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Lead VERS I FIE D:

WITH

RES

SUITABLE EXAMPLES under each of them.

TH

HO' FIGURES no new fense on words impose, Yet language with their radiant beauties glows: So clothes on men nor fize nor fhape bestow, Yet 'tis to them we half our graces owe.

FIGURES fometimes o'er Words extend their sway, And fometimes Sentiments their pow'rs obey. Figures of Words fome other words destroy ; Figures of Sentiment no words annoy, But, founded upon fenfe, they endless life enjoy.

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An ECPHONESIS ftrong commotion feels, Exclaims, and our impatient fense reveals. "Welcome, fweet hour, (the dying Christian cries, "While pleasure sparkles from his fwimming eyes) "Period at once of forrow, and of fin,

"Corporeal anguifh, and the war within.

"what

"O what bleft objects open to my fight,

66

My GOD, my Saviour, and the realms of night!
"O what perfection! what divine employ !
What an eternity of love and joy!"

Not fo the finner. Death uplifts his dart,
And aims the point impoison'd at his heart:
How his lips quiver! how his eye-balls glare!
How his foul labours with intense despair!
"Ah wretched creature! whither shall I fly,
"Clinging to life, and yet compell'd to die?
"To die O! what is that?—I muft appear
"Before that GOD whom I refus'd to hear,
"To love, to honour; whofe avenging ire
"Will plunge me down into the lake of fire,

"For ever O! for ever, there to dwell;

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66

"Ah! there's the horror, there's the hell of hell:
"And that's my doom-" Convulfions feize his breath,
His accents faulter, and he finks in death.

An APORIA agitates the mind,

And now to this, and now to that inclin'd.
"Me miferable! which way fhall I flee?
"If to the capitol, there I must see

"The pavement fwimming with my brother's gore,

My brother, who muft blefs my eyes no more :
"Or fhould I home return, there there appears

"My mother bow'd with age, and drown'd in tears *,”

EPANORTHOSIS our too languid words

Retracts, and more emphatical affords.

His laws, but I that character recal,
His curfes that to ruin doom'd us all t."

Hh 3

See page 135.
See page 142.

CICERO.
+ CICERO.

APO-

APOSIOPESIS half our fenfe reveals,

And smother'd with our paffions half conceals. Rebels whom I but that I'll firft affuage "These dang'rous ftorms, and quell the ocean's rage*.??

-xx

APOPHASIS, while feigning to impose

Strict filence, will our fulleft fense disclose.

"I might have mention'd, but I choose to spare,
"How like a tyger, or a raging bear,

"You rush'd upon me, and had fhed my blood,
"Had not this arm your curs'd attempt withstood.

ANACOENOSIS will to others trust

Our cause, and ask them if it is not juft.

SS

Judge, men of Ifr'el; I to you appeal,

" If my kind labours for my vineyard's weal

ss Could be furpafs'd. I chofe the richest ground,

Ss Gave it the nobleft vine, then fenc'd it round,

SS And with my rains and rays the young plantation crown'd t.s

} .

ANASTROPHE will the attention stay

By an irregular and bold delay.

"The matchlefs fongs of two contending fwains,
"The heifers, ravifh'd with their charming ftrains,
"Forbore to graze, and lynxes, gath'ring round,
"Forgot their rage, aftonifh'd at the found,
"While rivers ftood fufpended with delight,.
"The fongs of these two swains we will recite t."

627

AN EROTESIS, while it queftions, throws

A luftre round, and kindles as it goes.

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ss Canft thou, a grov'ling worm of yesterday,
In glory rival my eternal ray!
?

VIRGIL. See page 151.
VIRGIL. Eclog. viii. ver. T.

ss Haft

+ Ifa. v. 2, 3, 4.

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SS Haft thou an arm like GOD, or haft thou hurl'd
The bolt, that shakes the center of the world * ?s

PROLEPSIS an objection fully fhows,
And then at pleasure all its strength o'erthrows.
But fome will fay, SS How will the dead arife?
SS Or with what bodies will they mount the skies?
ss Thou fool, the feed thou fowest in the earth

35

Only by death is quick'ned into birth;
ss And GoD a body, as he wills, bestows,
"And, like the feed, the future harvest grows t."

A SYNCHORESIS, with furprizing art,
By yielding much secures th' effential part.
"I grant the Grecians a diftinguish'd mind,
"By fense ennobled, and with arts refin'd;
"There's not an excellence that I can name,
"But what I yield as their unqueftion'd claim;
"But Grecians will for trifles pledge their troth,
"And never felt the fetter of an oath ."

An EPANAPHORA to grace our strain, Dwells on one word, and founds it o'er again. "This globe's the bafis of our lawless pride; "Here we affume our pomp, and here prefide; "Here wealth is courted with intenfe defire; "Here nations rush to arms with boundless ire; "Here civil wars are wag'd, and here the plain "Is delug'd o'er with blood, and heap'd with flain ||."

APOSTROPHE diverts the speaker's strain

To other objects.

SS Witness earth and main,
Hh 4

* Job xl. 9.
+ CICERO.

+1 Cor. xv. 35-38,

See

page 201.

PLINY. See page 212.

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Witness

S5 Witness thou fun, and all ye rolling fpheres,
Ss How great, how good the LORD of all appears."

PERIPHRASIS, ungrateful sense to hide,
Language of softeft texture will provide.

"Full from the feaft, and flush'd with wine, I'll fend
"The draught around to ev'ry joyful friend;
"The body's pains, the anguish of the soul,
"Shall all be bury'd in the blissful bowl;

"No more your breasts shall heave with boding fears "Of the hard galling chain that flav'ry wears *."

ASYNDETON cashiers, to speed its pace, The cop'lative from its accuftom'd place. "I came, saw, vanquish'd, mighty CÆSAR cry'd, "Vict'ry and Fame attendant at his fide +."

A POLYSYNDETON each thought to show Diftinct with cop'latives will overflow. "Bagnios, and floth, and whores, and swimming bowls "Diffolv'd their virtue, and unmann'd their fouls ‡."

An OXYMORON is in found abfurd,

And word difcordant wages war with word;
But from the conflict fenfe th' advantage takes,
And in a fudden blaze of genius breaks.
"A Chriftian's pains are pleasures, loffes wealth,
"His fhame is glory, and his fickness health."

ENANTIOSIS oppofites prefents,

And thus the pow'rs, or charms of both augments.
"Torrents and ftreams are not defcrib'd alike:
"The torrent, bursting thro' the shatter'd dyke,
Tears up the harvests in its headlong course,
And foams and thunders with refiftlefs force:

LIVY. See p. 224.
LIVY. See p. 236.

"Not

+ SUETONIUS. See p. 234.

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