dashing of waters, and the hum of the distant city, soothed my mind into the most perfect tranquillity, and sleep insensibly stole upon me as I was indulging the agreeable reveries which the objects around me naturally inspired.

'I immediately found myself in a vast extended plain, in the middle of which arose a mountain, higher than I had before any conception of. It was covered with a multitude of people, chiefly youths; many of whom pressed forwards with the liveliest expressions of ardour in their countenances, though the way was in many places steep and difficult. I observed that those who had just begun to climb the hill thought themselves not far from the top; but as they proceeded, new hills were continually rising to their view, and the summit of the highest they could before discern seemed but the foot of another, till the mountain at length appeared to lose itself in the clouds. As I was gazing on these things with astonishment, my good genius suddenly appeared: "The mountain before thee," said he, "is the Hill of Science. On the top is the temple of Truth, whose head is above the clouds, and a veil of pure light covers her face. Observe the progress of her votaries; be silent and attentive."

'I saw that the only approach to the mountain was by a gate, called the gate of languages. It was kept by a woman of a pensive and thoughtful appearance, whose lips were continually moving, as though she repeated something to herself. Her name was Memory. On entering this first enclosure, I was stunned with a confused murmur of jarring voices and dissonant sounds, which increased upon me to

such a degree that I was utterly confounded, and could compare the noise to nothing but the confusion of tongues at Babel.

'After contemplating these things, I turned my eyes towards the top of the mountain, where the air was always pure and exhilarating, the path shaded with laurels and other evergreens, and the effulgence which beamed from the face of the goddess seemed to shed a glory round her votaries. "Happy," said I, are they who are permitted to ascend the mountain! --but while I was pronouncing this exclamation with uncommon ardour, I saw standing beside me a form of diviner features, and a more benign radiance. "Happier," said she, are those whom Virtue conducts to the mansions of content!" "What!" said I, " does Virtue, then, reside in the vale?" "I am found," said she, "in the vale, and I illuminate the mountain. I cheer the cottager at his toil, and inspire the sage at his meditation. I mingle in the crowd of cities, and bless the hermit in his cell. I have a temple in every heart that owns my influence; and to him that wishes for me, I am already present. Science may raise you to eminence; but I, alone, can guide you to felicity!" While the goddess was thus speaking, I stretched out my arms towards her with a vehemence which broke my slumbers. The chill dews were falling around me, and the shades of evening stretched over the landscape. I hastened homeward, and resigned the night to silence and meditation.'

The following fable of Lessing's is another specimen of an allegory:

The valiant Wolf.

"My father, of glorious memory," said a young wolf to a fox, was a perfect hero! What a terror he made himself to the whole neighbourhood! He triumphed successively over more than two hundred enemies, and sent their wicked souls to the kingdom of perdition. No wonder, then, that at last, he himself should be conquered by one."

"That is just the way a funeral orator would speak over a corpse,' ," said the fox; "but the veracious historian would add:- These two hundred enemies over whom he triumphed were sheep and asses; and the one enemy by whom he was slain was the first bullock he dared to encounter.'

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Allegory may be occasionally introduced with very great effect in a moral essay. Dr. Johnson, in many of his essays, adopts a particular form of this figure. He invents a name to indicate a certain character: 'Aliger' for one of fickle or capricious temper; 'Avārus' for a miser; 'Gelidus' for a man of phlegmatic disposition, &c., and then gives a brief description of the habits or peculiarities of this imaginary personage. For example:

1 Eriphilé has employed her eloquence for twenty years upon the degeneracy of servants, the nastiness of her house, the ruin of her furniture, the difficulty of preserving tapestry from the moths, and the carelessness of the sluts whom she employs in brushing it.

A lover of strife.

It is her business every morning to visit the rooms in hopes of finding a chair without its cover, a window shut or open contrary to her orders, a spot on the hearth, or a feather on the floor, that the rest of the day may be justifiably spent in taunts of contempt, or vociferations of anger. She lives for no other purpose but to preserve the neatness of a house and gardens, and feels neither inclination to pleasure nor aspiration after virtue, while she is engrossed by the great employment of keeping gravel from grass, and wainscot from dust. Of three amiable nieces, she has declared herself an irreconcileable enemy to one, because she broke off a tulip with her hoop; to another, because she spilt her coffee on a Turkey carpet; and to the third, because she let a wet dog run into the parlour. She has broken off her intercourse of visits, because company makes a house dirty; and resolves to confine herself more to her own affairs, and to live no longer in mire by foolish lenity.'

EXAMINATION QUESTIONS ON PART VII.

1. What is the origin of figurative language?

2. To what purposes may it be applied?

3. What distinction is made between figures of words and figures of thought?

4. Describe the figure 'Personification.'

5. Explain the difference between active and passive personifi

cation.

6. What rules are laid down for the management of this figure?

7. What is meant by 'Apostrophe'?

8. In what cases may this figure be used?

9. What is Hyperbole'?

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10. To what principle is this figure referred?

11. How may it be abused?

12. Under what circumstances is hyperbole admissible ?

13. How many classes of hyperbole are there? and which is the

preferable?

14. What rules are to be observed in the application of this

figure?

15. What is Comparison'?

16. For what purposes is comparison used?

17. Which class of comparison is properly adapted to poetry? 18. State some of the rules concerning the use of this figure. 19. What is the difference between a simile and a comparison? 20. Give examples of both figures.

21. Explain the figure 'Metaphor.'

22. For what special purposes is the metaphor used?

23. Give the substance of the first rule on the use of metaphor. 24. Are metaphors admissible in a long process of reasoning? 25. What does Rule 2 say on the subject?

26. Give some examples of incongruous or inconsistent metaphors.

27. Explain the meaning of the figure 'Synecdoché.'

28. What is meant by Metonymy'?

29. Show how the application of these figures may increase vivacity of style.

30. What is meant by the figure 'Allusion'?

31. Describe the figure Climax.'

32. What is the object of this figure?

33. Explain the meaning of the word 'Allegory.'

34. Give some examples of this figure.

35. Show how fables and parables are allegories. 36. How does Johnson use this figure?