of foreign phrases; and even if the effort is only partially successful, it will at least convey that notion which is uppermost in the writer's own mind.

Take, for example, the phrase coup d'état, for which we have no precise equivalent;-as, indeed, the thing itself is happily strange to English politics. By employing such partial equivalents as "plot," "conspiracy," "overthrow of the constitution," "unconstitutional violence," an English writer at least brings out into relief some one important feature of the action denoted by the French phrase, and so far helps to remove the vagueness which, in spite of its frequent use, still clings to it.

Further, it is quite possible for a person to deceive himself in the use of a foreign phrase, imagining that his idea is too subtle to express in his mother tongue; the fact being that his idea is not so much subtle as indistinct. In the very effort after original expression, he is compelled to clarify his conception.

§ 131. Words and phrases from less known languages should either be excluded altogether or accompanied by explanation.

PART IV.-FIGURES OF SPEECH.

§ 132. By Figures of Speech are meant certain rhetorical expedients designed to heighten the effect of what is said.

The principal of them are Antithesis, Climax, Metonymy, Metaphor, Hyperbole, and Personification; and they may be employed either separately or in combination.

1. ANTITHESIS.

§ 133. Antithesis [Gr. Oéois, placing; avrí, against] consists in setting off one thing against another. All our conceptions being relative, the impression produced by any one idea must depend largely upon the ideas with which it is associated, or to which it is opposed. In making use of antithesis, we act on the same principle as the painter who makes a dark tint doubly dark by throwing it against a luminous back-ground. The tint remains the same, but the effect is immensely heightened.

Some fine instances of antithesis are to be met with in the Bible. Among these may be mentioned the parable of the two debtors (Matt. xviii. 23); and that of the sheep and the goats (ib. xxv. 31); also the appeal of Christ to Simon (Luke vii. 44):

"And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house, thou gavest me no water for my feet; but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint, but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment."

Antithesis is especially suited to didactic writing, tending, as it does, to enliven its too frequent monotony, and to give point to its practical lessons. The works of our great

essayists, Bacon, Fuller, Sir Thomas Browne, Johnson, Goldsmith, Lamb, are full of it.

Proverbs are often strongly antithetical. Take such familiar examples as "Short reckonings make long friends," "Penny-wise, pound foolish," "Love me little, love me long," " "Soon hot, soon cold," ""Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest," &c. It is obvious that the charm of these and a hundred other popular sayings, each embodying "the wisdom of many and the wit of one," lies in the sharply contrasted form into which a homely lesson is thrown.

§ 134. Fuller may be said to have made the humorous antithesis, no less than the humorous parenthesis (see § 112), peculiarly his own. Of this class are the follow

ing:

"A father that whipt his son for swearing, and swore worse himself whilst he whipt him, did more harm by his example than good by his correction."

(Holy State, i. 5.)

"And well may masters consider how easy a transposition it had been for God, to have made him to mount into the saddle that holds the stirrup, and him to sit down at table who stands by with the trencher.” (Ib. p. 7.)

"Better ride alone than have a thief's company." (Ib. iii. 5.)

"Great men may build where they please, as poor men where they can." (Ib. p. 7.)

"Let not thy common rooms be several, nor thy several rooms common." (lb.)

"A house had better be too little for a day than too great for a year." (Ib.)

"He that mocks at the marks of valour in a soldier's face, is likely to live to have the brands of justice on his own shoulders." (Ib. 15.)

§ 135. Many of the most striking passages in Bacon's 'Essays' owe much of their force to the use of this figure, e.g.:

"Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity is the blessing of the New.... Yet, even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath laboured more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes." (Of Adversity.)

* An antithetical definition of a proverb, ascribed to the late Earl Russell.

The contrasted ideas of this paragraph may be exhibited in a tabular form :

"Children sweeten labours, but they make misfortunes more bitter; they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate the remembrance of death." (Of Children.)

"An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd [evil] thing in an orchard or garden; and certainly, men that are great lovers of themselves waste the public." (Of Wisdom for a Man's Self.)

"It hath been an opinion that the French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are." (Of Seeming Wise.)

66 Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man; and therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not." (Of Studies,)

$136. The didactic poetry of Pope is remarkable for its abundant and felicitous antithesis. The following instances occur within the compass of a single page :-

""Tis but a point we see, and not the whole."

Is now a victim, and now Egypt's god."

"This hour a slave, the next a deity."

"His time a moment, and a point his space."

"Sees with equal eye, as God of all,

A hero perish and a sparrow fall:

Atoms and systems into ruin hurled,

And now a bubble burst, and now a world."

(Essay i. 61-90.) The same remark applies to Young (whose "Night Thoughts" long enjoyed almost unequalled popularity) and to Johnson. Antithesis is their most effective instrument, and they use it freely.

$137. We are indebted to Archbishop Whately for the following additional instances (Rhetoric, pt. iii. p. 2):

"Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few."
"When reason is against a man, he will be against reason."

(Hobbes.)

"Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools." (Ib.)

(Here we have an instance in which the effect of antithesis is heightened by metaphor.)

"I do not live to eat, but eat to live."

"Persecution is not wrong because it is cruel; but it is cruel because it is wrong."

"On parent knees, a naked, new-born child,

Weeping thou satst, while all around thee smiled;
So live, that sinking in thy last long sleep,

Thou then mayst smile, while all around thee weep."

(Sir W. Jones, from the Arabic.)

§ 138. Brilliant as the effect of antithesis is, the student must beware of making it an object in itself. All aiming at effect is calculated to disturb the judgment and warp the mind from its legitimate object.

When a just thought presents itself in an antithetical form, use it effectively. Dulness is the one unpardonable sin in a writer; and any legitimate resource against it is welcome. But the chief merit of language, after all, is its perfect adjustment to thought, expressing neither too much nor too little, but fitting to its subject-matter like a well-made glove to the hand and the student must be prepared to sacrifice the most temptingly brilliant antithesis, rather than be guilty of exaggeration and untruth.

2. CLIMAX.

§ 139. The word climax (Gk. «λîμag) means a ladder. As a term of rhetoric, it denotes a succession of ideas, each more striking and impressive than its predecessor.

One of the most remarkable passages of this kind in our language is to be found in Cowley's Character of Cromwell' (see p. 144). The speeches of Cicero furnish many effective examples, e.g.

"The Senate is aware of this-the consul sees it-yet he lives! Lives, do I say? Nay more, he even comes into the Curia; he becomes a partaker of our national deliberations; he votes, and marks every one of us for massacre! (In Cat. i.)

"Such is this woman's folly, that no one can call her a human being; such her violence, that no one can call her woman; such her cruelty, that no one can call her mother." (Pro Cluent. end.)

"What can or need surpass the skill of this man [Pompey], who, coming straight from the schools, exchanged the discipline of boyhood for that of the camp, and at once joined the army of his father in a war with most formidable foes; who, thus at the close of his boyhood a private soldier in the army of an eminent captain, was at the com、