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LESSON CXI.

ANTICIPATION.-CORRECTION.-OMISSION.-CONCESSION.

EXPOSTULATION (OR COMMUNICATION).—DUBITATION.

1. ANTICIPATION (Prolepsis), is a figure by which the speaker anticipates an objection to what he advances, and returns an answer to it.

"What, then, shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid!" Another example we find in Cicero's Oration for Archias: "But it will be asked, were those great men who are celebrated in history distinguished for that kind of learning which you so highly extol? It would be difficult, I grant, to prove this of them all; but," &c.

2. CORRECTION (Epanorthosis), is a figure by which a writer or speaker retracts or recalls what he has said, for the purpose of putting something stronger or more suitable in its place.

Thus Cicero: "For what greater blow could these judges-if they are to be called judges, and not rather parricides of their country-have given to the State, than when they banished?" &c. Another example is; "O brave youth! Brave did I say? Most heroic youth!"

3. OMISSION, or PRETERMISSION (Paralepsis); by which figure the writer or speaker affects to cover or conceal what he plainly insinuates or insists upon.

Thus: "I shall say nothing of the defendant in his private or individual capacity. I shall not break into the privacy of his domestic life. I shall not whisper in your ears a word about his integrity or his honor." Cicero abounds in this figure. As another example: "I pass by his headstrong temper, which killed his mother; I omit to speak of his ingratitude to the best of fathers; I say nothing of his cruelty to his brother and sister; I shall speak simply of his behavior in the present transaction."

4. CONCESSION (Synchoresis), is a figure by which the speaker grants or yields up something, for the purpose of gaining a point, without the admission of which he could

not secure that point. This is a powerful figure in argu.

ment.

Thus: "I allow that nobody was more nearly related to the deceased than you; I grant that he was under some obligation to you; nay, that you have always been in friendly correspondence with each other; but what is all this to the last will and testament?" Again: "I acknowledge that he is very thoughtless; but he is quite incapable of deliberate vice."

An admirable example of this figure appears in the oration of Cicero in favor of Flaccus, in which, for the purpose of invalidating the testimony of the Greeks, who were witnesses against his clients, he allows them every quality but that which was necessary to make them credited.

5. COMMUNICATION (Anacœnosis), or EXPOSTULATION, is a figure by which a speaker argues a case with his hearer or with his opponent; or by which an injured person, in order to convince the offender of his injustice or ingratitude, pleads with him from all the topics of reason and propriety, that he may make him ashamed.

Thus: "Were it your case, what would you answer? Tell me; I appeal to your inmost thoughts;" "Had the case been your's, what would you, or what could you have done?" Another good example may be found in the speech of the Lord Chief Justice in "Henry IV.," second part, last scene: "Question your royal thoughts," &c.

6. DUBITATION (Aporia); of which the following is an instance: "Shall I speak or be silent? Shall I put a seal forever on the deed I have discovered, or make it known to the whole world ?"

LESSON CXII.

ENUMERATION.-ACCUMULATION.- -ASYNDETON.-POLYSYN

DETON, ETC.

1. ENUMERATION (or Aparithmesis), is a detail of things in corresponding words, each word or phrase having the

same grammatical character; the simplest example is counting, "one, two, three," &c.

Other examples are the following: "His disinterestedness, his candor, his kindness, and forbearance, are remarkable." 'By a series of misconduct, he lost his fortune, ruined his health, alienated his friends, and abridged the term of his natural life."

A statement of like or of opposite particulars cannot be clearly and forcibly made, unless the forms of expression also indicate resemblance or contrast. Correspondence in purpose should produce correspondence of construction.

The following instance of enumeration is faulty: "His being irregular, his passions, his extravagant spending, his losing of his friends, and the mcrease of his enemies, quickly brought him to ruin."

Corrected, it will stand thus:

"His irregularity, his passions, his extravagance, the loss of his friends, and the increase of his enemies, quickly brought him to ruin."

Nothing is more common, in an enumeration, than an opposition of part to part, and the opposition should always be kept clear by similarity in the parts not opposed. Hence the following example fails: "In the same way that John hindered Thomas, William was found to be obstructed by Edward." It should be, "In the same way that John hindered Thomas, Edward hindered William."

