XVI.

LFC T. fame affiftances cannot be obtained for raising paffion to its proper height by the force of numbers, and the glow of ftyle. However, addreffes to inanimate objects are not excluded from profe; but have their place only in the higher fpecies of oratory. A public Speaker may on fome occafions very properly addrefs religion or virtue; or his native coun try, or fome city or province, which has fuffered perhaps great calamities, or been the fcene of fome memorable action. But we muft remember, that as fuch addreffes arè among the highest efforts of eloquence, they fhould never be attempted, unless by perfons of more than ordinary genius. For if the orator fails in his defign of moving our paffions by them, he is fure of being laughed at. Of all frigid things, the moft frigid, are the awkward and unfeasonable attempts fometimes made towards fuch kinds of Perfonification, efpecially if they be long continued. We fee the writer or fpeaker toiling, and labouring, to exprefs the language of fome paffion, which he neither feels himself, nor can make us feel. We remain not only cold, but frozen; and are at full leifure to criticife on the ridiculous figure which the perfonified object makes, when we ought to have been tranfported with a glow of enthufiafm. Some of the French writers, particularly Boffuet and Flechier, in their fermons and funeral orations,

XVI.

orations, have attempted and executed this LECT. Figure, not without warmth and dignity. Their works are exceedingly worthy of being confulted, for inftances of this, and of feveral other ornaments of ftyle. Indeed the vivacity and ardour of the French genius is more fuited to this bold fpecies of oratory, than the more correct but lefs animated genius of the British, who in their profe works very rarely attempt any of the high Figures. of eloquence *. So much for Perfonifications or Profopopcia, in all its different forms.

APOSTROPHE

* In the Oraifons Funebres de M. Boffuet," which I confider as one of the mafter-pieces of modern cloquence, Apoftrophes and addreffes to perfonified objects, frequently occur, and are fupported with much fpirit. Thus, for instance, in the funeral oration of Mary of Auftria, Queen of France, the author addreffes Algiers, in the prospect of the advantage which the arms of Louis XIV. were to gain over it: "Avant lui la France, prefque fans "vaiffeaux, tenoit en vain aux deux mers. Maintenant,

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દે

on les voit couvertes depuis le Levant jufqu'au couchant de nos flottes victorieufes; & la hardieffe Françoife port par tout la terreur avec le nom de Louis. Tu cederas, tu tomberas fous ce vainqueur, Alger! riche des depouilles de la Chretienté. Tu difois en ton cœur avare, je tiens le mer fous ma loix, et les nations font ma proie, "La legereté de tes vaiffeaux te donnoit de la confiance, "Mais tu te verras attaqué dans tes murailles, comme un "oiffeau raviffant qu'on iroit chercher parmi fes rochers, " & dans fon nid, où il partage fon butin à fes petits. "Tu rends dejà tes esclaves. Louis a brifé les fers, dont tu acablois ses fujets, &c." In another paffage of the

LECT.

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APOSTROPHE is a Figure fo much of the
fame kind, that it will not require many
words. It is an address to a real perfon; but
one who is either abfent or dead, as if he
were prefent, and liftening to us.
us. It is fo
much allied to an address to inanimate objects
perfonified, that both thefe Figures are fome-
times called Apoftrophes. However, the pro-
per Apoftrophe is in boldnefs one degree
lower than the addrefs to perfonified objects;

fame oration, he thus apoftrophizes the Ifle of Pheasants,
which had been rendered famous by being the scene of
thofe conferences, in which the treaty of the Pyrenees be-
tween France and Spain, and the marriage of this Prin-
cefs with the King of France, were concluded.
"Ifle
"pacifique où fe doivent terminer les differends de deux

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grands empires à qui tu fers de limites: ifle eternellement memorable par les conferences de deux grands "miniftres. Augufte journée où deux fieres nations,

long tems enemis, et alors reconcileés par Marie The"refe s'avançent fur leur confins, leur rois à leur tête, "non plus pour fe combattre, mais pour s'embraffer."Fêtes facrées, mariage fortuné, voile nuptial, bene"diction, facrifice, puis-je meler aujourdhui vos ceremo

nies, et vos pompes, avec ces pompes funebres, & le "comble des grandeurs avec leur ruines!" In the funeral oration of Henrietta, Queen of England (which is perhaps the nobleft of all his compofitions), after recounting all the had done to fupport her unfortunate husband, he concludes with this beautiful Apoftrophe: "O mère! O femme! “O reine admirable & digne d'une meilleure fortune, fi "les fortunes de la terre étoient quelque chofe ! Enfin il "faut ceder à votre fort. Vous avez affez foutenu l'état, qui eft attaqué par une force invincible et divine. Il ne "refte plus deformais, fi non que vous teniez ferme parmi " fes ruines."

for

XVL

for it certainly requires a lefs effort of imagi- LECT. nation to suppose perfons present who are dead or abfent, than to animate infenfible beings, and direct our difcourfe to them. Both Figures are subject to the fame rule of being prompted by paffion, in order to render them natural; for both are the language of paffion or ftrong emotions only. Among the poets Apoftrophe is frequent; as in Virgil:

-Pereunt Hypanifque Dymasque

Confixi a fociis; nec te, tua plurima, Pantheu
Labentem pietas, nec Apollinis infula texit * !

THE poems of Offian are full of the most beautiful inftances of this Figure: "Weep "on the rocks of roaring winds, O maid of "Iniftore! bend thy fair head over the waves, "thou fairer than the ghost of the hills, when "it moves in a funbeam at noon over the "filence of Morven! He is fallen! Thy "youth is low; pale beneath the fword of "Cuchullin!t" Quinctilian affords us a very fine example in profe; when in the beginning of his fixth book, deploring the untimely death of his fon,. which had happened during the courfe of the work, he makes a very moving and tender Apoftrophe to him.

Nor Pantheus! thee, thy mitre, nor the bands
Of awful Phoebus fav'd from impious hands.

DRYDEN.

+ Fingal, B. I.

"Nam

LF C T.

XVI.

"Nam quo ille animo, qua medicorum admi" ratione, menfium octo valetudinem tulit? "ut me in fupremis confolatus eft? quam "etiam jam deficiens, jamque non nofter, ip"fum illum alienatæ mentis errorem circa folas literas habuit? Tuofne ergo, O meæ fpes inanes! labentes oculos, tuum fugien"tem fpiritum vidi? Tuum corpus frigidum, હૈદ exangue complexus, animam recipere, auramque communem haurire amplius potui? "Tene, confulari nuper adoptione ad omnium fpes honorum patris admotum, te, avunculo prætori generum deftinatum; te, omnium fpe Atticæ eloquentiæ candidatum, parens fuperftes tantum ad pœnas amifi *!" In this

"With what spirit, and how much to the admiration of the phyficians did he bear throughout eight months "his lingering diftrefs? With what tender attention did he ftudy, even in the laft extremity, to comfort me? And, "when no longer himself, how affecting was it to behold "the disordered efforts of his wandering mind, wholly

employed on fubjects of literature? Ah! my fruftrated "and fallen hopes! Have 1 then beheld your closing “eyes, and heard the last groan iffue from your lips? "After having embraced your cold and breathless body, "how was it in my power to draw the vital air, or con“tinue to drag a miferable life? When I had just beheld you raised by confular adoption to the profpe&t of all "" your father's honours, deftined to be fon-in-law to your "uncle the Prætor, pointed out by general expectation as "the fuccefsful candidate for the prize of Attic eloquence,

in this moment of your opening honours, muft I lose you for ever, and remain an unhappy parent, furviving "oly to fuffer woe??

paffage,