passion. For instance, in Macaulay's rendering of the "Legend of Horatius," the description of the Tuscan army, and of the three Roman warriors, is quite subordinate in interest, and should be given so as to lead up to the fight which follows. Again, the interest of hewing down the bridge culminates in the verse, And later in the poem the interest is, in like manner, concentrated in the swimming of the Tiber by Horatius, whilst the jubilatory sentences at the end should be spoken with vehement emphasis, as expressing in general terms, like the chorus of a song, or the peroration of a speech, the sentiment of the whole production. The following sentences will illustrate declamatory climax. It will be noticed how the sense broadens until it can go no further, or, in other words, how it rises to a certain point, "Universal Emancipation," higher than which it cannot go. Each recurrence of this phrase (in itself a great rhetorical effect, because it keeps the main idea of the speech before the audience in a striking manner) is therefore a climax. But the last is the most important one, because it is not only broader in meaning than the sentences which precede it, but is weighted with all the passion and significance of those sentences as well as its own. "I put it to your oaths :-do you think that a blessing of that kind— that a victory obtained by justice over bigotry and oppression-should have a stigma cast upon it, by an ignominious sentence upon men bold and honest enough to propose that measure?—to propose the reclaiming of three millions of men from bondage, and giving liberty to all who had a right to demand it ?—giving, I say, in the so much censured words of this paper, giving ‘Universal Emancipation!' I speak in the spirit of the British law, which makes liberty commensurate with and inseparable from British soil;-which proclaims, even to the stranger and sojourner, the moment he sets his foot upon British earth, that the ground on which he treads is holy, and consecrated by the genius of Universal Emancipation. No matter in what language his doom may have been pronounced; no matter what complexion, incompatible with freedom, an Indian or African sun may have burnt upon him; no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been cloven down; no matter with what solemnities he may have been devoted upon the altar of slavery; -the first moment he touches the sacred soil of Britain, the altar and the god sink together in the dust; his soul walks abroad in her own majesty; his body swells beyond the measure of the chains that burst from around him; and he stands-redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irresistible genius of Universal Emancipation.'". Curran. 66 The following is a series of sentences, each containing a description or picture, at the close of which-as its climaxrises a grand rhetorical question. The first sentence ends at blenched," and the second at "foe." The way in which the single idea of union-in the last section-is presented under varied forms, produces a very beautiful rhetorical effect. "Tell mee-for you were there, and must needs remember-on that day, when the destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance— while death fell in showers upon them-when the artillery of France, levelled with the precision of the most deadly science, played upon them—when her legions, incited by the voice, and inspired by the example, of their mighty leader, rushed again and again to the onsettell me, if for an instant, when to hesitate for that instant was to be lost, the 'aliens' blenched? And when at length the moment for the last and decisive movement had arrived, and the valour which had so long been wisely checked was at length let loose-when with words familiar, but immortal, the great captain exclaimed, 'Up, lads, and at them!'— tell me, if Ireland, with less heroic valour than the natives of your own glorious isle, precipitated herself upon the foe? The blood of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, flowed in the same stream-on the same field. When the still morning dawned, their dead lay cold and stark together -in the same deep pit their bodies were deposited ;-the green corn of spring is now breaking from their commingled dust-the dew falls from heaven upon their union in the grave. Partakers in every peril― in the glory shall we not be permitted to participate? and shall we be told as a requital, that we are estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life-blood was poured out?”—Shiel. The following is a picture rising into a passionate appeal or incentive to action : "He heard it, but he heeded not-his eyes All this rushed with his blood. Shall he expire, And unavenged ?—Arise, ye Goths, and glut your ire !" Byron. The following are specimens of declamatory climax, leading to and inspiring action :— "Now on! you noblest English, Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war-proof; Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought And sheathed their swords for lack of argument! I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, Cry, Heaven for Harry, England, and St. George!" Shakespeare. 66 Princes, Potentates, Warriors, the flower of heaven! once yours, now lost- If such astonishment as this can seize Eternal spirits; or have ye chosen this place, After the toil of battle to repose Your wearied virtue for the ease you find To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven? Awake! arise! or be for ever fallen !"-Milton. The following rises into a climax of earnest and elevated sentiment : "Thou too, hoar mount! with thy sky-pointing peaks, Oft from whose feet the avalanche, unheard, Shoots downward, glittering through the pure serene Into the depth of clouds, that veil thy breast- In adoration, upward from thy base Slow travelling with dim eyes suffused with tears, Rise like a cloud of incense from the Earth! Earth, with her thousand voices, praises God.” an A soliloquy is a series of reflections in natural order, leading to a decision. The thoughts are not arranged rhetorically, that is, for making an impression on audience, but they are spontaneous, and in their expression should be without self-consciousness. The speaker abandons himself to a train of thought, and voluntarily presents a picture of what is passing in his mind. A natural soliloquy, showing the speaker's mind, influencing to resolution and action, and preserving a proper relation with the circumstances in which he is represented to be, is the greatest triumph of the dramatist-and its true expression rises to the highest level of oratory or of acting. The soliloquies of Hamlet (the tragedy of thought) are perhaps the most perfect of their kind-those in Macbeth (the tragedy of action) are terrible in their intensity and expression of character, and are more directly allied to circumstance and action. The following may be read with advantage as requiring increasing force and emphasis of expression, although it is too rhetorical (or self-conscious) for a true soliloquy-the order of the thoughts being too formal :— CATO'S SOLILOQUY. "It must be so— |