from the common sense of the words, it plainly appears that one thing is spoken, and another is designed t.

$ 3. Innumerable instances of this Trope might be produced, but the following shall suffice. In the sacred Writings we have frequent instances of the Irony. Thus the Prophet EliJAH, 1 Kings xviii. 27. speaks in Irony to the Priests of Baal, ss Cry aloud, for he is a God; ss either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is ss on a journey, or peradventure he sleeps, and » must be awaked." So the Prophet MICAJAH, 1 Kings xxii. 15. bids AHAB " go to battle against * Ramoth-Gilead, and prosper. We meet with an Irony in Job xii. 2. No doubt but ye are the

People, and wisdom shall die with you." That passage may be considered as an Irony, Ecclef. xi. 9. ss Rejoice, O young inan, in thy youth, ss and let thine heart chear thee in the days of

thy youth, and walk in the way of thine heart, ss and in the sight of thine eyes:Nay, the Almighty himself appears to speak ironically, Gen. iii. 22. ss And the LORD God said, The man is ss become as one of us to know good and evil.ss And in the frame manner we may apprehend our Lord's rebuke to the Jewish Doctors, when he

says,

# In eo vero genere quo contraria oftenduntur, Ironia est. Illusionem vocant; quæ aut pronuntiatione intelligitur, aut persona, aut rei natura. Nam fi qua earum verbis diffentit, apparet diversam esse orationi voluntatem. Quintil, lib.viij. сар. 6. 52,

says, Mark vii.

9.

ss Full well ye reject the coinss mandment of God, that ye may keep your ss own tradition : where, by the word Xasasa which our Translators render full well, it is evident our Lord intends quite the contrary of what his language seems to import.

$ 4. Cicero, representing the forces of CatiLine as mean and contemptible, says, “O war, « most terrible indeed! since Catiline is to u march out with such a Praetorian band of de« bauchees *." HORACE, after he has described the tumults, hurries, and dangers of Rome, concludes,

Go now, and study tuneful verse at Rome t.

Mr Dryden finely ridicules the Egyptian worship in a laughing, ironical commendation of their Leek and Onion Deities :

Th’Egyptian rites the Jebusites embrac'd,
Where Gods were recommended by the taste :
Such sav'ry Deities must needs be good,
As ferv'd at once for worship and for food I.

That is a very poignant Irony in Archbishop Tillotson, who, speaking of the Papists, says,

• If

O bellum magnopere pertimefcendum ! cum hanc fit habiturus Catilina scortorum cohortem prætoriam. Cicer, in CATIL. Orat, 2. $11. + I nunc, & versus tecum meditare canoros !

Horat. Epit. lib. ii, epift. 2. ver. 76, & Dryden's Abfalom and Achitophel,

« If it seemn good to us to put our necks once “ more under that yoke which our Fathers were “ not able to bear; if it be really a preferment " to à Prince to hold the Pope's stirrup, and a

privilege to be disposed of him at pleasure, ct and a courtesy to be killed at his command; « if to pray without understanding, to obey si without reason, and to beliëve against sense ; « if Ignorance, and implicit Faith, and an In

quisition be in good earnest such charming and “ desirable things; then welcome Popery,which, 66 wherever thou comest, doft infallibly bring all « these wonderful privileges and blessings along " with thee *.”

$ 5. Under the Irony we may include the Sartam ti which may be defined to be an Irony in its fuperlative keennefs and asperity. As instances of this kind we may consider the speech of the Soldiers to our blessed LORD, when, after they had clothed him in mock majesty, they bowed the knee before him, and said, “ Hail King of ss the Jews,* Matt. xxvii. 29. So again, when our LORD was upon the cross, there were some that thus derided him, Markxv.32. " Let Christ, * the king of Israel, descend now from the cross, # that we may see and believe." By the way it may be observed, that custom has so much

preväiled that not only excessively kéen Ironies are called Sarcasms, but any fevere sayings with an

uncommon * TILLOTSON's Works, vol. iii. page 392. Octavo edit. + From caprandw, I Rrip off the flek.

bear the ice se mer they will apex c I se expressions.

To when Pais soate III TI put him in cc ITSE duct, infus

Setar

$ 6. Ironies Sains aze: tage in them to bez into our discoure, 22 IETES to correct vice za ICT and infolence out of create ridicule to disliks, racter as the butt of conte is ņothing that can I TaśZ. fication and a keener un Tropes are never used Frien chan when they are f- vol very severe and cutting iz znana in guage, by which a vile au ieztae is thrown as it were from on another. An example of this ir SI

G

• Cui Pyrrhus; referes ergo tzn. & ut 15 -
- Pelidæ genitori illi mea tika

Degeneremque Neoptalamut

« If it seein good to us to put our necks once
« more under that yoke which our Fathers were
“ not able to bear; if it be really a preferment
u to à Prince to hold the Pope's stirrup, and a
“ privilege to be disposed of him at pleasure,
c and a courtesy to be killed at his command;
“ if to pray without understanding, to obey
st without reason, and to believe against fense;
« if Ignorance, and implicit Faith, and an In-

quisition be in good earnest such charming and
« desirable things; then welcome Popery,which,
6 wherever thou comeft, doft infallibly bring all
« these wonderful privileges and blessings along
66 with thee *.”

$ 5. Under the Irony we may include the Sarcalm t, which may be defined to be an Irony in its superlative keennefs and asperity. As instances of this kind we may consider the speech of the Soldiers to our blessed LORD, when, after they had clothed him in mock majesty, they bowed the knee before him, and said, s Hail King of ss the Jews,* Matt. xxvii. 29. So again, when our Lord was upon the cross, there were some that thus derided him, Mark xv.32. "Let Christ, * the king of Israel, descend now from the cross, * that we may fee and believe." By the

way

it
may be observed, that custom has so much pre-
vailed that not only excessively keen Ironies are
called Sarcasms, but any fevere sayings with an

uncommon
* TILLOTSON's Works, vol. iii. page 392, Octavo edit.
+ From capragw, I Rrip of she fiele.