"Our very hopes belied our fears,

Our fears our hopes belied;

We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

"For when the morn came dim and sad,

And chill with early showers,

Her quiet eyelids closed-she had

Another morn than ours."-THOMAS HOOD.

9. Wit and humor.

The application of antithesis to the purposes of wit is so general that some have considered this figure one of its constituent elements. "To extirpate antithesis from literature altogether," says a writer, "would be to destroy at one stroke about eight tenths of all the wit, ancient and modern, now existing in the world."

10. The epigram.

A large proportion of epigrams are made up by means of antithesis. This will be fully discussed under its own head.

§ 77. ANTITHESIS COMPARED WITH PLAIN STATEMENT. The force of antithesis can be well tested by taking any passage of literature and writing it in the antithetical form and in the common style for the sake of comparison.

The following is an example of this:

"Prosperity in a virtuous man creates self-restraint; it is mentioned as a blessing in the Old Testament, yet even there it is associated with many fears and distastes. Adversity, on the other hand, produces fortitude in a virtuous man; it is spoken of as a blessing in the New Testament, and always has many comforts and hopes."

"The virtue of prosperity is temperance, the virtue of adversity is fortitude. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament. Adversity is the

blessing of the New. The one is not without many fears and distastes, the other is not without comforts and hopes."-BACON.

§ 78. VARIOUS FORMS OF ANTITHESIS.

Antithesis assumes a number of specific forms which were all carefully classified and defined by the old rhetoricians. Although these are not often mentioned by name at the present day, the consideration of them is of value, as showing the various manifestations of this important figure.

$ 79. ANTIMETABOLE.

The order of the words is reversed in each member of the antithesis. This is called "antimetabole :"

"Be wisely worldly, but not worldly wise.”—QUArles.
"A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits."-POPE.
"'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild."-Collins.

"He best can paint them who can feel them most."-POPE.

"Where ignorance is bliss,

'Tis folly to be wise."-GRAY.

"Beautiful as sweet!

And young as beautiful! and soft as young!
And gay as soft! and innocent as gay!"-YOUNG.

§ 80. PARADIASTOLE.

Things which are similar, or have something in common, are set in opposition and distinguished from one another. This is called "paradiastole :"

"Life only avails, not the having lived."-EMERSON.

"Eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood, measure for measure. Give, and it shall be given. He that watereth, shall be watered himself."

§ 81. SYNCEOSIS, OR ENANTIOSIS.

Things of an opposite or different nature are contrasted with one another. This is called "synoeceosis," and also "enantiosis:"

"Polarity, or action and reaction, we meet in every part of nature, in darkness and light, in heat and cold, in the ebb and flow of waters, in male and female, in the inspiration and expiration of plants and animals, in the systole and diastole of the heart."-EMERSON.

"Every sweet has its sour, every evil its good."-EMERSON.

"Opinions may make a man a heretic, but that they make a traitor I have never heard till now."-EARL OF STRAFFORD.

"My hold on the colonies is the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, yet are strong as links of iron.”— BURKE.

"To a shape like this, so small yet so comprehensive, so slight yet so lasting, so insignificant yet so venerable, turns the mighty activity of Homer, and so turning is enabled to live and warm us forever."-LEIGH HUNT.

"High interest, bad security."-Duke of Wellington.

"But thousands die without or this or that,
Die, and endow a college or a cat."-POPE.

§ 82. OXYMORON.

There is a peculiar kind of antithesis which arises from the opposition of two contradictory terms. To this the name "oxymoron" is given, by which is meant the saying of that which appears foolish, but yet is wise. It unites words of contrary signification, and produces a seeming contradiction:

"A howling wilderness."

"A pious fraud."

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'Travelling is a fool's paradise."—Emerson.

"He carries ruins to ruins."-EMERSON.

"The borrower runs in his own debt."-EMERSON.

"Take, O take those lips away,

Which so sweetly were forsworn."-SHAKESPEARE.

"How poor, how rich, how abject, how august,

How complicate, how wonderful is man,

An heir of glory, a frail child of dust.

Helpless immortal, insect infinite,

A worm or God. I tremble at myself.

O what a miracle is man to man;

Triumphantly distressed, what joy, what dread,

Alternately transported and alarmed."-EDWARD YOUNG.

"Poor rich man, he can hardly know anything of industry in its exertions,

or can estimate its compensations when work is done.”—BURKE.

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"O illustrious disgrace! O victorious defeat !"—BURKE.

§ 83. PARISON, ISOCOLON.

Sometimes antithetical clauses of similar construction follow in a series. This is called "parison," and also "isocolon." Here word is contrasted with word, and clause with clause, and the

force of the contrast is marked; but the figure is too elaborate for ordinary prose of the present day.

"Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist. In the one we most admire the man, in the other the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity, Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion, Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow, Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a gentle and constant stream.”— POPE.

Here the clauses are all arranged in couplets; and each clause of each couplet is formed in exactly the same manner, so that substantive is balanced against substantive, verb against verb, adjective against adjective.

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man; and therefore if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend."BACON.

Here the first three clauses are alike, word corresponds with word, and then follow three more similar clauses. In the second sentence are six clauses, all corresponding word for word.

$ 84. PROSAPODOSIS.

This is call

Another kind is found in sentences where the statement of a thing is followed by the antithesis of its cause. ed "prosapodosis:"

"Neither do I dread him as an accuser, inasmuch as I am innocent; nor do I fear him as a competitor, since I am Antonius; nor do I expect anything from him as consul, since he is Cicero."-Quoted by Quintilian.

"It is better to command no one than to be a slave to any one; for we may live honorably with command, but in slavery there is no endurance of life."-Quoted by Quintilian.

"Judge not, that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."

CHAPTER III.

FIGURES OF RELATIVITY ARISING FROM THE PERCEPTION OF RESEMBLANCE.

$ 85. FIGURES WHICH ARISE FROM THE PERCEPTION OF

RESEMBLANCE.

THE perception of resemblance is a fruitful source of figures. The power of like to suggest like is inherent in the human mind; and it is a universal fashion to explain one thing by means of some other thing which it resembles. The figures based upon this include, among others, comparison and metaphor, which are the most widely used, the most effective, and the most important of all; and which have an influence outside of literature altogether, affecting common life, social intercourse, and the growth and development of language.

§ 86. PARALlel.

This is similar to antithesis in form, but different in character; for while antithesis is the comparison of different things, parallel is the comparison of similar things.

In antithesis we have the effect which is produced by contrast; in parallel we have the effect which is produced by resemblance. But the true force of parallel consists in this, that it is generally the repetition of a statement. Sometimes it is associated with the accumulative figures, as when a series of similar things are mentioned with cumulative effect; and sometimes it is associated with the iterative figures, as when a thought is repeated with additional emphasis.

The most conspicuous example of the use of parallel is found in the poetry of the Sacred Scriptures. The Hebrews did not make use of any kind of metre; their versification was nothing more than the figure parallel, with which antithesis was also joined. This peculiar kind of versification is called parallel