feria tolerantur, felicitate corrumpimur. Fidem, libertatem, amicitiam, præcipua humani animi bona, tu quidem eadem conftantia retinebis; fed alii per obfequium imminuent. Irrumpet adulatio, blanditia peffimum veri affectus venenum, fua cuique utilitas. This paffage is taken from Galba's fpeech to Pifo, on his adopting and making him his affociate in the empire, which Ablancourt has tranflated to this purpofe." Fortune

has hitherto been averfe to you; the is now changing "to your advantage. Be now careful to make your"felf capable of fupporting her favours as well as her frowns. For the incentives of profperity are much

more powerful than thofe of adverfity; because we "yield to the one and refift the other. Although you "fhould preferve your virtue, yet all thofe near your "perfon will lofe theirs. Flattery will take the place

of truth, and intereft that of affection, to which "they are poifon and venom." Much might be faid upon this tranflation, but that it would be foreign to our prefent purpose. I only would obferve, that it has not preferved the beauty of thofe words, irrumpet adulatio, which import, that whatever measures and precautions Pifo might take to keep off flattery, fhe would however force herself a paffage, and, in a manner, break through all the barriers he might oppose against her. The French does not fufficiently reprefent that idea; Flattery will take the place of truth.

Pliny the naturalift afcribes the decay and ruin of morals to the prodigious expences of Scaurus during his Edilefhip. He expreffes this thought in a wonderful manner, by a very few words which are highly emphatical. Cujus nefcio an ædilitas maxime proftraverit mores. His dilefhip completed the ruin of morals.

In all our good French writers, we meet with a multitude of expreffions, either fprightly or emphatical; fhining or beautiful.

That man (Maccabeus) whom God had fet over Ifrael, like a wall of brass, where the forces of Afia were fo often fbattered, after defeating powerful armies came every year, as though he had been the meaneft of the Ifraelites, to repair with his triumpbant hands, the breaches which the enemy had made in the fanctuary.

....

We faw him, (M. de Turenne) in the famous battle of the Downs, force the weapons out of the hands of the mercenary troops, when they were going to fall on the vanquished with a brutal fury.

He won the hearts of thofe, who are generally kept within the limits of their duty by fear of punishment only, with the obligation of respect and friendship.... By what invifible chains did he thus lead the will?

How often did he make his greateft efforts, to tear off the fatal bandage which clofed his eyes against truth?, We might obferve in many of the above cited examples, that epithets contribute very much to the elegance and ftrength of an oration. They chiefly produce that effect, when they are figurative and metaphorical, according to Quintilian's obfervation. Dif camus fpes effranatas & animum in futura eminentem velut in vinculis habere ... z Vide quantum rerum per unam gulam tranfiturarum permifceat luxuria, terrarum marifque vaftatrix. The fame Seneca fpeaks thus in an excellent encomium upon the death of the wife of a provincial governor: Loquax & ingeniofa in contumelias præfectorum provincia, in qua etiam qui vitaverunt culpam, non effugerunt infamiam, eam velut unicum fanctitatis exemplum fufpexit. Cicero fays fomething like this of his brother. Qua cum honefta fint in bis privatis noftris quotidianifque rationibus; in tanto imperio, tam depravatis moribus, tam corruptrice provincia, divina videantur neceffe eft.

a

A difcourfe without epithets is languid, and feems almoft without life or foul. However, we must not.

multiply them too much. For, to use Quintilian's comparison, it is with epithets in a difcourfe as with fervants in an army, who would be extremely burthenfom, and of no other ufe but to embarrass it, if every foldier had one; for then the number would be doubled, but not the ftrength.

I

ARTICLE the FOURTH.

Of the order and difpofition of words.

T must be owned, that the placing of words contributes very much to the beauty and fometimes even to the strength of a difcourfe. Nature has implanted a tafte in man, which makes him fenfible to harmony and number; and in order to introduce this kind of harmony and concert into languages, we need only confult nature, ftudy the genius of thofe languages, and found and interrogate, as it were, the ear, which Cicero juftly calls a proud and difdainful judge. Indeed, let a thought be ever fo beautiful in itfelf, if the words which exprefs it are ill placed, the delicacy of the ear is fhocked; fa harfh and inharmonious

e

multis. Nam fit longa & impedita, ut.... eam judices fimilem agmini totidem lixas habenti, quot milites quoque: in quo & numerus eft duplex, nec duplum virium. Quintil. 1. 8. c. 6.

Natura ducimur ad modos. Quint. 1. 9. c. 4.

Aures, vel animus aurium nuncio naturalem quandam in fe continet vocum omnium mentionem.

...

Animadverfum eft eadem natura admonente, effe quofdam certos curfus conclufionefque verborum. Orat. n. 177, 178.

Graves fententiæ inconditis

verbis elatæ offendunt aures, quarum eft judicium fuperbiffimum. Orat. n. 150.

