APOLOGUE OR FABLE. § 579. APOLOGUE, Greek añoλóуoç, is a short, fictitious story, founded frequently on supposed actions of brutes or inanimate things, and is not supported by probability. A DOG, crossing a little rivulet with a piece of flesh in his mouth, saw his own Shadow represented in the clear mirror of the limpid stream, and believing it to be another Dog, who was carrying another piece of flesh, he could not forbear catching at it, but was so far from getting any thing by his greedy design, that he dropped the piece he had in his mouth, which immedi ately sunk to the bottom, and was irrecoverably lost.-Esor. Application. He that catches at more than belongs to him, justly deserves to lose what he has. APOSIOPESIS. § 580. APOSIOPESIS, from the Greek dлоσiолnσiç, a retaining or suppression, is leaving a sentence unfinished, in consequence of some sudden emotion of the mind. A speaker may thus aggravate what he pretends to conceal, by uttering a part, and leaving the remainder to be understood. 1. The statesman is the leader of a nation, the warrior is the grace of an age, the philosopher is the birth of a thousand years; but the lover-where is he not ?-Deerbrook. 2. I can tell him, sir, that Massachusetts and her people, of all people, of all classes, hold him, and his love, and his venera. tion, and his speeches, and his principles, and his standard of truth, in utter-what shall I say?-any thing but respect.-D. WEBSTER. 3. No sooner had the Almighty ceased, but all Loud as from numbers without number, sweet As from the blest voices uttering joy-heaven rang With jubilee, and loud hosannas filled The eternal regions.-MILTON. APOSTROPHE. § 581. APOSTROPHE, Greek dлó, from, and orpoon, a turning, a digressive address, is a figure by which the speaker turns the current of his discourse, and addresses some person or some object different from that to which his discourse had been directed. 1. O ye judges! it was not by human counsel, nor by any thing less than the immediate care of the immortal gods, that this event has taken place. The very divinities themselves, who beheld that monster fall, seemed to be moved, and to have inflicted their vengeance upon him. I appeal to, I call to witness you, 0 ye hills and groves of Alba! you, the demolished Alban altars! ever accounted holy by the Romans, and coeval with our religion, but which Clodius, in his mad fury, having first cut down and leveled the most sacred groves, had sunk under heaps of common buildings; I appeal to you, I call you to witness, whether your altars, your divinities, your powers, which he had polluted with all kinds of wickedness, did not avenge themselves when this wretch was extirpated? And thou, O holy Jupiter! from the height of thy sacred mount, whose lakes, groves, and boundaries he had so often contaminated with his detestable impurities; and you, the other deities, whom he had insulted, at length opened your eyes to punish this enormous of fender. By you, by you and in your sight, was the slow, but the righteous and merited vengeance executed upon him.-CICERO. 2. Ye toppling crags of ice! Ye avalanches, whom a breath draws down In mountainous overwhelming, come and crush me! I hear ye momently above, beneath, Crash with a frequent conflict; but ye pass, And only fall on things that still would live; On the young flourishing forest, or the hut CATACHRESIS. § 582. CATACHRESIS, from the Greek karáxpηois, is an abuse of a trope, by which a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true meaning. 1. "An iron candlestick;" "a glass ink-horn." Such the pleased ear will drink with silent joy.-POPE, § 583. CLIMAX, from the Greek xλiμaš, a ladder, is the ascent of a subject, step by step, from a lower to a higher interest. 1. We feel the strength of mind through the beauty of the style; we discern the man in the author, the nation in the man, and the universe at the feet of the nation.-MADAME DE STAËL. 2. I impeach thee, Warren Hastings, of high crimes and misdemeanors. I impeach him in the name of the Commons and House of Parliament, whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the name of the English nation, whose ancient honor he has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in the name of human nature itself, in the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, the name of every rank, I impeach the common enemy and op. pressor of all.-BURKE. in 3. In my affection to my country you find me ever firm and invariable. Not the solemn demand of my person, not the vengeance of the Amphictyonic council, not the terror of their threatenings, not the flattery of their promises, no, nor the fury of those accursed wretches whom they roused like wild beasts against me, could tear this affection from my breast.-DEMOS THENES. 4. What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and ad mirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how § 584. ANTI-CLIMAX, the opposite of climax, is a descent from great things to small; a sentence or paragraph in which the ideas descend, and become less important and striking at the close than at the commencement. 1. "Who murder our wives and children, plunder our dwellings, steal our sheep, and rob our potato-patches." Die, and endow a college or a cat.-POPE. 2. 3. "Under the tropic is our language spoke, And part of Flanders has received our yoke." ECPHONESIS OR EXCLAMATION. $585. ECPHONESIS, Greek Ekoúvnois, is an animated or passionate exclamation, and is generally indicated by such interjections as O! oh! ah! alas! If after every tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have wakened death!-Othello. 2. Oh mournful day to the Senate and all good men! calamitous to the Senate, afflictive to me and my family, but to posterity glorious and worthy of admiration!-CICERO pro Sext. 3. Oh the great and mighty force of truth, which so easily supports itself against all the wit, craft, subtlety, and artful designs of men!-CICERO pro Calius. ENIGM A. § 586. ENIGMA, from the Greek word diviya, from divíσoopiai, to hint, a dark saying in which some known thing is concealed under obscure language; an obscure question; a riddle. 1. "What creature is that which walks upon four legs in the morning, two at noon, and upon three at night?" Man. This is the famous riddle of the sphinx. 2. 'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell, On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest, And the depths of the ocean its presence confess'd. "Twill be found in the sphere when 'tis riven asunder, But in shade let it rest like a delicate flower, Oh breathe on it softly, it dies in an hour.-BYRON. The letter H. EPANALEPSIS. § 587. EPANALEPSIS, Greek &πaváλmþıç, repetition, is a figure by which a sentence ends with the same word with which it 2. 3. Still forever fare thee well; Even though unforgiving, never 'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.-BYRON to his wife. “Langsyne! with thee resides a spell To raise the spirit and refine. Farewell! there can be no farewell To thee, loved, lost Langsyne." "A voice o'er all the waste and prostrate isle EPANORTHOSIS. $588. EPANORTHOSIS, Greek avópboois, correction, is a fig ure by which a speaker retracts or recalls what he has spoken, in order to substitute something stronger or more suitable in its place. The attention of the auditor is roused, and a stronger impression is thus produced upon his mind by what is thus substituted. 1. Can you be ignorant, among the conversation of this city, what laws-if they are to be called laws, and not the firebrands of Rome and the plagues of the commonwealth-this Clodius designed to fix upon us? |