that properly and literally are applicable to the representative subject; nor ought any circumstance to be added that is not proper to the representative subject, however justly it may be applicable properly or figuratively to the principal. The following allegory is therefore faulty:

For though blood may suggest the cruelty of love, it is an improper or immaterial circumstance in the representative subject: water, not blood, is proper for a whetstone.

532. We proceed to the next head, which is, to examine in what circumstance these figures are proper, in what improper. This inquiry is not altogether superseded by what is said to be the same subject in the chapter of Comparisons; because upon trial it will be found that a short metaphor or allegory may be proper, where a simile, drawn out to a greater length, and in its nature more solemn, would scarce be relished.

And first, a metaphor, like a simile, is excluded from common conversation, and from the description of ordinary incidents.

Second, in expressing any severe passion that wholly occupies the mind, metaphor is improper. For which reason the following speech of Macbeth is faulty:

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth doth murder sleep; the innocent sleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of Care,
The birth of each day's life, sore Labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in Life's feast.

Act II. Sc. 3.

The following example of deep despair, besides the highly figurative style, bath more the air of raving than of sense:

Calista. It is the voice of thunder, or my father?
Madness! Confusion! let the storm come on,
Let the tumultuous roar drive all upon me,
Dash my devoted bark; ye surges, break it;
'Tis for my ruin that the tempest rises,
When I am lost, sunk to the bottom low,

Peace shall return, and all be calin again.-Fair Penitent, Act IV.

The metaphor I next introduce is sweet and lively, but it suits not a fiery temper inflamed with passion: parables are not the language of wrath venting itself without restraint.

Chamont. You took her up a little tender flower,
Just sprouted on a bank, which the next frost
Had nipp'd; and with a careful loving hand,

Transplanted her into your own fair garden,

Where the sun always shines: there long she flourish'd,

531. When allegory gives great pleasure.-More difficult in painting than in poetry.Choice of terms in allegory -Circumstances.

532 When those figures are proper and when improper

Grew sweet to sense and lovely to the eye,

Till at the last a cruel spoiler came,

Cropt this fair rose, and rifled all its sweetness,
Then cast it like a loathsome weed away.

Orphan, Act IV.

The following speech, full of imagery, is not natural in grief and

dejection of mind:

Gonsalez. O my son! from the blind dotage

Of a father's fondness these ills arose.

For thee I've been ambitious, base, and bloody:
For thee I've plunged into the sea of sin;
Stemming the tide with only one weak hand,
While t'other bore the crown (to wreathe thy brow),
Whose weight has sunk me ere I reach'd the shore.

Mourning Bride, Act V. Sc. 6

533. There is an enchanting picture of deep distress in Macbeth (Act IV. Sc. 6), where Macduff is represented lamenting his wife and children, inhumanly murdered by the tyrant. Stung to the heart with the news, he questions the messenger over and over; not that he doubted the fact, but that his heart revolted against so cruel a misfortune. After struggling some time with his grief, he turns from his wife and children to their savage butcher; and then gives vent to his resentment, but still with manliness and dignity:

O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,

And braggart with my tongue. But, gentle Heaven!
Cut short all intermission; front to front

Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;

Within my sword's length set him.-If he 'scape,
Then Heaven forgive him too.

The whole scene is a delicious picture of numan nature. One ex-
pression only seems doubtful; in examining the messenger, Macduff
expresses himself thus:

He hath no children-all my pretty ones!

Did you say all? what, all? Oh, hell-kite, all?

What! all my pretty little chickens and their dam,
At one fell swoop!

Metaphorical expression, I am sensible, may sometimes be used with
grace, where a regular simile would be intolerable; but there are
situations so severe and dispiriting, as not to admit even the slightest
metaphor. It requires great delicacy of taste to determine with firm
ness, whether the present case be of that kind: I incline to think it
is; and yet I would not willingly alter a single word of this ad-
mirable scene.

But metaphorical language is proper when a man struggles to bear with dignity or decency a misfortune however great; the strug gle agitates and animates the mind:

Wolsey. Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth

538. Picture of distress from Macbeth.-Instances where metaphorical expression t allowable.

The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoma,
And hears his blushing honors thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost,
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his root,
And then he falls as I do.

Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. &

SECTION VII.

Figure of Speech.

534. In the section immediately foregoing, a figure of speech is defined, "The using a word in a sense different from what is proper to it" and the new or uncommon sense of the word is termed the figurative sense. The figurative sense must have a relation to that which is proper; and the more intimate the relation is, the figure is the more happy. How ornamental this figure is to language, will not be readily imagined by any one who hath not given peculiar attention; and therefore I shall endeavor to unfold its capital beauties and advantages. In the first place, a word used figuratively or in a new sense, suggests at the same time the sense it commonly bears; and thus it has the effect to present two objects; one signified by the figurative sense, which may be termed, the principal object; and one signified by the proper sense, which may be termed accessory: the principal makes a part of the thought; the accessory is merely ornamental. In this respect, a figure of speech is precisely similar to concordant sounds in music, which, without contributing to the melody, make it harmonious. I explain myself by examples. Youth, by a figure of speech, is termed the morning of life.—This expression signifies youth, the principal object, which enters into the thought; it suggests, at the same time, the proper sense of morning, and this accessory object, being in itself beautiful, and connected by resemblance to the principal object, is not a little ornamental. Imperious ocean is an example of a different kind, where an attribute is expressed figuratively: together with stormy, the figurative meaning of the epithet imperious, there is suggested its proper meaning, viz., the stern authority of a despotic prince; and these two are strongly connected by resemblance.

