5. Make an outline to indicate the points you would write about if your purpose were to give information about the stars. Make another outline to indicate the points you might treat if you were to write upon the magnificencė of the starlit sky or the thoughts suggested to you by it. Select one of these view-points and write upon it.

6. Select one of the view-points suggested in 5, and write upon it, using the outline arranged from those brought into class by different pupils as a guide.

NOTE. The teacher may continue this study, and composition writing at her discretion, selecting subjects according to the literary material available. Care must be exercised, however, that the work be not carried to the point where it will become irksome, for then pupils will not have the correct attitude of mind for the study, and it will be of little value to them.

CHAPTER IX

SOURCES OF MATERIAL FOR COMPARISON

SECTION XXXV

Figurative Language

THE expression of a thought by means of comparison or the statement of a resemblance is often suggested so naturally that a person unconsciously compares the various objects with which he is familiar, and even a little child when talking uses comparison without effort. Later his reading gives him some knowledge of the characters and the events of history and myth, and thus furnishes him with additional material from which he may add to his stock of type forms for comparison. With this knowledge a reference to Hercules, Venus, Mercury, Alexander, Caesar, and other characters has a meaning to him; and he readily understands the significance of the comparisons made to them. Many historical characters and events have become so well known for some particular characteristic which they possess or some great decisive event which they mark, that they have also become types for comparison. The "wisdom of Solomon," the "cruelty of Nero," the "crossing of the Rubicon," the "defeat at Waterloo," and other well-known characteristics and events are often referred to; and by knowing the significance of these references you are able to understand the comparisons based upon resemblances to them. All literature abounds in

comparison; hence a knowledge of the objects in nature, in history, and in story that are most used in making comparisons will aid you in the interpretations of literature, as well as help you to make your own language more effective.

Comparisons based upon Actual and Imaginary Resemblances Distinguished. We may compare an object with something which belongs to the same class and which it naturally resembles, as, for example, two apples, two trees, two buildings; or we may compare an object with another which does not belong to the same class and which it resembles in an imaginary rather than in a real sense, as when we say," The wind howls like a hungry wolf." The wind does not literally howl as the wolf does; but it sometimes makes a noise that resembles the howling of a wolf, and the comparison is based upon this resemblance. When we compare objects belonging to the same class in which we reasonably expect to find many points of similarity, we merely state an actual resemblance as a fact; but when we compare the wind and a wolf, we state an imaginary resemblance. The language used in stating an imaginary resemblance is termed figurative, and the statement of the resemblance is called a figure of speech.

We unconsciously use many figures of speech; our everyday speech is full of them. We speak of a "sharp tongue," a "wild scheme," a "fleecy cloud," a "square deal"; or we say a man "breaks his promise," " pores over his books," "falls asleep," without considering that we are speaking in figurative language or using expressions that had their origin in imaginary resemblances. The value of figurative expressions in enriching language is evident when we consider how barren language would be were it

robbed of all figurative expressions, and thought were expressed only in a literal form.

Figures founded upon Resemblances. - Comparison is not always expressed in a direct statement of resemblances by the use of the word like or as, but a thing is often given the name of that which it in some way resembles. For example, instead of saying of a soldier who displayed great courage and fearlessness in battle, that he "fought like a lion," we may give him the name of the animal which he may be said to resemble in the possession of these qualities and say, "He was a lion in the fray." We also apply to things the names of others which we may imagine them to resemble, as when we say, "golden sunset," "diamond dewdrop," "silver moon."

Simile and Metaphor. When we wish to distinguish between a figure of speech expressed by the use of like or as and one in which the resemblance is indicated by giving to an object the name of that which it resembles, we call the one in which like or as is used a simile, and the one in which resemblance is merely suggested a metaphor. The idea of resemblance is the same in both cases, the difference being only in the manner of expressing it. A simile may be changed to a metaphor and a metaphor to a simile. Thus we may say, "The dandelion is as yellow as gold," or we may say, "The dandelion is golden," or merely, "The golden dandelion."

In the expression of comparison only those figures should be used which are suggested naturally by resemblances. If a figure is not the result of suggested resemblance, it may seem studied and unnatural, or be really incorrect; and thus it cannot give either beauty or effectiveness to language.

Exercises

I. Select the comparisons in the following, and state to which class each belongs. Change the similes to metaphors and the metaphors to similes.

1. Language is a city, to the building of which every human being brought a stone.

-EMERSON.

2. Life is a great bundle of little things. - HOLMES.

3. In the sweet May wind the snowy blossoms are falling to the ground.

4.

Like adder darting from the coil,

Like wolf that dashes through the toil,
Like mountain cat that guards her young,
Full at Fitz-James' throat he sprung.

5. Her sigh was so deep and heavy that it almost rustled Uncle Venner quite away, like a withered leaf, as he was, - before an autumn gale.

6. It was worth while to hear the croaking and hollow tones of the old lady, and the pleasant voice of Phoebe, mingling in one twisted thread of talk.

7. She was graceful as a bird, and graceful in much the same way; as pleasant about the house as a gleam of sunshine falling upon the floor through a shadow of twinkling leaves, or as a ray of firelight that dances upon the wall as evening is drawing nigh. - HAWTHORNE.

8. "Life is the dome of many-colored glass that stains the white radiance of eternity."

9. There was a bloom on her cheek like the morning's

own.

10. Over him rushed like a wind that is keen and cold

and relentless,

Thoughts of what might have been, and the weight and woe of his errand,

All the dreams that had faded and the hopes that had vanished.

11. The cannon became a gigantic insect or seeming to have, the will of a demon.

- LONGFELLOW.

of metal, having, Sometimes this