rhetoric, is when a person speaks contrary to his thoughts, in order to add force to his discourse; whence Quintilian calls it diversifloquium.

Thus, when a notorious villain is scornfully complimented with the titles of a very honest and excellent person; the character of the person commended, the air of contempt that appears in the speaker, and the exorbitanty of the commendations, sufficiently discover the dissimulation of irony.

Ironical exhortation is a very agreeable kind of trope;