whom he confidered as his father. Volui tibi multa alia fcribere, fed totus animus in hac una contemplatione defixus eft. Virginium cogito, Virginium video, Virgi nium jam vanis imaginibus, recentibus tamen, audit, alloquor, teneo. 1 *Cicero furnishes us with a prodigious number of examples. Bona, miferum me! (confumptis enim lacry mis tamen infixus animo hæret dolor) bona inquam, Cn. Pompeii acerbiffima voci fubjecta praconis, Vivis, & vivis non ad deponendam, fed ad confirmandam audaciam. Cadebatur virgis in medio foro Meffana civis Romanus, judices, Cum ille imploraret fæpius ufurparetque nomen civitatis, crux, crux, inquam, infelici & ærumnofo, qui nunquam istam poteftatem viderat, comparabatur. This figure is likewise vaftly proper for infifting ftrongly on any proof, or any truth. n The elder Pliny would make us fenfible of the folly of men, who give themfeves fo much trouble to fecure an establishment in this world; and often take arms against one another, to extend a little the boundaries of their dominions. After reprefenting the whole earth as a fmall point, and almost indivisible in comparison of the univerfe; 'tis there, fays he, we are endeavouring to establish and enrich ourselves; 'tis there we would govern and be fovereigns; 'tis that agitates mankind with fuch frequent violence: This is the object of our ambition, the fubject of our difputes, the cause of fo many bloody wars, even among fellow-citizens and brothers. Hæc eft materia gloriæ noftræ, hac fedes: hic honores gerimus, bic exercemus imperia, bic opes cupimus, hic tumultuatur humanum genus: hic inftauramus bella etiam civilia, mutuifque cædibus laxiorem facimus terram. All the vivacity of this paffage confifts in the repetition, which feems in every member or part to exhibit this little fpot of earth, for which men torment themselves fo far, as to fight and k2. Philip. n. 64. 1. Catil. n. 1. m 7 Verr. n. 161, Lib. 2. c. 58. kill one another, in order to get fome little portion of it and at laft, what fhare have they of it after death? Quota terrarum parte gaudeat? vel, cum ad menfuram fuæ avaritie propagaverit, quam tandem partionem ejus defunctus obtincat! • Rompez, rompez tout pacte avec l'impiété. David, David triomphe. Achab feul eft detruit... "Your leagues with impious men diffolve, diffolve.... "Deign, deign, my God, on Mathan and on her "To fhed the fpirit of imprudent error, "Fatal forerunner of the fall of Kings.... "God of the Jews, 'tis thou who doft prevail ! "Great David triumphs. Ahab only, dies. PL'argent, l'argent, dit-on: fans lui tout eft ftérile. La vertu fans l'argent n'eft qu'un meuble inutile. L'argent en honnête homme érige un fcelerat. L'argent feul au palais peut faire un magiftrat, Tis money, money: this alone is merit. "Without it, virtue is a useless toy. Money proclaims the 'knave a man of honour. "Money, alone, can make a dunce a judge. a Quel carnage de toutes parts! On égorge à la fois les enfans, les vieillards; Et la foeur, & le frere ; Et la fille, & la mere; Le fils dans les bras de fon pere. Englished. What flaughter's all around us! The murthering fword kills ancient men and children, The fifter and the brother, The daughter and the mother; The fon too, clafp'd in his fond father's arms. To take away the repetition from all these paffages, is in reality to diveft them of all their beauty, to weaken all their ftrength, and deprive the paffions of the language natural to them. The Antithefis, Diftribution, and fuch like figures. I Antithefes, when artfully employed, fays father Bouhours, are extremely pleafing in works of genius. They have pretty near the fame effect in thefe, that lights and fhadows have in painting, when the painter has the art of diftributing them judicioufly; or that the trebles and bafes have in mufic which an able mafter knows how to blend together. Vicit pudorem libido, timorem audacia, rationem amentia... Odit populus Romanus privatam luxuriam, publicam magnificentiam diligit.... Chriftian Generals must be tender and charitable even when their hands are bloody ; and inwardly adore the Creator, when they find themfelves reduced to the melancholy necessity of deftroying his creatures. t There are other figures which confift chiefly in a certain difpofition and relation between words, which being disposed with art, propriety, and fymmetry, as it were, in a particular order, correfpond with one another; and footh the ear and mind agreeably, by this kind of regular and ftudied harmony. "Cicero did not neglect that ornament of speech, which fome of the ancients, as Ifocrates, were vastly r Pro Cluent. n. 15. f Pro Mur. n. 76. Flechier. Delectatus eft his etiam M. Tullius; verùm & modum adhi buit non ingratæ, nifi copia redundet, voluptati ; & rem alioqui levem, fententiarum pondere implevit. Quintil. 