When Phoebus gives the reins of the chariot of the sun into Phaeton's hands, he says, Away, my son, and cautiously avoid Will let thy chariot through. But thou towards The poet's soul here seems to be sailing away into the blue sky, and running the same risks as the luckless charioteer. Eschylus is most daring in his images, both with and without success. The following is an example of his felicity. Seven champions fierce, followed by seven fierce bands, Slaying a bull above a black-rimmed shield, And touching with their hands the stream of blood, Made oath.7 The sublimity of this quotation consists in the coldblooded manner in which the seven champions took oath to die; though sometimes the conceptions of this poet are rude and unpolished in the extreme. 'He has 6. From the Phaeton, a lost play. 7. Seven against Thebes, 42. written, however, a fine passage respecting the palace of Lycurgus at the coming of Bacchus. The maddened house leaps like a Bacchanal. 8 which is softened down by Euripides into And all the mount joined in the Bacchic dance.9 ΙΟ Sophocles is by no means inferior in his descriptions to the two poets I have just mentioned; as for instance in the death of Edipus, the prodigies at his burial, and the appearance of Achilles over his own tomb, which last has been told by no one more beautifully than by Simonides.12 II Poetical images are not confined to the possible, whereas the great beauty of the rhetorical image consists in its practicability and truth. The parabasis 13 too is out of place when the story is fabulous and based upon impossibilities; and the orators of the present 8. Lost play. 9. Bacchæ, 725. 10. Edipus Coloneus. 11. Polyxena, a lost play. 12. Thus characterized by Wordsworth ; O ye, who patiently explore The wreck of Herculanean lore, What rapture could ye seize ! Some Theban fragment, or unroll One precious, tender-hearted scroll 13. In Old Comedy, the chorus used to come forward and address the audience in the poet's name; but such remarks were in no way connected with the plot. This was called the parabasis or digression. day, who frequently err in this respect, should remember that Orestes is mad when he cries out Let go, thou hateful one, nor clasp me thus As if to hurl me headlong into hell. 14 The rhetorical image is productive of action and passion, and when used in argument, not only persuades, but competely gains over the audience. Demosthenes says, "Suppose a noise to be heard in front of the courts, and some one to cry out that the prison was broken open and the prisoners all escaping; no one, in such a case, young or old, would refuse his aid to the utmost of his power. And if then another came suddenly forward and said it was Timocrates who let them out, the guilty man would be torn to pieces on the spot."15 So Hyperides,16 when defending himself for having brought forward a bill to make the slaves free, said, "It is not the statesman who passes this measure, but the battle of Charonea." This image strengthens very much his argument: and the more so as it is the nature of all of us to heed what is most forcible, and we are favourably disposed rather towards the astonishing, although the imagery prevents us from seeing how it applies, than to any argument, however logical. Nor is there anything extraordinary in this, since wherever two minds or bodies are united into one, the influence of the weaker becomes merged in that of the stronger. 14. Orestes, 264. 15. Against Timocrates, near the end. 16. An Attic Orator, born about B.C. 396, and put to death by Antipater after the battle of Crannon in the year B. C. 322. XVI. We now come to figures, which, if properly used, are most effective; though on this subject we shall only be able to touch lightly. Demosthenes caused the Athenians to fight the battle of Charonea, and was afterwards called upon to defend himself for having instigated the people to take up arms against Philip. He says, "Ye did not err, O ye who fought for the freedom of Greece. And ye have home-proofs of this; for neither did they err who did battle at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea." Then, as if suddenly inspired, he swore by his country's greatest heroes" It is not possible for you to err: I swear by those who formerly met the same danger at Marathon." And so, by what I shall call an apostrophe, he deifies the soldiers of Marathon, and excites all to emulate their valour, at the same time pouring the balm of consolation into the wounds of the state, and making his hearers forget their recent defeat at Charonea in the recollection of their immortal victory at Marathon. The germ of this oath is to be found in Eupolis, 1 where he says, No, by my glorious fight at Marathon, They shall not mock me with impunity. 2 Oaths, however, are not to be introduced at random ; I 1. An Athenian who wrote comedies, all of which are lost. 2. Translationem hic primum omnium tradidit, quamquam semina ejus quædam citra nomen ipsum apud Aristotelem reperiuntur."-Quinctilian, III, 6. the time, manner, and cause must be separately and carefully considered. In the latter case the oath is bald, and used before men whom no present calamity afflicts; nor does the poet deify men, and swear by their valour to inspire his hearers with the same spirit of daring, but by an inanimate thing, the battle. Demosthenes, on the other hand, uses his oath to vanquished men, in order that they may not feel their defeat. And these few words contain, not only a proof of the correctness of the orator's policy, but praise for past, and exhortation to future exertions. But because Demosthenes suddenly remembers he is speaking of defeats, and swearing by victories, he turns back and assigns a proper expression to each battle, showing that we must keep cool even under the greatest excitement. “Those,” he adds, “who formerly met the same danger at Marathon, those who fought by sea at Salamis and Artemisium, and those who were drawn up in battle array at Platæa." He never uses the word "conquered,” but keeps it concealed as being the reverse of what happened at Chæronea. Then, anticipating his audience, he adds, "All of whom, O Eschines,3 and not the victorious only, were buried at the public expense." XVII. LET me briefly observe that whilst Figures naturally contribute to the Sublime, they in their turn derive much of their efficacy from it. It is necessary, how 3. His great rival orator. |