force and variety. But even when there is no passion in the enumeration of particulars, and one does not rise above another in importance, it seems highly proper to increase the force and elevation of voice on the latter members, in order to avoid too great a sameness, and to make the sentence end with harmony. Thus when Cicero enumerates the great qualities of Pompey : What language can equal the valour of Pompey? What can be said, either worthy of him, new to you, or which every one has not heard? For those are not only the virtues of a general which are commonly thought so. It is not courage alone which forms a great leader, but industry in business, intrepidity in dangers, vigour in acting, prudence in concerting, promptness in executing. All which qualities appear with greater lustre in him, than in all the other generals we ever saw or heard of. Pro Leg, Man. In the same manner, when Mr. Addison enumerates the several particulars in Milton's allegorical character of death: The descriptive part of this allegory is likewise very strong, and full of sublime ideas: the figure of Death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are circumstances too noble to be passed over in silence, and extremely suitable to this king of Spectator, No 310. terrours. In these enumerations we do not find the particulars rising in force as they proceed: but as their sameness of form requires a sameness of inflexion, in order to show that they are parts of a whole, so a small increase of force and elevation on each subsequent particular seems necessary, in order to make the whole more varied and agreeable. Climax, or Gradation, taken in the strictest sense, is an assemblage of particulars forming a whole in such a manner, that the last idea in the former member becomes the first in the latter, and so on, step by step, till the climax or gradation is completed. There is great strength as well as beauty in this figure, when the several steps rise naturally out of each other, and are closely connected by the sense which they jointly convey. This mutual relation of parts we may perceive in the following example: There is no enjoyment of property without government, no government without a magistrate, no magistrate without obedience, and no obedience where every one acts as he pleases. This climax is a concluding series, and must have its two first members pronounced with the falling inflexion: the third with the rising, and the last with the falling, in a lower tone of voice than any of the rest. In the same manner when Cicero is pleading for Milo, he says, Nor did he commit himself only to the people, but also to the senate; nor to the senate only, but likewise to the public forces; nor to these only, but also to the power of him with whom the senate had intrusted the whole commonwealth. In this climax the circumstances rise in importance, and should therefore have an increasing force and elevation of voice as they proceed. The two first members must end with the falling inflexion-these only with the rising, and the last with the falling, but in a more forcible and elevated tone than the rest. A similar figure from Cicero must be pronounced somewhat differently. What hope is there remaining of liberty, if whatever is their pleasure, it is lawful for them to do; if what is lawful for them to do, they are able to do; if what they are able to do, they dare do; if what they dare do, they really execute; and if what they execute, is no way offensive to you. In pronouncing this figure the voice must adopt the falling inflexion on each particular; it must increase in force and elevation till it comes to the last member, and this must have still more force than the former members, but must be pronounced in a low concluding tone. A perfectly similar pronunciation will suit the following climax from Shakspeare: What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a God! Hamlet. Mr. Addison has a beautiful climax of circumstances rising one above another, when he is describing the treatment of Negroes, in the West Indies, who sometimes, upon the death of their masters, or upon changing their service, hang themselves upon the next tree. Who can forbear, says Mr. Addison, admiring their fidelity, though it expresses itself in so dreadful a manner? What might not that savage greatness of soul, which appears in these poor wretches on many occasions, be raised to, were it rightly cultivated? And what colour of excuse can there be for the contempt with which we treat this part of our species? That we should not put them upon the common foot of humànity; that we should only set an insignificant fine upon the man who mùrders them; nay, that we should, as much as in us lies, cut them off from the prospects of happiness in another world as well as in this, and deny them that which we look upon as the proper means for attaining it? Spectator, No 215. The falling inflexion with increasing force upon the words humanity, murders, and another, will give that force and colouring to this passage which it so richly deserves. But the series or climax never appears to such advantage in pronunciation as when it is highly impassioned. Of this kind are the two following examples from Demosthenes : But since he has insisted so much upon the event, I will hazard a bold assertion. But I beseech you, Athenians, let it not be deemed extravagant,-let it be weighed with candour. I say, then, that, had we all known what misfortune was to attend our efforts, had we all foreseen the final issue; had you foretold it, Æschines; had you bellowed out your terrible denunciations; (you, whose voice was never heard), yet even in such a case must this city have pursued the very same conduct, if she had retained a thought of glory, of her ancestors, or of future times. Leland's Demosthenes. In my affection to my country, you find me ever firm and invariable. Not the solemn demand of my person, not the vengeance of the Amphyctionic council, which they denounced against me, not the terrour of their threatenings, not the flattery of their pròmises, no nor the fury of those accursed wretches, whom they roused like wild beasts against me, could ever tear this affection from my breast. Epanáphora. Ibid. EPANAPHORA, or Repetition, is a figue which gracefully and emphatically repeats either the same words, or the same sense in different words. This figure is nearly allied to the Aparithmesis and Climax, and requires nearly the same pronunciation; that is, the repeated words must be pronounced with a sameness of inflexion, but with an increasing force and elevation of voice upon each. This expresses that force, uniformity, and diversity, which constitute the beauty of this figure. There is scarcely a more beautiful instance of this figure than in Cicero's Second Oration against Antony. As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you, Antony, the seed of this most calamitous war. You mourn, O Romans! that three of your armies have been slaughteredthey were slaughtered by Antony; you lament the loss of your most illustrious citizens-they were torn from you by Antony: the authority of this order is deeply wounded-it is wounded by Antony: in short, all the calamities we have ever since beheld (and what calamities have we not beheld?) if we reason rightly, have been entirely owing to Antony. As Helen was of Troy, so the bane, the misery, the destruction of this state-is Antony. The first part of this passage forms a kind of dialogue, where both the question and answer require the same inflexion, but in different pitches of voice. Thus, You mourn, O Romans; that three of your armies have been slaughtered, must be pronounced in an open middle tone of voice, without much force; but, they were slaughtered by Antony, in a lower, louder, and more energetic tone: the two succeeding portions ought to be pronounced in the same manner, with an increasing force and a higher tone on the word Antony: the two last members are of a different structure from the former, and must be pronounced somewhat differently; that is, Antony must be pronounced in a lower tone than in the former members, but with increasing force to the last. In pronouncing this passage in this manner, it has the effect of a climax; every part has a relation to every part; and all the parts belong to each other, and form a striking and harmonious whole. Sometimes, however, in this figure, especially in verse, the parts do not so necessarily belong to each other as to form a whole; and when this is the case, the pronunciation ought to be as various and as musical as possible, that the repetition of the same words may not too much cloy the ear and injure the melody of the verse. Thus, in the lamentation of Orpheus for his beloved Eurydice, in Virgil's Georgics, b. iv. v. 465. Te dulcis conjux ; te solo in littore secum, Thée his lov'd wife, along the lonely shores: |