in Rhetoric, is when a person speaks contrary to his thoughts, in order to add force to his discourse; for which reason Quintilian calls it diversiloquium. Thus, when a notorious villain is scornfully complimented with the title of a very honest and excellent person, the character of the person commended, the air of contempt that appears in the speaker, and the exorbitancy of the commendations, sufficiently discover the dissimulation of irony.

Ironical exhortation is a very agreeable kind of trope; which, after having set the inconveniences of a thing in the clearest light, concludes with a feigned encouragement to pursue it. Such is that of Horace, when, having beautifully described the noise and tumults of Rome, he adds ironically,

Go now, and study tuneful verse at Rome.