"None? then none have I offended!-I have done no more to Cæsar, than you should do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offences enforced, for which he suffered death.

"Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony; who, though he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying,—a place in the commonwealth ;-as which of you shall not?

"With this I depart :-that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death."

Shakespeare.

In the following lines, "out" to be given with the upward movement, "in" with the downward; the words that follow in the sense of the inflected word to be given on the same level of voice as is reached by that word.

Implied, referential, or indirect meaning depends, of course, upon the circumstances in which it is spoken, and derives its point and power from the expressive tones of

the voice. Irony is assuming something to be correct for the purpose of demonstrating its inaccuracy. When we "assume as true the premises we design to disprove, it is evident we are speaking ironically." To the two works mentioned by Whately as specimens of irony (his own "Historic Doubts" and Burke's "Defence of Natural Society") may perhaps be added Defoe's "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters." Ironical sentences are those which say one thing and mean another, and they depend for their point in speaking upon the circumflex inflections of voice, that is, a combination of the upward and downward movements. In the opening sentence of the following speech the speaker does not mean what he says, that it is an atrocious crime to be a young man, but he speaks the words atrocious, crime, young, spirit, and decency, in such a way (by the long circumflex inflection) as to suggest the very opposite of the grammatical meaning of the sentence, and to display more forcibly the absurdity of his opponent's attack. The speech contains several implied meanings. There is a special sting in the whoever of the last sentence.

"The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of those who continue ignorant in spite of age and experience.

"Whether youth can be attributed to any man as a reproach, I will not, sir, assume the province of determining; but surely age may justly become contemptible, if the opportunities which it brings have passed away without improvement, and vice appear to prevail when the passions have subsided. The wretch who, after having seen the consequences of a thousand errors, continues still to blunder, and in whom age has only added obstinacy to stupidity, is surely the object

F

either of abhorrence or contempt, and deserves not that his grey head should secure him from insults. Much more, sir, is he to be abhorred who, as he has advanced in age, has receded from virtue, and become more wicked with less temptation; who prostitutes himself for money which he cannot enjoy, and spends the remains of his life in the ruin of his country.

"But youth, sir, is not my only crime: I have been accused of acting a theatrical part. A theatrical part may either imply some peculiarities of gesture, or a dissimulation of my real sentiments, and the adoption of the opinions and language of another man.

"In the first sense, sir, the charge is too trifling to be confuted, and deserves to be mentioned only that it may be despised. I am at liberty, like every other man, to use my own language; and though I may, perhaps, have some ambition to please this gentleman, I shall not lay myself under any restraint, nor very solicitously copy his diction or his mien, however matured by age or modelled by experience.

"But with regard to those whom I have offended, I am of opinion that if I had acted a borrowed part, I should have avoided their censure -the heat which offended them is the ardour of conviction and that zeal for the service of my country which neither hope nor fear shall influence me to suppress. I will not sit unconcerned while my liberty is invaded, nor look in silence upon public robbery; I will exert my endeavours, at whatever hazard, to repel the aggressor and drag the thief to justice, whoever may protect him in his villany, and whoever may partake of his plunder."

Pitt.

The emphatic words in the following sarcastic passage should be read with the circumflex inflection. Sarcasm may be defined as irony made broad and strong with feeling; but with feeling controlled, so as not to become mere denunciation.

"Satan beheld their plight,

And to his mates thus in derision call'd:

O friends, why come not on those victors proud?
Ere while they fierce were coming and when we,
To entertain them fair with open front

And breast (what could we more ?), propounded terms
Of composition, straight they chang'd their minds,
Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell,

As they would dance : yet for a dance they seem'd
Somewhat extravagant and wild, perhaps
For joy of offer'd peace; but I suppose,

If our proposals once again were heard,

We should compel them to a quick result."-Milton.

IMPLICATION AS AN ORATORICAL FORCE.

Oratory is effective as much in what is implied as in what is actually said. Mark Antony's oration is magnificent in the breadth and force of its implied meanings. The continued reference to Brutus as an honourable man, side by side with a growing but silent suggestion to the contrary, until the audience are ready for the open denunciation of Brutus and his friends as traitors-the suggestion to mutiny and rage made more forcible by seeming deprecation-the searching reference to the "private griefs" of Brutus and his friends, and the "reasons" with which they 66 'no doubt" will answer—the extraordinary significance of the closing sentences, especially that which would be developed by a long circumflex inflection upon the word "stones"-all these must be obvious to the student. Mark Antony's oration is a model of form, besides containing all the elements of oratorical force. In form it begins with an exordium, in which the subject of the speech or the object of the speaker is broadly stated. It then goes into detailed argumentation, and draws inferences from facts. Something is stated as a fact, or something assumed upon which both sides would be agreed, the argument

consisting in the inferences drawn from the fact or the assumption. The facts are: Cæsar was faithful and just as a friend; he put the captives' ransoms into the general coffers, not into his own pocket; he refused the kingly crown, and so on; and the inference drawn from each fact was that he could not be ambitious, and that Brutus and his friends had no ground for their charge of ambition against him. When the argumentation had done its work, the speaker gathered himself together for the peroration, in which he broadly stated his whole argument, pointed out the action to which his words would lead, and brought to bear all the resources of passionate declamation to confirm the impression he had made, to make sure of the action or the result that he desired. This is the form of the speech, the model upon which all speeches should be framed exordium, argumentation, peroration. Modern speaking is mostly slovenly, without plan or arrangement; ideas, facts, arguments, sentiments, are all poured out like potatoes out of a sack. Whereas arrangement conduces to clearness of both speaker and audience, and is one great essential in producing effect. The words of a speech need not be learned, but the plan and argument should be determined beforehand.

Mark Antony's oration, besides showing the general constructive form, contains all the elements or constituents of oratory simple statement, words exactly adapted to meaning, clear deduction of inference from fact, personal appeal pathos, irony, sarcasm, forcible ejaculation, appeal to broad abstract principles, occasional imagery, vivid description, and passionate declamation. With great