the saying 'Another and the same,' it fails to give point, for the reason that agreement in difference is the rule in nature.

'He never wrote because he had to say something, but because he had something to say.' A very forcible epigrammatic contrast, bringing out an important principle.

Shelley has this

The bright chains

Eat with their burning cold into my bones.

'Piercing cold' would serve as well.

Horace thus expresses the intellectual influence of Greece over Rome—;
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.

This is imitated by Pope, very imperfectly, in the lines —

We conquer'd France, but felt our captive's charms;

Her arts victorious triumph'd o'er our arms.

Horace has all the force of brevity and suggestiveness; whereas Pope rather explains the epigram, and so destroys its effect.

The power of the Epigram for suggesting very forcibly what would be weakened by fuller expression, is seen in such an instance as this from Pope: One from all Grub-street will my fame defend,

And more abusive, calls himself my friend.

To sit thus, stand thus, see and be seen,
At the proper place in the proper minute,

And die away the life between. (Browning.)

A forcible expression of the lifelessness of mere conventional propriety, arresting attention and expressing contempt.

Wordsworth closes a poem on Burns, after speaking of his frailties and confessing the common weaknesses of mankind, with the words

The best of what we do and are,
Just God, forgive.

Compare Tennyson's expression of the same thought

Forgive what seem'd my sin in me;
What seem'd my worth since I began:
For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to thee.

These examples show that the epigram may be used with effect in the gravest writing.

THE CONDENSED SENTENCE.

1. The Condensed Sentence is an artificial abbreviation of the structure, apparently involving impropriety or incongruity.

Brutus instituted liberty and the consulship.' Properly, the verb 'instituted' applies only to 'the consulship,' and we should say, 'won liberty for the State and instituted the

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consulship'. But by bringing the two objects under one verb we indicate an important connexion, and call special attention to it by the seeming impropriety.

'Smelling of musk and of insolence' (Tennyson) is a conjunction of words at first sight incongruous, and demanding separate statements-smelling of musk and exhibiting insolence'; but the apparent incongruity calls attention to a connexion in the things spoken of.

Gibbon has such examples as these-Spain was 'exhausted by the abuse of her strength, by America and by superstition'. "The system of Augustus was adopted by the fears and the vices of his successors.' The Caledonians were indebted for their independence to their poverty no less than to their valour.' 'Of the nineteen tyrants who started up under the reign of Gallienus, there was not one who enjoyed a life of peace or a natural death.'

In these examples, one verb is connected with two or more subjects, objects or adverbial phrases, whereas a different verb should properly be supplied to each. In other cases, the incongruity lies only in bringing together, in one enumeration, things so different that they would naturally receive distinct statement. Thus: 'Proselytes and gold mines were sought with equal ardour' (Macaulay). "Sought' is perfectly appropriate to both; yet to speak of seeking proselytes and gold mines involves an incongruous conjunction of ideas; these being such as would ordinarily be put into distinct clauses or sentences. "The pious youth sought in the palace of Constantinople an orthodox baptism, a noble wife and the alliance of the Emperor Justin' (Gibbon).

'There used to be in Paris, under the ancient regime, a few women of brilliant talents, who violated all the common duties of life, and gave very pleasant little suppers. Among these supped and sinned Madame D'Epinay.'

'Inflamed with bad passions and worse whisky.

2. The Condensed Sentence, being closely allied to the Epigram, is subject to the same limitations.

Like the Epigram, the Condensed Sentence is largely used for comic effect. Thus: Some killed partridges, others time only'. 'She did not return to herself or her needle for a month afterwards.'

Thackeray uses the construction abundantly for this purpose. 'He died full of honours and of an aspic of plovers' eggs.' 'I found you had gone to cultivate matrimony and your estate in the country.' Dickens employs it in ways still more broadly comic, as in this instance: 'She dropped a tear and her pocket handkerchief'. Pope has examples like this

Here thou, great Anna, whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea.

But the Condensed Sentence is also frequently used, with good effect, in serious composition; only, as with all pungent effects, it

must not be overdone. Gibbon, as we have seen, often employs it; and so does Macaulay. Tennyson occasionally uses it—

Heal'd thy hurt and heart with unguent and caress.
Behind him rose a shadow and a shriek,

The moment and the vessel passed.

3. The profuse employment of such effects as the Epigram and the Condensed Sentence, together with Antithesis and Balance, constitutes what is called the Pointed Style.

It is also called 'epigrammatic'. The French excel in it. It is seen in Dryden, Pope, Junius, Emerson. The excess of the quality in Tacitus, Lucan and Seneca is usually identified with the decline of Latin literature.

INNUENDO.

1. Implying, or suggesting, instead of stating plainly, often increases the effect of what is intended to give either pain or pleasure. This is Innuendo, or Insinuation.

Sydney Smith said of a book he was reading 'I sincerely hope it will improve'. The suggested meaning was that the book, so far as he had read it, was bad or indifferent. This is not actually said.

Sir William Temple, when in ill health, said 'he did not consult physicians, for he hoped to die without them'— -a severe innuendo on medical men.

