it all over before he came here. He has been counting syllables; he has been weighing words; he has been solving paradoxes; he has been finding out riddles; his indignation was all studied at home, and he comes here now to put it off upon I cannot believe him, for he does not believe himself.

us.

I have made these remarks, and adduced these examples, to show the reason why among the ancient rhetoricians the period was interdicted to the eloquence of invective, though it has been successfully applied to that purpose in modern times.

As the period has a beginning and end within itself it implies an inflexion, or an ascending and a descending progress; a rise and a fall. When these are equally divided, consisting of two rising and two falling clauses, placed in alternate opposition to each other, the period is in its highest perfection. The ancients called this a decussated period. Such for instance is the following, which has often been quoted from Cicero.

"If impudence could effect as much in courts of justice, as insolence sometimes does in the country, Caesina would now yield to the impudence of Ebutius, as he then yielded to his insolent assault."

Such is the following passage from the first Olynthiac of Demosthenes.

Ὁ μὲν γαρ ὅσω πλείονα ὑπὲρ τὴν ἀξίαν πεποί ηκε τὴν αὑτοῦ, τοσούτω θαυμαστότερος παρὰ πᾶσι νομίζεται· ὑμεῖς δὲ ὅσω χεῖρον ἢ προσῆκε κέχρησθε τοῖς πράγμασι τοσούτῳ πλείονα αἰσχυνην ὠφελη

πατε.

ΟΛΥΝΘ. Α. 6.

For whatever he has accomplished beyond expectation is thought by all the more worthy of admiration; and the more you have neglected your affairs, the greater is the shame you have incurred.

Such also among many others is the following paragraph from Junius to the Duke of Grafton.

"Sullen and severe without religion, profligate without gaiety, you live like Charles the second, without being an amiable companion; and, for aught I know, may die, as his father did, without the reputation of a martyr.”

But the four clauses of a period may be distributed in unequal portions. The ascent may terminate in one clause, and the descent may consist of three; as in the following from a speech of Burke.

"When we speak of commerce with our col

onies, fiction lags after truth, invention is unfruitful, snd imagination cold and barren."

Or vice versâ the ascent may be of three clauses, and the descent completed in one; like the following from the same speech.

"Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent, to which it has been pushed by this recent people."

In comparing the purposes, to which these two modes of constructing a period will be most applicable, it will be obvious, that the division in equal parts is best adapted to express contrast, and the unequal division best suited for accumulation. That the former is the period for antithesis, and the latter the period for climax.

Of climax and antithesis I propose to speak more at large hereafter. They are among the most splendid and ambitious ornaments of speech; and as such their characters will most properly be investigated under the next subordinate branch of elocution; which, in conformity to the terms heretofore adopted from the ancinets, I have denominated dignity.

LECTURE XXX.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

WE have finished our examination of those constituent parts of elocution, which have been called by the names of elegance and composition, from which we are to deduce our principles for the selection and arrangement of the words, which combine to the formation of oratorical discourse. We have now arrived at the third subdivision of this department, which has been called dignity; and which I have heretofore explained, as intending the decoration of discourse. It involves the consideration of all figurative language.

You have learnt from Mr. Locke, that all human ideas are ultimately derived from one of two sources; either from objects perceptible to the

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