5 BO 
spects estimable, are not all of them pure, 
but only such as are agreeable to the usage 
of the most distinguished writers ; writers 
whose works descend from one generation and 
one age to another, without losing aught of 
their original interest and beauty. 1 bus, our 
English translation of the Bible is written in a 
pure style ; so are the Spectators and other 
writing's of Mr. Addison, and the letters and 
prefaces of Mr. Pope, do purity of style it 
is necessary not only that it is formed ac- 
cording to the rules of philosophical or uni- 
versal grammar, but according to the parti- 
cular genius or idiom ol the language in 
which we write. Thus, though “ I see a 
voice” is allowable in Greek, and occurs in 
the twelfth verse of the first chapter of the 
Revelations, it would not be allowed in any 
original composition in English. Hence as it 
depends on the purity of a style whether a 
composition shall not become soon unin- 
telligible and die away, or penetrate to pos- 
terity, and be transmitted to future ages, this, 
of all the good qualities of style, may be consi- 
dered as the most important. In the present 
day, in our country, there seems to be a wanton 
introduction not only of phrases degraded by 
common and trivial use, .but of what may be 
called vulgar slang (if slang is not indeed an 
example itself of the abuse here noted), into 
the debates in parliament, and consequently 
newspapers, pamphlets, and a deluge of 
ephemeral histories. What reader of the 
next century will understand, “ it is a hoax; 
meeting my idea; making up my mind; 
blinking the question,” &c. &c. ? Even Mr. 
Hume, and other writers of note, especially 
among his countrymen the Scots, trespass 
greatly against purity, when they admit into 
their English style not only Scotticisms, 
against which they are now pretty generally 
on their guard, but so many Latin idioms and 
Gallicisms. As to Latinity, t bis too has 
been used even immoderately by our great 
lxicog rapher Dr. Joffnson. 
Perspicuity, like purity, consists partly in 
single words, and partly in their construction. 
As to single words, their force and propriety 
are to be judged of from the usage of the most 
generally approved writers at the period of 
our writing. For through length of time, 
words lose their original signitication, and 
assume a new one, which then becomes their 
proper sense. 1 husthe word knave antiently 
signified a servant. In an old English ver- 
sion of the New Testament we find, “ Paul, 
the knave of Jesus Christ.” The proper and 
precise meaning of words, nearly synonimous, 
is to be distinguished with accuracy. I or ex- 
ample : mercy and pity are sometimes con- 
founded ; though mercy is, properly speaking, 
exercised towards an offender, and pity to- 
wards one in distress. But thong; i the mean- 
ing of all the words in a sentence, considered 
by themselves, may be very obvious, yet the 
senseof the whole may be obscured by a disord- 
erly arrangement, ol which a very apt and cu- 
rious example is given by Quinctilian. “A 
certain man ordered in his will tnat his heir 
should erect for him a statue holding a spear 
made of gold ” A question here of great conse- 
quence to the heir arose from the ambiguity 
of the expression ; as it admitted of doubt 
whether the words, “ made of gold,” were to 
be applied to the statue, or to the spear. Care, 
therefore, must be taken to dispose both the 
words and parts of a sentence in such a man- 
RHETORIC. 
ii er ns best agrees with their mutual con- 
nection and dependance.on each other. . 
Vigour, or energy of style, depends chiefly 
on brevity and a judicious use of tiopes and 
figures. Brevity consists in the use of ge- 
neral propositions and general teuns, which 
comprehend a great number of particular, 
the enumeration ol which weakens a sty le, as 
in the material world bodies are weakened by 
dilatation. The ” e of figurative language, or 
tropes and figures, ' , perhaps, still more con- 
nected with dignity - id beauty of style; but 
we embrace the first easion of making some 
remarks on its nature. 
The antient rhetoric!. who were fond of 
multiplying distinctions t ~reat excess, dis- 
tinguished a trope from a i ire ; understand- 
ing by a trope a change in t >e usual meaning 
of words, and by a figure a change or de- 
viation from the usual mode of constructing 
them in sentences; but they are generally' 
confounded by the most accurate and purest 
writers. Both these kinds of changes, how- 
ever, may be comprehended, even according 
to etymology, under the word trope, which 
in Greek signifies a turn. As no language 
contains a sufficient number of proper words 
to express all the different conceptions of our 
minds, tropes were introduced to supply the 
deficiency*: to express the various ideas that 
occurred from different associations and 
analogies which sprung up in the mind 
on viewing things in different lights, and 
comparing them with one another; required 
this aid to language. Among the principal 
tropes are metaphor, allegory, metonymy, 
irony, hyperbole, climax, inversion, antithesis, 
interrogation, exclamation, apostrophe, and 
prosopopeia or personification. 
