cited in a two-fold degree; and this double pleasure is enhanced not little by the evident resemblance between the objects compared.

IV. Again, as already seen, figures frequently convey the meaning more clearly and forcibly than plain language. This is particularly true in the case of abstract conceptions, which, in a greater or less degree, they represent as sensible objects, surrounding them with such circumstances as enable the mind fully to comprehend them. A well-chosen figure, indeed, not unfrequently, with the force of an argument, carries conviction to the mind of the hearer; as in the following illustration from Young: "When we dip too deep in pleasure, we always stir a sediment that renders it impure and noxious."

§ 323. RULES.-In the use of figures, rules are of service, as they are in every other department of composition. There is no force in the argument that they are unnecessary, because people who have never heard of a rule use figures properly every day.

We constantly meet with persons who sing agreeably and correctly without knowing a note of the gamut; is it, therefore, improper to reduce the notes to a scale, or unnecessary for a musician to study the principles of his art? The ornaments of composition are certainly as capable of improvement as the ear or the voice; and the only means of insuring this improvement are careful study of the various rules founded on nature and experience, and constant practice with reference to the principles they establish.

§ 324. USE.-Though the advantages arising from the use of figurative language have been dwelt on at some length, it must not be supposed, either that its frequent use is absolutely essential to beauty of composition, or that figures alone, without other merits, can constitute such beauty.

by the use of figures? Explain and illustrate this point. Fourthly, how do figures frequently convey a writer's meaning? In the case of what is this particularly true? To what is a well-chosen figure often equivalent in force? Give an illustration from Young.

§ 323. What is said of rules for the use of figures? What argument is urged against them? Expose the fallacy of this argument.

§ 324. What must not be supposed with respect to figurative language? Which is more important,--the thought or its dress?

As the body is more important than the dress, so the thought is of more moment than the mode of expressing it. No figure can render a cold or empty composition interesting; while, on the other hand, if a sentence is sublime or pathetic, it can support itself without borrowed assistance.

LESSON XLIX.

EXERCISES ON FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

EXERCISE I.

IN the following passages, change the figurative to plain language:

EXAMPLE. Figurative.—The king of terrors.

The waves are asleep on the bosom of ocean.

Plain.-Death.

The ocean is calm.

1. The morning of life—the veil of night;—a fiery temper;-a deep thinker;-a light disposition;-a cold heart;-a warm friend;-an attack of sickness;-a thin audience;-high hopes ;-a hard lot. 2. Athens was now at the pinnacle of glory. 3. The sea swallows many a vessel. 4. Beside the warrior slept his bow. 5. Guilt is wedded to misery. 6. Homer's genius soars higher than Virgil's. 7. Some great men are noted for the roughness of their behavior. 8. Time had left his footprints on her brow. 9. The breath of spring infuses new life into the vegetable world. 10. The sanguine man is sometimes rudely wakened from his dreams. 11. Even at imaginary woes the heart will sometimes ache. 12. Abstinence is the only talisman against disease. 13. This lamentation touched his heart. 14. We should not be cast down by light afflictions. 15. " Adversity's cold frosts will soon be o'er; It heralds brighter days:-the joyous Spring Is cradled on the Winter's icy breast, And yet comes flushed in beauty.”

16. "Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As to be hated needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."

EXERCISE II.

In each of the following passages, introduce figurative

language without altering the sense.

Punctuate the sen

tences so formed, and be careful to carry out the figure

properly. The student may form figures of his own, or may employ those suggested by the words in parentheses. EXAMPLE. Plain.-The uncompassionate man has no sympathy for the unfortunate.

Figurative. The hard-hearted man turns a deaf ear to the

unfortunate.

1. The mind should be kept uncontaminated (weeds, garden). 2. Let us be virtuous, and not yield to the temptations of pleasure (path, listen, voice). 3. With the ancient Stoics it was a principle never to indulge their appetites unduly (overstep). 4. Suspicion is a source of great unhappiness (poison). 5. Providence has wisely ordained that we shall not know the future (sealed). 6. Calumnious reports are often circulated about those whose lives afford the least reason for them (aim, arrows). 7. He is dying (tide). 8. Fortune, though it may involve us in temporal difficulties, can not make us permanently unhappy, if we do no evil. 9. Time makes many changes. 10. The young man, on leaving college, should pause a moment for serious thought before engaging in active life (launching). 11. We should constantly have regard to the requirements of truth and justice. 12. We meet with few utterly stupid persons; with still fewer noble geniuses: the generality of mankind are between the two extremes. 13. Often, when apparently gay, the heart is sad. 14. Seldom do the old form very ardent friendships. 15. Our worst enemies are our own evil passions. 16. The rising sun shines on the tops of the mountains (gilds). 17. The lightning is seen first on one peak and then on another (leaps). 18. He is in love.

