Among the Writings to which the Author has been obliged for pertinent and striking instances of the Tropes and Figures, he owns himself largely indebted to the sacred Scriptures; those facred Scriptures, which, while he reveres as the Oracles of God, graciously communicated for the instruction and advantage of mankind in their highest and everlasting interests, so he also admires, as containing in immense variety the most beautiful flowers, and the most august fublimities of RHETORIC. And not only has he ingrafted great numbers of them into his Work, but he has also taken the liberty to descant upon several of them, that they might appear in their undiminished excellence and glory. i But after all the obligations the Author of the fol lowing pages acknowledges himself to lie under to Writers ancient and modern, Critics, Orators, and Poets, he makes himself responsible for many disquifitions and strictures in the course of his Work; and as he has not spared his pains to collect remarks and observations from others, fo he has been far from being defective in his own. How fuccessful he has been in his attempts, must be left with his Readers to determine. He thinks it not improper to mention, that the tranflations of the passages from the Greek and Latin Writers he has cited are to be ascribed to himself; and that he is certain, he has hereby secured this advantage, if there should be no other resulting from his labour, that the examples he has produced from those Authors are not imperfectly represented, as they might have been by translators, who had not the inducements of the Rhetorician, to preserve exact and inviolable the Trope or Figure contained in particular words or fentences. The The Reader will also find a Versification of the several Tropes and Figures, with suitable, and, under some of them, various instances. As they appear in verse, they may be the more easily committed to memory, where they will lie ready for immediate recollection and use upon all occafions. I might here enter upon a general survey of the ex*cellency and powers of RHETORIC, and largely shew that its Tropes and Figures are the beauty, the nerves, the life, and foul of Oratory * and Poesy, and that they • What flatness and languor will unavoidably overspread orations destitute of Tropes and Figures, and, on the other hand, what amazing spirit and ardor RHETORIC is capable of infufing into our speeches, we may learn from the following passage in CICERO's first Catilinarian. The Orator attacks in person, and before the fenate, the wicked and horrible CATILINE, who designed nothing less than the burning of Rome, and the flaughter of its citizens, and yet at that very juncture dared to take his place in the senatehouse. The beginning of the speech, stripped of its Figures, while the sense is inviolably preserved, will run in this manner. " You a long time abuse our patience, CATILINE. Your madness a great while eludes us. We are long insulted by your boundless rage. Neither the nocturnal guards of the " palace, nor the watch of the city, nor the general consterna"tion, nor the unanimous consent of the virtuous among us, " nor our affembly in this strongly fortified place, nor the countenances and looks of these fathers of Rome, seem to " make any impression upon you. Your counsels are difco"vered. You see the whole senate is fully convinced of your " plot. None of us are ignorant what you did last night, " and the night before; at what place you was, what persons "you convened together, and what measures were concerted. << These are sad times; the age is very corrupt, that the se "nate they therefore deserve our first regard and conftant cultivation; or I might trace its improvements from the time of ARISTOTLE to the present age, and distinctly confider the several Writers upon the subject; or I might entreat the candor of the Public to the defects and blemishes that may be too visible in my Work, from "nate should understand this, that the Consul should fee this, " and yet that this traitor should live, should even appear now " in the senate, and share in our public councils, while his eyes " mark every one of us for destruction." May I not fay of this passage, thus divested of its rhetorical Figures, as MILTON does of the rebellious angels, before the omnipotent thunders and terrors of the MESSIAH expelling them from heaven; Exhausted, spiritless, afflicted, fall'n? But what an inimitable vehemence and force do we find in the very same passage, as it appears clothed by the Orator with the Erotesis, Ecphonesis, and Epanaphora? " How long will you abuse our patience, CATILINE? How " long shall your madness elude us? How long are we to be " insulted by your boundless rage? Does not the nocturnal " guard of the palace; does not the watch of the city; does " not the general confternation; does not the unanimous con" sent of the virtuous; does not our assembling in this strongly " fortified place; do not the countenances and looks of these " fathers of Rome, make any impression upon you? Are you " not sensible that your counsels are discovered? Do you not " see that the whole fenate is fully convinced of your plot ? ** Who among us do you imagine is ignorant of what you did "the last night, and the night before; at what place you was, " what persons you convened together, and what measures were concerted? O times! O manners! The senate un" derstands this, the Consul sees this, and yet this traitor "lives. Lives! He even appears now in the senate, shares in 66 our public councils, and with his eyes marks out every one " of us for destruction." from pleas drawn from my various connexions in life, and, above all, from the great and incessant demands the discharge of my facred Function makes upon my time and labour; but I shall decline any further enlargements, and directing myself to Students and young Gentlemen, to whom these papers may be peculiarly ferviceable, conclude with the words of DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENSIS to his friend RUFUS. "You will " receive my present, which will turn to good account, " provided you are willing industrioufly to peruse, and " daily exercise yourself in it, as a matter that may " greatly promote your improvement; for the precepts " of art can by no means form eloquent speakers with* out attention and practice; and your future applica" tion and laborious studies are absolutely needful to " crown my directions with success *." * Τεθ' εξεις δωρον ημέτερον, ω Ρεφε, πολλών αντάξιον αλλων, ει βυληθείης εν ταις χερσι τε αυλα συνεχως, ωσπερ τι και αλλα των πανυ χρησιμων, εχειν, καὶ συνασκειν αυλαις καθ' ημέραν γυμνασιαις. Ου γαρ αυλαρκη τα παραΓγελμαία των τεχνων εσε δεινους ανταγωνισας ποιησαι τες βουλομενους διχα μελέλης τε και γυμνασιας ̇ αλλ ̓ επι τοις πονειν και κακοπαθειν κείται η σπεδαια είναι τα παραΓγελμαία και λογε αξία, η φαυλα και αχρησά. DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENS. de Compofit. Verb. vol. ii. p. 60. edit. HUDSON. LONDON, 08. 22, 1767. THE
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