or Gradation, in Rhetoric, a figure wherein the word or expression which ends the first member of a period begins the second, and so on; so that every member will make a distinct sentence, taking its rise from the next foregoing, till the argument and period be beautifully finished; as in the following gradation of Dr Tillotson. "After we have practised good actions a while, they become easy; and when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and when they please us we do them frequently; and by frequency of acts, a thing grows into a habit; and confirmed habit is a kind of second nature: and so far as any any thing is natural, so far it is necessary; and we can hardly do otherwise; nay, we do it many times when we do not think of it."