think, he was not much mistaken, who faid, that when, on looking into a book, he found the pages thick befpangled with the point which is called, "Punctum admirationis," he judged this to be a fufficient reafon for his laying it aside. And, indeed, were it not for the help of this " punctum admirationis," with which many writers of the rapturous kind fo much abound, one would be often at a lofs to discover, whether or not it was exclamation which they aimed at. For, it has now become a fashion, among these writers, to fubjoin points of admiration to fentences, which contain nothing but fimple affirmations, or propofitions; as if, by an affected method of pointing, they could transform them in the reader's mind into high figures of eloquence. Much akin to this, is another contrivance practifed by fome writers, of feparating almost all the members of their fentences from each other, by blank lines; as if, by fetting them thus afunder, they beftowed fome fpecial importance upon them; and required us, in going along, to make a pause at every other word, and weigh it well. This, I think, may be called a typographical figure of fpeech. Neither, indeed, fince we have been led to mention the arts of writers for increasing the importance of their words, does another cuftom, which prevailed very much fome time ago, feem worthy of imitation; I mean that of distinguishing the fignificant words, in every fentence, by Italic characters. On fome occafions, it is very proper to ufe fuch diftinctions. But when we carry them fo far, as to mark with them every fuppofed emphatical word, these words are apt to multiply fo faft in the author's imagination, that every page is crouded with Italics; which can produce no effect whatever, but to hurt the eye, and create confufion. Indeed, if the fenfe point not out the most emphatical expreffions, a variation in the C C C type, especially when occurring fo frequently, will give small aid. And, accordingly, the most mafterly writers, of late, have, with good reason, laid afide all thofe feeble props of fignificancy, and trusted wholly to the weight of their fentiments for commanding attention. But to return from this digreffion : Another figure of speech, proper only to animated and warm compofition, is what fome critical writers call vifion; when, in place of relating fomething that is paft, we use the present tense, and defcribe it as actually paffing before our eyes. Thus Cicero, in his fourth oration against Catiline "Videor enim mihi hanc urbem videre, "lucem orbis terrarum atque arcem omnium gen"tium, fubito uno incendio concidentem; cerno "animo fepulta in patria miferos atque infepultos acervos civium; verfatur mihi ante oculos af"pectus Cethegi, et furor, in veftra cæde bacchan"tis*." This manner of defcription fuppofes a fort of enthusiasm, which carries the perfon who defcribes in fome meafure out of himself; and, when well executed, must needs imprefs the reader or hearer ftrongly, by the force of that fympathy which I have before explained. But, in order to a fuccessful execution, it requires an uncommonly warm imagination, and fuch a happy felection of circumstances, as fhall make us think we fee before our eyes the scene that is deferibed. Otherwise, it fhares the fame fate with all feeble attempts towards paffionate figures; that of throwing ridicule upon the author, and leaving the reader "I feem to myself to behold this city, the ornament of the earth, and the capital of all nations, fuddenly involved in one conflagration. I fee before me the flaughtered heaps of eitizens lying unburied in the midft of their ruined country. The furious countenance of Cethegus rifes to my view, while with a favage joy he is triumphing in your miferies." 4 more cool and uninterested than he was before, The fame obfervations are to be applied to repetition, fufpenfion, correction, and many more of thofe figurative forms of fpeech, which rhetorici ans have enumerated among the beauties of elo quence. They are beautiful, or not, exactly in proportion as they are native expreffions of the fentiment or paffion intended to be heightened by them. Let nature and paffion always fpeak their own language, and they will fuggeft figures in abundance. But, when we feek to counterfeit & warmth which we do not feel, no figures will either fupply the defect, or conceal the impofture, There is one figure (and I fhall mention no more) of frequent ufe among all public speakers, particularly at the bar, which Quintilian infifts upon confiderably, and calls amplification. It confifts in an artful exaggeration of all the circumftances of fome object or action which we want to place in a ftrong light, either a good or a bad one. It is not fo properly one figure, as the skilful management of feveral, which we make to tend to one point. It may be carried on by a proper ufe of magnifying or extenuating terms-by a regular enumeration of particulars-or by throwing together, as into one mafs, a croud of circumftances by fuggeting comparisons alfo with things of a like nature. But the principal inftrument by which it works, is by a climax, or a gradual rife of one circumftance above another, till our idea be raifed to the utmoft. I fpoke formerly of a climax in found; a climax in fenfe, when well carried on, is a figure which never fails to amplify strongly. The common example of this is, that noted paffage in Cicero, which every school-boy knows: "Fa"cinus eft vincire civem Romanum; fcelus, ver"berare; prope parricidiuņi, necare; quid dicam "in crucem tollere?" I fhall give an instance "It is a crine to put a Roman citizen in bonds: it is from a printed pleading of a famous Scotch lawyer, fit George M'Kenzie. It is in a charge to the jury, in the cafe of a woman accused of murdering her own child." Gentlemen, if one man had any how fiain "another, if an adversary had killed his oppofer, 66 or a woman occafioned the death of her enemy, even these criminals would have been capitally "punished by the Cornelian law: but, if this guilt"lefs infant, who could make no enemy, had been "murdered by its own nurfe, what punishments "would not then the mother have demanded? "With what cries and exclamations would fhe "have stunned your ears? What fhall we fay then, when a woman, guilty of homicide, a mother, of the murder of her innocent child, hath com66 prised all those misdeeds in one single crime; a "crime in its own nature, deteftable; in a woman, prodigious; in a mother, incredible; and per"petrated against one whofe age called for com"paffion, whose near relation claimed affection, "and whofe innocence deferved the highest fa"vour?" I must take notice, however, that fuch regular climaxes as these, though they have confiderable beauty, have, at the fame time, no small appearance of art and study; and, therefore, though they may be admitted into formal harangues, yet they speak not the language of great earnestness and paffion, which feldom proceed by steps fo regular. Nor, indeed, for the purposes of effectual perfuafion, are they likely to be fo fùccefsful, as an arrangement of circumftances in a lefs artificial order. For, when much art appears, we are always Fat on our guard against the deceits of eloquence; but when a speaker has reafoned ftrongly, and, by the height of guilt to fcourge him; little less than parricide to put him to death: what name then fhall I give to cruci fying him?" |