I am not mad-I would to heav'n I were! 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! While the contemptuous reproach and impatience of Lady Macbeth uses the exclamation in a harsh and lower tone of voice: O proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fears: 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: Olı 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 his 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 Anthony had pur chased, 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 Philipp. ii. c. 26. reside there? 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 inflexion 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 66 ८८ figure, but the natural form of such expressions; 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 66 " in a direct manner: but the putting it by way " of question gives it a much greater life and spirit: as when Cicero says, Catiline, how long will you abuse our patience? Do not you perceive your designs are discovered? He " might indeed have said, You abuse our pa" tience a long while: you must be sensible your designs are discovered. But it is easy to perceive how much this latter way of expres"sion 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 reador 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 a 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 1 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 your's 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 ardor 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? yóu, who have so shamefully trampled upon the authority of the sénate? yóu, who have violated the justice due to enemies, the sanctity of émbassy, and the rights of nations? Tacitus, Annals, lib. i.. The beauty of this passage depends much upon the pronunciation of the word you for as it is in apposition to the question beginning with a verb, like that it ought to have the rising inflexion; but this inflexion ought to be pronoun ced 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 99. 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 consists. This pronunciation has been explained at large in the article Series, page 112, 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 force and variety. But even where there is no passion in the enumeration of particulars, and one does not rise above another in importance, it seems highly proper to increase the force and |