and leaves it unfinished. The succession of ideas is irregular, and connected by distant and uncommon relations. Corol. On all these accounts, nothing is more unnatural than long speeches uttered by persons under the influence of strong passions. Yet this error occurs in several tragic poets of no inferior reputation. 315. Apostrophe frequently appeared in the oratory of antiquity. Demosthenes abounds in a figure so bold, and so suitable to the ardent tone of his own mind. Illus. He often turns abruptly from the judges and his argument, and addresses himself to his antagonist, or the person accused. He seldom, however, personifies an inanimate object. 316. Cicero also affords many examples of every species of apostrophe. Illus. 1. In his Oration for Ligarius, he addresses Tubero, the prosecutor, with vehemence, and paints in strong colours the criminality of his conduct, the partiality and animosity of his intentions. He personifies and addresses the sword of Tubero, and puts him in mind of being in arms against Cæsar at Pharsalia, if Ligarius, whom he accused of treason, had borne arms against Cæsar in Africa.* 2. In his speech against Catiline in the Senate, one of the most ardent and eloquent of all his orations, he burst forth abruptly like a torrent, with an apostrophe to Catiline himself, who had the impudence to enter the senate-house, while the subject of his conspiracy was to be debated. 3. Never did an oration commence in a higher tone; and it needed all the genius and fire of one of the greatest orators to support a correspondent spirit in the sequel of the speech. Cicero, however, effected it. He was deeply interested in the suppression of a conspiracy, which his office of consul, his honour as an orator, and the safety of his country, demanded of him. He was in the prime of life, elated with the highest fame of civil honours and oratorical ability; all concurred to prompt this great effort of eloquence. 317. Apostrophe has seldom made its appearance in modern oratory, except with some French preachers, and some enthusiasts of that character among ourselves. Illus. A French orator may address the cross of Christ, and implore the patronage and intercession of St. Louis with success, on account of the peculiarity of the national faith of his countrymen; but such eloquence could expect no better reception in this island than ridicule or contempt. 318. The British Houses of Parliament are at present the best theatres in the world for the display of eloquence; but many causes concur to render its appearances there less bold than it was among the ancients. Illus. The abstract political or commercial nature of a great part of *"Quid enim districtus ille tuus in acie Pharsalia gladius agebat? cujus latus ille mucro petebat? qui sensus erat armorum? quæ tua mens? oculi? manus? ardor animi? Quid cupiebas? quid optabas ?" the subjects on which it is employed; the ambition of modern orators to reduce legislation and common law to the cool principles of equity and justice; their superior attention, on that account, to facts and arguments, than to the phraseology and figures of pathetic eloquence; and finally, the insensibility, perhaps, of British constitutions, and their greater indifference, on that account, to the pleasures of imagination and passion; all co-operate to repress the more passionate exhibitions of ora tory. 319. At Athens and Rome, the existence of the state sometimes depended on an oration; the most successful speaker was sure to gain every honour and advantage the public had to bestow. Illus. He addressed large bodies of men, who had no established principles to direct their judgments, little knowledge of the theory of government, little impartiality, little discernment, little experience Even the senate of Rome in later times, hardly merited a better character, and the assemblies of the people deserved a much worse one. They were factious, fickle, ignorant, partial, interested, and violent. They had no guides, but their appetites and passions, and the orators, to manage them, were obliged to impress these guides. Corol. Apostrophe is, on the whole, a figure too passionate to gain much admittance into any species of composition, except poetry and oratory. CHAPTER VII. HYPERBOLE. 320. HYPERBOLE is also the offspring of the influence of imagination and passion over our opinions, and its purpose is to exalt our conceptions of an object beyond its na tural bounds. Illus. 1. Our passions magnify the qualities of objects to which they are attached, and diminish the qualities of those they disapprove or dislike. We exaggerate the good qualities of our friends, and underrate those of our enemies. We estimate higher a possession of our own, than a similar property of our neighbour. It is not insincerity that actuates us, and prompts us to impose on others, while we are conscious of the error. Our attachment to every thing connected with ourselves, dictates the partial judgments we form of it; the want of that attachment with respect to the things of our neighbour, or the opposite of it, aversion, with respect to the things of our enemy, make our opinions of them, in like manner, deviate from truth. 2. The purpose of hyperbole is to gratify these predilections and antipathies, which it is impossible to eradicate from the minds of the most enlightened part of mankind, and which often extinguish, in the less cultivated part, every spark of justice and candour.* *"Est autem in usu vulgo quoque, et inter ineruditos, et apud rusticos videlicit, quod natura est omnibus, augendi res vel minuendi cupiditas insita, nec quisquam vero contentus est." Quinctilian. 321. This figure is peculiarly graceful and pleasant, when we do not accurately perceive the limits of the subject we exaggerate because we most easily believe a thing is very great, when we do not know exactly how great it is. Illus. Hyperbole, in such a case, resembles the beautiful deception of the rising moon, when her orb appears uncommonly large, because seen indistinctly through all the mists and vapours of the horizon; or that other deception in the phenomena of vision, by which a small object, placed in a shade, passes for a great one situated at a distance. 