and yet it may be unreadable on account of its dulness. Where this is the case the style is bad. Dulness and monotony are worse faults than obscurity, when obscurity is associated with other qualities which make the work readable.

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This vital element of style is known by different names, no one of which can be said to be altogether satisfactory. By Campbell it is called "vivacity," and by Whately "energy." Other writers speak of it as "animation," "elevation,' attractiveness," and the like. The celebrated treatise of Longinus, whose Latin title, "De Sublimitate," has been translated "On the Sublime," is entitled in Greek Tepì vous, which may be translated "On Elevation" (that is, of style). It treats of many things which have no connection with the "sublime,” as we understand that word; and in many cases refers to the very quality now under consideration. Where this difference exists as to the application of a fitting term, it is perhaps better to select another that shall accord with the chief end of rhetoric, of which this quality is the highest exponent. Now the ends of rhetoric are to instruct, to convince, to persuade, and to please; but of these the highest and most characteristic is the aim to persuade. Accordingly, if this quality be called "persuasiveness," the rather cumbrous character of the word may be excused on the ground of its appropriateness.

§ 65. DEFINITION OF PERSUASIVENESS.

Persuasiveness in style, therefore, comprehends everything that may conduce to arouse the attention, enforce argument, stimulate imagination, and excite the feelings.

It may be well to note that persuasiveness and also perspicuity are terms that have a twofold application-the one to style, and the other to method. In style it refers to the mode of expression, in method to the arrangement of the subjectmatter; and to one who bears in mind this distinction between the two there need be no cause of misapprehension of meaning.

§ 66. GENERAL DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT OF PERSUASIVENESS. The subject of persuasiveness, upon which we are about to enter, will embrace the following divisions: I. Figures of Speech. II. Energy. III. Vivacity.

§ 67. FIGURES OF SPEECH.

The first subject for our consideration is figures of speech. A figure is a form of speech artfully varied from the common usage.

Figures are found in the various departments of language: in logic, grammar, and rhetoric. In grammar there are figures of euphony, prosody, and syntax; in rhetoric there are figures of style, oratory, and emotion. Our present concern is with figures of style, which are also called figures of speech.

The Greek and Roman rhetoricians carried the study of figures to an extent which has been considered excessive, not merely in modern times, but in ancient. Cicero, in his De Oratore, and elsewhere, enumerates many of the most minute character. Under this head he includes all the embellishments of oratory, and makes all expressions figurative which are most brilliant and most effective in impressing an audience. Quintilian is opposed to the multiplication of figures, and his words are worth quoting. "They are," he says, "far from being so numerous as many writers represent them; for all those names of figures, which it is so easy for the Greeks to invent, have no influence with me. First of all, those who think that there are as many figures as affections of the mind are to be utterly disregarded; not because an affection of the mind is not a certain condition of it, but because a figure is not a mere expression of any condition of mind whatever. . . . To testify anger or grief or pity or fear or confidence or contempt is not to use a figure; any more than to advise or threaten or entreat or excuse." These remarks are so full of good sense that they must commend themselves to all. Thus, in the case of the emotions, it is evidently unnecessary and illogical to set down as figures all expressions of hate, abhorrence, contempt; of menace or defiance; of assertion or denial. If this were followed out, figures would be multiplied indefinitely. The same remark holds good with regard to the tactics and artifices of oratory-explanation, offer of proofs, interruption, confessions, concessions, and the like. All these, though deserving consideration, need scarcely be set down as figures, but may rather be regarded as modes of presentation of arguments.

The term figure of speech is equivalent to form of expression, with a restricted and technical application. It means such a form of expression as shall comply with the following requisites:

I. It is purposely and artificially varied from the common. usage.

2. It is used with sufficient frequency to possess marked and definable characteristics of its own.

3. It must further the ends of rhetoric by tending to persuade or please.

If this test be applied to any of the well-known figures, it will be found to hold good. Antithesis, metaphor, and climax, for instance, are all artificial forms; they all have strongly marked characters; and they all tend to promote the ends of rhetoric.

§ 68. IMPORTANCE OF FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Figures of speech are of such importance that they must always occupy a prominent place in every treatise on style or criticism.

1. Though differing in special character or effects, they all have one thing in common, and that is, they contribute beyond anything else to the embellishment of style. Some create a picture before the mind; others gratify the sense of proportion; others adorn the subject by contrasting it with some other which is like or unlike; and thus in various ways they appeal to the æsthetical sensibilities.

