CLIMAX

(Or. xXi'uaj, gradation.) In Rhetoric, a figure by which several propositions, or several objects, are placed before the mind of the hearer or reader in such an order that the proposition or object calculated to pro duce the least impre ion shall strike it first, and that the rest shall follow in regular gradation. Anti-climax is the converse figure, in which the ideas sink in succe ion. This forms a principal cause of that vice of composition of which so many ludicrous illustrations have been given inder the name of Bathos. [s. 255]