§ 220. POLYSYNDETON.

Another form of pleonastic figures is found when conjunctions are used to an unusual degree. This is called polysyndeton. This figure, like asyndeton, is found best exemplified in passages in the New Testament:

"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ our Lord."-ST. PAUL.

Here the conjunctions are multiplied to an unusual degree, and therefore the topics mentioned receive the greater attention. Each one is also presented before the mind with some degree of formality, so that the emphasis must be placed upon each word. This is equally visible in the following passage:

"That ye being rooted and grounded in the faith, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of God that passeth knowledge."—ST. PAUL.

§ 221. ASYNDETON AND POLYSYNDETON CONTRASTED. Asyndeton and polysyndeton may sometimes be found illustrated in the same passage: as

"So eagerly the fiend

O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way,

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies."-MILTON.

Here the emphasis arising from asyndeton is due to its energy and animation, while that which arises from polysyndeton is due to its gravity and formality.

These two figures are also illustrated in the following passage:

"Dining one day, at an alderman's in the city, Peter observed him expatiating after the manner of his brethren on the praises of his sirloin of beef. Beef,' said the sage magistrate, 'is the king of meat. Beef comprehends in it the quintessence of partridge, and quail, and venison, and pheasant, and plum-pudding, and custard.'. . . ' Bread,' said he, dear brothers, is the staff of life, in which bread is contained inclusive the quintessence of beef, mutton, veal, venison, partridges, plum-pudding, and custard."'"-SWIFT.

The first portion of the above passage exhibits polysyndeton, and has a slow, grave movement, while the latter part, which consists of asyndeton, is marked by briskness and animation.

Asyndeton and polysyndeton, though differing in this way, contribute each to emphasis.

Asyndeton gives emphasis by introducing circumstances in a rapid and energetic manner.

Polysyndeton gives emphasis by introducing circumstances. in a slow and formal manner.

Of the two, the emphasis given by polysyndeton is the greater.

Polysyndeton has the greater gravity and solemnity; asyndeton the higher animation.

§ 222. PAROEMIAC FIGURES.

Paroemiac figures include all proverbs, apophthegms, maxims, sayings, "saws," and the like.

§ 223. PROVERB.

A proverb is the utterance of a truth, derived from general experience, in a concise and striking form.

Lord John Russell defines it as "the wit of one and the wisdom of many."

A proverb must be brief; the language must be simple; and it must also have some other peculiarity in order to catch the attention, be readily committed to memory, and long retained. This is sometimes done by alliteration: as

"All is not gold that glitters." "Penny wise, pound foolish."

Sometimes rhyme is employed: as

"Many a slip 'twixt cup and lip."

"To-day be mine, to-morrow thine."

Antithesis is used very extensively :

"Out of sight, out of mind."

"Nothing venture, nothing have."

Proverbs are constantly introduced into literature.

"For the ages after Alexander, it is certain that Greece proper was so much broken in spirit by the loss of her autonomy, dating from that era, as

never again to have rallied sufficiently to produce a single man of genius -not one solitary writer who acted as a power upon the national mind. Callimachus was nobody, and not decidedly Grecian. Theocritus, a man of real genius in a limited way, is a Grecian in that sense only according to which an Anglo-American is an Englishman. Besides, one swallow does not make a summer."-DE QUINCEY.

The proverb introduced at the close of this passage serves to give emphasis to the main proposition.

§ 224. APOPHTHEGM.

The apophthegm is a short, pithy sentence or maxim, and it contributes to emphasis by its conciseness and energy. A large proportion of those passages which are widely known. and quoted are of this description. Among English writers the following abound most in this:-Poets-Shakespeare, Milton, Pope;-Prose writers-Bacon, Sir Thomas Browne, Emerson. Among writers of the present day, George Eliot employs this figure very extensively. The following are examples:

"We are such stuff

As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded by a sleep."-SHAKESPEARE.

"To be weak is miserable,

Doing or suffering."-MILTON.

'A little learning is a dangerous thing."-POPE.

"A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, when there is no love.”—BACON.

"Many have ruled well who could not perhaps define a commonwealth; and they who understand not the globe of the earth command a great part of it. When natural logic prevails not, artificial too often faileth. When nature fills the sails, the vessel goes smoothly on; and when judgment is the pilot, the insurance need not be high. When industry builds upon nature, we may expect pyramids; when that foundation is wanting, the structure must be low."-SIR THOMAS BROWNE.

$ 225. EPIGRAM.

The epigram may also be named among those figures which contribute to emphasis by making statements in an unusual or striking manner; but other qualities belong to it which form its chief characteristics, and it will receive full consideration in connection with the subject of the ridiculous.

CHAPTER X.

ENERGY.

§ 226. DEFINITION OF ENERGY.

THE word energy is used by Dr. Whately in a very comprehensive sense, namely, as expressive of that vital element in style which is here called persuasiveness. Such an extension of its meaning is, however, liable to objection; first, because it has a definite signification of its own; and, secondly, because there are certain qualities belonging to this present division of style which cannot be classified under such a head. This word is generally explained by such terms as "force," "vigor," or "strength," and energy in style may, therefore, be defined as strength of expression.

A general example of this quality may be found in the following passage from Emerson:

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips. Sew them up with packthread— do. Else, if you would be a man, speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks, in words as hard again—though it contradict everything you said to-day. 'Ah, then,' exclaim the aged ladies, 'you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' Misunderstood! It is a right fool's word."

§ 227. SIMPLICITY AS TENDING TO ENERGY. The first requisite of energy is simplicity.

The strongest words are often the simplest: Thus, "die" is stronger than "expire," "live" than "exist," "rot" than "decay." Shakespeare says, in a passage of memorable force, "to lie in cold obstruction and to rot," and Byron expresses vehement scorn by the use of the same word: "Such clay as rots into the souls of those whom I survey." Pope caps a climax of contempt by means of the same word :

"Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot,

To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot."

Simple words are so clear and so familiar that their meaning is unmistakable; their force also cannot be evaded; and when properly directed they strike home with resistless effect.

"A broken complexion," says Emerson, "a swinish look, all blab." No other words can have the force of "swinish" and "blab." It is a common saying that when a man feels strongly he expresses himself in "plain Saxon," which may be accepted as the testimony of the common mind to the superior energy of simple words. It is surprising how many of Shakespeare's most vigorous lines are marked by the presence of some simple word which takes the chief emphasis. The following will explain what is meant:

"Aye, there's the rub."

66
"O my offence is rank, it smells to heaven!"
"Enterprises of great pith and moment."

The force of simple speech is seen in proverbs and old "saws." It is also seen in the sayings of great men, and especially in the words attributed to that most energetic of statesmen, Bismarck, who flings his words at the world with a simplicity and a directness that is only equalled by his cynicism. "Blood and iron" is his policy. "Let Paris fry in her own fat" was his well-known remark when that city was encircled by its besiegers. Artificial words are best for innuendo, but simple words for direct and vigorous statement.

Such vigorous expressions abound in the speeches of Burke and in the writings of De Quincey, two authors whose style exhibits beyond all others the extremes of most elaborate splendor and homely simplicity; who were equally at home amid the pomps and sounding harmonies of rhythmical periods, or the plain and vigorous phraseology of the most common and familiar speech.

The following examples are from Burke :

"Of these two propositions I shall give such damaging proof that, however the contrary may be whispered in circles or bawled in the newspapers, they never more will dare to raise their voices in this house."

"But still it sticks in their throats."

"They wait until Carnot shall have snorted away the fumes of the indigested blood of his sovereign."