The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
_Revocation_ is when any thing is called back; and it is as it were a
cooling and quenching of the heat of the exclamation that went before.
And this is either a _correction_ of one’s self, called επανορθωσις; or
a _holding_ of one’s _peace_, called αποσιωπησις.
Επανορθωσις is correction, when something is called back that went
before: as Paul correcteth his doubtfulness of Agrippa’s belief, when he
saith, _Believest thou, King Agrippa? I know thou believest._ So, 1 Cor.
xv. 10: _I laboured more abundantly than they all, yet not I_, &c.
A _keeping of silence_, or αποσιωπησις, is when the course of the
sentence bygone is so stayed, as thereby some part of the sentence, not
being uttered, may be understood. So our Saviour Christ (John xii. 27)
saith, _My soul is heavy: what shall I say?_
Thus much of a figure garnishing the speech alone, in regard of the
_matter_. Now followeth the garnishing of the speech alone, in regard of
the _person_.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Garnishing of the speech alone in regard of the _person_, is double:
either in turning to the person called _apostrophe_; or feigning of the
person, called _prosopopœia_.
_Apostrophe_, or turning to the person, is when the speech is turned to
another person than the speech appointed did intend or require. And this
_apostrophe_ or turning is diversely seen, according to the diversity of
persons. Sometimes it turneth to a man’s person; as David in the sixth
Psalm, where having gathered arguments of his safety, turneth hastily to
the wicked, saying, _Away from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the
Lord hath heard the voice of my petition_.
Sometimes from a man to God, as Psalm iii. 3. David being dismayed with
the number of his enemies, turneth himself to God, saying: _But thou art
my buckler_, &c.
Sometimes to unreasonable creatures without sense; as Isaiah i. and
Isaiah xxi.
_Prosopopœia_, or a feigning of the person, is whereby we do feign
another person speaking in our speech. And it is double; _imperfect_ and
_perfect_.
_Imperfect_ is when the speech of another person is set down lightly and
indirectly. As in Psalm. xi. 1. David bringeth in the wicked, _Who say
unto my soul, fly as the bird unto yonder hill_.
A perfect _prosopopœia_, is when the whole feigning of the person is set
down in our speech, with a fit entering into the same, and a leaving it
off. So Wisdom, (Prov. viii.); where the entrance is in the first
verses, her speech in the rest of the chapter.
Hitherto of the figures of sentences concerning one speaking alone. Now
follow the other, which concern the speeches of two.
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CHAPTER IX.
They which concern the speeches of two, are either in _asking_, or in
_answering_.
That of _asking_, is either in _deliberation_; or in _preventing an
objection_.