ABSTRACT
The exact nature and meaning of the term for the formidable and exquisite Figure of Speech—perhaps the most exquisite and certainly the most formidable of the Cloud-Army of "figures"—do not seem to be universally understood. Allegory and irony are sisters—indeed they may almost be said to be Siamese twins: and every nation which either in rebellion or independent invasion altered the state of Rome, brought fresh devotion to allegory with it. To revert to Greek, an elaborate comparison of Aristophanic and Lucianic irony, with an allowance for Eastern and Roman additional influences in the latter, would be pleasant to write, and, with further allowances for the writer's insufficiency, perhaps not unprofitable to read. There is occasional irony in the Orators of course: and as History itself is only an ironical panorama of life, only very stupid historians can fail sometimes to bring the irony out, if they do not definitely insist on it.
