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ANTITHESIS

Volume 3 · 73 words · 1860 Edition

in Rhetoric, a contrast or opposition of words or sentiments. Such is that of Cicero, in the second Catilinarian: "On one side stands modesty, on the other impudence; on one fidelity, on the other deceit; here piety, there sacrilege; here continency, there lust." A judicious Antithesis use of this figure imparts much force and spirit to style; but its ostentatious recurrence becomes tedious. The poetry of Pope may be cited as an example.