"Le sommeil sur ses yeux commence à s'epancher. 156. These are the principal figures that serve as ornaments to a discourse or composition. Without them the style is monotonous, and the thoughts often deficient in grace or strength. Yet, however, instead of instructing, of pleasing, and of awakening emotion in the mind, or of exciting the passions, figures render a composition obscure, cold, affected, nay even ridiculous, when they are not suited to the subject, when they are multiplied and crowded together, when they are far-fetched, when they are not inspired by the imagination or the sentiment, and when they do not spring naturally and without effort from the subject. 157. We should, then, never hunt after figures when we are composing. If we are not strongly impressed with our subject, our thoughts and sentiments will partake of the feebleness of our conceptions. No figures of speech and no ornaments of style can compensate for the want of solid thought, nor animate a sentiment which we do not vividly feel ourselves. If, on the contrary, our conceptions of our subject are clear, and we feel vividly and strongly what we wish to express, and to impress upon others, the thoughts and sentiments will readily present themselves under their proper form, and we shall be at no loss for suitable figures to adorn our style, and we shall produce the effect at which we aim and which the subject requires. SECT. 2. OF TRANSITIONS. 158. But whatever may be the merit of the thoughts, and the excellence of the several parts of a work, considered separately, they never can constitute a whole,-a composition deserving the name, -if they are not united together in such a manner as to constitute a regular succession of ideas, all tending to the same end. 159. TRANSITIONS are the bonds of union between the different parts of a work, and enable the reader to pass easily and agreeably from the one to the other, making him at the same time sensible of the connexion that exists between them. 160. We may distinguish two kinds of transitions; 1, those between words and the members of a sentence which are effected by connectives; and 2, those between the thoughts and the different parts of the work, which last are more difficult to manage. 161. To make these transitions happily and without abruptness, it is requisite, above all things, distinctly to comprehend our subject in all its relations, and to see clearly the connexion which the several parts of it bear to each other; then we must arrange them in the most natural order, which will be found the best suited to effect the end proposed. For, by this disposition and arrangement alone, they will be found to succeed each other, and be connected together by the train of argument, and the natural sequence of ideas and sentiments. Well polished stones, says Cicero, unite of themselves without the aid of cement. The parts that appear most dissimilar in shape touch somewhere. If they have absolutely no conformity with each other, it is a proof that they are unsuitable and ought to be rejected. 162. Besides this general means of connecting the parts of a work together, there are several others which may be mentioned;-such as common transitions which are easily discernible. These consist in announcing the subject of which we are about to treat after having reverted in a few words to what has just been said. Ex.-"Quoniam de genere belli dixi, nunc de magnitupauca dicam."-Cic. dine 163. These transitions may find a place in a work which is methodically divided, the principal aim of which is to instruct. But when the object is to please or work upon the feelings, where the great art consists in concealing from the reader the end to which we wish to conduct him, such transitions infallibly destroy the whole effect. The reader ought not to perceive them, and they ought to be so managed as to flow naturally and insensibly from what precedes. 164. In didactic and historical composition, the precepts and facts are bound together by the natural connexion that necessarily subsists between them. With regard to digressions, they never can be admitted into this species of composition, unless they have a direct reference to some precept or fact to which they are closely allied, and which they serve to explain or illustrate. Ex.-Horace de Arte Poeticâ; Boileau, l'Art Poetique; Thomson's Seasons, and the Georgics of Virgil, passim; but observe especially the manner in which he introduces the episode of the prodigies that followed the death of Cæsar. "Sol tibi signa dabit. Solem quis dicere falsum Sæpe monet, fraudemque et operta tumescere bella. Quum caput obscurâ nitidum ferrugine texit," etc.-Virg. See also the Episode of Aristaus in the fourth book. "Quis deus hanc, Musæ, quis nobis extudit artem Unde nova ingressus hominum experientia cepit? Pastor Aristæus, fugiens Peneïa Tempe, Amissis, ut fama, apibus morboque fameque," etc.-Virg. In l'Histoire des Variations, by Bossuet, that great writer has connected the divergent parts of his multifarious subject simply by the logical train of reasoning that pervades the work. 165. In oratorical discourses the best transitions are those which show the connexion between what has been said and what is about to be said. Ex.- —"If kindness and benevolence towards the people (the subject of which the orator has spoken) is the first duty of the great, is not also the exercise of them the most delightful privilege that belongs to those in high stations?" (which is the subject he is about to prove.)-Massillon. 166. The monotony of transitions of this kind may be relieved by the employment of certain figures of speech, which are of great use in connecting the parts of a subject with each other. Such are interrogation, apostrophe, correction, concession, preterition, and above all gradation, or climax; for, as the arguments should go on increasing, it is of advantage to show how they throw light upon, and mutually enhance each other. Ex.-"Audistis gravissima; audite nunc graviora."-Cic. "Sed quid ego hæc, aut tam levia aut tam minima recordor." Cic. "At etiam ausus est (quid autem est quod tu non audes.)" Cic. "M. de Turenne sortait de cette maison,....mais que dis-je? Il ne faut pas l'en louer ici, il faut l'en plaindre." Flechier. "Omnia igitur ista concedam, et remittam."-Cic. "Postularet hic locus et dicerem de," etc.-Cic. 167. There are some kinds of works in which transitions are not necessary, in which, in fact, they are quite out of place. As, for example, we never look for them in any collection of letters; no one would ever think of finding fault with Mad. Sevigné for having neglected them in hers; nor with Colton because they are not found in his "Many Thoughts in few Words;" nor with Rochefoucaut and La Bruyère for having omitted them, the one in his maxims, the other in his characters. Yet, however, it must be allowed that the broken and sententious style adopted by these last mentioned authors can never produce a powerful impression on |