eval with our religion, but which Clodius, in his mad fury, having first cut down and leveled the most sacred groves, had sunk under heaps of common buildings; I appeal to you, I call you to witness, whether your altars, your divinities, your powers, which he had polluted with all kinds of wickedness, did not avenge themselves when this wretch was extirpated? And thou, O holy Jupiter! from the height of thy sacred mount, whose lakes, groves, and boundaries he had so often contaminated with his detestable impurities; and you, the other deities, whom he had insulted, at length opened your eyes to punish this enormous offender. By you, by you and in your sight, was the slow, but the righteous and merited vengeance executed upon him.-CICERO.

2.

Ye toppling crags of ice!

Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down

In mountainous overwhelming, come and crush me!

I hear ye momently above, beneath,

Crash with a frequent conflict; but ye pass,

And only fall on things that still would live;

On the young flourishing forest, or the hut
And hamlet of the harmless villager.-BYRON.

CATACHRESIS.

$ 628. CATACHRESIS, from the Greek karáxpnois, is an abuse of a trope, by which a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true meaning.

1. "An iron candlestick," "a glass ink-horn.”

2. Attempered to the lyre your voice employ,

Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.-POPE.

3. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank;
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears.-SHAKSPEARE.

4. And pity, like a naked new-born babe,

Striding the blast, as heaven's Cherubim horsed
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.-Macbeth.

5. "Man's heart eats all things, and is hungry still."

6. "Her voice was but the shadow of a sound.”

CLIMAX.

$629. CLIMAX, from the Greek kλiuas, a ladder, is the ascent of a subject, step by step, from a lower to a higher interest.

1. We feel the strength of mind through the beauty of the style; we discern the man in the author, the nation in the man, and the universe at the feet of the nation.-MADAME DE STAËL.

2. I impeach thee, Warren Hastings, of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons and House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose an cient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of all.-BURKE.

3. In my affection to my country you find me ever firm and invariable. Not the solemn demand of my person, not the vengeance of the Amphictyonic council, not the terror of their threatenings, not the flattery of their promises; no, nor the fury of those accursed wretches, whom they roused like wild beasts against me, could tear this affection from my breast.-DEMOSTHENES.

4. What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an Angel! in apprehen sion, how like a God!Hamlet.

ANTI-CLIMAX.

§ 630. ANTI-CLIMAX, the opposite of climax, is a descent from great things to small; a sentence or paragraph in which the ideas descend and become less important and striking at the close than at the commencement.

1. "Who murder our wives and children, plunder our dwellings, steal our sheep, and rob our potato-patches."

2. Die, and endow a college or a cat.-POPE.

L

3. "Under the tropic is our language spoke,

And part of Flanders has received our yoke."

ECPHONESIS OR EXCLAMATION.

$631. ECPHONESIS, Greek Expúvηoiç, is an animated or passionate exclamation, and is generally indicated by such. interjections as O! oh! ah! alas!

If after every tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have wakened death!-Othello.

2. Oh mournful day to the Senate and all good men ! calamitous to the Senate, afflictive to me and my family, but to posterity glorious and worthy of admiration!-Cic. pro Sext.

3. Oh the great and mighty force of truth, which so easily supports itself against all the wit, craft, subtlety, and artful designs of men!-CICERO pro Cælius.

ENIGMA.

§ 632. ENIGMA, from the Greek word diviyua, from divío. ooμai, to hint, a dark saying in which some known thing is concealed under obscure language; an obscure question; a riddle.

1. "What creature is that which walks upon four legs in the morning, two at noon, and upon three at night?" Man. This is the famous riddle of the sphinx.

2. 'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell,
And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;
On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest,
And the depths of the ocean its presence confess'd.
"Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder,
Be seen in the lightning and heard in the thunder.
'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,
Attends at his birth, and awaits him in death;
It presides o'er his happiness, honor, and health,
Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth:
Without it the soldier, the seaman may roam,
But woe to the wretch who expels it from home.
In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,
Nor e'en in the whirlwind of passion be drown'd:
"Twill soften the heart, and though deaf to the ear,
"Twill make it acutely and instantly hear.

But in shade let it rest like a delicate flower,

Oh breathe on it softly, it dies in an hour.-BYRON.

The letter H.

EPANALEPSIS.

§ 633. EPANALEPSIS, Greek Émaváλmpıç, repetition, is a fig ure by which a sentence ends with the same word with which it begins.

1. Fare thee well, and if forever,

Still forever fare thee well;

Even though unforgiving, never

'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.-BYRON to his wife.

2. "Langsyne! with thee resides a spell

To raise the spirit and refine.
Farewell! there can be no farewell

To thee, loved, lost Langsyne."

3. "A voice o'er all the waste and prostrate isle
Wandereth, a valiant voice."

EPANORTHOSIS.

$634. EPANORTHOSIS, Greek &πavóρloois, correction, is a figure by which a speaker retracts or recalls what he has spoken, in order to substitute something stronger or more suitable in its place. The attention of the auditor is roused, and a stronger impression is thus produced upon his mind to what is thus substituted.

1. Can you be ignorant, among the conversation of this city, what laws-if they are to be called laws, and not the fire-brands of Rome and the plagues of the commonwealth this Clodius designed to fix upon us?

2. "Why should I speak of his neglect—neglect did I say? call it rather contempt."

EPIZE UXIS.

§ 635. EPIZEUXIS, from the Greek križevğıç, joining to, is rejoining or repeating the same word or words emphatically. 1. "Restore him, restore him if you can, from the dead."

2. The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece,

Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose and Phœbus sprung—
Eternal summer gilds them yet,

But all except their sun is set.-BYRON.

O thou queen!

Thou delegated Deity of Earth;

O dear, dear England! how my longing eyes
Turned, shaping in the steady clouds

Thy sands and high white cliffs.-COLERIDGE.

EROTESIS OR INTERROGATION.

§ 636. EROTESIS, Greek púτnois, is an animated or passionate Interrogation.

1. What, Tubero, did that naked sword of yours mean in the battle of Pharsalia? At whose breast was its point aimed? What was then the meaning of your arms, your spirit, your eyes, your hands, your ardor of soul? What did you desire, what wish for? I press the youth too much; he seems disturbed. Let me return to myself. I too bore arms on the same side. CICERO for Ligarius.

2. What is there in these days that you have not attempted? what have you not profaned? What name shall I give to this assembly? Shall I call Shall I call you soldiers? you who have besieged with your arms and surrounded with a trench the son of your Emperor? Shall I call you citizens? you who have so shamefully trampled on the authority of the Senate? you who have violated the justice due to enemies, the sanctity of embassy, and the rights of nations ?—TACITUS, Annals, b. i.

EUPHEMISM.

§ 637. EUPHEMISM, Greek evoηuoμós, εù, well, onui, to speak, a figure by which a harsh or offensive word is set aside, and one that is delicate substituted in its place.

1. Worn out with anguish, toil, and cold and hunger,
Down sunk the wanderer; sleep had seized her senses.
There did the traveler find her in the morning:

God had released her.-SoUTHEY.

2. "That merchant prince has stopped payment."

HYPERBOLE.

§ 638. HYPERBOLE, Greek vтeрboλn, excess, is a figure by which much more is expressed than the truth. In Hyperbole the exaggeration is so great that it can not be expected to be