1. 9. c. I.^ fond fond of; and he has fhewed the ufe we ought to make of these figures, by employing them feldom and with moderation; and being always careful to heighten them, by the force and juftness of the thoughts, without which they would have very little merit. W "Eft enim hæc, judices, non fcripta, fed nata lex; quam non didicimus, accepimus, legimus, verum ex natura ipfa arripuimus, haufimus, expreffimus ad quam non docti fed facti, non inftituti fed imbuti fumus: ut, fi vita noftra in aliquas infidias, fi in vim, fi in tela aut latronum aut inimicorum incidiffet, omnis honefta ratio effet expediendæ falutis... * Et fine invidia culpa plectatur, & fine culpa invidia ponatur. Seneca is full of thefe figures, Magnus eft ille. qui fictilibus fic utitur, quemadmodum argento: nec ille minor eft, qui fic argento utitur, quemadmodum fictilibus. Infirmi animi eft, pati non poffe divitias... Tu quidem orbis terrarum rationes adminiftras, tam abfiinenter quam alienas, tam diligenter quam tuas, tam religiofe quam publicas. In officio amorem confequeris, in quo odium vitare difficile eft. * A man great in adverfity by his courage, and in good fortune by his modefty, in difficulties by his prudence, in danger by his valour, and in religion by his piety. He only changed virtues, when fortune changed. her countenance; happy without pride, unhappy with dignity. In his youth he had all the prudence of advanced age, and in an advanced age, all the vigour of youth. We eafily image to ourselves the ardour and perfeverance with which a man of genius applies himself to any Study which is his chief pleasure; and a man of virtue who makes it an effential duty. He poffeft that innocence and fimplicity of manners, which we generally preferve when we converfe lefs with men than with books; and he had nothing of that feverity 1 w Pro Mil. n. 10. * Pro Cluent. n. 5. Senec. Ep. 5. 2 De Brev. vitæ, c, 18. Fonten. or favage pride with which the commerce of books, without that of men, is too apt to infpire.. One alone is fmitten, and all are delivered. God fmites his innocent fon for the fake of guilty men; and pardons guilty men for the fake of his innocent fon. 3 All thefe thoughts are very juft and beautiful in themfelves; but it must be owned, that the turn and manner, in which they are expreffed, make them much more. graceful. In order to make us more fenfible of this, we need only reduce them to a plain and vulgar way of fpeaking. This I will endeavour to difplay in the two beautiful paffages of Cicero, where the difpofition of words, of which we are fpeaking, appears in a pe-" culiar manner. When that great orator, pleading for Ligarius, had told Cæfar, that Princes resemble the Gods in nothing' more, than in doing good to men; he might have bares ly faid, that his fortune and kind difpofition procured.. him that glorious advantage: this is the foundation of.. the thought. But Cicero expreffes it in a much more noble and elegant manner, by obferving separately, by a kind of diftribution, what he owes to fortune, and what should be afcribed to his natural inclination. The one gives him the power of doing good, the other the will and it is in this, that the greatnefs of his fortune and the excellency of his good nature, confift. a Nihil habet nec fortunà tua majus quam ut poffis, nec natura tua melius quam ut velis confervare quam plurimos. All the words here correfpond with a furprising exactnefs. Fortuna, natura: majus, melius: poffis, velis.. Is it poffible to fay more in fewer words, or with more beauty? The elogium of Rofcius the comedian is in the fame tafte. e Etenim cum artifex ejufmodi fit (Q. Rofcius) ut folus dignus videatur effe qui fcenam introeat; tum vir ejufmodi eft, ut folus videatur dignus, qui eò non accedat. Cicero makes a noble encomium upon the fame Rof Boffuet. "Pro Lig. n. 38. * Pro Quint, Rofc. n. 78. |