XVII. feffed wit and humour, and can find no place LECT. in grave compositions. Mr. Pope, who is remarkably fond of Antithefis, is often happy in this use of the Figure. So, in his Rape of the Lock: Whether the nymph fhall break Diana's law, Or whether heaven has doom'd that Shock muft fall. What is called the point of an epigram, confifts, for most part, in fome Antithefis of this kind; furprising us with the fmart and unexpected turn, which it gives to the thought; and in the fewer words it is brought out, it is always the happier. COMPARISONS and Antithefes are Figures of a cool nature; the productions of imagination, not of paffion. Interrogations and Exclamations, of which I am next to speak, are paffionate Figures. They are, indeed, on fo many occafions, the native language of paffion, that their ufe is extremely frequent; and, in ordinary conversation, when men are heated, they prevail as much as in the most fublime oratory. The unfigured, literal ufe of Interrogation, is, to ask a queftion; but when men are prompted by paffion, whatever they would XVI'. LECT. Would affirm, or deny, with great vehemence, they naturally put in the form of a question; expreffing thereby the strongest confidence of the truth of their own fentiment, and appealing to their hearers for the impoffibility of the contrary. Thus, in Scripture: "God is not a man that he fhould lie, neither the fon of "man that he should repent. Hath he said "it? and fhall he not do it? Hath he spoken "it? and fhall he not make it good * ?" So Demofthenes, addreffing himself to the Athenians: "Tell me, will you ftill go about "and afk one another, what news? What " can be more aftonishing news than this, "that the man of Macedon makes war upon " the Athenians, and disposes of the affairs of Greece?-Is Philip dead? No, but he is " fick. What fignifies it to you whether he "be dead or alive? For, if any thing hap pens to this Philip, you will immediately " raise up another." All this delivered without Interrogation, had been faint and ineffectual; but the warmth and eagerness which this questioning method expreffes, awakens the hearers, and ftrikes them with much greater force. INTERROGATIONS may often be employed with propriety, in the courfe of no higher XVII. emotions than naturally arife in pursuing fome LECT. close and earnest reafoning. But Exclamations belong only to stronger emotions of the mind; to surprise, admiration, anger, joy, grief, and the like: Heu pietas! heu prifca fides! invictaque bello Both Interrogation and Exclamation, and, in- FROM this it follows, that the great rule with regard to the conduct of fuch Figures is, VOL. I. G g that 459. INTERROGATION AND EXCLAMATION. LECT that the writer attend to the manner in which XVI. nature dictates to us to exprefs any emotion or 1 XVII. And, indeed, were it not for the help of this LECT. "punctum admirationis," with which many writers of the rapturous kind fo much abound, one would be often at a lofs to discover, whether or not it was Exclamation which they aimed at. For, it has now become a fashion, among these writers, to fubjoin points of admiration to sentences, which contain nothing but fimple affirmations, or propofitions; as if, by an affected method of pointing, they could transform them in the reader's mind into high Figures of eloquence. Much a-kin to this, is another contrivance practifed by fome writers, of feparating almoft all the members of their sentences from each other, by blank lines; as if, by fetting them thus afunder, they bestowed fome fpecial importance upon them; and required us, in going along, to make a pause at every other word, and weigh it well. This, I think, may be called a Ty- ́ pographical Figure of Speech. Neither, indeed, fince we have been led to mention the arts of writers for increafing the importance of their words, does another cuftom, which prevailed very much fome time ago, feem worthy of imitation; I mean that of distinguishing the fignificant words, in every fentence, by Italic characters. On fome occafions, it is very proper to ufe fuch diftinctions. But when we carry them fo far, as to mark with them every fuppofed emphatical word, these words Gg 2 |