: The bird,' ungrasping his fierce talons, drops His prey into the flood

Our Lord commands his Apostles, Mark xvi. 15. to s go into all the world, and preach * the gospel to every creature," that is, to all mankind.

(4) The Synecdoche puts a particular name for a general. Thus the Cretan sea signifies in HoRACE the sea in general ;

I, in the myses favour bless'd,
Neither with grief nor fear depress’d,
Will bid the vagrant winds convey
Those troublers to the Cretan fea fe

In like manner the acorns of Chaonia are used for acorns in general by Virgil,

Ye pow’rs divine, who gave mankind to change
Chaonian acorns for the fruitful ear Hl.

In Psal. xlvi. 9. the Almighty is faid to s break * the bow, and cut the spear in sunder, and to s burn the chariot in the fire ;ss that is, God destroys all the weapons of war, and blesses the

world

Prædamque ex unguibus alas
Projecit fluvio - Æneid. lib. xii. ver. 255, 256.
# Mufis amicus tristitiam & metus

Tradam protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis Horat. Od. lib. i, od. 26.

Veftro fi munere tellus
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista.

VIRGIL, Georg. lib. is very

SS

world with peace. In Dan. xii. 14. by many we are to understand all.

Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake, fome to everlafting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

SS

SS

$$

$ 3. It may be observed farther, that to the Synecdoche the usage of a certain number for an uncertain is to be ascribed :

Achilles' wide-destroying wrath that pour'd Ten thousand woes on Greece, O Goddess, sing *

$ 4. To the fame Trope we may refer the liberty of using the plural number for the singular, and the singular number for the plural; as when Cicero tells BRUTUS, “ We misled the “ People, and gained the reputation of Ora« tors t, when he intends only himself: and when, on the contrary, Live often says,

u that 66 the Roman was Conqueror in the battle 1," whereas he designs that the Romans were Conquerors.

$ 5. Under the Synecdoche we may also

range the Antonomasia ||, which is a Trope by which we put a proper

for a common name, or a cominon name for a proper.

Μηνιν αειδε Θεα Πηληιαδεω Αχιλης

Ουλομενην, η μυρι’ Αχαιοις αλγε' εθηκε. † Populus imposuimus, & oratores visi fumus. | Romanus prælio victor.

| From cuti and oyouagw, the putting one name in the room of another.

8.6. (1) : An Antonomasia puts a proper for a common name. Thus, that man is an Hercules, that is, an uncommonly strong man. Or he is a Job, that is, a remarkably patient man. Or he is a Nero, that is, a monstrously cruel man. Or he is a Croesus, that is, an immensely rich man.

(2) An Antonomasia puts a common for a proper name. Thus, he is gone to the City, or he is come from the City, meaning London. In like manner the Poet shall intend HOMER, the Orator, Cicero, and the Apostle, St Paul. Thus Christ is called s the son of man, Matt, ix. 6. and s the master," John xi. 28.

!

$ 7. When we use the Antonomasia, we should take care that whatever epithet, title, or denomination stands in the room of the usual name, should be such as is either easy and familiar, or such as is more emphatical and striking; for there is no small excellency in an Antonomasia, when properly conceived and applied according to these directions: as when I call a good Orator a DEMOSTHENES, or a good Poet a Virgil, I am bestowing upon the person the highest praise, and leading the mind to a comparison of his talents with the peculiar and transcendent endowments of those famous Writers; and when, on the other hand, I say such a man is a CATILINE, or a CALIGULA, I thereby call up the ideas of the most detestable characters, and brand the person with much deeper infamy, than if I was only in plain language to say, that he was very worthless or

wicked.

wicked. But if the Antonomofia has neither the advantage of ease and familiarity, nor of emphasis nor strength, plain expression is to be preferred; at least I see not any benefit that can arise from the use of this Trope: but we may, bofore we are aware, deserve the lash of our great Satirist, who has reckoned up several Antonomafias of this kind; but which are too ludicrous to be inserted in graver compositions than that of his Art of Sinking in Poetry t.

88. The value of the Synecdoche appears to lie in the bold and manly freedom it gives to out discourses, by which we shew that we are so full of our ideas, and so powerfully impressed with them, that we disdain to attend to little accura, cies, and nice adjustments of expression. Language also acquires a vast variety by the assist ance of the Synecdoche; and variety prevents fatigue, and is the source of perpetual entertainment. And it may be added, that the Synecdoche more especially compliments the underftanding, by leaving it to investigate and determine the whole of our meaning from only a part of it, or ascertain and fix our precise meaning, when only couched under a general expression. .

+ Pope's Works, vol. vi. p. 191, 192.

CHAPTER VI.

The IRONY considered,

§ 1. The definition of an Irony.. § 2. How known

to be an Irony. $ 3. Instances of the Irony from the sacred Writings. $ 4. Examples of the Irony from CICERO, HORACE, Dryden, and Tillot

§ 5. The definition of a Sarcasm, witb instances. $ 6. The ujes of Ironies and Sarcafmso

, $ 7. Cautions to be observed concerning them. g. 8. The foundation in nature for the Irony and Sarcasm.

SON.

A

$1. N Irony * is a Trope, in which one con

trary is signified by another; or, int which we speak one thing, and design another, in order to give the greater force and vehemence to our meaning.

$ 2. The way of distinguishing an Irony from the real, fentiments of the speaker or writer, are by the accent, the air, the extravagance of the praise, the character of the person, the nature of the thing, or the vein of the discourse: for if in any of these respects there is any disagreement

from . From sigurevolety, I use a diffimulation in my spaeck,