fays he, gives an account of the affairs of the "city. The natural method of doing this was "for him to have faid, You have not been faulty who have expofed yourselves for the liberty of "Greece; you have examples from yourselves to support you; nor were they faulty who fought "at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea. But when, "as if he had been inftantaneously inspired and "possessed by APOLLO, he thunders out an oath by the champions of Greece, You have not been faulty, no, you have not, I fwear by the brave fouls who facrificed their lives at Marathon, he feems by this figurative oath, which I call an Apostrophe, to deify their ancestors, by fhewing that they ought to fwear by fuch who had died in defence of their country, as by fo "many Gods; he insinuates at the fame time to દ the judges, the greatness of foul in thofe heroes, who had exposed themselves to death in **fo glorious a caufe; he foars beyond common *reprefentation into fuperlative fublimity, pours in a powerful pathos, excites that venerable "regard which is due to uncommon and to the * most facred oaths, and at the fame time admi**nifters to the minds of his auditors fuch fenti«ment, as, like a medicinal balm, heals the anguish of their spirits. The Orator animates "them with his praifes, and teaches them to "think as highly of their defeat by PHILIP, as "of the victories of Marathon and Salamis: by "these means, in the ftrength of this Figure, "the Orator advances with fuccefs, and with a sovereign 66 << sovereign power bears along with him the σε rninds of his hearers †. "9 1 66 99 † Αποδειξιν ο Δημοσθένης υπερ των πεπολιτευμένων εισφέρει δια ην η καλα φυσιν χρησις αυλης; εχ ημαρτείε, ω του υπερ της των Ελληνων ελευθερίας αγωνα αράμενοι· εχετε δε σε οικεία πόλο παραδειγματα υδε γαρ οι εν Μαραθωνι ημαρτού, 46. οι εν Σαλαμινι, εδ' οι εν Πλα]αταις.” Αλλ' επειδη (και θα περ εμπευσθεις εξαιφνης υπο θες, και οιονεί φοιβοληπίω γενοέμενΘ-) του των αρισεων της Ελλαδῶ ορκον εξεφώνησεν, 8κ εξ οπως ημαρτείε, 8 μα τες εν Μαραθωνι προκινδυνευσανίας, φαινεται δι' ενώ το ομότικο οχηματα, οπερ ένθαδε Αποσροφην εγω καλώ, τες μεν πρόγονος αποθέωσας, (ότι δει τις ελως από θάνοντας ως Θεός ομνυναι παρισάνων) τοις δε κρίνεσι το των εκεί · προκινδυνευσάντων εκλιθεις φρονήμα, την δε της αποδείξεως φυσιν μεθεςακως εις υπερβαλλον υψΘ- και παθῶ, καὶ ξενων και υπερα Φυων ορκών αξιοπιςίαν, και αμα παιωνειον τινα και αλεξιφαρμακον εις τας ψυχας των ακεονίων καθιεις λόγον ως κεφιζόμενες υπο των εγκωμίων μηδεν ελατίον τη μαχη τη προ Φιλιππον, η επι τοις καλα Μαραθωνα και Σαλαμινα νικήθηροις, παρίσασθαι φρονειν. Οις πασι τες ακροαίας δια το χηματικές συναρπασας ωχείο. LONGINūs de Sublimitate, $ 16. τις 66 66 CHAPTER XIV. The PERIPHRASIS Confidered. § 1. The definition of a Periphrafis. § 2. Examples of it in the first view from LIVY, CICERO, and TILLOTSON. § 3. Inftances of it in the fecond view from STATIUS, VIRGIL, PINDAR, &c. § 4. Examples of this Figure from Scripture. § 5. A passage from LONGINUS upon the Periphrafis. § 6. Its ufe, with remarks upon it. $ I. * PEriphrafis Eriphrafis is a Figure in which we ufe more words than what are absolutely necessary, and fometimes lefs plain words, either to avoid fome inconvenience and ill effect which might proceed from expressing ourselves in fewer or clearer words, or in order to give a variety and elegance to our discourses, and multiply the graces of our composition. § 2. We have a fine example of this Figure, in the first view of it, in the fpeech of VIBIUS VIRIUS; who, in his exhortation to the fenators of Capua to poifon themselves in order to prevent their From wig Pgagw, I speak in a circumlocution. their falling alive into the hands of the Romans, particularly defcribes the miferies from which the draught of poison would deliver them, and disguises the horrors of death, or at least suffers it not to come into sight by an express mention of it. 66 Having feafted yourselves, fays he, "with wine and food, the cup in which I will "drink to you fhall be handed round. That draught shall free your bodies from pain, your minds from reproaches, and your eyes "and ears from the sight and hearing of all that "bitter and ignominious ufage, which you must " endure by being made captive to your ene"mies *." CICERO, by making use of a circumlocution, mentions nothing of the killing CLODIUS, though that event seems to be in his view: «The fer"vants of MILO, fays he, for I do not speak "with a design to throw off the crime from them "to others, but according as the event really happened, did that without the order, know"ledge, or prefence of their master, which every "one would be willing his own fervants fhould "do in the like circumstances +." << May • Satiatis vino ciboque poculum idem quod mihi datum fuerit, circumferetur. Ea potio corpus ab cruciatu, animum à contumeliis, oculos, aures à videndis audiendifque omnibus acerbis indignifque quæ manent victos vindicabit. Live lib. xxvi. 13. + Fecerunt id fervi Milonis, dicam enim non derivandi criminis caufa, fed ut factum eft, neque imperante, neque Q faciente, May we not consider the following passage in Archbishop TILLOTSON as a Periphrafis, in which, as one obferves*, "Death is the principal thought "to which all the circumftances of the circumlo-· "cutions chiefly refer," and yet death is not fo much as mentioned?" When we consider that "we have but a little while to be here, that we "are upon our journey to our heavenly country, "where we fhall meet with all the delights we " can desire, it ought not to trouble us much "to endure ftorms and foul ways, and to want "many of thofe accommodations we might ex"pect at home. This is the common fate of "travellers; and we must take things as we find "them, and not look to have every thing juft σε to our mind. Thefe difficulties and inconve̟"niencies will fhortly be over, and after a few days will be quite forgotten, and be to us as "if they had never been. And when we are "fafely landed in our own country, with what "pleafure fhall we look back on those rough "and boisterous feas we have efcaped †?” 2 § 3. Nor are there wanting examples of the Periphrafis in the other view of it, I mean, as giving a variety and elegance to our difcourfes, and multiplying the graces of our compositions. The faciente, neque præfente domino, quod fuos quifque fervos in tali re facere voluiffet. CICER. pro MILO: § ro. SMITH's Tranflation of LONGINUS, p. 121. |