And after having read over thefe ftately verses,

1

does it not amaze us to find that nothing more is meant than, uncork the bottle, and thip the bread?

466

66

Let us always be folicitous rather to rife in sense than in found, and by no means let the laft be fuffered to exceed the first. "There is more danger, fays LONGINUS, in a Periphrafis than "in any other Figure, unless it be used with "moderation. An injudicious Periphrafis is fpiritlefs, and is at no great remove from "emptinefs and ftupidity. Hence the Critics "have bantered PLATO (who frequently em"ploys this Figure, but in fome places unfea<c fonably) for faying that we ought to take not to suffer either filver or golden "riches to fettle themselves in a city. In like "manner, fays a Critic upon him, if he had prohibited the possefsion of sheep and oxen, he had called them beef and mutton riches *."

« care

Apply thine engine to the fpungy door,
Set BACCHUS from his glaffy prifon free,
And ftrip white CERES of her nut-brown coat,

Επικηρον μεντοι το πραγμα η Περιφρασις των αλλων πλεον, ει μη συμμέτρως τινι λαμβανοίλο ευθυς γας αβλεμες προσπιπίει, κυφολογίας τε οζον και παχύταῖον. Οθεν και τον Πλαίωνα (δεινα γαρ αει περι χημα, και τισιν ακαιρως) εν τοις νόμοις λε γονία, ως 878 αργυρεν δει πλείον, ελε χρυσεν εν πόλει ιδρυ μόνον ἐὰν οικεῖν,” διαχλευαζεσιν ως, σε εν προβατα, φησιν,

66

86

66

.

66

και β8ς, εκωλυε κεκτησθαι, δηλον, οι πρόβατειον αν και βο

ELOV wλuloy sλɛyer.” LONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 29.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XV.

The ASYNDETON and POLYSYNDETON confidered.

§ 1, Afyndeton defined. § 2. Inftances of it from SALLUST, SUETONIUS, CICERO, and VIRGIL. §3. Examples of this Figure from Scripture. $ 4. What LONGINUS fays upon the Afyndeton. $5. A Polyfyndeton defined. § 6. Examples of it from Livy and VIRGIL. § 7. Inftances of this Figure from Scripture. § 8. Examples of the Afyndeton and Polyfyndeton, in a passage from DEMOSTHENES. §9. Remarks upon these Figures.

§ 1. A Syndeton Syndeton * is a Figure, occasioned by

the omifsion of conjunctive particles, which are dropped either to exprefs vehemence or fpeed; or fometimes it may be from a noble negligence of nice accuracy, arising from an attention to our ideas.

$2. SALLUST furnishes us with an example of this fort in his description of the Moors: "There

was

From A privativa & vurdew, I disunite, or disjoin.

"was then, fays he, an horrible spectacle in the "open plains, pursuit, flight, slaughter, capti"vity."

So in the Pontic triumph, CÆSAR had it infcribed in the pageants of the fhow, I came, I faw, I vanquished ; thereby signifying the rapidity of his fuccefs.

CICERO fays, designing it may be the excessive in which CATILINE left Rome, He is gone, rage departed, efcaped, rushed out .

by

In like manner we fee the hurry of DIDO's mind, in the abrupt precipitate manner in which the orders her people to purfue NEAS;

Go, hafte, my fubjects, feize the flaming brands,
Extend the fails, impel the flying oars .

n v

§ 3. Scripture will furnish us with examples of this Figure: Rom. i. 29. " Being filled with all unrighteoufnefs, fornication, wickedness, " covetoufnefs, malicioufnefs; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters,

SS

*Tum fpectaculum horribile in campis patentibus, fequi, fugere; occidi, capi. SALLUSTIUS de Bello Jugurthin, p.106. edit. MAITTAIRE.

+ Pontico triumpho inter pompæ fercula trium verborum prætulit titulum, Veni, vidi, vici. SUETONIUS in Vit. C

SAR. § 37.

Abiit, exceffit, evafit, erupit. CICER. Orat. ii. in CA

建之

12:

Ite,

Eerte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos.

VIRGIL Eneid. lib. iv. ver. 593.

backbiters, haters of GOD, defpiteful, proud, ss boasters, inventers of evil things, disobedient " to parents, without understanding, covenant

breakers, without natural affection, implacable, s unmerciful." So Rom. iii. 11, 12. " There is #none that understands, there is none that feeks #after GOD. They are all gone out of the way,

they are altogether become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one," And 1 Cor. xiii. 4---7. " Charity envies not; charity 3 vaunts not itself, is not puffed up; doth not "behave itself unfeemly, feeks not her own, is

not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices "not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all "things, endures all things."

§ 4. LONGINUS difcourfes concerning this Figure, and tells us, that "fentences divefted of "their copulatives flow loosely down, and are "poured out in fuch a manner as almoft to out

ftrip the speaker. And closing their fhields "together, fays XENOPHON, they pufhed, they "fought, they killed, they were killed. So that 66 report of EURYLOCHUS in HOMER,

"We went, ULYSSES, fuch was your command,
"Thro' the wild woods, we faw a stately dome
"Rife o'er the trees embofom'd in the vale;

"For words of this fort, feparated from one "another, and yet precipitated by the voice, "carry with them an energy, that at the

fame

"fame time checks, and yet accelarates the " fentence *”

"The want of a fcrupulous connexion," fays an ingenious Writer, "draws things into a smaller "compass, and adds the greater spirit and emo"tion: the more rays are thus collected into a "point, the more vigorous the flame +."

;

§ 5. The very opposite to this Figure is the Polyfyndeton for as the Afyndeton drops, fo the Polyfyndeton on the contrary abounds with conjunctive particles.

6. We have an inftance of this kind in Livy; who, defcribing the pleasure and luxury which corrupted and foftened the army of HANNIBAL, fays, "For sleep, and wine, and feafts,

and ftrumpets, and bagnios, and sloth, that "through custom grows every day more bewitching, had fo enervated their minds and "bodies,

* Απλοκα εκπιπίες, και οιονει προχείται τα λεγόμενα, ολιγε δει φθάνοντας και αυτον τον λεγοντα. “ Και συμβαλόντες, φησιν

66

ο Ξενοφων, τας ασπίδας, έωθεντο, εωθεντο, εμάχοντο, ἀπέκλες

66

νον, απέθνησκον.” Και τα τε Ευρυλοχ8,

Βίομεν, ως εκελέυες, ανα δρυμα, φαιδιμ' Οδυσσιν,
Ευρομεν εν βήσσησι τελυγμενα δωματα καλα.

Τα γαρ αλληλων διακεκομμενα, και εδεν ητΊον καλεσπευσμένα, Φέρει της αγωνίας εμφασιν, αμα και εμποδίζυσης τι και συνδιοςLONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 19.

χυσης.

:

+ SPENCE's Efay on Mr POPE's Odyey, page 237. From A and ourdew, I conjoin much.