ed sky," "shadowy tree," "towering cliff," "lofty summit," and the like. Sometimes a thoroughly commonplace epithet will be used in a vague and indiscriminate way, exhibiting the last degree of imbecility. For example, the word "noble" is sometimes applied by the same writer to a great variety of totally different things; as, "noble character," "noble ship," "noble scene," "noble sentiment," "noble book," "noble cause," "noble style."

2. The use of too many epithets.

Except in rare cases, such as the passage above quoted from Burke, the accumulation of epithets gives weakness to style. It is usually accompanied by a total want of precision and applicability. It is one of the chief characteristics of a loose, weak, and verbose writer.

3. Where the epithets are too strong.

Extravagance of expression is the result, and this repels the reader. This is visible in much of the political writing of the present day, where personalities are indulged in. It is also often a characteristic of so-called "temperance" literature. Thus an ordinary opponent is called "infamous" or "detestable" or 6 corrupt" or "traitorous;" and the writer who thus reviles his enemies overpraises his friends equally. This is the abuse of words which destroys their power; for when such strong expressions are lavished where they are not applicable, nothing remains to apply when strong words are actually needed.

4. Where the epithets are too weak. This fault arises when the descriptive terms are quite inadequate to express the character of the subject: as

"Waterloo resulted in considerable carnage."

"Napoleon attained high excellence as a commander."

"The great waves rolled up, and thundered on the beach with much noise."

5. Words that are vague or general; as, "considerable," "several," "numerous,' ""nice."

To this class may be applied many words that have no particular meaning, but are used only in a conventional way; as, "able editor," "gallant captain," "enterprising merchant," "good bishop," "learned counsel."

Precision is of the utmost importance in the choice and application of epithets.

CHAPTER V.

FIGURES OF GRADATION.-AUGMENTATIVE.

$143. FIGURES OF GRADATION.

THESE include certain forms of expression by which a subject is elevated to a higher degree of importance than usual, or depressed below its ordinary level. Statements when thus put forth naturally attract more notice; and it is a frequent aim of writers to call attention in this way to propositions of special interest. While one topic may be presented with enlarged dimensions, another, which is opposed to it, may be depreciated; but the augmentation of the one or the diminution of the other tends to the same result. These are called figures of gradation, because they indicate degrees of value, either increasing or diminishing.

Figures of gradation are divided into two general classes: first, augmentative; and, secondly, decrementive.

§ 144. AUGMENTATIVE FIGURES.

Of these we have to consider in the first place augmentative figures.

In this class are included all those figures by which any given subject is expanded before the mind, and invested with more than ordinary importance. They are especially applicable to the leading propositions of arguments, to deductions, and to conclusions. It is evident that these should always be presented in the most striking manner, so that they shall arrest the attention and be retained by the memory. It is necessary to enlarge upon them, so that they may be appreciated at their highest value, and that the reader may feel the full weight that is attached to them by the writer. They are often associated with strong emotion; they are found in all departments of literature; but the best examples exist in oratory. This arises from the fact that the orator is more directly under the influence

of feeling than any others who deal in prose composition. The augmentative figures therefore, being thus associated with emotion, may be found exhibiting every gradation of feeling, from the slightest expression of thought up to the most exaggerated display of passion.

The augmentative figures comprise :

I. Amplification. II. Climax. III. Hyperbole.

$145. AMPLIFICATION DEFINED.

Amplification is the expansion of any topic by the assemblage of particulars appertaining to it, so that it shall be conveyed to the mind with enlarged force and dignity. Longinus defines amplification as "a full and complete assemblage of the particulars and arguments appertaining to subjects, giving additional strength to, and heightening a point that has been already made out."

This amplifying process may consist of many gradations, from the slightest possible enlargement of any given point to the boldest and most extravagant description. It may also be done in different ways, all of which have been set down by the ancient rhetoricians as so many separate figures. The names and definitions of these figures will be given for the sake of fulness of treatment, but at the same time it will be proper to regard them merely as so many forms of amplification.

