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CHAPTER IV.

The EPANORTHOSIS Confidered.

1. The definition of the Epanorthofis. § 2. Examples from MILTON, TILLOTSON, TERENCE, and CICERO. § 3. Inftances from Scripture. § 4. The use of the Epanorthofis.

$ 1.

TH

HE Epanorthofis* is a Figure whereby we retract or recal what we have spoken or refolved †.

$ 2. MILTON furnishes us with an example of this kind, in a fpeech of ADAM after his fall:

First and laft

On me, me only, as the fource and spring
Of all corruption, all the bane light 's due,

So might the wrath !-Fond wifh! could'st thou fup

port

That burden, heavier than the earth to bear,

Than all the world much heavier?

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Archbishop

* From жavoglow, I correct.

+ Correctio eft quæ tollit id quod dictum eft, & pro eo id quod magis idoneum videtur reponit. CICER. ad HERREN. lib. iv. § 26.

‡ Paradife Loft, book x. line 831.

Archbishop TILLOTSON employs this Figure, when he fays, "What is it then can give men "the heart and courage; but I recal that word, "because it is not true courage, but fool-hardi"ness, to outbrave the judgments of GOD ?" TERENCE gives us an inftance in the following fpeech of a diftrefsed father:

I have one only fon, a lovely youth:

Ah! did I fay I have him? Once I had him.
But CHREMES, if I have him now, or not,
Is all uncertain

CICERO makes ufe of this Figure, when he fays, "Can you be ignorant, among the public "conversation of the city, what laws, if they

are to be called laws, and not rather the fire" brands of Rome, and the plagues of the com"monwealth, this CLODIUS designed to fasten and fix upon us +?"

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Again, in the defence of PLANCIUs, he fays, For what greater blow could thofe judges, if they are to be called judges, and not rather parricides of their country, have given to the ❝ftate,

Filium unicum adolefcentulum

Habeo. Ah! quid dixi habere me? Imo habui Chreme,
Nunc habeam necne incertum eft.

TERENT. Heautontimoroum.

+ Veftræ peregrinantur aures, neque in hoc pervagato civitatis fermone verfantur, quas ille leges, fi leges nominandæ funt, ac non faces urbis, & peftes reipublicæ, fuerit impofiturus nobis omnibus, atque inufturus. CICER pro MIL. $ 12.

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"state, than when they banished that very man (meaning OPIMIUS) who when Praetor deli"livered the republic from a neighbouring, and who when Conful faved it from a civil *?”

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war

We may furnish another inftance of this Figure from CICERO: "C. CÆSAR," fays he, (meaning AUGUSTUS) though but a youth, nay

almoft below that age, infpired with an in"credible and divine spirit and courage, at that very time when the fury of ANTONY was at its

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height, and when his cruel and pernicious return from Brundufium was fo much dreaded, when "we neither folicited, nor imagined, nor de“ sired it, because it seemed utterly impracticable, raised a moft powerful army of invinci"ble veterans, for which fervice he threw away ❝ his own eftate; but I have used an improper "word, he did not throw it away, but he "bestowed it for the falvation of the common"wealth t."

§ 3.

Quam enim illi judices, fi judices, & non parricidæ patriæ nominandi funt, graviorem potuerunt reipublicæ infligere fecurim, quam, cum illum à civitate ejecerunt, qui Prætor finitimo, Conful domeftico bello rempublicam liberaret. CiCER. pro PLANC. § 29.

+ C. Cæfar adolefcens, pænè potiùs puer, incredibili, ac divina quadam mente, atque virtute, tum cum maximè furor arderet Antonii, cùmque ejus à Brundufio crudelis & peftifer redditus timeretur, nec poftulantibus, nec cogitantibus, ne optantibus quidem nobis, quia fieri poffe non videbatur, firmiffimum exercitum invicto genere veteranorum militum comparavit,

§ 3. This Figure we meet with in Scripture, and that in the following different forms.

(1) When what was fpoken is simply corrected and retracted, and what is more proper and significant is inferted in its room. Jobn xvi. 32. s Behold the hour comes," fays our LORD, "yea is now come, that ye fhall be fcatstered away, every man to his own houfe, and " fhall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me;" that is, CHRIST Would be left intirely alone as to men, though in that folitude he should still enjoy the company of his divine Father. So Gal. i. 6. * I marvel," fays the Apostle PAUL, " that ye are fo foon removed from him who called you into as the grace of CHRIST unto another gofpel: " but that the Apoftle might not feem to intimate that there were more gofpels than one, he adds, " which is not another; " and that he might explain the revocation of what he had faid, he fubjoins, " but there be fome that trou

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ble you, and would pervert the gospel of CHRIST." As if he should fay, "there is but "one gospel, and if any one preaches different "from it, he does not preach another, but corrupts the truth of that one gospel."

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(2) Another form of this Figure, is, when the preceding word is corrected by express comparifon, and hereby our language acquires a nobler

and

comparavit, patrimoniumque fuum effudit. Quanquam non fumus uti verbo quo decuit. Non enim effudit, fed in falute reipublicæ collocavit. Philip. iii. n. 2.

and fuller fenfe. Rom. viii. 34. " Who is he ss that condemns? It is CHRIST that died; yea, " rather that is rifen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who alfo makes intercession for us." So Gal. iv. 9. " But now after "that ye have known God, or rather are known ss of him."

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(3) Another fcriptural form of this Figure is, when fomething laid down or affirmed, is retracted by the conjunctive particle if. Gal. iii. 4. SS Have ye fuffered fo many things in vain? if it ss be yet in vain." "Let me recal that word," as if the Apoftle had faid; "you have even fus"tained real detriment and damage."

"That

is faid to be done in vain," fays BEZA upon the place, which rewards us with no fruit of

our labour: but the Galatians, by falling off "from the truth of the gofpel, not only had re"ceived no fruit for the afflictions they had fuf"fered for the fake of the gospel, but had also « sustained a great lofs. And to be hurt con"veys more in its idea than not to be pro"fited *."

§ 4. The use of this Figure may lie in the pleasing unexpected interruption it gives to the

current

* Nam fruftra fieri dicitur ex quo nullus percipitur fructus. At Galatæ à fana doctrina desciscentes non modò nullum fructum percepiffent ex ærumnis quas antea ejus doctrinæ causâ pertulerant, fed etiam magnam jacturam feciffent. Plus eft autem lædi quam non juvari. BEZA in loc.

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