LESSON 74.

METAPHOR CONTINUED.

146. Neatly transcribe the following Examples, underlining the words exemplifying the Figure, and subjoining to each Example a few Remarks tending to show the propriety of the Metaphor: -

1. Childhood and youth are vanity.

Remarks.

2. Cicero calls Marc Antony "The torch of the state." Remarks.

3. Conscience is a thousand swords.

Remarks.

4. The tree of knowledge, blasted by disputes, Produces sapless leaves instead of fruits.

Remarks.

5. O! when the growling winds contend, and all
The sounding forest fluctuates in the storm,
To sink in warm repose, and hear the din
Howl o'er the steady battlements.

Remarks.

6. Shakspeare represents human life under the figure of a voyage at sea, and our progress in it by the figure of a tide in the following words :

"There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the full, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of this life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

Remarks.

7. In considering a family connected with a common parent to resemble a tree, the trunk and branches of which are connected with a common root, we make use of a simile; but when we consider the family to be a tree, we convert the simile into a metaphor. Thus, Shakspeare introduces the Duchess of Glouceste, giving an account of the royal pedi

gree to the Duke of Lancaster, the king's uncle, in the following words:

"Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,

Were seven fair branches, springing from one root:
Some of these branches by the dest❜nies cut.
But Thomas, my dear Lord, my life, my Glo'ster,
One flourishing branch of his most royal root,
Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,
By Envy's hand, and Murder's bloody axe."

Remarks.

8. St. Jude, in his Epistle, verses 12, 13, delivers a series of strong metaphors against those who were attempting to seduce the early Christians from the true faith, thus ;

"These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear; clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame: wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of dark. ness for ever."

Remarks.

LESSON 75.

Metonymy, Synecdoche, Personification, Apostrophe.

147. A METONYMY is the change of such names as have some relation to each other; as when we put the cause for the effect, or the effect for the cause, the container for the thing contained, the sign for the thing signified.

Thus, 1. The cause for the effect, or, the author for his works; as, “I am reading Virgil," that is, his works. - 2. The effect for the cause; as,

r

Gray hairs should be respected;" that is, old age. 3. The container for the thing contained; as, “The

kettle boils," meaning the water; "A flourishing city," meaning the inhabitants.-4. The sign for the thing signified; as, "He assumes the sceptre;" that is, 66 He assumes the sovereignty."

148. a. A SYNECDOCHE or comprehension is when the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole, a definite for an indefinite number, &c.; as, "Man returns to the dust," meaning only his body; "He earns his bread," meaning all the ne

cessaries of life.

b. In applying a synecdoche, care must be taken, that if a part is once used to represent the whole, or the whole to represent a part, the same mode must be preserved throughout, in order to avoid a confusion of terms and ideas.

149. PERSONIFICATION or Prosopopeia is that figure by which we ascribe intelligence and personality to irrational animals and inanimate things; as, "My children, the aged Goat replies;" "The thirsty ground;" ""The angry ocean ;" "The mountains saw Thee, O Lord, and they trembled."

150. a. The lowest kind of Personification is when we attribute some of the properties or qualities of living creatures to inanimate objects; as, "The angry ocean,"-"a furious dart," "a smiling morn,". -"the sullen sky." Expressions of this kind are very common in descriptive Poetry.

b. A second and higher kind is when inanimate objects or abstract ideas are introduced as acting, in a more sustained manner, like living creatures. This species of Personification is very frequently exhibited in poetical descriptions, and in the highest species of Oratory. The following is an instance from Thomson:

"But yonder comes the powerful king of day,
Rejoicing in the east. The lessening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountain's brow,
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad."

c. The third and highest kind is when inanimate objects and irrational beings are introduced not only as feeling and acting, but also as listening and speaking. This kind is appropriate only for representing some st

emotion, either of love, anger, indignation, or of grief, remorse, or melancholy. The following address of Satan, when left in torment by the Messiah, is a tolerable specimen :

"O Earth, Earth, Earth! cannot my groans pervade

Thy stony heart to embowel me alive

Under this rock, before to-morrow's sun
Find me here weltering in the sordid dust,
A spectacle of scorn to all my host,

Wont to behold in me their kingly chief?"

d. In prose compositions, this figure requires to be used with great moderation and delicacy, for the same assistance cannot be obtained as in poetry for raising passion to its proper height by the force of numbers and the glow of style.

151. An APOSTROPHE is a turning off from the subject of discourse to address some other person, dead or absent, or some object, as if that person or object were actually before the speaker; thus, David, in his lamentation over Saul and Jonathan, says, "How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful."

EXERCISES.

152. Neatly transcribe the following Examples, underlining the words exemplifying the Figure, and subjoining to each Example a few Remarks tending to show the propriety of each Figure :

1. Metonymy.- -a. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah."-b. "They smote the city."- —c. "He reads the poets." ―d. “He is studying Paley.”—e. “He aspired to the crown." -f. "The cups runs over."-g. "The thorns of state."

Remarks.

2. Synecdoche.

-α. "A fleet of twenty sail."-b. "Since

he left his father's roof."-c. "Those paupers have cost the township so much a head.”—d. “The manufacturer employs fifty hands."- "Lazarus is said to be in Abraham's bosom."

Remarks.

e.

3. Personification. -a. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Remarks.

b. I Wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom, I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.

Remarks.

c. Oh, Winter! ruler of the inverted year,

Thy scattered air with sleet-like ashes fill'd.
Thy breath congealed upon thy lips, thy cheeks
Fring'd with a beard made white with other snows
Than those of age, thy forehead wrapt in clouds,
A leafless branch thy sceptre, and thy throne
A sliding car, indebted to no wheels,
But urged by storms along its slippery way,
I love thee, all unlovely as thou seem'st,
And dreaded as thou art.

Remarks.

d. Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world.
Remarks.

4. Apostrophe.

Oh, that those lips had language! Life has pass'd
With me but roughly since I heard thee last;
Those lips are thine-thy own sweet smile I see,
The same that oft in childhood solaced me;
Voice only fails, else how distinct they say,
"Grieve not, my child; chase all thy fears away!"