Antimetabole.
Antimetabole, is a forme of speech which inverteth a sentence by the contrary, thus: It behoveth thee to eate that thou maist live, and not to live that thou maist eate.
Another of the holy scripture: “Neither was the man created for the womans sake, but the woman for the mans sake.”
1 Cor.11.
Another: “The children ought not to laie up for their parents, but the parents for their children.”
2 Cor. 2
An example of Cicero: Of eloquent men Crassus is counted the most learned Lawyer, and of Lawyers, Scaevola most eloquent.
The use of this figure.
The use hereof serveth properlie to praise, dispraise, to distinguish, but most commonly to confute by the inversion of the sentence.
The Caution.
In using this forme of speech, it is requisite and behoveful that the sentence inversed be not false, or that it be not perversely put contrary to the truth & meaning of the speaker through the fault of memorie.
