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this enormous offender. By you, by you and in your sight, was the slow, but the righteous and merited vengeance executed upon him.— CICERO.

2.

Ye toppling crags of ice!

Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down

In mountainous overwhelming, come and crush me!

I hear ye momently above, beneath,

Crash with a frequent conflict; but ye pass,
And only fall on things that still would live;
On the young flourishing forest, or the hut
And hamlet of the harmless villager.-BYRON.

CATACHRESIS.

§ 443. CATACHRESIS, from the Greek katachresis, is an abuse of a trope, by which a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true meaning.

1. "An iron candlestick;" "a glass ink-horn."

Attempered to the lyre your voice employ,

Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.-POPE

2.

3.

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank;

Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music

Creep in our ears.-SHAKSPEARE.

"Her voice was but the shadow of a sound."

CLIMAX.

§ 444. Climax, from the Greek klimax, a ladder, is the ascent of a subject, step by step, from a lower to a higher interest.

1. We feel the strength of mind through the beauty of the style; we discern the man in the author, the nation in the man, and the universe at the feet of the nation.-MADAME DE STAËL.

ors.

2. I impeach thee, Warren Hastings, of high crimes and misdemeanI impeach him in the name of the Commons and House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all.-Burke.

ANTI-CLIMAX.

§ 445. ANTI-CLIMAX, the opposite of climax, is a descent from great things to small; a sentence or paragraph in which the ideas descend, and become less im

portant and striking at the close than at the commencement.

1. "Who murder our wives and children, plunder our dwellings, steal our sheep, and rob our potato-patches."

2.

Die, and endow a college or a cat.-POPE.

ECPHONESIS OR EXCLAMATION.

§ 446. ECPHONESIS, Greek ekphonesis, is an animated or passionate exclamation, and is generally indicated by such interjections as O! oh! ah! alas!

1.

O my soul's joy,

If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have wakened death!-Othello.

2. Oh mournful day to the Senate and all good men! calamitous to the Senate, afflictive to me and my family, but to posterity glorious and worthy of admiration!-CICERO pro Sext.

ENIGMA.

§ 447. ENIGMA, from the Greek word ainigma, from ainissomai, to hint, a dark saying in which some known thing is concealed under obscure language; an obscure question; a riddle.

"What creature is that which walks upon four legs in the morning, two at noon, and upon three at night?" Man. This is the famous riddle of the Sphinx.

EPANALEPSIS.

§ 448. EPANALEPSIS, Greek epanalepsis, repetition, is a figure by which a sentence ends with the same word with which it begins.

1.

2.

Fare thee well, and if forever,

Still forever fare thee well;

Even though unforgiving, never

'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.-BYRON to his wife.

66 Langsyne! with thee resides a spell

To raise the spirit and refine.
Farewell! there can be no farewell
To thee, loved, lost Langsyne."

EPANORTHOSIS.

§ 449. EPANORTHOSIS, Greek epanorthosis, correction, is a figure by which a speaker retracts or recalls what he has spoken, in order to substitute something stronger or more suitable in its place. The attention of the au

ditor is roused, and a stronger impression is thus produced upon his mind by what is thus substituted.

1. Can you be ignorant, among the conversation of this city, what laws-if they are to be called laws, and not the firebrands of Rome and the plagues of the commonwealth-this Clodius designed to fix upon us?

2. "Why should I speak of his neglect-neglect did I say? call it rather contempt."

EPIZEUXIS.

§ 450. EPIZEUXIS, from the Greek epizeuxis, joining to, is rejoining or repeating the same word or words emphatically.

1.

2.

"Restore him, restore him if you can, from the dead."

The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece,
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung-
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all except their sun is set.

BYRON.

EROTESIS OR INTERROGATION.

§ 451. EROTESIS, Greek erotesis, is an animated or passionate interrogation.

What, Tubero, did that naked sword of yours mean in the battle of Pharsalia? At whose breast was its point aimed? What was then the meaning of your arms, your spirit, your eyes, your hands, your ardor of soul? What did you desire, what wish for? I press the youth too much; he seems disturbed. Let me return to myself. I too bore arms on the same side.-CICERO for Ligarius.

EUPHEMISM.

