" felf in fecret places, that I fhall not fee him, faith the LORD? Do not I fill heaven and earth, faith the LORD?" And it is told us, Acts iv. 19. that " PETER and JOHN answered and "faid to them," to the Jewish council," whether " it be right in the sight of GOD to hearken unto "you more than unto God, judge ye." So 1 Cor. iv. 21. "What will ye? Shall I come unto you " with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of

I

meeknefs?" and Gal. iv. 21. " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear " the law?"

§ 4. The use of this Figure feems to lie, (1) In its familiarity. It has fomething of the air of conversation; and though discourses ought not to be turned into mere conversation, yet a proper and decent mixture of such a fort of freedom entertains our hearers, both on account of its variety, and its apparent condescension and good-nature.

(2) This Figure pays a compliment to our audience, in that there is an appeal made to their judgment, their equity, and good difposition, Deference and honour are fhewn to the perfons we addrefs, and our hearers are pleased with our modefty and fubmifsion,

***

(3) In the Anacoenofis there appear a great regard to truth, and an afṣurance of the goodness of our cause. We are fo fully satisfied that justice is on our side, that we venture the matter for a decision to the common principles and dictates of reafon and equity,

(4) This Figure, when addressed to an adverfary, carries powerful conviction into his confcience, and makes him as it were condemn himfelf. A finer inftance of which fort perhaps we cannot find, than in the expoftulation of GoD himself with an ungrateful and difobedient people, in Mal. i. 6. " A fon honours his father, and ss a fervant his mafter: if I then be a father, "where is my fear? and if I be a master, where " is my honour ? ss Common language only glances like an arrow, and lightly rafes the fkin; but this Figure, like a dagger, plunges at once into the heart,

I fhall conclude with the account Vossius gives of this Figure, in which you will observe a coincidence with the fentiments that have already been passed upon it. "This Figure, fays he, is "well adapted to a vindication of ourselves, and "carries a great deal of probability with it: it "is efpecially of fervice in fhewing our confi"dence in our caufe, and in pushing our adver, fary; for if we confer with our adversary, we "take the ready method to prefs and extort a "confefsion; or if we difcourfe with our judges, "we influence their minds, while they fee that "we reft our caufe upon their equity *."

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* Aptum eft hoc schema purgationi, multumque habet probabilitatis. Imprimis vero utile eft confidenti & refellenti. Nam fi cum adverfario communicemus, valebit ad urgendam atque extorquendam confeffionem. Sin autem judicibus prodeft ad eorum animos movendos, dum vident nos in ipforum æquitate fiduciam noftram collocare. Vossii Rhetoric. ib. iv. § 16.

CHAPTER VIII.

The ANASTROPHE Confidered.

§ 1. The definition of the Anaftrophe. §2. Examples of this Figure from MILTON, VIRGIL, and HORACE. $3. An inftance from the Apoftle PAUL, in Romans i. 1---7. § 4. The 114th Pfalm confidered as an Anaftrophe, with Doctor WATTS's remarks and verfion. § 5. An obfer vation upon the Anaftrophe, and cautions concerning the use of it..

§ 1. A Nastrophe

or inversion, is a Figure

>

by which we fufpend our fense, and the hearer's expectation; or a Figure by which we place laft, and perhaps at a great remove from the beginning of the fentence, what, according to common order, fhould have been mentioned first.

*

§ 2. We have a charming inftance of this kind in the following lines, which are part of a fpeech of EvE to ADAM in the ftate of inno

cence:

* From avasgow, I invert.

Sweet

Sweet is the breath, of morn, her rifing fweet,
But neither breath of morn, when the afcends.
With charm of earliest birds; nor rifing fun
On this delightful land, nor herb, fruit, flow'r,
Glift'ring with dew, nor fragrance after show'rs,
Nor grateful ev'ning mild, nor filent night
With this her folemn bird, nor walk by noon,
Or glitt'ring ftar-light, without thee is fweet*.

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"The ancients," fays the Archbishop of CAMBRAY, "by frequent inversions made the sweetest

cadence, variety, and pafsionate exprefsions, "eafy to the Poet. Inversions were even turned "into noble Figures, and kept the mind fus

pended in expectation of fomething great. We "have an inftance of this in VIRGIL'S eighth Eclogue, which begins,

Paftorum mufam, Damonis & Alphefibæi,
Immemor herbarum quos eft mirata juvenca,
Certantes, quorum ftupefacte carmine Lynces,
Et mutata fuos requierunt Alumina curfus:
Damonis mufam dicemus, & Alphefibæi,

"If you take away this inversion," fays the Archbishop," and place the words according to "the grammatical order and construction, you destroy all their force, and grace, and har"mony t

""

MILTON's Paradife Loft, book iv. line 641.
Letter to the French Academy.

HORACE, in an ode of his that celebrates the praifes of DRUSUS, the fon-in-law of the Emperor AUGUSTUS, bears us away in his fublime ardor, without fhewing us whither we are going, or giving us time to breathe; and we cannot find the great character he designs to applaud till the 18th line, though he is raising our expectations, and paying honours to his Hero throughout the long preface.

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14.

C

Such as the bird, that from above
Lanches th' avenging bolt of Java;
To whom the Lord of earth and heav'n.
The empire o'er the fowls has giv'n,
Rewarding high his duteous deed
The rape of lovely GANYMEDE,
Whom youth and his paternal fire
To tempt him from his nest conspire,
Stranger to toils; whom, when no stain,
Nor fkirts of vernal clouds remain,
The strong impetuous gales invite,
While his heart quivers at the flight
To his firft onfet. On the fold,
Upon his pinions swift and bold;
Now down he sweeps: his next delight,
Roaming for prey, and fond of fight,
T'attack the dragon's dreadful fires,
And in his talons grafp his fpires.
Or fuch as fome ill-fated fawn,
Browfing along the flow'ry lawn,
Beholds, all trembling with furprise,
A lion in his terrors rife,

Juft wean'd, and bent to rend, to flay.
With his young tooth his helpless prey ;

Such,