And after having read over thefe ftately verses, Apply thine engine to the fpungy door, does it not amaze us to find that nothing more is meant than, uncork the bottle, and chip the bread? Let us always be folicitous rather to rife in fense than in found, and by no means let the laft be fuffered to exceed the first. "There is more danger, fays LONGINUS, in a Periphrafis than "in any other Figure, unless it be used with ❝ moderation. An injudicious Periphrafis is fpiritlefs, and is at no great remove from "emptinefs and ftupidity. Hence the Critics "have bantered PLATO (who frequently em"ploys this Figure, but in fome places unfea sonably) for faying that we ought to take "care not to suffer either filver or golden "riches to fettle themselves in a city. In like "manner, fays a Critic upon him, if he had prohibited the pofsefsion of fheep and oxen, "he had called them beef and mutton riches *" * Επικηρον μενλοι το πραγμα η Περιφρασις των άλλων πλεον, οι μη συμμέτρως τινι λαμβανοιτο ευθυς γας αβλεμες προσπιπίει, κυφολογίας τε οζον και παχυτατον. Όθεν και τον Πλαζωνα (δεινα γαρ αεί περί χήμα, και τισιν ακαίρως) εν τοις νόμοις λε γονία, ως "878 αργύρων δεν πλείον, είτε χρυσεν εν πόλει ιδρυ μενον εάν οικείν, διαχλευάζεσιν ως, σε εν προβαία, φησιν, και βες, εκώλυε κεκτησθαι, δηλον, ότι πρόβατειον αν και βου walo sλeyer." LONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 29. ELOV CHAPTER CHAPTER XV. The ASYNDETON and POLYSYNDETON confidered. § 1, Afyndeton defined. § 2. Inftances of it from SALLUST, SUETONIUS, CICERO, and VIRGIL. § 3. Examples of this Figure from Scripture. § 4. What LONGINUS fays upon the Afyndeton. $5. A Polyfyndeton defined. § 6. Examples of it from Livy and VIRGIL. § 7. Inftances of this Figure from Scripture. § 8. Examples of the Afyndeton and Polyfyndeton, in a passage from DEMOSTHENES. $9. Remarks upon these Figures. § 1. A Syndeton is a Figure, occasioned by the omifsion of conjunctive particles, which are dropped either to exprefs vehemence or speed; or fometimes it may be from a noble negligence of nice accuracy, arising from an attention to our ideas. 2. SALLUST furnishes us with an example of this fort in his description of the Moors: "There From A privativa & ourdew, I disunite, or disjoin. was 34 "was then, fays he, an horrible spectacle in the "open plains, pursuit, flight, slaughter, capti"vity *." So in the Pontic triumph, CÆSAR had it infcribed in the pageants of the fhow, I came, I faw, I vanguifbed t; thereby signifying the rapidity of his fuccefs. CICERO fays, designing it may be the excessive rage in which CATILINE left Rome, He is gone, departed, efcaped, rushed out . In like manner we fee the hurry of DIDO's mind, in the abrupt precipitate manner in which the orders her people to purfue ÆNEAS; Go, hafte, my fubjects, feize the flaming brands, § 3. Scripture will furnish us with examples of this Figure: Rom. i. 29. " Being filled with all unrighteoufness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, mur der, debate, deceit, malignity; whifperers, *Tum fpectaculum horribile in campis patentibus, fequi, fugere; occidi, capi. SALLUSTUS de Bello Jugurthin, p.106. edit. MAITTAIRE. Pontico triumpho inter pompæ fercula trium verborum prætulit titulum, Veni, vidi, vici. SUETONIUS in Vit. CSAR. § 37. Abiit, exceffit, evafit, erupit. CICER. Orat. ii. in CA Eerte citi flammas, date vela, impellite remos. VIRGIL Eneid. lib. iv. ver. 593. 4 backbiters, haters of GOD, defpiteful, proud, boafters, inventers of evil things, difobedient "to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, s unmerciful." So Rom. iii. 11, 12. " There is #none that understands, there is none that seeks after GOD. They are all gone out of the way, they are altogether become unprofitable; there " is none that does good, no, not one." And 1 Cor. xiii. 4---7. " Charity envies not; charity vaunts not itself, is not puffed up; doth not * behave itself unseemly, seeks not her own, is not easily provoked, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." $4. LONGINUS difcourfes concerning this Figure, and tells us, that "fentences divefted of "their copulatives flow loofely down, and are poured out in fuch a manner as almost to out strip the speaker. And closing their fhields "together, fays XENOPHON, they pushed, they "fought, they killed, they were killed. So that "report of EURYLOCHUS in HOMER, "We went, ULYSSES, fuch was your command, "For words of this fort, feparated from one "another, and yet precipitated by the voice, "carry with them an energy, that at the "fame "fame time checks, and yet accelarates the "fentence *" "The want of a fcrupulous connexion," fays an ingenious Writer, "draws things into a smaller "compass, and adds the greater fspirit and emo"tion: the more rays are thus collected into a "point, the more vigorous the flame +." § 5. The very opposite to this Figure is the Polyfyndeton; for as the Afyndeton drops, fo the Polyfyndeton on the contrary abounds with conjunctive particles., $ 6. We have an instance of this kind in Livy; who, describing the pleasure and luxury which corrupted and foftened the army of HANNIBAL, fays, "For sleep, and wine, and feafts, and ftrumpets, and bagnios, and sloth, that "through custom grows every day more bewitching, had fo enervated their minds and "bodies, * Απλοκα εκπιπίει, και οιονει προχειται τα λεγόμενα, ολιγο δεν φθάνοντας και αυτόν τον λεγονται. • Και συμβαλόντες, φησιν ο Ξενοφων, τους ασπίδας, έωθεντο, εωθιντο, εμάχοντο, αποκλει 99 2039 απέθνησκον. Και τα τε Ευρυλοχέ Βίομεν, ως εκελευες, ανα δρυμα, φαιδιμ' Οδυσσεν, Ευρύμεν εν βήσσησι τελυγμένα δωματα καλα. Τα γαρ αλλήλων διακεκομμένα, και εδεν ητἿον καλεσπευσμένα, Φέρει της αγωνίας εμφασιν, αμα και εμποδίζησης τι και συνδιορ LONGINUS de Sublimitate, § 19. χέσης. + SPENCE's Essay on Mr Pore's Odyfey, page 237. From won and ourdew, I conjoin much. |