instead of writing as he has done, in a way much more animated: "How still the morning of the hallowed day!" Nothing in all literature is more celebrated than the morsel of the Greek poetess Sappho, on the sweetness of the "Evening Hour." Only a few lines have remained of hers altogether; judging from them, she seems to deserve her rank as the greatest of all ancient female poets, "the tenth Muse." Byron thus paraphrases her words: "O Hesperus, thou bringest all good things! Home to the weary; to the hungry cheer. Thou bring'st the child, too, to the mother's breast." In the following passages Pope shows the ruling passion in death: "Odious! In woolen! "Twould a saint provoke !' "I give and I devise,' old Euclio said. And sigh'd, 'my lands and tenements to Ned.'- Your author ventures: What strange, wild lure oft the Forbidden hath, To the hush'd wood-side cottage whence he came; CXXVIII. Nomination is the title we presume to give to that figure which consists in the enumeration of the names of specific places-Proper Names, in which is often a strange charm; a witching, noble music and suggestive power. We feel this charm in good Bishop Heber's lines to his wife: "If thou wert by my side, my love, How fast would evening fall, Then on then on! Where duty leads On broad Hindostan's sultry meads, Or bleak Almorah's hill." You will find very many and admirable instances in the Scriptures: see Solomon's Song iv., 8; vi., 4; Isa. xvi., 9; xxxiii., 9; xxxiv., 6; lxii., 4; lxvi., 19. It sometimes happens also that the mere name of a place may be the very climax of the ludicrous. Many years ago, a preacher in Newburyport, whose warm imagination drank in the nautical beauties of the locality, was descanting before a large audience upon the perils of unrepentant sinners as they drifted down the stream of time. He compared them to a tempest-tossed bark, bowing under the hurricane, every bit of canvas torn from its spars, and driving furiously upon adjacent breakers. At the climax of his skillfully elaborated metaphor, the minister shouted, "And how, O how shall the poor mariner be saved?" An old salt in the gallery, with his whole soul absorbed in the scene, sprang to his feet and screamed, "Let him put his helm hard down, and bear away for Squam." Milton's very lists of names are assonant with the noblest music, as in P. L., i., 396-411. Or as thus-mark the end-cuts: "And what resounds In fable or romance of Uther's sons, CHAPTER XIX. FIGURES OF RHETORIC. PART FOURTEENTH. Technicality.-Indication.-Vision.-Hypotyposis, or Vis ible Presentation.-Present Occurrence.-Hearing.—Motion.-Climax, or Ladder.-Increment.-Amplification. -Epiploce.-Anticlimax.-Less to Greater-Greater to Less. CXXIX. THIS chapter begins with a figure very briefly discussed-Technicality; yet by no means unimportant. Such as are of a nautical sort are often used. Only do not take us land-lubbers too far to sea. "The Storm," by G. A. Stevens, is spirited; but is somewhat enigmatical: "Fore and aft the sprit-sail yard get; Reef the mizzen, see all clear; Man the fore-yard; cheer, lads, cheer!" CXXX. Indication well deserves a place. It is of very great value; of frequent occurrence in oratory, the subject discoursed of being pointed out by the finger of the speaker; as when the pulpit orator exclaims: "He hath gone to yonder heavens!" "There sits the breaker of the law." "On this side stand the sheep; on that the goats." A figure, life-like; making us feel that the speaker is really addressing us at the moment; not discussing a subject, essay-wise, in his study. The beauty and importance of this figure is well shown in the Rev. Charles Wolfe's lines "To Mary," in her death: "If thou wouldst stay, even as thou art, All cold and all serene, I still might press thy silent heart, And where thy smiles have been! But there I lay thee in thy grave, And I am now alone." Turn to any faithful translation of the Hebrew of the Old Testament; such versions are abundant enough to make this branch of reading a field of study in rhetoric that will prove original; fresh as May-day in a mountain glen, and of wondrous variety. Open the Scripture at Psalm lxviii. : "The earth shook, this Sinai, at the presence of God." Mark how the style thrills at the expression "This Sinai." Alexander's "Isaiah" and his "Psalms" offer you vast advantages, of which few avail themselves, to invigorate your English style; as if by a climb up the Catskills, or by a walk on the beach when the gale is out and the sea is open. It is told of Larned, a youthful American preacher of great promise, who died in New Orleans at an early age, that in Garden Street Church, in his second sermon in New York, when speaking of the crucifixion, he turned round toward the back of the pulpit, and sketched on it with his finger an imaginary cross, with its nails and its crown of thorns. This daring piece of rhetorical action, which would have made some men ridiculous, he carried through with great and solemnizing effect. Let all the modes of effort be familiar to you; use them as often as honesty and tact guide you; weak and shameful to be ignorant of them. When Jesus said, "Behold the lilies," |