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beautiful, the brightest, and most uncommon; and who lose time in torturing themselves with wrangling with every word, and almost every fyllable.

But this is an unprofitable labour, a mistaken delicacy; which at laft only extinguishes the fire of the imagination, and makes the orator unhappy! The art of fpeaking would be of no great value, did it always coft fo much pains, or were we condemned all our lives to the tedious tasks of hunting after words, and of weighing and adjufting them. The orator, if he deferves the name, muft be poffeffed of all the treafures of eloquence, and of the art of managing them; like the profeffor of an eftate, who difpofes of it as he thinks fit.

There are feveral examples relating to the choice of words, in the article where I have treated of the elegance and delicacy of the Latin tongue; to which I will add a few more in this place.

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Appius ufes a comparison taken from hunting, to exhort the Romans to continue the fiege of Veii in winter, telling them, that the pleasure we find in it makes us forget the greatest fatigues, and carries us into the most steep, craggy places, in fpite of the feverity of the weather: Obfecro vos, venandi ftudium ac voluptas homines per nives ac pruinas in montes fylvafque rapit: belli neceffitatibus eam patientiam non adhibebimus, quam vel lufus ac voluptas elicere folet? How ftrong is the word rapid! To have a juft fense of it, we need only compare it with another expreffion which Seneca ufes in a thought not unlike this. He speaks of merchants who undertake long and dangerous voyages by fea and land, through an infatiable thirst of gain. Alium mercandi præceps cupiditas circa omnes

q Abominanda hæc infelicitas erat, quæ & curfum dicendi refrænat, & calorem cogitationis extinguit mora & diffidentia. Ibid.

Neque enim vis fumma dicendi eft admiratione digna, fi infelix ufque ad ultimum folicitudo perfequitur, ac oratorem macerat & co

quit, ægre verba vertentem, &
perpendendis coagmentandifque eis
intabefcentem. Nitidus ille, & fub-
limis, & locuples, circumfluentibus
undique eloquentiæ copiis imperat.
Quintil. 1. 12. c. 10.

Liv. lib. 5. n. 5.
s De brevit. vitæ, c. 2.

terras,

terras, omnia maria, fpe lucri ducit. The word ducit is too flow for fo violent a paffion as avarice: præceps cupiditas.

Salluft condemns the fury of foldiers against the vanquished, and accounts for it thus: Igitur bi milites, poftquam victoriam adepti funt, nihil reliqui victis fecere. Quippe fecundæ res fapientum animos fatigant: ne illi, corruptis moribus, victoria temperarent. I would only fix upon this word fatigant. Is it poffible to give a fhorter or more lively reprefentation of the hard trials which moft good people undergo in profperity? It attacks them, purfues them inceffantly, makes perpetual war against them, and does not leave them till it has defpoiled them of their virtue; and, if it cannot conquer them by force, it feems to hope at leaft that they will give up their arms through fatigue and wearinefs: Secunda res fapientum animos fatigant.

This expreffion makes me call to mind another of Tacitus, which is full as emphatical: An cum Tiberius, poft tantam rerum experientiam, vi dominationis convulfus & mutatus fit, C. Cæfarem, &c. which Ablancourt tranflates to this purpofe: "If Tiberius,

after fuch long experience, fuffered himself to be "corrupted by his good fortune, what muft become "of Caligula ?" &c. This tranflation enervates the whole force of the thought, which confifts in these two words, convulfus, and vi dominationis. Convellere fignifies to tear away, to eradicate, to carry away by force, and to difplace a thing by violence. There is in fovereign power a pomp, a pride and haughtinefs, which attack the beft princes with a violence they cannot guard against; fo that being torn from themfelves, and their good inclinations, they are foon changed into other men: Vi dominationis convulfus & mutatus.

The fame author fpeaks of profperity, in his hiftories, in the fame fenfe with Salluft, but under another idea: Fortunam adhuc tantum adverfam tulifti. Secunda res acrioribus fimulis animos explorant: qui mi

Annal. 1. 6. c. 48.

u Hiftor, 1. 1. c. 13. G4

Seria

fezia tolerantur, felicitate corrumpimur. Fidem, liber tatem, amicitiam, præcipua bumani animi bona, tu quidem eadem conftantia retinebis; fed alii per obfequium imminuent. Irrumpet adulatio, blanditia peffimum veri affectus venenum, fua cuique utilitas. This paffage is taken from Galba's fpeech to Pifo, on his adopting and making him his affociate in the empire, which Ablancourt has tranflated to this purpose:" Fortune "has hitherto been averfe to you; fhe is now chang"ing to your advantage. Be now careful to make "yourfelf capable of fupporting her favours as well

as her frowns. For the incentives of profperity are "much more powerful than thofe of adverfity; be"caufe we yield to the one, and refift the other. Al"though you should preferve your virtue, yet all thofe "near your perfon will lofe theirs. Flattery will take "the place of truth, and intereft that of affection, to "which they are poifon and venom." Much might be faid upon this translation, but that it would be foreign to our prefent purpose. I only would obferve, that it has not preferved the beauty of those words, irrumpet. adulatio, which import, that, whatever measures and precautions Pifo might take to keep off flattery, fhe would however force herself a paffage, and, in a manner, break through all the barriers he might oppose against her. The French does not fufficiently reprefent that idea: Flattery will take the place of truth.

