pression; an imitation that is distinguished by the name of antithesis. Speaking of Coriolanus soliciting the people to be made consul: With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds. Coriolanus. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all free men? Julius Cæsar. He hath cool'd my friends and heated mine enemies. Shakspeare. An artificial connexion among the words, is undoubtedly a beauty when it represents any peculiar connexion among the constituent parts of the thought; but where there is no such connexion, it is a positive deformity, as above observed, because it makes a discordance between the thought and expression. For the same reason we ought also to avoid every artificial opposition of words where there is none in the thought. This last, termed verbal antithesis, is studied by low writers, because of a certain degree of liveliness in it. They do not consider how incongruous it is, in a grave composition, to cheat the reader, and to make him expect a contrast in the thought, which upon examination is not found there. A light wife doth make a heavy husband. Merchant of Venice. Here is a studied opposition in the words, not only without any opposition in the sense, but even where there is a very intimate connexion, that of cause and effect; for it is the levity of the wife that torments the husband. Will maintain Upon his bad life to make all this good. King Richard II. Act I. Sc. 3. Lucetta. What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here? Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Sc. 3. A fault directly opposite to that last mentioned, is to conjoin artificially words that express ideas opposed to each other. This is a fault too gross to be in common practice; and yet writers are guilty of it in some degree, when they conjoin by a copulative things transacted at different periods of time. Hence a want of neatness in the following expression. The nobility too, whom the King had no means of retaining by suitable offices and preferments, had been seized with the general discontent, and unwarily threw themselves into the scale which began already too much to preponderate. History of G. Britain, vol. I. p. 250. In periods of this kind, it appears more neat to express the past time by the participle passive, thus: The nobility having been seized with the general discontent, unwarily threw themselves, &c. (or) The nobility, who had been seized, &c. unwarily threw themselves, &c. It is unpleasant to find even a negative and affirmative proposition connected by a copulative: Nec excitatur classico miles truci, Horace, Epod. ii. l. 5. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Shakspeare: In mirth and drollery it may have a good effect to connect verbally things that are opposite to each other in the thought. Example: Henry IV. of France introducing the Mareschal Biron to some of his friends, "Here, Gentlemen," says he, "is "the Mareschal Biron, whom I freely present both "to my friends and enemies." This rule of studying uniformity between the thought and expression, may be extended to the construction of sentences or periods. A sentence or period ought to express one entire thought or mental proposition; and different thoughts ought to be separated in the expression by placing them in different sentences or periods. It is therefore offending against neatness, to crowd into one period entire thoughts requiring more than one; which is joining in language things that are separated in reality. Of errors against this rule take the following examples. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea pleasant; also our bed is green. Cæsar, describing the Suevi: Atque in eam se consuetudinem adduxerunt, ut locis frigidissimis, neque vestitus, præter pelles, habent quidquam, quarum propter exiguitatem, magna est corporis pars aperta, et laventur in fluminibus. Commentaria, l. iv. prin. Burnet, in the History of his own Times, giving Lord Sunderland's character, says, His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great expense. I have seen a woman's face break out in heats, as she has been talking against a great lord, whom she had never seen in her life; and indeed never knew a party-woman that kept her beauty for a twelvemonth. Spectator, No. 57. Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of Strada: I single him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish presumption to censure Tacitus, and to write history himself; and your Lordship will forgive this short excursion in honour of a favourite writer. Letters on History, Vol. I. Let. v. It seems to me, that in order to maintain the moral system of the world at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for we are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of attaining), but however sufficient upon the whole to constitute a state easy and happy, or at the worst tolerable: I say, it seems to me, that the Author of Nature has thought fit to mingle from time to time, among the societies of men, a few, and but a few, of those on whom he is graciously pleased to bestow a larger proportion of the etherial spirit than is given in the ordinary course of his providence to the sons of men. Bolingbroke, on the Spirit of Patriotism, Let. I. To crowd in a single member of a period different subjects, is still worse than to crowd them into one period: -Trojam, genitore Adamasto Paupere (mansissetque utinam fortuna) profectus. From conjunctions and disjunctions in general, we proceed to comparisons, which make one species of them, beginning with similes. And here also, the intimate connexion that words have with their meaning, requires that in describing two resembling objects, a resemblance in the two members of the period ought to be studied. To illustrate the rule in this case, I shall give various examples of deviations from it; beginning with resemblances expressed in words that have no resemblance. I have observed of late, the style of some great ministers very much to exceed that of any other productions. Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift. This, instead of studying the resemblance of words in a period that expresses a comparison, is going out of one's road to avoid it. Instead of productions, which resemble not ministers great nor small, the proper word is writers or authors. If men of eminence are exposed to censure on the one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewisc receive praises which they do not deserve. Spectator. Here the subject plainly demands uniformity in expression instead of variety; and therefore it is sub mitted, whether the period would not do better in the following manner : If men of eminence be exposed to censure on the one hand, they are as much exposed to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches that are not due, they likewise receive praises that are not due. I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently with other judgments, must at some time or other have stuck a little with your Lordship.* [Better thus:] I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently with others, must at some time or other have stuck a little with your Lordship. A glutton or mere sensualist is as ridiculous as the other two characters. Shaftesbury, Vol. i. p. 129. They wisely prefer the generous efforts of good-will and affection, to the reluctant compliances of such as obey by force. Remarks on the History of England, Letter V. Bolingbroke. Titus Livius, mentioning a demand made by the people of Enna of the keys from the Roman governor, makes him say, Quas simul tradiderimus, Carthaginiensium extemplo Enna erit, fœdiusque bic trucidabimur, quam Murgantiæ præsi dium interfectum est. L. xxiv. sect. 38. Quintus Curtius, speaking of Porus mounted on an elephant, and leading his army to battle: Magnitudini Pori adjicere videbatur bellua qua vehebatur, tantum inter cæteras eminens, quanto aliis ipse præstabat. L. viii. cap. 14. It is still a greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only variety in the words, but also in the construction. Describing Thermopylæ, Titus Livius says, Id jugum, sicut Apennini dorso Italia dividitur, ita mediam Speaking of Shakspeare: Letter concerning Enthusiasm. Shaftesbury. |