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Examples.

My first, if you do, will increase,

My second will keep you from heaven,
My whole, such is human caprice,

Is seldomer taken than given.

Answer, advice.

What is that which God never sees, kings see but seldom, and which we see every day?

Answer, an equal.

XLVII.

HYPERBOLE.

A writer, under the influence of strong excitement, sometimes uses extravagant expressions, which he does not intend shall be taken literally. Such expressions are called hyperbole.

Example 1st.

A rescued land

Sent up a shout of victory from the field,
That rocked her ancient mountains.

Example 2d.

The iron of itself, though heat red-hot,
Approaching near these eyes, would drink my tears,
And quench its fiery indignation,

Even in the matter of mine innocence.

Nay, after that, consume away in rust,
But for containing fire to harm mine eye.

Example 3d.

I found her on the floor

In all the storm of grief, yet beautiful,

Pouring out tears at such a lavish rate,

That, were the world on fire, they might have drowned
The wrath of Heaven, and quenched the mighty ruin.*

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And there are many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written.[St. John's Gospel, last verse.]

Hyperbole or Exaggeration is a remarkable feature of Eastern poetry. Mr. Moore, in his Lalla Rookh, has some extravagant instances, which may be pardoned in that work, written as it was in imitation of the Eastern style, but they should not be exhibited as objects of imitation. The following is one of the instances from Lalla Rookh:

"Yet, one relief this glance of former years

Brought, mingled with its pain, tears, floods of tears,
Long frozen at her heart, but now like rills
Let loose in Spring time from the snowy hills,

And gushing warm, after a sleep of frost,

Through valleys where their flow had long been lost."

Hyperbole ought to be very carefully as well as sparingly used; for it is requisite that the mind of the hearer, as well as that of the speaker, should be strongly excited, else it degenerates into Bombast. It is usually the flash of an overheated imagination, and is seldom consistent with the cold canons of criticism. [See Booth's Principles, p. 138.]

The reverse of Hyperbole or Exaggeration, is Liptotes or Diminution, which is a figure by which, in seeming to lessen, we increase the force of the expression. Thus, when we say, "The man is no fool," we are understood to assert that he is wise. "I cannot praise such conduct," means that I despise it.

XLVIII.

APOSTROPHE.

Apostrophe is the turning off from the regular course of the subject, to address some person or thing, real or imagin ary, living or dead.

Apostrophe is generally used to address living objects that are absent, or dead objects with which we were familiar while they were in life. Some of its boldest efforts, however, exhaust the essence of personification, and call up and address the inanimate objects of nature.

Apostrophes addressed to the imagination are frequently extended to a considerable length; while those addressed to the passions must be short to correspond with the frame of the mind in which they are made.

Example 1st.

APOSTROPHE OF PASSION.

Oh pardon me, thou piece of bleeding earth,
That I am meek and gentle with thy butchers!

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man

That ever lived in the tide of time.

Example 2d.

APOSTROPHE OF IMAGINATION.

()thou Parnassus! whom I now survey,
Not in the phrensy of a dreamer's eye,
Not in the fabled landscape of a lay,

But soaring, snow-clad, through thy native sky,
In the wild pomp of mountain majesty!

What marvel that I thus essay to sing?

The humblest of thy pilgrims, passing by,

Would gladly woo thine Echoes with his string,

Though from thy heights no more one Muse shall wave her

wing.

*This Apostrophe is the production of Lord Byron, who has also presented another splendid example of the same kind, in his Apostrophe to the Ocean. Our own Percival, in his Apostrophe to the Sun, affords another example, which would do honor to the literature of any age or nation.

It may be remarked, that apostrophe is, on the whole, a figure too passionate to gain much admittance into any species of composition, except poetry and oratory.

XLIX.

INTERROGATION.

The unfigured and literal use of interrogation is to ask a question; but when men are strongly moved, they naturally put into the form of a question whatever they would affirm or deny with great earnestness. Thus: Canst thou draw out Leviathan with a hook, or his tongue with a cord that thou lettest down.* He that planted the ear, shall he not hear.

Interrogation gives life and spirit to discourse. It may be used to rouse and waken the hearers sometimes to command with great emphasis, and sometimes to denote plaintive passion. Cicero uses it with great effect in his oration against Cataline, which he thus commences:

"How long Cataline will you abuse our patience? Do you not perceive that your designs are discovered?" &c.

Example.

Can storied urn, or animated bust,

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honor's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death?

L.

REPETITION.

Repetition seizes some emphatical word, or phrase, and, to mark its importance, makes it recur frequently in the same

* The book of Job abounds in beautiful instances of this figure.

sentence. It is significant of contrast and energy. It also marks passion, which wishes to dwell on the object by which it is excited.

Example 1st.

"Weep not, oh Love!" she cries, "to see me bleedThee, Gertrude's sad survivor, thee alone

Heaven's peace commiserate; for scarce I heed

These wounds;

yet thee to leave is death, is death indeed.

Example 2d.

By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,
By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed,
By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned,
By strangers honored and by strangers mourned.

Example 3d.

He sung Darius, great and good,

By too severe a fate,

Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,

Fallen from his high estate, and weltering in his blood.

LI.

EXCLAMATION.

Exclamations are the effect of strong emotions of the mind; such as surprise, admiration, joy, grief, and the like.

Example 1st.

Oh Liberty! oh sound once delightful to every Roman ear! Oh sacred privilege of Roman citizenship!

-

once sacred, now

trampled upon.

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