them, because what they mean is unimportant. Instead of enlivening the expression, they make it languish. III. Liveliness of Expression as depending on the ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, that great city!" How much more lively is the impression which it produces in this arrangement of the words than the following: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city!" The first is the order of the original Greek; the second, that of the received version. "Not in the legions Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned In ills to top Macbeth!" This is the arrangement adapted to the speaker's purpose. How much superior it is in liveliness of expression to the same words in the following grammatical arrangement: "A more damned devil in the legions of horrid hell can not come to top Macbeth in ills!" The general rule for the arrangement of words is, that the thought which is prominent in the speaker's mind should be the prominent thought in the sentence. RHETORICAL SENTENCES. § 613. Sentences rhetorically considered are of two kinds: PERIODIC SENTENCES and LOOSE SENTENCES. A PERIODIC SENTENCE, or a Period, is a sentence so framed that the grammatical structure will not admit of a close before the end of it; or it is one in which the meaning remains suspended until the whole is finished. "I am not of the mind of those speculators who seem assured that all states have the same period of infancy, manhood, and decrepitude, that are found in individuals." Here the sense remains suspended until the close of the sentence. So in the following sentence: "But if there be reason to be slow in rejecting the new proposition, still more is there necessity for caution in its adoption." A LOOSE SENTENCE is any one that is not a period; as, "I have told you already of mental ailments; and it is a very possible thing also that I may be bodily ill again in town, which I would not choose to be in a dirty, inconvenient lodging, where, perhaps, my nurse might stifle me with a pillow; and, therefore, it is no wonder if I prefer your house." In all loose sen tences, as in this, there is always one place at least before the end, at which if you make a stop, the construction of the preceding part will render it a complete sentence. The Period, as being the most vigorous and lively, is especially adapted to certain parts of an oration, and certain species of writing, where force and finish are necessary. The sense being suspended, keeps the attention awake until the close of the sentence. Of all parts of speech, remarks Campbell, conjunctions are the most unfriendly to vivacity, and, next to them, the relative pronouns, as partaking of the nature of the conjunction. Introduce the conjunction and between the different members of the following passage, and you greatly lessen its remarkable liveli ness: "And the enemy said, I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; my revenge will be satiated upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them: Thou blewest with Thy breath; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters!" THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A DISCOURSE. § 614. I. The EXORDIUM, or INTRODUCTION. II. The ENUNCIATION and DIVISION of the subject. III. The NARRATION Or EXPLICATION. IV. The REASONING OF ARGUMENTS. V. The PATHETIC part. VI. The PERORATION Or CONCLUSION. It does not fall within the limits of the present work to exhibit specimens and illustrations of these several parts, though they are rhetorical forms of great value. EXERCISES UNDER PART VII. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. § 615. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS is that process by which the Rhetorical forms are separated from the body of a discourse, and named and exhibited. In this way, the constituent parts of the discourse of the great orators can be distinctly seen, and those modes of expression which are perspicuous, and lively, and energetic, and beautiful, can be distinguished as examples to be imitated. For the constituent parts of a discourse, the learner is referred to the orations of the great masters of eloquence. It is those forms only that belong to almost every species of composition that are referred to here. 1. EXAMPLES. Ye living flowers, that skirt the eternal frost! Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise !-COLERIDGE. Here the principal figure is ANAPHORA, "which is the repetition of a word at the beginning of several clauses of a sentence." See § 576. In the expression, "the dread arrows of the clouds," we have a Metaphor, "which shows similitude without the sign of comparison." See § 597. In every line of the passage we have Personification, which is a figure by which the absent are introduced as present, and by which inanimate objects and abstract ideas are represented as living. See § 602. There is also Apostrophe, which is a figure by which the speaker turns the current of his discourse, and addresses some person or some object different from that to which his discourse had been directed. See § 581. 2. An upright minister asks what recommends a man; a corrupt minister, who.-COLTON. Here is an instance of Antithesis, a figure by which "the contrast of words and sentiments is rendered more striking. See § 577. 3. High on a throne of royal state, which far Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence.-MILTON. We have here Metonymy, a figure by which one word is put for another. See § 598. We have also Personification, a figure by which inanimate objects and abstract ideas are represented as living. See § 602. We also have Catachresis, a figure "by which a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true meaning." See § 582. 4. Homer calls words winged; and the epithet is peculiarly appropriate to his, which do indeed seem to fly, so rapid and light is their motion, and which have been flying ever since over the whole peopled earth, and still hover and brood over many an awakened soul. Latin marches, Italian struts, French hops, English walks, German rumbles along. The music of Klopstock's hexameter is not unlike the tune with which a broad-wheeled wagon tries to solace itself when crawling down a hill. But Greek flies, especially in Homer.-Guesses at Truth, Second Series. Here we have Metaphors, and a Simile, and a number of Personifications. 5. 6. A mirthful man he was; the snows of age Fell, but they did not chill him. Gayety, Even in life's closing, touched his teeming brain Raises in front of some hoar glacier, Painting the bleak ice with a thousand hues.-SCOTT. Talent convinces; Genius but excites: This tasks the reason; that the soul delights. Clasps in its airy arch the pomp of heaven!-BULWER. 7. The traitor lives! Lives! did I say? He mixes with the Senate; he shares in our counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys his murderous thoughts, and coolly marks us out for bloodshed.-CICERO. 8. To fall asleep in this benighted world, And in an instant wake in realms of day.-WILCOX. 9. She repeats the Creed in dying, and, like other Mussulmans, says, "In this faith I have lived, in this faith I die, and in this faith I hope to rise again"-Bishop SOUTHGATE. 10. I do not attack him from love of glory, but from love of utility: as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dike, for fear it should flood a province.-Rev. SYDNEY SMITH. 11. Of Chalmers, Canning said, "The tartan beats us; we have no preaching like that in England." 12. Private credit is wealth; public honor is security. The feather that adorns the royal bird supports his flight: strip him of his plumage, and you fix him to the earth.-JUNIUS. 13. The chariot! the chariot! its wheels roll on fire! As the Lord cometh down in the pomp of his ire: Self-moving it drives on its pathway of cloud, And the heavens with the burden of Godhead are bowed! 14. Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes; MILMAN. 15. Youth on the prow, and Pleasure at the helm; Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That, hushed in grim repose, expects his evening prey.—GRAY. He loved his friends with such a warmth of heart, So clear of interest, so devoid of art; Such generous friendship, such unshaken zeal, No words can speak it, but our tears can tell. O candid truth! of faith without a stain; O manners! gently fair and nobly plain; O sympathizing love of others' bliss! Where will you find another breast like his ?-Lord LYTTELTON. 16. "An ambition to have a place in the registers of Fame is the Eurystheus which imposes heroic labors on mankind.” 17. "Conscience, good my lord, is but the pulse of reason." 18. "I move that the committee be full." "I would modify the gentleman's motion by moving that the chair be added to the committee." By twilight glimpse discovered! Mark! how they flee Streaming before them!-WORDsworth. 20. "A blind man is necessarily a man of much feeling; his progress through life is touching in the extreme." 21. "What an awful thing it must be for a man to lie at the point of death." |