Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

VISION AND CLIMAX.
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who ufe them, and enter into their feelings. Nothing
however has a worfe efFeft, than frequent and unfeafon-
able ufe of exclamations. Young, unexperienced wri¬
ters fuppofe that by pouring them forth plenteoufly
they render their compofitions warm and animated.
But the contrary follows ; they render them frigid to
excefs. When an author is always calling upon us to
enter into tranlports, which he has faid nothing to inr-
fpire, he excites our difguft and indignation.
Another figure of fpeech, fit only for animated com-
pofition, is called Vision ; when inftead of relating
fcmething, that is paft, we ufe the prefent tenfe, and
defcribe it, as if palling before our eyes. Thus Cicero
in his fourth oration againft Catiline ; “ Videor enm
“ mihi har.c urbsm •uldere, lucem orlis terrarum atque arcem
“ omnium gentium, fubito uno incendio concidenium ; cerno
“ animo fepulta in patria miferos atque infepultot acervos ct-
“ vium ; verfatur mihi ante oaths afpeBus Cethegi, et furor,
** in vejh-a cade bacchantis.,y This figure has-great force,
when it is well executed, and when it flows from genu¬
ine enthufiafm. Otherwife it fh'ares the fame fate with
all feeble attempts toward paflionate figures ; that
of throwing ridicule upon the author, and leaving
the reader more cool and uninterefted, than he was
before.
The laft figure, which we fhall mention, and which
is of frequent ufe among all public fpeakers, is Climax.