CHAPTER I.

Rhetoric is an art of speaking finely. It hath two parts:

1. Garnishing of speech, called _elocution_;

2. Garnishing of the manner of utterance, called _pronunciation_.

Garnishing of speech is the first part of rhetoric; whereby the speech itself is beautified and made fine. It is either the fine manner of words, called a trope; or the fine shape or frame of speech, called a figure.

The fine manner of words is a garnishing of speech, whereby one word is drawn from its first proper signification to another; as in this sentence: _sin lieth at the door_: where _sin_ is put for the punishment of sin adjoined unto it: _lieth at the door_, signifieth at hand; as that which lieth at the door, is ready to be brought in.

This changing of words was first found out by necessity, for the want of words; afterwards confirmed by delight, because such words are pleasant and gracious to the ear. Therefore this change of signification must be shamefaced, and, as it were, maidenly, that it may seem rather to be led by the hand to another signification, than to be driven by force unto the same.

Yet sometimes this fine manner of speech swerveth from this perfection; and then it is, either the abuse of this fine speech, called _katachresis_, or the excess of this fineness, called _hyperbole_.

_Be not too just nor too wicked_; which speech, although it seem very hard, yet it doth, not without some fineness of speech, utter thus much; _That one seek not a righteousness beyond the law of God; and that when none can live without all sin, yet that they take heed that sin bear not dominion over them_.

As, _My tears are my meat day and night. Those that hate me are more in number than the hairs of my head_. Both which do utter by an express of speech, a great sorrow, and a great number of enemies.

The abuse of speech is, when the change of speech is hard, strange, and unwonted, as in the first example.

The excess of speech is, when the change of signification is very high and lofty, as in the second example, and Psalms vi. vii.

But the excellency or fineness of words or tropes, is most excellent, when divers are _shut up in one_, or _continued in many_.

An example of the first sort is in 2 Kings ii. 9: _I pray thee, let me have a double portion of thy Spirit_: where by _Spirit_ is meant the gift of the Spirit; and by _thy Spirit_, the gift of the spirit like to thine.

The _continuance_ of tropes, called an allegory, is, when one kind of trope is so continued, as, look with what kind of matter it be begun, with the same it be ended. So in Psalm xxiii. _the care of God towards his church_ is set forth in the words proper to _a shepherd_. So in the whole book of Canticles, _the sweet conference of Christ and his church_, is set down by the words proper to _the husband and the wife_. So old age is set down by this garnishing of speech, in Ecclesiastes xii. 5, 6.

Hitherto of the properties of a fine manner of words, called a trope. Now the divers sorts do follow. They are those which note out, 1, no comparison, or are with some comparison; or, 2, no respect of division, or some respect.

The first is double: 1. The change of name, called a _metonymy_. 2. The mocking speech, called an _irony_.

The change of name is where the name of a thing is put for the name of a thing agreeing with it. It is double: 1. When the cause is put for the thing caused; and contrarywise. 2. When the thing to which anything is adjoined, is put for the thing adjoined; and contrarywise.

The change of name of the cause is when either the name of the _maker_, or the name of the _matter_, is put for the _thing made_.

Of the _maker_, when the finder out, or the author of the thing, or the instrument whereby the thing is done, is put for the _thing made_. So Moses is put for his writings: so love is put for liberality, or bestowing benefits, the fruit of love; so (Rom. i. 8): faith, the cause, is put for religious serving of God, the thing caused. So (James iii.) the tongue, the instrument of speech, is put for the speech itself. _Rule thy tongue._

Of the _matter_: _Thou art dust, and to dust shalt thou return_; that is, _one made of dust_.

Now, on the other side, when the thing caused, or the effect, is put for any of these causes. So _the Gospel of God_ is called _the power of God to salvation_; that is, the instrument of the power of God. So _love_ is said to be _bountiful_, because it causeth one to be bountiful. St. Paul saith, _The bread that we break, is it not in the communion of the body and blood of Christ?_ That is, an instrument of the communion of the body of Christ. So _the body_ is said to be an _earthly tabernacle_; that is, a tabernacle made of earth.

The change of name, or _metonymy_, where the subject, or that which hath anything adjoined, is put for the thing adjoined, or adjunct. So the place is put for those, or that in the place: _set thine house in order_; that is, thy household matters. _It shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha_; that is, the people in Sodom and Gomorrha. So _Moses' chair_ is put for the _doctrine_ taught in _Moses' chair_. So _all Jericho and Jerusalem came out_; that is, all the men in Jericho and Jerusalem. So before, _sin_ was put for the _punishment of sin_. _Let his blood rest upon us and our children_; that is, the punishment which shall follow his death. So Christ said, _This is my body_; that is, a sign or sacrament of my body. _This wine is the new testament in my blood_; that is, a sign or seal of the new testament in my blood. So John saith, _I saw the Spirit descending in the likeness of a dove_; that is, the sign of the Spirit.

On the other side, the adjunct is put for the thing to which it is adjoined. As Christ (1 Tim. i. 1) is called _our hope_; that is, on whom our hope did depend. So, _we are justified by faith_; that is, by Christ applied by faith. So, _love is the fulfilling of the law_; that is, those things to which it is adjoined. _Hope_ for the _things hoped for_; as Rom. viii. 24. So in the Epistle to the Ephesians, v. 16: _The days are evil_; that is, the manner, conversation, and deeds of men in the days.

Hitherto the _metonymy_, or change of name. Now followeth the mocking speech, or _irony_.

==========