“ touched upon in pleading, that the Orator's « art may be concealed. In proving our point, “ we collect approved examples, and range

them « in an artificial form: but afterwards in plead

ing, this art is to be disguised by the skill of " the Orator, that it may not break out, and « be discovered by all his audience */"LonGINUS tells us, that * a too frequent and elabo

rate use of Figures draws upon us the suspi“ cion of snare, design, and deceit, especially “ when we are pleading before a Judge, from « whose sentence there lies no appeal; as Ty“ rants, Monarchs, and persons invested with « supreine power. Such a Judge kindles into

rage at once, if, like a foolish boy, he finds « himself played with by the Figures of the art“ ful Rhetorician.---A Figure is then in its per“ fection, when it is not discerned to be a Fi

ay iin In dieendo leviter unusquisque locus plerumque tangitur, ne ars appareat. - In præcipiendo expresse conseripta ponere oportet exempla, ut in artis formam convenire poffint; & poft in dicendo, ne poflit ars eminere, & ab omnibus videri, facultate prætoris occultatur. Cicer. ad HERENNIUM, lib. iv. $7.

+ Υποπλού εςιν ιδιως το δια χηματων πανερχει25. και, προσο: βαλλον υπονοιαν ενεδρας, επιβελης, παραλογισμα και ταυε ' ' οταν η πρG- κριτην κυριον ο λογώ», (μαλιστα δε πρG- τυραννες, βασιλιας, ηγεμόνας και υπεροχαις) αγανακτει γαρ ευθυς, ει, ως ααις αφρων, υπο τεχνητα ξητορG- Χηματιους κατασοφιζεται Διοπερ και τοτε αρισον δοκει το χημα, οταν αυτο τοτο διαλαι. Gayn, -oto gallic est. Longin, de Sublimitate, f ini

iori

CHAPTER

gure 7."

nis

CHAPTER II.

The ECPHONESIS considered.

$ 1. The definition of an Ecphonesis. § 2. Instances of this Figure from Milton, Ovid, CICÉRO, and SOPHOCLES. $ 3. Upon what occasions the Ecphonesis is used in Scripture, with examples. :$ 4. Remarks, and directions as to the Esphonefis.

$". AN Ecphonefis * is a Figure, that by an

exclamation fhews fome strong and vehement passion. It is expressed by such Interjections, as, O! Ob! Ab! Alas! and the like, which may be called the signs of this Figure

§ 2. Instances of this Figure might be given in great variety : the following may suffice, Eve, being made acquainted that she must leave. paradise, says, O unexpected stroke! worse than of death t.

In

From SxQwew,

I
cry

out.
+ Milton's Paradise Lost, book xi. line 266.

In like manner Penelope, in Ovid's Epistles, says to her husband ULYSSES;

O had th'adult'rer, when he fought the shore,
Sunk in th' ocean, and been seen no more * !

Cicero furnishes us with an example of this Figure, when he concludes the narrative he had given of the punishment of a Roman citizen: “O delightful name of liberty ! O glorious pri“ vilege of Rome ! O thou Portian, and ye Sem

pronian laws! O thou tribunitial power, so " ardently desired by the Roman people, and at 6. last restored to them t."

We have a very lively instance of this Figure in the Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles; where that unfortunate Prince, overwhelmed with his calamities, is introduced as saying,

Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Alas! Alas! I am undone :
Where am I, miserable wretch ?
Where is

my

voice scatter'd that now fails me?
O Fortune, whither art thou fled ?
O this cloud of night,
Detestable, oppressive,

Horrible,
O utinam tum cum Lacedæmona classe petebat,
Obrutus insanis esset adulter aquis !

Ovid. Epif. i. ver. 5,6. + O nomen dulce libertatis ! O jus eximium noftræ civita. . tis! O lex Portia, legesque Semproniæ ! O graviter desiderata, & aliquando reddita plebi Romanæ tribunitia poteftas! In VERREM, Orat. X. $63.

K

Horrible, hopeless, and malignant !
Wo is me, and wo is me again *.

And the fame Figure, and to a like purpose, is made use of by our famous MILTON, in the speech he ascribes to Samson, at once blind, and in the power of his enemies :

Olofs of fight! of thee I moft complain ;
Blind among enemies; O! worse than chains,
Dungeon, or beggary, or decrepit age.
Light, the prime work of God, to me is extinct,
And all her various objects of delight
Annulld, which might in part my grief have eas'd.
Inferior to the vileft now become
Of man or worm; the vileft here exéel me.
They creep, yet fee; I, dark in light exposure
Td daily fraud, contempt, abufe, and wrong $
Within doors, or without, ftill as a fool,
In pow'r of others, never in my own ;
Scarce half I seem to live, dead more than half..
O dark, dark, daçk, amid the blaze of noon,
Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse,
Without all hope of day! -t

Ai, all, ai, ai.
Φευ, φευ, δυς αν εγω σοι γας
Φερομαι τλαμων και τα μοι φθογία
Διαπετααι φόραδην και
Ω δαιμον, και εξηλε; -
Ιω σκολα εφο- εμου
Αποτροπον επιπλομενον,
Αφατον αδαμασον τε
Και δυσεριςον" οι μοι,
Οι μου μαλ’ αυθις".

Sophocl. Oedip. Tyran. ver. 1330. + Samson Agonistes, line 67.

Mr Baxter gives us an example of the fame Figure in the following passage, which is wonderfully weighty and powerful, and contains more rhetorical beauties than the Ecpbonefis, though this Figure has evidently a place among them. « A wretch that is condemned to die " to-morrow cannot forget it: and yet poor “ sinners, that continually are uncertain to live “ an hour, and certain speedily to see the Ma. « jesty of the LORD to their inconceivable joy “ or terror, as fure as they now.live on earth, “ can forget these things for which they have “ their memory; and which, one would think, 6 should drown the matters of this world, as “ the report of a cannon does a whisper, or as

the fun obscures the poorest gloworm. O « wonderful stupidity of an unrenewed foul ! O “ wonderful folly and distractedness of the un“ godly! that ever men can forget, I say again, “ that they can forget eternal joy, eternal wo, so' and the eternal God, and the place of their “ eternal, unchangeable abodes, when they stand < even at the door; and there is but the thin “ veil of Aesh between them and that amazing

sight, that eternal gulph, and they are daily dying and stepping in *.”

§ 3. After these examples of the Ecphonests from other Authors, we may take the following from the sacred Writings.

K2

An

Sermon before the House of Commons, 1660.