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THE

PREFACE.

T

HE Ingenious and Reverend Mr ANTHONY
BLACKWALL feveral years fince favoured the

world with a Treatise, intitled, An Introduction to the Claffics, the fecond part of which contains a Differtation on the Tropes and Figures of Rhetoric; and fince his publication, Dr JOHN WARD's Syftem of Oratory has been printed, in which there is a particular and judicious confideration of the same subjects.

But yet these Writers have not fo entirely gathered the harvest of Rhetoric, as not to leave behind them large fheaves, with which a fucceffor might fill his bofom, and confiderably contribute to the knowledge and entertainment of fuch perfons, who may be defirous of further acquifitions from this very valuable and delightful field of polite literature.

In this fervice the Author of the following fheets has employed his attention and diligence, and has made his researches into ARISTOTLE, CICERO, DIONYSIUS.HALICARNASSENSIS, HORACE, SENECA, QUINTILIAN, LONGINUS, HERMOGENES, DIONYSIUS PHALEREUS, and TIBERIUS RHETOR, among the ancients; and into VIDA, CAUSSINUS, GLASSIUS, VOSSIUS, FENELON, ROLLIN, TRAPP, ADDISON, POPE, MELMOTH, SPENCE, and LoWTH, among the moderns.

To thefe Critics he has endeavoured to hold the burning-glafs, and collect the rays, which they have feverally diffused, that they might shine together in a single volume upon the Tropes and Figures of Rhetoric.

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The Author of the enfuing Treatife has also beerì very liberal in his quotations from the moft celebrated Writers both ancient and modern, of fuitable, and, as they appeared to his judgment, lively and beautiful examples of the feveral Tropes and Figures upon which he has treated.

As bees, wide-wand'ring thro' the bloffom'd groves,
Freely extract whatever sweets they find;
So we each golden fentiment felect,

T'enrich and dignify our humble page *.

If the quotations fhould feem profufe, or more than were needful for the Author's purpose, his apology must be, that it was difficult for him to deny the infertion of appo fite and elegant paflages from Writers of the first reputation; that these paffages may enliven, as well as embellish his Work; and that young perfons, and efpecially fuch who are candidates for the learned profeffions, may, by the citations of fome of the bold and animated. Tropes and Figures from the moft eminent Authors, both in profe and verfe, catch fomething of their flame, or at least be allured to a more intimate acquaintance with their Works, and efpecially with the Orations of DEMOSTHENES and CICERO, thofe diftinguished moAuments of the powers of human genius, and which, through all the revolutions of time, will challenge the honours and admiration of mankind.

Next to the famous Orators repair,
Thofe ancient, whofe refiftlefs eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,
Shook th' arfenal, and fulmin'd over Greece,
Ta Macedon and ARTAXERXES' throne t.
Flouiferis at apes in faltibus omnia fimant,
Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta.

LUCRET. lib. iii. ver. 11,
MILTON's Paradife Regained, book iv. line 267.

Among the Writings to which the Author has been obliged for pertinent and striking inftances of the Tropes and Figures, he owns himself largely indebted to the facred Scriptures; thofe facred Scriptures, which, while he reveres as the Oracles of GoD, graciously communicated for the inftruction and advantage of mankind in their higheft and everlasting interefts, fo he alfo admires, as containing in immenfe variety the moft beautiful flowers, and the most auguft fublimitics of RHETORIC. And not only has he ingrafted great numbers of them into his Work, but he has allo taken the liberty to defcant upon feveral of them, that they might appear in their undiminished excellence and glory.

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 refponfible for many difquifitions and ftrictures in the course of his Work; and as he has not fpared his pains to collect remarks and obfervations from others, fo he has been far from being defective in his

own.

How fuccefsful he has been in his attempts, must be left with his Readers to determine.

He thinks it not improper to mention, that the translations of the paffages from the Greek and Latin Writers he has cited are to be afcribed to himself; and that he is certain, he has hereby fecured this advantage, if there fhould be no other refulting from his labour, that the examples he has produced from thofe Authors are not imperfectly reprefented, as they might have been by tranflators, 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 alfo find a Verfification of the feveral Tropes and Figures, with suitable, and, under fome of them, various inftances. As they appear in verse, they may be the more eafily committed to memory, where they will lie ready for immediate recollection and ufe upon all occafions.

I might here enter upon a general furvey of the excellency and powers of RHETORIC, and largely fhew that its Tropes and Figures are the beauty, the nerves, the life, and foul of Oratory* and Poefy, and that

they

What flatness and languor will unavoidably overfpread orations deftitute of Tropes and Figures, and, on the other hand, what amazing fpirit and ardor RHETORIC is capable of infufing into our speeches, we may learn from the following paffage in CICERO's first Catilinarian.

The Orator attacks in perfon, and before the fenate, the wicked and horrible CATILINE, who defigned 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 fenatehoufe. The beginning of the speech, ftripped of its Figures, while the fenfe is inviolably preserved, will run in this manner.

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"You a long time abuse our patience, CATILINE. Your madness a great while eludes us. We are long infulted by "your boundless rage. Neither the nocturnal guards of the palace, nor the watch of the city, nor the general confterna"tion, nor the unanimous consent of the virtuous among us, nor our affembly in this strongly fortified place, nor the countenances and looks of thefe fathers of Rome, seem to make any impreffion upon you. Your counfels are difco"vered. You fee the whole fenate 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 fad 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 prefent age, and diftinctly confider the feveral Writers upon the fubject; or I might entreat the candor of the Public to the defects and blemishes that may be too vifible in my Work,

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"nate should understand this, that the Conful fhould fee this, "and yet that this traitor fhould live, fhould even appear now "in the fenate, and share in our public councils, while his eyes "mark every one of us for deftru&tion."

May I not fay of this paffage, thus divefted of its rhetorical Figures, as MILTON does of the rebellious angels, before the omnipotent thunders and terrors of the MESSIAH expelling

them from heaven;

Exhaufted, fpiritlefs, afflicted, fall'n?

But what an inimitable vehemence and force do we find in the very fame paffage, as it appears clothed by the Orator with the Erotefis, Ecphonefis, and Epanaphora?

"infulted by your boundless rage?

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"How long will you abuse our patience, CATILINE? How long fhall your madness elude us? How long are we to be 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"fent of the virtuous; does not our affembling in this strongly "fortified place; do not the countenances and looks of these "fathers of Rome, make any impreffion upon you? Are you "not fenfible that your counfels are difcovered? Do you not "fee 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 perfons you convened together, and what measures

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were concerted? O times! O manners! The fenate un"derstands this, the Conful fees this, and yet this traitor "lives. Lives! He even appears now in the fenate, shares in "our public councils, and with his eyes marks out every one " of us for deftruction."

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