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❝fays he, gives an account of the affairs of the

city. The natural method of doing this was "for him to have faid, You have not been faulty

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who have expofed yourselves for the liberty of "Greece; you have examples from yourselves to fupport you; nor were they faulty who fought "at Marathon, Salamis, and Platea. But when, "as if he had been inftantaneously inspired and pofsefsed by APOLLO, he thunders out an oath by the champions of Greece, You have not been faulty, no, you have not, I fwear by the brave fouls who facrificed their lives at Marathon, he "feems by this figurative oath, which I call an

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Apostrophe, to deify their ancestors, by fhew"ing that they ought to fwear by fuch who had * died in defence of their country, as by fo "many Gods; he insinuates at the fame time to

the judges, the greatness of foul in thofe hetroes, who had expofed themselves to death in *fo glorious a caufe; he foars beyond common *representation into fuperlative fublimity, pours "in a powerful pathos, excites that venerable "regard which is due to uncommon and to the "most facred oaths, and at the fame time admi

nifters to the minds of his auditors fuch fenti«ment, as, like a medicinal balm, heals the "anguish of their fpirits. The Orator animates "them with his praises, and teaches them to "think as highly of their defeat by PHILIP, as "of the victories of Marathon and Salamis: by "these means, in the ftrength of this Figure, "the Orator advances with fuccefs, and with a

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fovereign power bears along with him the "minds of his hearers +."

τις

+ Αποδειξιν ο Δημοσθένης υπερ των πεπολιτευμένων εισφέρει

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δια ην η καλα φυσιν χρησις αυτης; οχ ημαρτείε, ω τον υπερ της των Ελληνων ελευθερίας αγώνα αράμενοι· εχετε δε οικεία σόλο παραδειγματα· εδε γαρ οι εν Μαραθώνι ημαριού, 4 εδ' οι εν Σαλαμινι, εδ' οι εν Πλα]αταις.” Αλλ' επειδη (και θαπερ εμιευθείς εξαίφνης υπο θες, και οιονει φοιβοληπίς γενομενω) τον των αρισίων της Ελλαδα ορκον εξεφώνησεν, όπως ημαρτείε, 8 μα τες εν Μαραθώνι προκινδυνευσανίας, φαινεται δι' ενώ το ομότικο χηματα, οπερ ενθαδε Αποσροφήν εγω καλώ, της μεν πρόγονες αποθέωσας, (οτι δει τις είως από θάνοντας ως Θεός ομνύναι παρισάνων) τοις δε κρινεσι το των εκεί · προκινδυνευσάντων εκτίθεις φρονήμα, την δε της αποδείξεως φυσιν μεθεςακως εις υπερβαλλον υψω και παθώ, και ξένων και υπερΦυων ορκών αξιοπισιαν, και αμα παιωνείον τινα και αλεξιφαρ μάκον εις τας ψυχας των ακρονίων καθιεις λόγον ως κεφιζομενες υπο των εγκωμίων μηδεν ελατΊον τη μαχη τη προ Φιλιππον, η επι τοις καλα Μαραθωνα και Σαλαμινα νικηθηροις, παρις απαι Φρονειν. Οις πασι τις ακροαΐας δια το χηματικός συναρπασας ωχείο. LONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 16.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER XIV.

The PERIPHRASIS confidered.

§ 1. The definition of a Periphrafis. $ 2. Examples of it in the first view from LIVY, CICERO, and TILLOTSON. § 3. Inftances of it in the fecond view from STATIUS, VIRGil, Pindar, &c. § 4. Examples of this Figure from Scripture. § 5. A paffage from LONGINUS upon the Periphrafis. § 6. Its ufe, with remarks upon

it.

§ 1. PEriphrafis is a Figure in which we

ufe more words than what are abfolutely necessary, and sometimes less plain words, either to avoid fome inconvenience and ill effect which might proceed from expressing ourselves in fewer or clearer words, or in order to give a variety and elegance to our discourses, and multiply the graces of our composition.

§ 2. We have a fine example of this Figure, in the first view of it, in the fpeech of VIBIUS VIRIUS; who, in his exhortation to the fenators of Capua to poifon themselves in order to prevent their

From wig Pgagw, I speak in a circumlocution.

their falling alive into the hands of the Romans, particularly describes the miferies from which the draught of poifon would deliver them, and disguises the horrors of death, or at least suffers it not to come into sight by an express mention of it. "Having feafted yourselves, fays he, "with wine and food, the cup in which I will "drink to you fhall be handed round. That draught shall free your bodies from pain,

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your minds from reproaches, and your eyes' "and ears from the sight and hearing of all that "bitter and ignominious ufage, which you must "endure by being made captive to your ene"mies *."

CICERO, by making use of a circumlocution, mentions nothing of the killing CLODIUS, though that event seems to be in his view: "The fer❝vants of MILO, fays he, for I do not speak "with a design to throw off the crime from them "to others, but according as the event really

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happened, did that without the order, know"ledge, or prefence of their master, which every "one would be willing his own fervants should "do in the like circumstances +."

May

Satiatis vino ciboque poculum idem quod mihi datum fuerit, circumferetur. Ea potio corpus ab cruciatu, animum à contumeliis, oculos, aures à videndis audiendifque omnibus acerbis indignifque quæ manent victos vindicabit. Live lib. xxvi. § 13.

Fecerunt id fervi Milonis, dicam enim non derivandi criminis caufa, fed ut factum eft, neque imperante, neque

faciente,

May we not consider the following passage in Archbishop TILLOTSON as a Periphrafis, in which, as one obferves*, "Death is the principal thought. << to which all the circumftances of the circumlo"cutions chiefly refer," and yet death is not fo much as mentioned?" When we consider that we have but a little while to be here, that we "are upon our journey to our heavenly country, "where we fhall meet with all the delights we " can desire, it ought not to trouble us much to endure ftorms and foul ways, and to want

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many of thofe accommodations we might ex"pect at home. This is the common fate of "travellers; and we must take things as we find "them, and not look to have every thing juft σε to our mind. Thefe difficulties and inconve"niencies will fhortly be over, and after a few

days will be quite forgotten, and be to us as "if they had never been. And when we are "fafely landed in our own country, with what "pleafure fhall we look back on those rough "and boisterous feas we have efcaped †?"

§ 3. Nor are there wanting examples of the Periphrafis in the other view of it, I mean, as giving a variety and elegance to our difcourfes, and multiplying the graces of our compositions.

The

faciente, neque præfente domino, quod fuos quifque fervos in tali re facere voluiffet. CICER. pro MILO: § ro.

* SMITH's Tranflation of LONGINUS, p. 121.

TILLOTSON on Phil. iii. 20. vol. i. p. 298. Octavo edit.

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