The antithesis becomes more striking and pleasing if the contrast exists in more than one particu lar, while the likeness in other particulars remains. Thus, "Caesar died a violent death, but his empire remained; Cromwell died a natural death, but his empire vanished."

Antithesis is the union of objects by their differences, and exhibits that power of mind without which there can be no correct generalization nor accurate analysis. It is the fruit of accurate observation. It sharpens the outline of the objects, whether material or mental, which are at the same time compared and contrasted, and makes an impression of their relative character more vivid than could otherwise be produced.

The higher exercise of this power is exhibited in detecting and presenting differences between objects that seem, to a casual observer, to be alike; but the highest of all is the presentation both of differences and of similarities at the same time between objects that were never classified together before. Upon the degree in which these compared and contrasted points exist, and the vividness with which they are expressed, depend the force and beauty of the antithesis.

"Melissa, like the bee, gathers honey from every weed; while Arachne, like the spider, sucks poison from the fairest flowers." In this instance it will be seen that Melissa and Arachne are alike in nearly all respects, being both girls; but they differ in two respects: Melissa gathers instruction as the bee gathers honey, while Arachne gathers bad influences as the

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spider gathers poison; and Melissa gathers her instruction from unfavorable sources, "weeds," while Arachne gathers her bad influences from good sources, "the fairest flowers."

"The lamb gambols alike through the green pastures or to the place of slaughter. Up to the last flutter of her wings, the bird ceases not to trill her matins upon the air. But the only immortal being upon the earth lives in dread of death. The only being to whom death is an impossibility fears every day that it will come."

man.

In this instance, the lamb and the bird, standing for all brute animals, are compared by antithesis with Both classes are alike, in being exposed to death, but the differences are, they are mortal, he at once mortal and immortal; and again, they do not fear to die, though death ends them; he does fear to die, though death does not end him. Who does not see that the idea of both mortality and immortality are rendered more vivid by such an antithesis?

"Here lies the great

False marble, where?

Nothing but sordid dust lies here!"

The antithesis in this consists in the two pictures that the marble monument might suggest of the man whose body is buried beneath it—either "the great," as he was when living, or "the sordid dust," which the body is now.

Many excellent specimens of antithesis are found in the Holy Scriptures. It was often employed by the Saviour in his necessarily condensed expressions, in which the greatest possible amount of thought was stored up for all future generations. "He that hath, to him shall be given; he that hath not, from him

shall be taken that which he hath," is antithetical, equivalent to, "He that really hath (or improves what he has), shall have more; while he that does not really have any thing (that is, does not improve any thing), shall lose what he has." The principle of this antithetical expression is uttered in the proverb, "Rivers run to the sea."

The prevalence of antithesis is so great in good composition, and it is so mingled with the various figures of speech, that it is exceedingly difficult in some instances to detect it, or to discriminate between it and comparison and metaphor. The following passage undoubtedly owes much of its impressiveness to the antithesis of its thoughts.

"The infinity of worlds, and the narrow spot of earth which we call our home-the eternity of ages, and the few hours of life-the almighty power of God, and human nothingness-it is impossible to think of these in succession without a feeling like that which is produced by the sublimest eloquence."

It will be seen in the above that, first, "the infinity of worlds" and "the narrow spot of earth called home" are supposed to be alike as space, but antithetic in size only; then "eternity" and "the few .hours" are alike as duration, antithetic in extent or amount; "almighty power" and "human nothingness are alike as power, for by "nothingness" is really meant only feebleness, but antithetic in degree; and these antitheses are justly pronounced impressive.

36. Effect of Antitheses. — Scientific statements acquire precision from antithesis. "In the animal body," says Tyndall, in his "Heat as a Mode of Mo

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tion," "vegetable substances are brought again into contact with their beloved oxygen, and they burn within us as a fire burns in a grate." This is a comparison. But he adds: "In the plant the clock is wound up, in the animal it runs down. In the plant the atoms are separated, in the animal they re-combine." This is antithesis.

Almost every vivid and impressive author makes a judicious use of antitheses. The writings of Macaulay, Bancroft, and of many, though not all other eminent historians, ancient and modern, sparkle with them. “That there are fifty thousand thieves in London,” says Macaulay, "is a very melancholy fact. But looked at in one point of view, it is a reason for exultation. For what other city could maintain fifty thousand thieves?" The antithesis consists between the first view of a city having fifty thousand thieves as a place of crime and wretchedness, and the second view of the same city as a place able to support fifty thousand thieves without perceptibly injuring its prosperity.

37. Antithetical Proverbs.-Antithesis gives beauty and force to many of the most common proverbs in all languages.

"There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion." "Open rebuke is better than secret love." "There is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous." The antithesis in this last proverb consists in

perceiving both a strange likeness and unlikeness in two expressions that would be supposed to have noth ing in common-nearly alike in extravagance or divergence from ordinary thought, totally unlike in their nature and effects.

38. Antithetical Descriptions.-It is an exercise of thought closely akin to antithesis, and may be regarded as a department of this rhetorical figure, when seemingly incongruous or widely different qualities are presented as belonging to the same object. This practice calls the attention not to two objects alike in many points and differing in one or more, but to qualities both different and alike, inhering in the same object. Thus Young says of life:

"Life has no value as an end, but means;

An end, deplorable! a means, divine!

When 'tis our all 'tis nothing; worse than naught;
A nest of pains; when held as nothing, much."

Bulwer says, "The Spartans had no respect for any other cultivation of the mind than that which produced bold men and short sentences." "Sparta became a nation of misers precisely because it could not become a nation of spendthrifts."*

This kind of thought and expression is often employed by essayists, historians, and orators. It is apt to degenerate into a mannerism, and, like all antithesis, should be sparingly used. The excessive use of it may be seen in the writings of Seneca, in such works as Colton's "Lacon," Montesquieu's "Spirit of Laws," Emerson's "Essays," and many others. Vic

*Bulwer's Athens: its Rise and Fall, book i. chap. ix.