philosopher. The other manner more befits the facility which ought to predominate in essays, dialogues, familiar letters, and moral tales. These approach nearer the style of conversation, into which periods can very rarely find admittance. In some kinds of discourses intended to be pronounced, but not delivered to the public in writing, they may properly find a place in the exordium and narration, for thus far some allowance is made for preparation; but are not so seasonable, unless very short, in the argumentative part, and the pathetic. PART II. Observations on Periods, and on the use of I now proceed to offer some observations on the period. It hath been affirmed to have more energy than a sentence loosely composed. The reason is this: The strength which is diffused through the latter, is in the former collected, as it were, into a single point. You defer the blow a little, but it is solely that you may bring it down with greater weight. But in order to avoid obscurity, as well as the display of art, rhetoricians have generally prescribed that a period should not consist of more than four members. For my own part, as members of sentences differ exceedingly both in length and in structure from one another, I do not see how any general rule can be established to ascertain their number. A period consisting of but two members may easily be found, that is at once longer, more artificial, and more obscure, than another consisting of five. The only rule which will never fail, is to beware both of prolixity and of intricacy; and the only competent judges in the case are good sense and a good ear. A great deal hath been said, both by ancient critics and by modern, on the formation and turn of periods. But their remarks are chiefly calculated with a view to harmony. In order to prevent the necessity of repeating afterwards, I shall take no notice of these remarks at present, though the rules founded on them do also in a certain degree contribute both to perspicuity and to strength. That kind of period which hath most vivacity is commonly that wherein you find an antithesis in the members, the several parts of one having a similarity to those of the other, adapted to some resemblance in the sense. The effect produced by the corresponding members in such a sentence is like that produced in a picture where the figures of the group are not all on a side, with their faces turned the same way, but are to contrast each other by their several positions. Besides, this kind of periods is generally the most perspicuous. There is in them not only that original light which results from the ex made pression when suitable, but there is also that which is reflected reciprocally from the opposed members. The relation between these is so strongly marked, that is next to impossible to lose sight of it. The same quality makes them also easier for the memory. Yet to counterbalance these advantages, this sort of period often appears more artful and studied than any other. I say often, because nothing can be more evident, than that this is not always the case. Some antitheses seem to arise so naturally out of the subject, that it is scarcely possible in another manner to express the sentiment. Accordingly we discover them even in the scriptures, the style of which is perhaps the most artless, the most natural, the most unaffected, that is to be found in any composition now extant. But I shall satisfy myself with producing a few specimens of this figure, mostly taken from the noble author lately quoted, who is commonly very successful in applying it. "If Cato," says he, "may be censured, severely indeed but justly, || for abandoning the cause of liberty, || which he would not however survive; what shall we say of those, || who embrace it faintly, || pursue it irresolutely, . . grow tired of it, || when they have much to hope, . . and give it up, || when they have nothing to fear?" In this period there is a double antithesis, the two clauses which follow the pronoun those are contrasted, so are also the two members (each consisting of two clauses) which conclude the sentence. Another specimen of a double antithesis differently disposed, in which he hath not been so fortunate, I shall produce from the same work. "Eloquence that leads mankind by the ears, || gives a nobler superiority || than power that every dunce may use, || or fraud that every knave employ, to lead them by the nose.' Here the two intermediate clauses are contrasted, so are also the first and the last. But there is this difference. In the intermediate members there is a justness in the thought as well as in the expression, an essential requisite in this figure. In the other two members the antithesis is merely verbal; and is therefore at best but a trifling play upon the words. We see the connexion which eloquence has with the ears, but it would puzzle Edipus himself to discover the connexion which either power or fraud has with the the nose. The author, to make out the contrast, is in this instance obliged to betake himself to low and senseless cant. Sometimes, though rarely, the antithesis affects three several clauses. In this case the clauses ought to be very short, that the artifice may not be too apparent. Sometimes, too, the antithesis is not in the different members of the same sentence, but in different sentences. Both the last observations are exempli On the Spirit of Patriotism. fied in the following quotation from the same performance: "He can bribe, || but he cannot seduce. He can buy, || but he cannot gain. He can lie, || but he cannot deceive." There is likewise in each sentence a little of antithesis between the very short clauses themselves. Neither is this figure entirely confined to periods. Sentences of looser composition admit it; but the difference here is the less observable, that an antithesis well conducted produces the effect of a period, by preventing the languor which invariably attends a loose sentence, if it happen to be long. The following is an instance of antithesis in such a sentence: "No man is able to make a juster application of what hath been here advanced, to the most important interests of your country, to the true interest of your royal master, and to your private interest too; if that will add, as I presume it will, some weight to the scale; and if that requires, as I presume it does, a regard to futurity as well as to the present moment." That this is a loose sentence a little attention will satisfy every reader. I have marked the words in italics, at which, without violating the rules of grammar, it might have terminated. I acknowledge, however, that the marks of art are rather too visible in the composition. Sometimes an antithesis is happily carried through two or three sentences, where the sentences are not contrasted with one another, as in the example already given, but where the same words are contrasted in the different members of each sentence, somewhat differently. Such an antithesis on the words men, angels, and gods, you have in the two following couplets: Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes; MEN would be ANGELS, || ANGELS Would be GODS. The like varied opposition in the words principles, means, and ends, may be observed in the two following sentences: " They are designed to assert and vindicate the honour of the Revolution; of the principles established, of the means employed, and of the ends obtained by it. They are designed to explode our former distinctions, and to unite men of all denominations, in the support of these principles, in the defence of these means, and in the pursuit of these ends." You have in the subsequent quotation an antithesis on the words true and just, which runs through three successive sentences. "The anecdotes here related were true, and the reflections made upon them were just • Dedication of the Dissertation on Parties. 