V. Hyperbaton is the transposition of words; as, "He wanders earth around."—Cowper "Rings the world with the vain stir."—Id. "Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you."—Acts, xvii, 23. "'Happy', says Montesquieu, 'is that nation whose annals are tiresome.'"—Corwin, in Congress, 1847. This figure is much employed in poetry. A judicious use of it confers harmony, variety, strength, and vivacity upon composition. But care should be taken lest it produce ambiguity or obscurity, absurdity or solecism.
OBS.—A confused and intricate arrangement of words, received from some of the ancients the name of Syn'chysis, and was reckoned by them among the figures of grammar. By some authors, this has been improperly identified with Hyper'baton, or elegant inversion; as may be seen under the word Synchysis in Littleton's Dictionary, or in Holmes's Rhetoric, at page 58th. Synchysis literally means confusion, or commixtion; and, in grammar, is significant only of some poetical jumble of words, some verbal kink or snarl, which cannot be grammatically resolved or disentangled: as,
"Is piety thus and pure devotion paid?" —Milton, P. L., B. xi, l. 452.
"An ass will with his long ears fray
The flies that tickle him away;
But man delights to have his ears
Blown maggots in by flatterers."
—Butler's Poems, p. 161.
SECTION IV.—FIGURES OF RHETORIC.
A Figure of Rhetoric is an intentional deviation from the ordinary application of words. Several of this kind of figures are commonly called Tropes, i.e., turns; because certain words are turned from their original signification to an other.[481]
Numerous departures from perfect simplicity of diction, occur in almost every kind of composition. They are mostly founded on some similitude or relation of things, which, by the power of imagination, is rendered conducive to ornament or illustration.
The principal figures of Rhetoric are sixteen; namely, Sim'-i-le,
Met'-a-phor, Al'-le-gor-y, Me-ton'-y-my, Syn-ec'-do-che, Hy-per'-bo-le,
Vis'-ion, A-pos'-tro-phe, Per-son'-i-fi-ca'-tion, Er-o-te'-sis,
Ec-pho-ne'-sis, An-tith'-e-sis, Cli'-max, I'-ro-ny, A-poph'-a-sis, and
On-o-ma-to-poe'-ia.
EXPLANATIONS.
I. A Simile is a simple and express comparison; and is generally introduced by like, as, or so: as, "Such a passion is like falling in love with a sparrow flying over your head; you have but one glimpse of her, and she is out of sight."—Colliers Antoninus. "Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away; as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney."—Hosea, xiii.