should I tell how on Sicilia's fhores,
She fir'd the Trojan fleet? Or how she rous'd
The tyrant of the tempefts, and let loose
The furious winds to whelm them in the feas?
Or how the fent the Goddess of the bow
To execute her unrelenting rage ‡?

§ 3. I fhall conclude with an example from Scripture, which I own appears to me in a charming elegance and beauty. PHILEMON is made a convert to Christianity, and is brought into the blessed hope of the Gospel by the Apostle PAUL: ONESIPHORUS, the fervant of PHILEMON, robs his master, and flies to Rome; he falls in the way of the Apostle, who becomes the happy inftrument of ONESIPHORUS'S conversion. Upon this Saint PAUL writes to PHILEMON in behalf of his fervant, and tells

him,

+ Poffum multa dicere de liberalitate, de domefticis officiis, de tribunatu militari, de provinciali in eo magistratu abftinentia, fed mihi ante oculos obverfetur reipublicæ dignitas, quæ me ad fefe rapit hæc minora relinquere hortatur. CICER. pro PUB. SEXT. $3.

Quid repetam exuftas erycino littore claffes ?
Quid tempeftatum regem, ventofque furentes
Æolia excitos, aut actam nubibus irim?

VIRGIL. Eneid. lib. x. ver. 36.