LESSON L.

FIGURES OF RHETORIC.

§ 325. FIGURES of rhetoric are intentional deviations from the ordinary application of words. They are constantly occurring in every department of composition, and are a source of life and beauty to style. Rhetoricians have devoted much attention to defining, analyzing, and classifying them; and, by making slight shades of difference sufficient ground for the formation of new classes, have succeeded in enumerating more than two hundred and fifty. Such minuteness is of no practical use; and we shall limit our con

§ 325. What are figures of rhetoric? How many have been enumerated by rhetoricians? How have they succeeded in making so many? How many are

sideration to the sixteen leading figures, which embrace many of the subdivisions above alluded to, and are all that it is necessary to understand or of advantage to employ.

The sixteen principal figures are Sim'-i-le, Met'-a-phor, Al'-le-go-ry, Me-ton'-y-my, Sy-nec'-do-che, Hy-per'-bo-le, Vi'sion, A-pos'-tro-phe, Per-son-i-fi-ca'-tion, In-ter-ro-ga'-tion, Excla-ma'-tion, An-tith'-e-sis, Cli'-max, I'-ro-ny, A-poph'-a-sis, and On-o-mat-o-po'-ia.

Several of these figures are called tropes (a term derived from the Greek, meaning turns), because the word is turned, as it were, from its ordinary application.

§ 326. Simile is the comparison of one object to another, and is generally denoted by like, as, or so; as, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”—“Thy smile is as the dawn of the vernal day."

Comparisons are sometimes made without any formal term to denote them; as, “Too much indulgence does not strengthen the mind of the young; plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong." Here a comparison is made just as much as if the word as were introduced before plants. So, Chaucer employs a simile in the following beautiful line, without directly indicating it:

"Up rose the sun, and up rose Emilie."

All comparisons may be divided, according to the purpose for which they are employed, into two classes, known as Explanatory Similes and Embellishing Similes. The former may be used without impropriety even in abstruse philosophical compositions, which, indeed, they often illustrate in the happiest manner. One of this class is successfully employed by Harris, to explain the distinction between the powers of sense and those of imagination. "As wax would not be adequate to the purpose of signature, if it had not the power to retain as well as to receive the impression; the same holds of the soul, with respect to sense and imagination. Sense is its receptive power; imagination its retentive. Had it sense without imagination, it would not be as wax, but as water, where, though all impressions be instantly made, yet as soon as they are

here considered? Name them. What are several of these figures called? What does the word tropes mean?

326. What is Simile? By what words is it indicated? How are comparisons sometimes made? Give an example. Into what two classes are Similes divided? Define each, and give examples.

made, they are instantly lost." The Embellishing Simile, on the other hand, is introduced, not for the sake of explanation or instruction, but simply to beautify the style. Such, for instance, is the effect of the following from Ossian:-" Pleasant are the words of the song, said Cuchullin, and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the calm dew of the morning on the hill of roes, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale."

§ 327. Metaphor indicates the resemblance of two objects by applying the name, attribute, or act of one directly to the other; as, "He shall be a tree planted by the rivers of water."

Metaphor is the commonest of all the figures. It assumes a variety of forms, under some of which it is constantly appearing in composition. Sometimes there is no formal comparison; but, as was instanced in the last lesson, an act is assigned to an object, which, literally, it is incapable of performing, to represent in a lively manner some act which it can perform; as, "Wild fancies gambolled unbridled through his brain." We may properly apply the term metaphorical to words used in this figurative sense, like many of those in the last Exercise.

§ 328. Allegory is the narration of fictitious events, whereby it is sought to convey or illustrate important truths. Thus, in Psalm lxxx., the Jewish nation is represented under the symbol of a vine:-"Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars."

It will be seen that an Allegory is a combination of kindred metaphors so connected in sense as to form a kind of story. The parables of Scripture, as well as fables that point a moral, are varieties of this figure. Sometimes an Allegory is so extended as to fill a volume; as in the case of Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress".

§ 329. Metonymy is the exchange of names between

§ 327. What does Metaphor indicate? What is said of the forms under which it appears? How is it sometimes used in connection with a single object? What term may be properly applied to words used figuratively?

§ 328. What is Allegory? Of what is it a combination? What are mentioned How far is an Allegory sometimes extended?

as varieties of this figure?

§ 329. What is Metonymy?

On what is this figure not founded? Mention the