any contrast or comparison with other words or ideas, it is called absolute emphasis.
EXAMPLES. (35)
1. We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
2. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean—roll!
3. Arm, warriors, arm!
4. You know that you are Brutus, that speak this,
Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last.
5. Hamlet. Saw, who?
Horatio. The king, your father.
Hamlet. The king, my father?
6. Strike—till the last armed foe expires;
Strike—for your altars and your fires;
Strike—for the green graves of your sites;
God, and your native land!
RELATIVE EMPHASIS. (35)
Where there is antithesis, either expressed or implied, the emphasis is called relative.
EXAMPLES. (35)
1. We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
2. But I am describing your condition, rather than my own.
3. I fear not death, and shall I then fear thee?
4. Hunting men, and not beasts, shall be his game.
5. He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.
6. It may moderate and restrain, but it was not designed to banish gladness from the heart of man.
In the following examples, there are two sets of antitheses in the same sentence.
7. To err is human, to forgive, divine.
8. John was punished; William, rewarded.
9. Without were fightings, within were fears.
10. Business sweetens pleasure, as labor sweetens rest.
11. Justice appropriates rewards to merit, and punishments to crime.
12. On the one side, all was alacrity and courage; on the other, all was timidity and indecision.
13. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the applause of others.
14. His care was to polish the country by art, as he had protected it by arms.
In the following examples, the relative emphasis is applied to three sets of antithetic words.
15. The difference between a madman and a fool is, that the former reasons justly from false data; and the latter, erroneously from just data.
16. He raised a mortal to the skies,
She drew an angel down.
Sometimes the antithesis is implied, as in the following instances.
17. The spirit of the white man's heaven, Forbids not thee to weep.
18. I shall enter on no encomiums upon Massachusetts.
EMPHASIS AND ACCENT. (37)
When words, which are the same in part of their formation, are contrasted, the emphasis is expressed by accenting the syllables in which they differ. See Accent, page 33.
EXAMPLES. (37)
1. What is the difference between probability and possibility?
2. Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss.
3. John attends regularly. William, irregularly.
4. There is a great difference between giving and forgiving.
5. The conduct of Antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; that of Nero, by injustice and inhumanity.
6. The conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of the latter merits the severest reprobation.
EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION. (37)
Emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, or from the falling to the rising. For instances of the former change, see Rule II, and Exception 1 to Rule IV. In the first three following examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the rising, by the influence of emphasis.
EXAMPLES. (37)
1. If we have no regard for religion in youth', we ought to have respect for it in age.
2. If we have no regard for our own' character, we ought to regard the character of others.
3. If content can not remove' the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, alleviate them.
4. The sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony fall powerless upon the ear of one who is deaf',
5. It is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is blind',
6. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren'; but rather let them do them service.
EMPHATIC PHRASE. (38)
When it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized.
EXAMPLES. (38)
1. Cassius. Must I endure all this? Brutus. All this!—Ay—more. Fret, till your proud—heart—break.
2. What! weep you when you but behold
Our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look ye here,
Here is himself, marred, as you see, by traitors.
3. There was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the Lacedaemonians were sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one ship—no, NOT—ONE—WALL.
4. Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul; and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this HALF—YEAR—CAPTAIN?
5. You call me misbeliever—cutthroat—dog.
Hath a dog—money? Is it possible—
A cur can lend three—thousand—ducats?
EMPHATIC PAUSE. (39)
A short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and after, an emphatic word or phrase—thus