A metaphor is a comparison or simile, with- 
out any words implying comparison, and com- 
monly reduced to a single word. I o say' ol 
a man that he is like a fox or a lion, is a 
simile ; that he is a fox or a lion, a metaphor. 
A metaphor taken from a simile which ascribes 
life and action to things inanimate, and 
lengthened out into many, or even several 
circumstances, is an allegory. In metaphors 
and allegories, care should be taken that the 
same image or kind of trope is carried 
throughout the whole. A mixture of meta- 
phors is one of the most common, as well as 
greatest, deformities in composition, though 
by a very r little attention it might certainly be 
very easily' avoided. An instance ol this, 
amounting even to what we call a bull, occurs 
in Mr. Hume, though on the whole a correct 
writer : “ The farther we mount up into an- 
tiquity, the more do we find mankind plunged 
into idolatary.” Nat. Hist. Religion, section 
1. On the 'other hand, a minute attention 
to resemblances sometimes leads a writer 
into studiedand far-fetched conceits; than 
which, to a true taste, delighting only in what 
is great, and, consequently simple, there can 
be nothing more disgusting. 
A metonymy is a trope which changes the 
names of things -that are naturally though not 
essentially united, as the cause for the effect, 
or tire effect for the cause, &c. r l hus, Mars 
is put for war, Ceres for corn, and Bacchus 
for wine : . 
lmplentur veteris Bacchi pinguisque fan me. 
Virg. 
Thus, in common discourse, it is usual to say, 
“ this is such a person’s hand, I know his 
hand,” that is his writing. 
Irony is a (rope in which one tiling is said, 
and the contrary intended. The subjects of 
irony are all manner of vices and follies, which 
are ' sometimes exposed in this way more 
effectually than by the most serious reason- 
ing. In irony, the author assumes the air of 
believing as others do; but by T a develope- 
mentof the ground of belief, ol the pro and 
the con, brings out the truth, and leaves the 
reader or hearer himself to draw the con- 
clusion. We listen to the still voice of our 
own reason and conscience, and secretly 
condemn our own tenets or our own conduct, 
when pride and passion might raise a mist 
that might shade us from the light that should 
emanate from others. This figure of speech 
was used so much by Socrates, that he got 
the appellation of Eiron or Droll. The most 
perfect specimen of irony in the English lan- 
guage is Swift’s Directions to Servants. 
Hyperbole, which exceeds the bounds of strict 
truth, and represents things as either greater 
or less than they really are, is the boldest of 
all tropes. The representation, however, is 
made in such a manner as not to impose on 
the hearer. It has always a very considerable 
effect, even when most extravagant; as it 
shews, at least, the opinion entertained by the 
speaker on any subject, in a very strong 
light ; it is a natural expression of enlivened 
emotion. We meet with hyperboles even in 
the Scripture: “ I bearyou record,” says St. 
Paul in his Epistle to the Galatians, chap. iv. 
“ that if it had been possible ye would have 
plucked out your own eyes and given them 
tome;” and the Evangelist John concludes 
his Gospel in these words. “ 1 here are also 
many things that Jesus did, which if they 
should be written every one, I suppose that 
even the world itself could not contain the 
books that should be written.” 
Climax is a compound sentence in which 
the different parts or clauses are closely con- 
nected, and rise gradually in importance 
above one another. We have an admirable 
example of this trope in that passage of sacred 
writ, where it is said of the joys of Heaven, 
“ that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nei- 
ther hath it entered into the heart of man to 
conceive.” We hear more things than we 
see ; but the imagination can form to itself 
an infinitude of things that do not fall under 
the cognizance of any of our senses. The 
following is also an excellent exemplification 
of the climax: “ Whom God did predestinate, 
them lie also called ; and whom he called, 
them he also justified ; and whom he justified, 
them he also glorified.” Rom. viii. 30. But 
there may be a climax of periods as well as 
of sentences. Here also we are furnished 
witli the most apt and splendid examples by 
the Scriptures. “ For scarcely for a righteous 
man will one die, yet, peradventure, for a 
good man, some would even dare to die ; but 
God commendeth his love towards us, in that 
while we were yetsinners, Christ died for us.” 
Rom. v. 7, 8. The contrary of a climax is the 
bathos, as some have called it after Pope, or 
the sinking in composition, otherwise called 
an anticlimax; from which miserable de- 
formity and disgrace, authors might be raved 
by a small exertion of attention and common 
sense : 
“And thou, Dalhousie, thou great god of war. 
Lieutenant-colonel to the earl of Mar.” 
Blackmore, 