Mark Twain relates how, when travelling in the company of German people, he began to talk private matters to his American companion, who became nervous and said: Speak in German ; these Germans may understand English'.

'Guard us from the evil one, and from metaphors,' is Heine's way of expressing the mischief of using metaphors in reasoning. The innuendo is here an application of the Condensed Sentence.

It was said of Brougham by a great lawyer-' If he knew a little law, he would know somewhat of everything'. To assume his ignorance of his own profession, insinuated doubt of his other acquisitions, even while seeming to admit them.

Some one has remarked apropos of a writer deemed obscure, though eloquent-'I prefer a doctrine that I can only understand to one that I can only admire'.

Innuendo is what is termed Suggestiveness carried to the pitch of Figure. What it does is merely to keep the main purpose out of

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view, so as to attain it better. Euphemism is a special application of the figure.

The other devices employed are very various. An idea may be simply taken for granted; as when Addison asks every man that complained of the increased price of the Spectator to consider whether it is not better for him to be half a year behindhand with the fashionable and polite part of the world' (when he could have the completed volume at the old price) 'than strain himself beyond his circumstances'-an assumption that the complaints arose from the inability of people of fashion and consequence to pay the price.

There may be an implied comparison or contrast. 'It is curious,' says Heine, that the three greatest adversaries of Napoleon have all of them ended miserably. Castlereagh cut his own throat; Louis the Eighteenth rotted upon his throne; and Professor Saalfeld is still a Professor at Göttingen-that University being regarded as a seat of pedantry. So, in Pope's reference to a literary opponent― Yet then did Dennis rave in furious fret ;

I never answered-I was not in debt,

Sometimes an effect is stated, while the cause is left for the reader to infer. When a lady is called 'venerable' or 'experienced,' it is implied that these are effects of age.

Again, a remark may apparently be irrelevant, yet express an important meaning. The Condensed Sentence is often turned to account in this way. Fuller said of Camden the antiquarian: 'He had a number of coins of the Roman Emperors, and a good many more of the later English kings'.

2. Innuendo is largely used for effects of ludicrous depreciation, but may be employed in any case where open declaration of the main purpose is to be avoided. It is subject to the same limitations as Epigram.

In vituperation, Innuendo is of advantage as giving no direct ground of reply. It is often used for effects of pure humour. In paying a compliment, also, it avoids the more offensive forms of direct flattery. Besides, as in Epigram, the exercise of the hearer's or reader's ingenuity, if not overdone, is pleasing in itself.

IRONY.

1. Irony consists in stating the contrary of what is meant, there being something in the tone or the manner to show the speaker's real drift.

Job's address to his friends is ironical: No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you'. So, also, are the words of Elijah to the prophets of Baal: 'Cry aloud,

for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked'.

The ironical address is a powerful weapon of vituperation like Innuendo, it embarrasses an opponent by giving no opening for reply.

Bentham, in his attacks upon the English Law, constantly describes it as our matchless constitution'.

Locke, in arguing against innate ideas, indulges in strokes of Irony, such as this: If ideas were innate, it would save much

trouble to many worthy persons'.

The Mark Antony oration is full of ironical effects. Such is the reiteration of honourable men,' applied to the murderers of Cæsar.

There is a delicate stroke of irony in Sir G. C. Lewis's remark on the pretended antiquity of the Babylonian Astronomy. The story of the Astronomical observations, extending over 31,000 years, sent from Babylon to Aristotle, would be a conclusive proof of the antiquity of the Chaldæan Astronomy, if it were true.' The irony consists in seeming to accept the enormous allegation, with merely the slight reservation, if it were true'.

As with Allegory, the difficulty of making Irony effective is very much increased, when the attempt is made to sustain it through a long passage. It is then especially that freshness in the matter and appropriateness in the application are called for.

In the Spectator, No. 239, there is an example of sustained Irony on the subject of various kinds of Argument. There is the way of confuting an antagonist by knocking him down; the ultima ratio regum-convincing by dint of sword; the most notable way of managing a controversy-arguing by torture; and another way of reasoning, which seldom fails convincing a man by ready money. These are expounded with consistent seriousness, and with variety of applications.

There is sustained irony in Swift's master-pieces of AllegoryGulliver, the Tale of a Tub and the Battle of the Books.

Take the following example from Gulliver :

A strange effect of narrow principles and short views! that a prince, possessed of every quality which procures veneration, love and esteem; of great parts and profound learning, endowed with admirable talents for government, and almost adored by his subjects, should from a nice unnecessary scruple whereof in Europe we can have no conception, let slip an opportunity put into his hands that would have made him absolute master of the lives, the liberties, and the fortunes of his people. Neither do I say this with the least intention to detract from the many virtues of that excellent king, whose character I am sensible will on this account be very much lessened in the opinion of an English reader; but I take this defect among them to have risen from their ignorance, by not having hitherto reduced politics into a science, as the more acute wits of Europe have done. For I remember very well in a discourse one day with the