Pliny, the naturalift, afcribes the decay and ruin of morals to the prodigious expences of Scaurus dur ing his dileship. He expreffes this thought in a wonderful manner, by a very few words, which are highly emphatical: Cujus nefcio an ædilitas maxime proftraverit mores. His Edilefhip completed the ruin

of morals.

W

In all our good French writers, we meet with a multitude of expreffions, either sprightly or emphatical; fhining or beautiful.

w Lib. 36. c. 15.

That

...

* That man (Maccabeus) whom God had fet ever Ifrael, like a wall of brass, where the forces of Afia were fo often shattered after defeating powerful armies. came every year, as though he had been the meanest of the Ifracl ites, to repair, with his triumphant hands, the breaches which the enemy had made in the fanctuary:

We faw him (M. de Turenne) in the famous battle of· the Downs, force the weapons out of the hands of the mercenary troops, when they were going to fall on the vanquished with a brutal fury.

He won the hearts of those who are generally kept within the limits of their duty by fear of punishment only, with the obligation of respect and friendship. . . . By what invifible chains did he thus lead the will?

How often did he make his great.ft efforts, to tear of the fatal bandage which clofed his eyes against truth?

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2

We might obferve in many of the above cited examples, that epithets contribute very much to the ele gance and ftrength of an oration. They chiefly pro duce that effect, when they are figurative and metaphorical, according to Quintilian's ol fervation: • Difcamus fpes effrænatas & animum in futura eminentem velut in vinculis habere. Vide quantum rerum per uram gulam tranfiturarum permifceat luxuria, terrarum marifque vaftatrix. The fame Seneca fpeaks thus in an excellent encomium upon the death of the wife of a provincial governor: a Loquax & ingeniofa in contamelias præfectarum provincia, in qua etiam qui volaver unt culpam, non effugerunt infamiam, eam velut unicum fanctitatis exemplum fufpexit. Cicero fays fomething like this of his brother: Qua cum honefta fint in his privatis noflris quotidianifque rationibus; in tanto imperio, tam depravatis moribus; tam corruptrice provincia, dv.na videantur neceffe eft.

b

A difcourfe without epithets is languid, and feems almoft without life or foul. However, we must not

x M. Flêcher.

y Senec. de tranq. anim.

z Idem epift, 95.

a De conf, ad Helv, c. 17. *

b Ep. 1. ad Quint, fratr 1. 3. c Talis eft ratio hujufce virtu.is, ut fine appofitis nuda fit & incomp ta-oratio. Ne eneretur tamen G. 5

multiply

multiply them too much. For, to use Quintilian's comparison, it is with epithets in a difcourfe as with fervants in an army, who would be extremely burdenfome, and of no other ufe but to embarrass it, if every foldier had one; for then the number would be doubled, but not the ftrength.

ARTICLE the FOURT H.

I

Of the order and difpofition of words.

d

T must be owned, that the placing of words contributes very much to the beauty and sometimes even to the ftrength of a difcourfe. Nature has implanted a tafte in man, which makes him fenfible to harmony and number; and, in order to introduce this kind of harmony and concert into languages, we need only confult nature, ftudy the genius of those languages, and found and interrogate, as it were, the ear, which e Cicero juftly calls a proud and difdainful judge. Indeed, let a thought be ever fo beautiful in itfelf, if the words which exprefs it are ill placed, the delicacy of the car is fhocked; f a harsh and inharmonious

multis. Nam fit longa & impedita, ut.... eam judices fimilem agmini totidem lixas habenti, quot milites quoque: in quo & numerus eft duplex, nec duplum virium. Quintil. 1. 8. c. 6.

d Natura ducimur ad modos. Quintil. 1. 9. c. 4.

Aures, vel animus aurium nuncio naturalem quandam in fe continct vocum omnium mentionem. ...Adimadverfum eft eadem natura admonente, effe quoidam certos eur us conclufionefque verborum. Orat. n. 177, 178.

e Graves fententiæ inconditis

verbis elate offendunt aures quarum eft judicium fuperbiffimum. Orat. n. 150,

Aurium fenfus faftidiofiffimus. Lib. 1. ad Heren. n. 32.

f Itaque & longiora & breviora judicat, & perfecta ac. moderata femper expectat. Mutila fentit quædam, & quafi decurtata, quibus tanquam debito fraudetur; productiora alia, & quafi immoderatius excurrentia; quae magis etiam afpernantur aures. Orat, n.. 177, 178,

Optime de illa (compofitione) judicant aures, quæ Sa plena fen

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