$5 "But in all things approving ourselves as the "minifters of GOD --- By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, ss and yet true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as forrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet pofsefsing all things." SS .SS $ 4. The nature of this Figure, that of contraft, may be fufficient to fhew its original, and prove its worth. By this Figure contraries are resembled together, and by these means appear, if not more than contraries, yet contraries in their utmost extreme and fuperlative ftrength. "White, fays Mr BLACKWALL, placed near black, fhines brighter: innocence, compared "with guilt, appears with double charm and "lovelinefs +." CAUSSINUS's praise of this Figure may not be greater than what it deferves. "The Antithefis, "fays he, is a precious jewel in the treasures of "the Rhetorician, and a Figure admirably adapt"ed to give fweetneís and grandeur to our dif"courfes; for it is an opposition, if not always "of things contrary, yet of things that differ. "The minds of an audience are wonderfully "charmed with this kind of Figure; and con"traries compared naturally create beauty in "our difcourfes. The excellence of a picture "lies 3 † BLACKWALL'S Introduction to the Claffics, page 228. S "lies in its variety of colours; and hence it is, " in my opinion, that the ear is no less delighted "with the opposition of contraries, than the eye " is entertained when it fees two wrestlers con"tending with one another *.” I will only take the liberty of observing, that it appears to me not improbable that the powerful effect which we find fome passages make upon our minds may arife from the Enantiofis ; though every one that feels the effect, may not be fensible of the fource from whence it fprings. Does not every one who reads the following lines of Mr POPE admire them? Who fees with equal eye, as God of all, Is not a ftrong contraft remarkable in these verfes? Heroes and Sparrows, atoms and fyftems, bubbles and worlds being matched together produce a wonderful effect upon the mind; and, being represented as appearing upon a level before * Præclarum Rhetorum non eft Antithefis, Figura ad fuave & illuftre dicendi genus accommodatiffima eft enim contrariorum, vel certè diverforum, oppofitio; quo quidem delectationis aucupio mirificè capiuntur animi, & præclara quæque fiunt ex contrariis-Ex diverfis coloribus decor in pictura efflorescit; unde fit, credo, ut hac contrariorum oppofitione auris delectetur, non fecus ac pafcitur oculus, cum certantes videt athletas. CAUSSINUS de Eloquentia, p. 418. + POPE's Efay on Man, epift. i. line 87. fore the infinite Supreme fill us with exalted ideas of his immenfe greatness. After Dr YOUNG has wrought up our ideas of the creation to a kind of an unbounded magnificence, how ftriking is the picture he draws of man as a mite, an infect, formed to behold and admire the immeasurably great and glorious theatre around him? Why has the mighty Builder thrown afide Dropt down that reas'ning mite, that infect, man, 1* To crawl, and gaze, and wonder at the scene * ? How much by the way are the lines of our English Poet in the fpirit of the Hebrew Pfalmift? Pfalm viii. 3. "When I consider the heavens, the "work of thy fingers, the moon and the ftars " which thou haft ordained? What is man, that ss thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, ss that thou visiteft him? s SS "There can be no means," fays the Author of the Elements of Criticifm, "more fuccefsfully "employed to sink and deprefs the mind, than grandeur and fublimity. By the artful introduction of an humbling object, the fall is great "in proportion to the former elevation of this "doctrine, SHAKESPEAR affords us a beautiful "illuftration in the following passage; $ 4 YOUNG's Night Thoughts, Night ix. The The cloud-capt tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces, 66 "The elevation of the mind in the former part of this beautiful passage makes the fall great in proportion, when the most humbling " of all images is introduced, that of an ut"ter difsolution of the earth and its inhabi"tants. "A fentiment makes not the fame impression in a cool state, that it does when the mind is "warmed; and a depressing or melancholy fen"timent makes the strongest impression, when "it brings down the mind from its highest state "of elevation or chearfulness +." * a& + Elements of Criticifm, vol. i. page 300. CHAPTER XVIII. The CLIMAX confidered. §1. The Climax defined. § 2. Inftances of it from DEMOSTHENES, CICERO, and TILLOTSON. § 3. Examples from the facred Writings. § 4. A free §1. CLIMAX, according to Mr BLACK I. CC WALL'S definition, is, "when the word " or expression, which ends the first member of "a period, begins the fecond, and fo on; fo that every member will make a diftinct fentence, taking its rife from the next foregoing, till "the argument and period be beautifully finished: or, in the terms of the schools, it is when "the word or exprefsion, which was predicate in the first member of a period, is subject in "the fecond, and fo on, till the argument and period be brought to a noble conclusion †." A free kind of Climax obferved and defined, with various inftances. § 5. Obfervations upon this Figure. 66 $ 2. Gradation, fays CICERO, is that Figure "in which the Orator proceeds not to the next "word in order, before he has firft returned "back to the word foregoing. For what hope is there remaining of liberty, if whatever is "their pleasure it is lawful for them to do; if "what is lawful for them to do they are able "to do; if what they are able to do they dare "to do; if what they dare to do they actually "do; and if what they actually do is no way "offensive to you? So again; induftry was the "fource of AFRICANUS's virtue, his virtue was "the * From xλa, a fcale, or gradation. + BLACKWALL'S Introduction to the Claffics, page 223. |