8 Dedication of the Dissertation on Parties. 7 Essay on Man. many years ago. The former would not have been related, if he who related them, had not known them to be true; nor the latter have been made, if he who made them had not thought them just: And if they were true and just then, they must be true and just now, and always9." Sometimes the words contrasted in the second clause are mostly the same that are used in the first, only the construction and the arrangement are inverted, as in this passage, "The old may inform the young; || and the young may animate the old1." In Greek and Latin this kind of antithesis generally receives an additional beauty from the change made in the inflection, which is necessary in those ancient languages for ascertaining what in modern tongues is ascertained solely by the arrangement. This obtains sometimes, but more rarely, in our language, as in these lines of Pope. Whate'er of mongrel no one class admits, A wit with dunces, || and a dunce with wits3. Something pretty similar is also to be remarked, when the words in the contrasted members remain the same under different inflections, the construction varied but not inverted. And this is the last variety of the antithesis that I shall specify; for to enumerate them all would be impossible. You have an example of this kind of contrast in the last line of the following couplet. Leave such to trifle with more grace and ease, 9 Advertisement to the Letters on Patriotism. 1 Dedication of the Dissertation on Parties. 2 An instance of this is that given by Quint. 1. ix. c. 3. "Non ut edam vivo, sed ut vivam edo." A literal translation into English, "I do not live that I may eat, but I eat that I may live," preserves the antithesis, but neither the vivacity nor the force of the original. The want of inflection is one reason of the inferiority, but not the only reason. It weakens the expression that we must employ fifteen words, for what is expressed in Latin with equal perspicuity in eight. Perhaps it would be better rendered, though not so explicitly, "I do not live to eat, but I eat to live.” Another example in point is the noted epigram of Ausonius, Infelix Dido, nulli bene nupta marito : Hoc pereunte, fugis; hoc fugiente, peris. But though it is chiefly in this sort which the ancients called avrμeraßon that the advantage of varied inflections appears, it is not in this sort only. In all antithesis without exception, the similar endings of the contrasted words add both light and energy to the expression. Nothing can better illustrate this than the compliment paid to Cæsar by Cicero, in his pleading for Ligarius————“ Nihil habet nec fortuna tua majus quam ut possis, nec natura tua melius quam ut velis, conservare quam plurimos." This perhaps would appear to us rather too artificial. But this appearance ariseth merely from the different structure of modern languages. What would in most cases be impossible to us, the genius of their tongue rendered not only easy to them, but almost unavoidable. 3 Dunciad, B. iv. 4 Pope's Imitations of Horace, B. ii. Ep. ii. I shall now consider both what the merit of the antithesis is, and to what kind of composition it is best adapted. It hath been remarked already, and cannot be justly questioned, that it often contributes both to vivacity and to perspicuity; on the other hand, it hath been charged with bearing the manifest signatures both of artifice and of puerility; of artifice, because of the nice adjustment of the correspondent clauses; of puerility, because of the supposed insignificance of the task of balancing words and syllables. The latter of these charges results so entirely from the former, that an answer to one is an answer to both. It is solely the appearance of artifice that conveys the notion of a task, and thereby gives rise to the charge of childishness. If therefore in any instance an antithesis cannot be reckoned artificial, it will not, at least on account of the expression, be deemed puerile. It was remarked, when I entered on the consideration of this figure, that it sometimes ariseth so naturally from the subject, as to appear inevitable. This particularly is the case where a comparison is either directly made, or only hinted. Samuel, we are told, said to Agag, immediately before he killed him, "As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women." The sentiment here expressed, namely, that the treatment which the tyrant was to receive, was due to him by the law of retaliation, rendered some antithesis in the words scarcely avoidable. Yet the antithesis in this passage is more in the thought than in the expression; as the words in the contrasted clauses are not opposed to each other with that nicety which many authors would have employed. But though accuracy of opposition may on some occasions have a very good effect, this will never be the case where it gives rise to any thing that appears forced in the construction, unnatural in the arrangement, or unharmonious in the cadence. Nature, ease, and fluency, are first to be regarded. In the two following examples you have precision in the contrast, without the appearance of too much art in the expression. “Beware of the ides of March, said the Roman augur to Julius Cæsar. Beware of the month of May, says the British Spectator to his fair countrywomen." Again, " I must observe, that as in some climates there is a perpetual spring, so in some female constitutions there is a perpetual May." In either instance, if the comparison itself escape censure, the expression will be pronounced faultless. An antithesis therefore doth not always necessarily imply art, and if in some instances it doth to a certain degree imply art, it ought to be remembered, that there are some kinds of composition, which not only admit, but even re $ 1 Sam. xv. 33. 6 Spectator, No. 395. X. |