§ 146. AMPLIFICATION BY DWELLING UPON DETAILS. The topic is expanded and brought into connection with new and striking trains of thought, either by exposition or description.

The following example is taken from Burke's speech on conciliation with America. In considering the state and circumstances of the colonies, the orator comes to the subject of the fisheries, which he amplifies in this way:

"Pass by the other parts, and look at the way in which the people of New England have of late carried on the whale-fishery. While we follow them among the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson Bay and Davis Straits-while we are looking for them beneath the Arctic Circle, we hear that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold—that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen Serpent of the South. Falkland Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national ambition,

is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to them than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We know that while some of them draw the line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. No climate that is not witness to their toils."

Starting from the idea of the whale-fishery, the speaker expands into a train of thought full of rich suggestiveness. To any other man nothing might seem more unpromising than such a topic as the fisheries; but by this amplification it receives a new and unexpected turn full of interest, and from prose it is transformed into poetry.

§ 147. BY DIRECT STATEMENT.

2. The topic is magnified in importance by a direct statement of its character or effects:

"At his touch crowns crumbled; beggars reigned; systems vanished; the wildest theories took the color of his whims; and all that was venerable and all that was novel changed places with the rapidity of a dream." -CHARLES PHILLIPS.

Here, by a few startling statements of sharply contrasted acts, the genius of Napoleon is greatly magnified.

"The dawn is overcast, the morning lowers,

And heavily in clouds brings on the day

The great, the important day, big with the fate

Of Cato and of Rome."-ADDISON.

In this passage, "the day," announced as "great” and “important," is made still more so by the previous mention of attendant circumstances, and significant hints at the events which are destined to follow.

§ 148. BY COMPARISON.

3. The importance of the subject is heightened by bringing it into comparison with something else. To display the true character of any one thing, nothing is more effective than to present it in contrast with some other thing. In this lies the force of the figure comparison, which is here made use of for purposes of amplification :

"It was the boast of Augustus that he found Rome of brick, and left it marble; a praise not unworthy of a great prince, and to which the present

reign has its claim also. But how much nobler will be our sovereign's boast when he shall have it to say that he found Law dear, and left it cheap; found it a sealed book, left it an open letter; found it the patrimony of the rich, left it the inheritance of the poor; found it the two-edged sword of craft and oppression, left it the staff of honesty and the shield of innocence." -LORD BROUGHAM.

In this passage the comparison by analogy is presented in order to give enhanced importance to the subject. By this means it is introduced with luminous and effective illustration, and enlarged to the utmost dignity with which the speaker can endow it. The same may be seen in the following examples:

"If the task of a king be considered as difficult who has the care of only a few millions, to whom he cannot do much good or harm, what must be the anxiety of him on whom depend the action of the elements, and the great gifts of light and heat.”—JOHNSON.

"His spear, to equal which the tallest pine,

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast

Of some great ammiral, were but a wand."-MILTON.

§ 149. ACCUMULATION.

4. There is an aggregation of particulars relating to the subject. This is sometimes considered a separate figure under the name of "accumulation." The following is an example :

"This arbitrary and tyrannical power which the Earl of Strafford did exercise with his own person, and to which he did advise his majesty, is inconsistent with the peace, the wealth, and the prosperity of the nation; it is destructive to justice, the mother of peace; to industry, the spring of wealth; to valor, which is the active virtue whereby only the prosperity of a nation can be produced, confirmed, enlarged."-JOHN PYм.

Here the subject is amplified by the mention of a number of cases in which the policy of Strafford wrought evil; as in the case of peace, wealth, prosperity, justice, industry, and valor. The same may be seen in the following:

"Do not entertain so weak an imagination as that your registers, and your bonds; your affidavits, and your sufferances; your cockets, and your clearances, form the great securities of your commerce."-BUrke.

'Observing the wide and general devastation, and all the horrors of the scene-of plains unclothed and brown; of vegetables burned up and extinguished; of villages depopulated and in ruins; of temples unroofed and perishing; of reservoirs broken down and dry-he would naturally inquire, what war has thus laid waste the fertile fields of this once beautiful and opulent country?"-SHERIDAN.