2. They contribute to perspicuity, by the power which many of them have of throwing fresh light upon a subject by presenting it in a new and unexpected form. This is especially the case with comparison, metaphor, and example, and many others of the figures of relativity, which are used by writers who would never adopt them merely for ornament. They are used to illustrate a subject, which thus gains a clearness that could be given in no other way.

3. They add to the persuasiveness of style. They give variety to it, by enabling the author to change his form of expression at will. Thus a perpetual freshness and vivacity is the result, together with an attractive brilliancy. Old thoughts, which have lost their force through familiarity, may thus be

rendered striking by assuming a novel shape, under which they have all the force of an original statement.

4. In the whole world of literature, both ancient and modern, figures of speech occupy a foremost place. The Sacred Scriptures abound in them, because the Hebrew mind delighted in Oriental imagery. Nowhere can be found such an immense number of figures so effectively presented. Antithesis and parallel embrace all the poetry and no little of the prose of both the Old and New Testament. A place only less prominent is held by figures in the literature of Greece and Rome. The most famous passages of poetry—epic, lyric, and dramatic -the noblest strains of eloquence, the most vivid descriptions, all exhibit their presence and effective force.

Not the least sign of their power may be perceived in the common language of every-day life. Every one uses exclamation, interrogation, comparison, metaphor, hyperbole, climax, vision; the figures of amplification and extenuation are indispensable in eager, animated conversation; so also are iteration, emphasis, periphrasis, litotes. All these and many more are incessantly used; and always indicate vivacity or energy. This fact shows that while art and elaboration can make the highest use of figurative language, nature also resorts to it; and as nature has invented it, so she prompts its use and shows its effectiveness.

§ 69. TROPES.

The term figurative language is often confounded with "tropes," as being equivalent. There is, however, a distinction between the two. Figurative language is a generic term, including all that has been mentioned above. The trope is a special class of figures of speech, which in some systems. of classification is considered by itself.

The word "trope" is derivable from rpέπw, “to turn," and means a word or phrase which is "turned" from its literal meaning to another and a different one. These are numerous, and have been divided into various kinds, all of which are characterized by the use of words in what is called a "tropical" sense, that is, a sense different from the primitive and literal usage.

It is not appropriate here to enlarge upon the importance

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of tropes from a philological point of view; but it may be said, in passing, that language owes its growth and development from its earlier and ruder stages, to its higher and more refined ones, more to this source than to any other. If we study the history of language, we shall find its growth to be characterized in this way; and in the later stages we shall also find multitudes of words which, however worn down by the attrition of ages, still bear unmistakable marks of their lowly origin. Thus "soul," in Latin, is "wind;" in Greek, the same; in Hebrew, "breath;" reason is derived by some from " reor," reo," to flow; "consideration" means to fix our eyes on "the stars;" "deliberate," to weigh; "cogitare," to act with mind. In Hebrew, the "heart," "liver," and "kidneys" are used for "mind" and "understanding;" "nose" is used for anger;" "a man of lips" is a "babbler." In Greek, "diaphragm" is used for the "understanding;" "breast," for courage" the "nostrils," for "contempt." In Latin, “nostrils," for "taste" and "refinement ;" nose," for " satire ;" "eyebrows," for "disdain ;" "stomach," for " anger;" "throat," for "gluttony." Many of these tropes have been transferred to English.

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Every color recalls some emblematic meaning: black-death, mourning, misfortune; white-innocence, candor, festivity; rosecolor-beauty and freshness; purple-majesty and splendor. The words indicating numbers were originally names borrowed from natural phenomena. Every part of the body has given rise by a trope to some new and abstract expression : the head of a department; the members of a society; the arm of the law; the hands in a factory; the body politic; the tailend of a procession; the foot of a class; to take sides; to go back; a front view; a blackleg.

Current sayings illustrate the same thing. The Greeks characterized human follies and absurdities by such phrases as: "He ploughs the air," or the "sand;" "He is making clothes for fishes ;" "He catches the wind with a net ;" "He roasts snow in a furnace;" "He holds a looking-glass to a mole;" "He is teaching iron to swim;" "He is teaching a pig to play on a flute;" "He seeks wool on an ass ;" "He washes the Ethiopian."

In our own language the number of such sayings is immense.