ANTITHESIS

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) In Rhetoric, a figure in which two thoughts, words, or sentences are set in opposition to each other, in order to be more strikingly brought forward by the contrast; as in the following sentence from Cicero: " Quod scis, nihil prodest: quod nescis, multum obest." " Your knowledge avails you nothing: your ignorance hurts vou much." Quintilian translates the Greek word UvnOitris by the Latin contra pos i tum. "The following well known pa age of Spenser may be cited as an instance of mixed antithesis and accumulation. " Ah! little dost thou know, that hast not tried. What hell it is in suing long to bide; To speed to-day, to be put nffto-morrorv: To feed on hope, to pine tvith care and sorrotv: To'have thy prince's grace, yet n-ant her j>eer'i: To have thine asking, yet wait many years: To fawTi, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run. To spend, to give, to want, to be undone." [s. 74]