LECT which both the force and beauty of it XXXIV. confift. In treating upon Figures, I have hitherto confidered them feparately; but it may not be amifs to obferve, that fome expreffions confift of a complication of them, and may come under the denomination of feveral Figures, as well verbal, as thofe of fentences, differently confidered. Thus when Cicero fais: What, Tubero, did your drawn fword do in the Pharfalian battle? at whofe fide was its point directed? what was the 1 Pro Li- intention of your arms1? As he speaks to gar.7.c.3. Tubero, it is an Apostrophe; as the ex preffions have much the fame import, and are defigned to highten and aggravate the fact, it is Exergafia; and as they are put by way of question, it is Interrogation. So likewife in his fecond Philippic, where he fais: What can I think? that I am contemned? I fee nothing in my life, intereft, actions, or abilities, as moderate as they are, which Antony can defpife. Did he think he could easily leffen me in the fenate? But they, who have commended many famous citizens for their good government of the state, never thanked any but me for preferving it. Would be contend with me for eloquence? This would be a favor indeed. For what could be a larger XXXIV. larger and more copious fubject, than for me LECT. to speak for myself against Antony? His defign was really this: he thought he could not convince his affociates, that he was truly an enemy to his country, unless he was fo first to me. There are three Figures in this paf-1 Cap. 1. fage, Doubt, Interrogation, and Subjection. And again, when he introduces Sicily thus addreffing to Verres in a way of complaint: Whatever gold, whatever filver, whatever. ornaments in my cities, dwellings, temples, whatever right of any kind I poffeffed by the favor of the fenate and people of Rome; you, Verres, have plundered, and taken from me 2. In Cacciò. Here is a Prosopopeia, joined with the ver-5. bal figure Anaphora, as feveral members of the fentence begin with the fame word. The like inftances of complex figures frequently occur, and therefore I need not multiply examples of them here. I HAVE now finished, not only the subject of Figures, but likewife all the other parts of Elocution in general; the use and application of them, in forming the different forts of stile, will be the subject of fome following difcourfes. LE C LECT. LECTURE XXXV. Of Stile, and its different Characters. WH HEN I entered upon the subject of Elocution, I obferved, that it is twofold, general and particular. One treats of the several properties and ornaments of language in common; the other confiders them, as they are made ufe of to form different forts of ftile. The former of these I have endeavoured to explain în several difcourfes, and now procede to the latter. And here I fhall firft confider the principal reasons, that occafion a variety of stile; and then treat of its feveral characters of degrees. THE word file properly fignifies the inftrument, which the antients used in writing. For as they commonly wrote upon thin boards covered over with wax, and fometimes upon the barks of trees; they made ufe of a long inftrument, like a bodkin, pointed at one end, with which they cut their letters; and broad at the other, to erase any thing, they chose to alter. And this the Latins called ftilus. But tho this be the first sense of the word, yet XXXV. yet afterwards it came to denote the man- LECT. ner of expreffion. In which fenfe we likewife ufe it, by the fame kind of trope, that we call any one's writing his hand. But as to the reafons, which occafion a variety of stile, they are principally these. SINCE both fpeech and writing are only fenfible expreffions of our thoughts, by which we communicate them to others; as all men think more or lefs differently, fo confequently they in fome measure differ in their ftile. No two perfons, who were to write upon one subject, would make ufe of all the fame words. And were this poffible, yet they would as certainly differ in their order and connexion two painters, who used the fame colors in painting the fame picture, would neceffarily vary their mixtures and disposition of them, in the several gradations of lights and shades. As every painter therefore has fomething peculiar in his manner, fo has every writer in his ftile. It is from these internal characters, in a good meafure, that critics undertake to discover the true authors of anonymous writings; and to fhew that others are fpurious, and not the genuine productions of thofe, whose names they bear: as they judge of the age of XXXV. LECT. of fuch writings from the words and manner of expreffion, which have been in use at different times. And we may often observe in perfons a fondness for some particular words, or phrases; and a peculiarity in the turn, or connexion of their fentences, or in their transitions from one thing to another; by which their ftile may be known, even when they design to conceal it. For these things, thro custom and habit, will fometimes drop from them, notwithstanding the greatest caution to pre vent it. THERE is likewife very often a confiderable difference in the ftile of the fame perfon, in feveral parts of his life. Young perfons, whofe invention is quick and lively, commonly run into a pompous and luxuriant ftile. Their fancy represents the images of things to their mind in a gay and fpritely manner, cloathed with a variety of circumftances; and while they endeavour to set off each of these in the brightest and most glittering colors, this renders their ftile verbose and florid, but weakens the force and ftrength of it. And therefore, as their imagination gradually cools, and comes under the conduct of a more mature judgement, they find it proper to |