Aurium fenfus faftidiofiffimus. Lib. 1. ad Heren. n. 32.

f

Itaque & longiora & breviora judicat, & perfecta ac moderati femper expectat. Mutila fentit quædam, & quafi decurtata, quibus tanquam debito fraudetur: productiora alia, & quafi immoderatiùs excurrentia; quæ magis etiam afpernantur aures. Orat. B. 177, 178.

Optimè de illa (compofitione) judicant aures, quæ & plena fen

harmonious compofition grates it; whereas it is generally foothed with that which is foft and flowing. If the harmony be not ftrong, and the cadence too quick, the ear is fenfible that fomething is wanting; and is not fatisfied. But, on the contrary, if there is any thing heavy and fuperfluous, it cannot bear it. In a word, nothing can give it pleasure but a full and harmonious flow of words.

To prove that this tafte is natural, we need only obferve, that it is common to the learned and unlearned; but with this difference, that the former know the reasons, and the other judge by opinion only. Thus Cicero cannot conceive how it is poffible for a man not to be sensible to the harmony of an oration; and he does not judge of it so much by his own experience, as by what frequently happened to a whole affembly, who were fo charmed with the clofe of harmonious periods, that they discovered their fatisfaction and taste by univerfal acclamations.

It is then of the greatest importance that youth fhould be taught early to discover this order and dif pofition of words. We must make them admire, how words in the orator's hands, are like foft wax,

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tiunt, & parùm expleta defiderant, & fragofis offenduntur, & lenibus mulcentur, & contortis excitantur, & ftabilia probant, clauda deprehendunt, redundantia & nimia faftidiunt. Quintil. 1. 9. cap. 4.

Unum eft & fimplex aurium judicium, & promifcuè ac communiter ftultis ac fapientibus à natura datum. Cic. pro Font, n. 12.

Docti rationem componendi intelligant, indocti voluptatem. Quintil. 1. 9. c. 4.

Quod qui non fentiunt, quas aures habeant, aut quid in his hominis fimile fit, nefcio. Meæ quidem, &c. Quid dico meas? Conciones fæpe exclamare vidi, cùm apte verba cecidiffent. Orator. n. 16.

* Nihil eft tam tenerum, neque tam flexibile, neque quod tam facilè fequatur quocumque ducas, quam oratio.... Ea nos (verba) cùm jacentia fuftulimus è medio ficut molliffimam ceram ad noftrum arbitrium formamus & fingimus. Itaque tum graves fumus, tum fubtiles, tum medium quiddam tenemus: fic inftitutam nof tram fententiam fequitur orationis genus. Lib. 3. de Orat. n. 176, 177.

Rebus accommodanda compofitio, ut afperis afperos etiam numeros adhiberi oporteat, & cum dicente æquè audientem exhorrefcere. Quint. 1. 8. c. 4.

Idque ad omnem rationem, & aur um voluptatem, & animorum motum mutatur & vertitur. Ibid. G 6 which

which he handles and manages at pleasure, and to which he gives whatever form he thinks fit: how by the different ftructure he gives them, the oration proceeds fometimes with a majeftic gravity, or runs with rapidity; fometimes charms and ravishes the auditor by the foftness of its harmony, or fills him with horror by a fharp and harsh cadence, according to the fubject he treats. We must make youth obferve, that this ranging of expreffions has a furprising effect, not only as it pleases but makes an impreffion on peoples minds. For, as Quintilian obferves, it is fcarce poffible that an expreffion fhould reach the heart, when it begins with grating the ear, which is, as it were, its portico and avenue. On the other hand, a man is willing to hear what pleases him ", and this induces him to believe what is faid to him.

As the quality and measure of words do not depend upon the orator, and that he finds them all cut out, as it were, to his hand; "his addrefs confifts in ranging them in fuch order, that their concourfe and union (without leaving any vacuity, or producing any harshnefs) may render the oration foft, flowing and agreeable. And there are no expreffions, however harsh they may appear in themselves, but may contribute to the harmony of a difcourfe, when judiciously difpofed as in a building, in which the moft irregular and roughest stones have their proper places. Ifocrates, properly fpeaking, was the first among the Greeks, who made them fenfible to this beauty of harmony and cadence; and we fhall foon fee, that Cicero did the fame fervice to the language of his country.

1 Nihil intrare poteft in affectum, quod in aure velut quodam veftibulo ftatim offendit. Ibid.

Voluptate ad fidem ducitur. Quintil.

Collocationis eft componere & Aruere verba fic, ut neve afper eorum concurfus, neve hiulcus fit, fed quodammodo coagmentatus &

lævis.... Hæc eft collocatio, quæ jun&tam oratiorem efficit, quæ cohærentem, quæ lævum, quæ æquabiliter fluentem. 3 de Orat. n. 171, 172.

• Sicut in ftructura faxorum rudium etiam ipfa enormitas invenit cui applicari, & in quo poffit infiftere. Quinti). 1. 9. c. 4.

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