s of
this kind, which the grammarian is not competent to condemn, though they do
not accord with the ordinary principles of construction.

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 an