FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Figurative language is employed by the best writers to embellish, illustrate, and lend a pleasing variety to the subjects on which they treat. The judicious use of figures of speech adds grace and beauty to an author's style, and often gives additional force and clearness to the ideas which he desires to convey to the reader.

Figures are used not only by writers; they are employed to a large extent in the ordinary conversation of the people. When we speak of a smooth tongue, a heart inflamed with anger, a rough manner, we do not use these words in their literal sense, but intend them to be understood with a figurative application to the objects which they describe.

Figurative language is better adapted to poetry than to prose. In prose writings it requires to be used with the greatest care and judgment; otherwise that which is intended to charm and enrich the composition only loads it with gaudy ornament. The plainest language is far preferable to that which is clothed with decorations not chosen with good taste. It is here that young authors are very liable to err. Their judgment not being corrected by experience, they are apt to think that everything which is very fine is very good; they mistake tinsel for gold, and only encumber the thoughts they intended to adorn. Lord Macaulay, in republishing his Essays, and explaining that they appear almost exactly as they were first written, speaks thus of the first of the series: "Even the criticism on Milton, which was written when the author was fresh from college, and which contains scarcely a paragraph such as his matured judgment approves, still remains overloaded with gaudy and ungraceful ornament.”

A young writer showed his first literary effort, of which he was somewhat proud, to an eminent author, and asked him for the benefit of any criticism suggested by his great experience. The author thus referred to for counsel examined the essay, and said to the writer of it: "I would advise you to read your work

through very carefully, and whenever you come to any passage which you think very fine, to strike it out."

The principal figures used in composition are the following:(1) Simile. This is usually classed among figures of speech, but, properly speaking, it is not a figure at all. It merely compares one thing with another, or describes a resemblance in direct language. Thus :

"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God."

"Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen ;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown."

"It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath."-Shakspeare.

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Byron.

(2) Metaphor. This is a figure which consists in attributing the signification of one person or thing to another. It is a similitude or comparison expressed in an abridged form, without the signs of comparison. If we say : He is as cunning as a fox," we use a simile; but if we say, He is an old fox," we then speak of him as actually being a fox, and the figure is called a metaphor. The following are additional examples:"Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path." "He lived, for life may long be borne

Ere sorrow break its chain."—Mrs. Hemans.

(Here sorrow is described as a prisoner breaking his chain.) "The sentinel stars set their watch in the sky."--Campbell. "I am the Good Shepherd."

Metaphor requires to be employed with great taste and judgment, or its effect is unhappy. The following rules have been given with reference to this figure :—

(a) Metaphors should be used with moderation and discretion they should not be introduced profusely, nor should

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their application be strained beyond due limits. The following passage is objectionable in this respect :—

"The bill underwent a great number of alterations and amendments, which were not effected without violent contest. At length, however, it was floated through both houses on the tide of a great majority, and steered into the safe harbour of royal approbation."

Here the author is so pleased with the metaphor which speaks of the bill as a ship, that he is unwilling to quit it.

(b) The resemblance on which the metaphor is founded should be clear, not far-fetched, forced, nor difficult to discover. Otherwise it will perplex the subject, instead of illustrating it.

(c) Metaphors and plain language should not be jumbled together, so that one part of an expression must be understood figuratively, the other literally. If this rule be transgressed, the passage becomes inconsistent with itself, and the sense confused. Pope, addressing the king, says :

"To thee the world its present homage pays,

The harvest early, and mature the praise."

In the second line he uses the word harvest metaphorically in describing the homage of the world; hence, to keep up the metaphor, he should not have employed the literal word praise, but crop. Here he was no doubt misled by the requirements of the rhyme.

(d) Two or more different metaphors should not be allowed to meet on one object; otherwise we get mixed metaphors, which are ungraceful and confusing. Shakspeare's expression "to take arms against a sea of troubles" is faulty in this respect. We do not take arms against a sea. Addison

writes :

"I bridle in my struggling muse with pain,

That longs to launch into a bolder strain."

Here he first speaks of his muse as a horse (which must be bridled); then as a ship (which longs to launch). He then uses the literal word strain, and drops the metaphor altogether. The

same author, in the Spectator, says, "There is not a single view of human nature which is not sufficient to extinguish the seeds of pride." How can a view extinguish? and if it could do so, what sense is there in extinguishing seeds? Lord Macaulay points out a line faulty in this respect in the poems of Robert Montgomery :

"One great Enchanter helmed the harmonious whole!"

An enchanter does not helm; and helming has nothing to do with harmony.

(3) Allegory is a metaphor continued through a long passage, or even through a whole book.

A fine example of allegory occurs in the 80th Psalm, where the Israelites are spoken of as a vine: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room for it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land,” etc.

Jesus Christ's parables are mostly allegories; so also is Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," which represents the Christian as a pilgrim travelling on a long, difficult, and perilous journey.

Spenser's "Faerie Queene" is the finest allegorical poem in the English language.

The chief requisite about an allegory is, that it should be consistent throughout; that the figurative and literal meanings should not be mixed together, but be preserved everywhere distinct.

(4) Metonymy is a figure by which the cause is substituted for the effect, or the effect for the cause; the thing containing for that which it contains; the sign for that which it signifies.

Thus, if we say, "Have you read Milton?" we mean Milton's works: "the kettle boils," signifies "the water in the kettle boils." So also we speak of the "throne," or the "sceptre," meaning the "kingdom,” as in the phrases," He succeeded to the throne," " He assumed the sceptre."

(5) Synecdoche is a somewhat similar figure, by which a part is taken for the whole. "A fleet of twenty sail," is an instance, where the sail is taken for the whole ship. Similarly, we use

"head" for " 'person," and "waves" for "sea."

A captain speaks of his sailors as "hands." A naval commander, sending home an account of a naval engagement, unconsciously made a curious use of this figure when he wrote, "One of our hands was shot through the nose."

(6) Hyperbole is a figure which produces an effect by means of exaggeration. A man who has become very thin is sometimes described as being "worn to a shadow." So again, a person is said to have "died with fright," when the meaning is simply, that he was very much frightened. There are several instances of hyperbole in the Bible. Thus, Abraham's seed was to become as numerous as the sands on the sea shore." Other examples are found in John xxi. 25: "I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written ;" and Matt. xxiii. 24: "Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel."

The following line from Edgar Allen Poe furnishes a happy example of this figure. Speaking of the bells borne by the sledges, he says:—

"What a world of merriment their melody foretells!"

This figure requires to be employed with great judgment and moderation. If carried beyond the bounds of good taste, it becomes mere bombast, or rant, as in the following passage from Lee :

"I found her on the floor

In all the storm of grief, yet beautiful;
Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate

That were the world on fire, they might have drowned
The wrath of heaven, and quenched the mighty ruin."

(7) Personification, or Prosopopœia, is a figure which attributes life, feeling, and action to inanimate objects. It is often employed by the poets.

"There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gathered then
Her beauty and her chivalry.”—Byron.