A few more examples may be added, in order to compare simple Enumeration with Antithesis. "He is sensible, learned, and religious." Here we have a mere enumeration of qualities, and the words denoting them are properly joined in one construction; but in the following, where a contrast is to be enforced, the same words are distributed into two constructions, "He is not only sensible and learned, but he is religious, too." A like difference accomplished by like means, is shown in the following:

"The year, day, and hour, are known." "Not only the year, but the day and the hour are known." "He spoke of the power and wisdom of God." "He spoke of Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 2. If the particulars are hurried together, so as to have the effect of being gathered into a heap, the figure is called ACCUMULATION (Synathroesmus); as,

"He was every thing: painter, poet, musician, soldier, magistrate, hunter, fisher-what, indeed, was he not?"

Again, in Cicero's oration against Catiline:

"You do nothing, you attempt nothing, you plan nothing, which I not only hear but even see and clearly comprehend."

Again, in Paul's Epistle to the Romans:

"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

3. If, in the enumeration of particulars, the conjunctions are left out, we then call the figure ASYNDETON; if, on the contrary, in order to prolong time for the attention to dwell on each particular, more conjunctions are used, than the construction requires, we call the figure, Polysyndeton.

Examples of these. Of the first, Cæsar's letter to the Roman Senate, "I came, saw, conquered;" of the second, "When Socrates fell, truth, and virtue, and religion fell with him."

4. If, in the enumeration, each particular rises in force. or weight above the preceding, we then call the figure Increase (Incrementum); and, under certain circumstances, Climax, Gradation (or Anabasis). The figures opposite to these are called Decrease (Decrementum), Anti-climax (Katabasis, Bathos), or Descent.

Increase is the name properly given to such a manner of speaking as this: "If credit, if interest, if happiness, are of no estimation in your eyes, think on the consequences; think on the precepts of religion; think on the hopes of immortality."

Supposing the ascent to be more palpable, we shall then properly use the term Climax, or Anabasis; as,

"There is no enjoyment of property without a government, re government without a magistrate, no magistrate without obedience, anl no obedience when every one acts as he pleases."

Again:

"Not the solemn demand of my person, not the vengeance of the Amphictyonic council which my enemies denounced against me, not the ter

ror of their threatenings, not the flattery of their promises,-no, not the fury of those accursed wretches whom they roused like wild beasts against me, could tear my affection for my country from my heart."

The following brief example of climax is added: "John prepared for the good work, which Thomas began, Edward forwarded, and William at last completed." Reverse the order of these particulars, and though the sense will remain, the force of expres sion will be lost.

LESSON CXIII.

PRACTICAL EXERCISES ON ENUMERATION AND OTHER FIGURES OF THE PRECEDING LESSON.

Write the following sentences with such alterations as the preceding lesson requires:

Spring, and summer, and autumn, and winter, correspond respectively to youth, maturity, old age, death.-The villain is gone, has filed, run away, and darted off.-The enemy said, I will pursue, and I will overtake, and I will divide the spoil.-Destitute of principle, he regarded neither his family, nor his friends, nor his reputation.-Neither threat, entreaty, riches on the one hand, nor poverty on the other, could sway his mind from the resolution he had formed. In all stations and conditions, the important relations take place, of masters and servants, and husbands and wives, and parents and children, and brothers, and friends, and citizens, and subjects.While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold, heat, summer, winter, day, and night, shall not cease.-He determined to give up affairs and to collect his debts, and to sell his estate, and to take leave of all connected with him, and to go abroad forever.—At one and the same time, to listen to one person, and to read the letter of another, and write to a third, and dictate to a fourth, is an achievement to which probably no man, except Julius Cæsar, was ever found competent.-Horses, and dogs, and men, and women, and beggars, and gentlefolk, all were mingled in that wild rout. The long procession included heralds, musicians, flag-bearers, priests, magistrates, burgesses, horse-soldiers, foot-soldiers, and peasants in their holiday attire.

Innocence is there, kindly peace, simple quiet, meads with lowing herds, tune of birds, lapse of streams, saunter with a book, and warbling muse in praise of hawthorns.-Rank may confer, but it will not of necessity insure respect. Rank may confer influence; but will not necessarily produce virtue. He might have been, and he is, in the estimation of some people, the happiest man in the world. He might have been happy, and is now

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