§ 452. EUPHEMISM, Greek euphemismos, from eu, well, phemi, to speak, a figure by which a harsh or offensive word is set aside, and one that is delicate substituted in its place.

1.

Worn out with anguish, toil, and cold, and huuger,

Down sunk the wanderer; sleep had seized her senses.
There did the traveler find her in the morning:

God had released her.-SOUTHEY.

2. "That merchant prince has stopped payment."

HYPERBOLE.

§ 453. HYPERBOLE, Greek uperbole, excess, is a figure by which much more is expressed than the truth. In

Hyperbole the exaggeration is so great that it can not be expected to be believed by the reader or the hearer. It is usually the offspring of a momentary conviction produced by sudden surprise on the part of the speaker and writer.

1. He told us that a part of the road from Salinas, in Persia, to Julamerk, was so frightful to travel, that a fat, spirited horse would in a single day suffer so much from terror, that before night he would be as thin as a knife-blade.-Dr. GRANT'S Nestorians.

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§ 454. HYPOTYPOSIS, from the Greek upotuposis, under an image. A description of a thing in strong and lively colors, so that the past, the distant, and the future are represented as present. It is sometimes called Vision.

1. Greece cries to us by the convulsed lips of her poisoned dying Demosthenes; and Rome pleads with us in the mute persuasion of her mangled Tully.-E. EVERETT.

2.

I see before me the gladiator lie:

He leans upon his hand; his manly brow
Consents to death, but conquers agony,

And his drooped head sinks gradually low;

And through his side the last drops ebbing flow

From the red gash, fall heavy, one by one,

Like the first of a thunder-shower; and now

The arena swims around him-he is gone,

Ere ceased the inhuman shout which hailed the wretch who won.

He heard it, but he heeded not: his eyes
Were with his heart, and that was far away;

He recked not of the life he lost, nor prize,
But where his rude hut by the Danube lay,
There were his young barbarians all at play,
There was their Dacian mother-he, their sire,
Butchered to make a Roman holiday!

All this rushed with his blood. Shall he expire,

And unavenged? Arise! ye Goths, and glut your ire!-BYRON.

IRONY.

§ 455. IRONY, from the Greek eironia, from eiron, a dissembler in speech, is a mode of speech expressing sense contrary to that which the speaker intends to convey.

1. The persons who have suffered from the cannibal philosophy of

France are so like the Duke of Bedford, that nothing but his grace's not probably speaking so good French could enable us to find out any difference. A great many of them had as pompous titles, and were of full as illustrious a race; some few of them had fortunes as ample; several of them, without meaning the least disparagement to the Duke of Bedford, were as wise, and as virtuous, and as valiant, and as well educated, and as complete in all the lineaments of men of honor as he is. And to all this they had added the powerful outguard of a military profession, which in its nature renders men somewhat more cautious than those who have nothing to attend to but the lazy enjoyment of undisturbed possessions. But security was their ruin. They are dashed to pieces in the storm, and our shores are covered with the wrecks.BURKE.

2.

Delightful Bowles, still blessing, and still bless'd,
All like thy strain; but children like it best.
Now to soft themes thou seemest to confine
The lofty numbers of a harp like thine,
Awake a louder and a louder strain,

Such as none heard before, or will again!
Where all discoveries jumbled from the flood,
Since first the leaky ark reposed in mud,
By more or less are sung in every book,
From Captain Noah down to Captain Cook;

Bowles, in thy memory let this precept dwell,

Stick to thy sonnets, man-at least they sell.-BYRON.

LITOTES.

§ 456. LITOTES, Greek litos, slender, is diminution, a figure in which, by denying the contrary, more is intended than is expressed; as, "The man is no fool," that is, he is wise.

1.

2.

To thee I call, but with no friendly voice,
And add thy name, O Sun, to tell thee how
I hate thy beams.-MILTON.

One of the few the immortal names

That were not born to die. -HALLECK.

METALEPSIS.

§ 457. METALEPSIS, from the Greek metalepsis, participation, is the continuation of a trope in one word through a succession of significations, or it is the union of two or more tropes in one word.

1. "Napoleon was living"=Napoleon is dead.

2. "Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria Dardanidum"-Troy and the glory of the Trojans is no more.

METAPHOR.

§ 458. METAPHOR, from the Greek metaphora, a transferring, is the use of a word in a sense which is beyond

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