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passion, therefore, must direct the tone of the voice in this figure. Accordingly we find that joy unexpected adopts this figure, and elevates the voice to the highest pitch.

O my soul's joy!

If after ev'ry tempest come such calms,

May the winds blow till they have waken'd death!:
Shakspeare's Othello.

O joy, thou welcome stranger! twice three years
I have not felt thy vital beam; but now
It warms my veins, and plays about my heart:
A fiery instinct lifts me from the ground,
And I could mount-

Revenge, act iii.

Sorrow in the extreme likewise adopts this figure, and raises the voice into a high tone: thus Lady Constance, in King John, cries out,

I am not mad-I would to Heav'n I were !
For then 'tis like I should forget myself:
Oh if I could, what grief should I forget!

But a slight degree of sorrow, or pleasing melancholy, adopts this figure in a soft middle tone of voice: thus the Duke, in Shakspeare's Twelfth Night, relieving his melancholy with music, says: That strain again! it had a dying fall!

Oh, it came o'er my ear like the sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour.

While the contemptuous reproach and impatience of Lady Macbeth uses the exclamation in a harsh and lower tone of voice:

0 proper stuff!

This is the very painting of your fears:

This is the air-drawn dagger, which you said
Led you to Duncan.

Thus Cicero, speaking of his banishment, from which he had been so honourably recalled, begins in a low and mournful tone, but ends in a high and exulting one;

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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!

Pro Sext. cap. 12.

Again, in the defence of Cælius, endeavouring to expose his accusers to the indignation of the court, he cries out, in a loud and high tone,

Oh! the great and mighty force of truth, which so easily supports itself against all the wit, craft, subtlety, and artful designs of men!

At other times he adopts this figure to express disdain or contempt; as, when speaking of Pompey's house, which Mark Antony had purchased, he says to him, in a low contemptuous tone,

Oh! consummate impudence! dare you go within those walls? dare you venture over that venerable threshold, and show your audacious countenance to the tutelar deities which reside there? Philipp. ii. c. 26.

Thus we see the Exclamation adapts itself to the passion which adopts it, and is either in a high or low tone of voice, as the passion requires; but as it is seldom adopted, but when there is a strong emotion of soul, it is generally heard in a loud tone, though not always in a high one this distinction of voice is so little understood or attended to, that it is no wonder we find our grammars echoing from each other that this figure always requires a high and elevated tone.

Erotésis.

EROTESIS, or Interrogation, is a figure by which we express the emotion of our mind, and infuse an ardour and energy into our discourse by proposing questions.

This figure, as it relates to grammar, has been already treated of at large, and that slide or in

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flexion of voice which distinguishes one species of it has been fully explained and inculcated: for, as the learned professor Ward observes, "Every interrogation or question is not figura"tive. When we inquire about a thing that is doubtful, in order to be informed, this is no figure, but the natural form of such expres"sions as if I ask a person, where he is going? "or what he is doing? But it then becomes figu"rative, when the same thing may be expressed "in a direct manner; but the putting it by way "of question gives it a much greater life and

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spirit as when Cicero says, Cataline, how long "will you abuse our patience? Do not you per"ceive your designs are discovered? He might "indeed have said, You abuse our patience a long "while you must be sensible your designs are

discovered. But it is easy to perceive how "much this latter way of expression falls short "of the force and vehemence of the former."

This figure, like the last, is the vehicle of every passion and emotion of the mind. But if we consider it only as a departure from the declarative form, and not accompanied by any passion, it wonderfully varies and enlivens the style, by holding personal converse as it were with the reader or auditor, and urging him to attention by the answer it leads him to expect. If this figure is formed by the verb only, and without the interrogative words, it frequently commences and continues with the monotone, and ends with an inflexion of voice, which not only pleases the ear by the striking variety it produces, but rouses the attention by its more immediate address to the understanding. But when to these marking properties we annex emotion or passion, this figure becomes the most powerful engine in the whole arsenal of oratory. How does Cicero

press and bear down his adversary by the force of interrogations, when, pleading for his client, he thus addresses himself to his accuser:

I will make you this offer, Plancius; choose any one tribe you please, and show, as you ought, by whom it was bribed; but if you cannot, and, in my opinion, will not even attempt to do this, I will show you how he gained it. Is this a fair contest? Will you engage on this ground? It is an open, honourable challenge to you. Why are you silent? Why do you dissemble? Why do you prevaricate? I repeatedly insist upon this point, I urge you to it, press it, require it, nay, I demand it of you.

His interrogations to Tubero, in his Oration for Ligarius, have the same irresistible force.

What, Tubero, did that naked sword of yours mean in the battle of Pharsalia? at whose breast was its point aimed? What was then the meaning of your arms, your spirit, your eyes, your hands, your ardour of soul? What did you desire, what wish for? I press the youth too much, he seems disturbed. Let me return to myself. I too bore arms on the

same side.

As these questions have the nature of a climax, they ought to be pronounced with increasing force to the end; that is, every succeeding question should be pronounced higher and louder than the preceding, and the demand in the last example but one in a lower and louder tone than all.

What uncommon force and spirit do the questions of Germanicus to his mutinous soldiers give to his reproaches !

What is there in these days that you have not attempted? What have you not profaned? What name shall I give to this assembly? Shall I call you soldiers? you, who have besieged with your arms, and surrounded with a trench, the son of your emperor? Shall I call you cítizens? you, who have so shamefully trampled upon the authority of the senate? you, who have violated the justice due to énemies, the sanctity of émbassy, and the rights of nátions? Tacitus, Annals, lib. 1.

The beauty of this passage depends much upon the pronunciation of the word you for as it is in opposition to the question beginning with a verb, like that it ought to have the rising inflexion; but this inflexion ought to be pronounced with a large scope of sound, beginning low and ending high, the voice dwelling a considerable time on the pronunciation: this will in some measure express that surprise and indignation with which the questions are charged; and if the second you is made more emphatical than the first, and the third than the second, the force and variety of the passage will be considerably augmented. See Question, page 93.

Aparithmesis, or Enumeration, Gradation, and Climax.

I HAVE associated these different figures under the same head, because there is something as similar in their pronunciation as in their structure and meaning; and this similitude may serve to illustrate and explain what there is alike in the pronunciation of each. What is common to these figures is an accumulation of particulars, which particulars form a whole; and the pronunciation in all of them should mark strongly that unity and wholeness, in which the force and beauty of the figure consist. This pronunciation has been explained at large in the article Series, page 106, and to this the reader must be referred. It seems only necessary to add here, that, in proportion to the degree of passion with which any of these figures are charged, the pronunciation of the latter members should rise in force and elevation of voice above the former, that the whole may conclude with a suitable

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