322. All discourse and writing admit hyperbole. Though the offspring of the most violent passion, it is also consistent with composure of mind. It sometimes affords high enjoyment to the imagination, and indulges this faculty with the most magnificent exhibitions of nature and art. It shines, however, with most conspicuous lustre in the higher kinds of poetry and oratory. It appears chiefly in tragedy during the first transports of passion; and in all these cases, it may be employed to diminish, as well as to magnify. Example 1. The fear of an enemy augments the conceptions of the size and prowess of their leader. Thus the scout in Ossian, seized with this propensity, delineates a dreadful picture of the enemy's chief. "I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice; his spear, the blasted fir; his shield, the rising moon; he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the hill." Example 2. Admiration of the happiness of successful love eraggerates conceptions of the lover. Shakspeare supposes the elevation of the lover's mind so great as to counteract the natural laws of gravity respecting his body. "A lover may bestride the Gossamer, That idles in the wanton summer air, Example 3. Horror of treason and opposition prompts the most frightful notions of the traitor and oppressor. Cicero, on this feeling, exhibits a striking view of the enormities of Antony. "Quæ Charybdis tam vorax? Charybdim dico? Quæ si fuit, fuit animal unum. Oceanus, medius fidius, vix videtur tot res tam dissipatas, tam distantibus in locis positas, tam cito absorbere potuisse." Example 4. The irksome feeling suggested by the sight of lean cattle tempts us to conclude, that the parts of their bodies have no bond of union but the skin. Virgil accordingly says of such animals, by way of diminution, "Vix ossibus hærent." Example 5. Envy also diminishes its object; and upon this principle Shakspeare introduces Cassius vilifying the behaviour of Cæsar in a fever. "He had a fever when he was in Spain; And that same eye whose bend did awe the world, Did lose its lustre: I did hear him groan, Aye, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans Example 6. The resentment of Hamlet against the ignominious marriage of his mother, makes him lessen the time she had remained a widow: "That it should come to this! But two months dead! nay, not so much, not two. Within a month, A little month, or ere those shoes were old, With which she follow'd my poor father's body, Example 7. Fame exaggerates the person, as well as the qualities. of a hero. "The Scythians, impressed with the fame of Alexander, were astonished when they found him a little man." Kames. 323. In the speeches of ancient generals to their armies, many beautiful instances are to be found of both kinds of this figure; exaggerations, on the one hand, of the number, force, courage, and hopes, of their own troops; and, on the other, diminutions of those of their enemies, in order to inspire that confidence of success which in these times was one of the surest means of victory. Example. Longinus mentions a diminutive concerning a piece of ground, the property of some poor man: and Quinctilian another of Varro on the same subject. The former represents the property as "not larger than a Lacedæmonian letter," which consisted sometimes of two or three words. Varro figures it to be as small as a sling-stone; nay, he supposes it may even fall through the hole in the bottom of the sling. Both these examples seem to belong to ridicule. * 324. The errors frequent in the use of hyperbole, arise either from overstraining or introducing it on unsuitable oc casions. Example 1. Dryden, in his poem on the restoration of king Charles the Second, compliments that monarch at the expense of the sun himself. "That star that at your birth shone out so bright, Example 2. Prior supposes the fire of a lady's eyes to outshine the flames of Rome, when lighted up by Nero; and the music of her lute, to surpass the fabulous miracles of Amphion, in building the city of Thebes. She would have rebuilt Rome faster than it could have been destroyed by the fires of Nero: "To burning Rome, when frantic Nero played, The raging flames, but, struck with strange surprise, But had he heard thy lute, he soon had found "Fundum Varro vocat, quem possum mittere funda ni tamen exciderit, quæ cava funda patet." His rage eluded, and his crime atoned; Thine, like Amphion's hand, had waked the stone, Nor could he burn so fast as thou couldst build." Example 3. Shakspeare, in magnifying the warlike character of his heroes, sometimes exaggerates beyond all bounds of probability. The description of the river Severn hastening to the reeds, to hide his head from the sight of combatants so furious as Mortimer and Glendower, can scarcely be read with gravity. "In single opposition, hand to hand, He did confound the best part of an hour, In changing hardiment with great Glendower. Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, Who, then affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, Example 4. Guarini, who perhaps excels all poets in studied extravagance, makes a shepherd thus address his mistress: If all the sticks in the world were made into pens, the heavens into paper, and the sea into ink, they would not furnish materials sufficient to describe the least part of your perfections." Example 5. Again, the same poet says, "If I had as many tongues, and as many words, as there are stars in the heavens, and grains of sand on the shore, my tongues would be tired, and my words would be exhausted, before I could do justice to your immense merit."* Example 6. An English poet converted the circumstances of the former of these extravagant compliments into a satire no less exaggerated: "Could we with ink the ocean fill, Each man a scribe by trade; To write the tricks of half the sex, Gallants, beware, look sharp, take care; 325. Hyperboles should never be introduced till the mind of the reader is prepared to relish them. The introduction of such bold figures abruptly, puts the reader on his guard, and excites his reflection, which commonly dissipates the delusion, and defeats the purpose of the writer. Example. No passion ever spoke the language which grief is made to assume in the following unnatural exaggeration. The figure and the tone of sentiment are totally discordant. King Richard II., deeply distressed on account of the calamities of the nation, thus addresses his cousin Aumerle, who was under much affliction from the same cause: "Why weepest thou, my tender-hearted cousin? We'll make foul weather with despised tears; "Si tante lingue havesse, et tante voce, Quant' ochil il cielo, e quante arene il mare. Perderian tutte il suono, e la favella, Nel dir a pien le vostre lodi immense." Pastor Fido, Act V. Scene |