4 CHAPTER I. CONSIDERED. § 1. The definition of a Trope. § 2. Tropes may extend to Sentences as well as Words. § 3. The true difference between Tropes and Figures. § 4. Tropes may become faulty. P § 5. They may be fown too thick. § 6. They may be wild and extravagant. § 7. They may be mean and low. § 8. They may be far-fetched and obfcure. § 9. They may be harsh and unfuitable. § 10. They may be finical and fantastic. § 11. They may be filthy and impure: all of which faults are to be carefully avoided. § 12. A method to difcover the value of Tropes; and an observation concerning the purposes for which they are used. THE GENERAL NATURE OF TRO PES A Trope is the changing a word or fentence with advantage, from its proper fignification to another meaning. Thus, for example, GOD is a Rock +. Here the B Trope * Derived from τρεπω, I turn. † 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. The Rack of Ifrael spake to me, &C. Trope lies in the word Rock, which is changed from its original sense, as intending one of the ftrongest works and fureft shelters in nature, and is employed to signify that God by his faithfulnefs and power is the fame fecurity to the foul that trusts in him, which the Rock is to the man that builds upon it, or flies for fafety to its impenetrable recefses. So our LORD, speaking of HEROD, fays, " Go ye and tell that Fox *.5 Here the word Fex is alienated from its proper meaning, which is that of a beaft of prey and of deep cunning, to denote a mifchievous or crafty Tyrant, or both. In like manner VIRGIL calls the two Scipio's, Thunderbolts of war ; w Or the two SCIPIOs, thunderbolts of war, That roll'd their ruin o'er the Libyan coasts t. The word Thunderbolt is not to be understood in its original fenfe, but, being transformed into a Trope, signifies the martial terrors, and the rapid and irresistible conquefts of those two renowned generals, the SCIPIONES AFRICANI. 2. A Trope may extend farther than a word, and make up a sentence; or an whole fentence may be tropical. This obfervation QUINTILIAN juftifies, when he calls a Trope, "a change of a word Luke xiii 32. Aut geminos duo fulmina belli Scipiadas, cladem Libya Eneid. vi. ver. 842. gle word; but f the vanity of his word or fentea ** MSI call an Hero & Lia, te pe cOMMERLELA.E: cat i mie EX Ethiopian ma, sag i a §3. The true diftinética ween Figures may be easily conceived change of a word or fentence in into another, which its very etmey Sors; whereas it is the nature of a Figure not change the fenfe of words, but to illuftrare, eniven, ennoble, or in fome manner or another embellish our discourses : and fo far, and fo far orir, as the words are changed into a different meaning from that which they originally signify, the Orator is obliged to the Tropes, and not to the Figures of Rhetoric. § 4. As Tropes infufe a dignity into our language, and fhed a luftre over our expressions, when they are well-chofen and applied; so, on the other hand, when they are mean in themselves, when they are thrown out without judgment, or are in any other refpect defective and faulty, they B 2 render Tropas eft verbi vel fermonis à propriâ fignificatione in aliam cum virtute mutatio. QUINTIL. lib. viii. cap. 6. ab Init. CHAPTER I. CONSIDERED. § 1. The definition of a Trope. a Trope. § 2. Tropes may extend to Sentences as well as Words. §3. The true difference between Tropes and Figures. § 4. Tropes may become faulty. § 5. They may be fown too thick. § 6. They may be wild and extravagant. § 7. They may be mean and low. § 8. They may be far-fetched and obfcure. § 9. They may be harsh and unfuitable. § 10. They may be finical and fantastic. § 11. They may be filthy and impure: all of which faults are to be carefully avoided. 12. A method to difcover the value of Tropes; and an obfervation concerning the purposes for which they are used. THE GENERAL NATURE OF TRO PES A Trope is the changing a word or fentence with advantage, from its proper fignification to another meaning. Thus, for example, GOD is a Rock t. Here the Trope B Derived from τζεπω, I turn. † 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. The Rack of Ifrael spake to me, &c. |