535. In the next place, this figure possesses a signal power of aggrandizing an object, by the following means: Words which have no original beauty but what arises from their sound, acquire an adventitious beauty from their meaning: a word signifying any thing that is agreeable, becomes by that means agreeable; for the agreeableness of the object is communicated to its name. (See chapter ii. part i. sec. 5.) This acquired beauty, by the force of custom, ad

584. The figurative sense. To what it must bear a close relation. Two objects pro Jented Examples.-Youth, the morning of life.

heres to the word even when used figuratively; and the beauty received from the thing it properly signifies, is communicated to the thing which it is made to signify figuratively. Consider the fore going expression, imperious ocean, how much more elevated it is than stormy ocean.

Thirdly, This figure hath a happy effect by preventing the familiarity of proper names. The familiarity of a proper name is communicated to the thing it signifies by means of their intimate connection; and the thing is therefore brought down in our feeling. This bad effect is prevented by using a figurative word instead of one that is proper; as, for example, when we express the sky by terming it the blue vault of heaven; for though no work of art can compare with the sky in grandeur, the expression however is relished, because it prevents the object from being brought down by the familiarity of its proper name.

Lastly, By this figure language is enriched, and rendered more copious; in which respect, were there no other, a figure of speech is a happy invention. This property is finely touched by Vida:

Quinetiam agricolas ea fandi nota voluptas

Exercet, dum læta seges, dum trudere gemmas
Incipiunt vites, sitientiaque ætheris imbrem
Prata bibunt, ridentque satis surgentibus agri.
Hanc vulgo speciem propriæ penuria vocis
Intulit, indictisque urgens in rebus egestas.
Quippe ubi se vera ostendebant nomina nusquam,
Fas erat hinc atque hinc transferre simillima veris.

Poet. lib. iii. 1. 90.

The beauties I have mentioned belong to every figure of speech. Several other beauties, peculiar to one or other sort, I shall have occasion to remark afterwards.

536. Not only subjects, but qualities, actions, effects, may be expressed figuratively. Thus as to subject, the gates of breath for the lips, the watery kingdom for the ocean. As to qualities, fierce for stormy, in the expression Fierce winter: Altus for profundus; Altus puteus, Altum mare: Breathing for perspiring; Breathing plants. Again, as to actions, The sea rages; Time will melt her frozen thoughts; Time kills grief. An effect is put for the cause, as lur for the sun; and a cause for the effect, as boum labores for corn. The relation of resemblance is one plentiful source of figures of speech, and nothing is more common than to apply to one object the name of another that resembles it in any respect; height, size, and worldly greatness, resemble not each other; but the emotions they produce resemble each other, and, prompted by this resemblance, we naturally express worldly greatness by height or size: one feels a certain uneasiness in seeing a great depth; and hence depth is made to express any thing disagreeable by excess, as depth

535. By what means this figure aggrandizes an object. How this figure has a happy effect. Its influence on language.

of grief, depth of despair. Again, height of place, and time long past, produce similar feelings, and hence the expression, Ut altius repetam distance in past time, producing a strong feeling, is put for any strong feeling, Nihil mihi antiquius nostra amicitia: shortness with relation to space, for shortness with relation to time, Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio: suffering a punishment resembles paying a debi; hence pendere poenas. In the same manner, light may be put for glory, sunshine for prosperity, and weight for importance.

537. Many words, originally figurative, having by long and constant se lost their figurative power, are degraded to the inferior rank of proper terms. Thus the words that express the operations of the mind, have in all languages been originally figurative: the reason holds in all, that when these operations came first under consideration, there was no other way of describing them but by what they resembled: it was not practicable to give them proper names, as may be done to objects that can be ascertained by sight and touch. A soft nature, jarring tempers, weight of woe, pompous phrase, beget compassion, assuage grief, break a vow, bend the eye downward, shower down curses, drowned in tears, wrapt in joy, warmed with elcquence, loaded with spoils, and a thousand other expressions of the like nature, have lost their figurative sense. Some terms there are that cannot be said to be either altogether figurative or altogether proper: originally figurative, they are tending to simplicity, without having lost altogether their figurative power. Virgil's Regina saucia cura, is perhaps one of these expressions: with ordinary readers, saucia will be considered as expressing simply the effect of grief; but one of a lively imagination will exalt the phrase into a figure.

["There is," says Dr Mark Hopkins, "a natural correspondence between every state of the mind and some aspect, or movement, or voice of animate or inanimate nature. How extensive and minute this correspondence is, will perhaps be best seen if we observe how that part of human language originates which is employed to express the affections of the mind. It is a received doctrine among men learned in this department, that all words of this description had first a meaning purely physical, and that this meaning was afterwards transferred to express some affection of the mind analogous to the physical condition or act. Whether this is strictly and universally true or not, it certainly is true that the great mass of words of this description are thus formed; and if so, then it will follow, that for every mental state, act, or affection, which we can express in words, there must be some analogous state, act, or affection in the physical world. Who then can sufficiently admire that adjustment and correlation of parts by which mind and matter almost seem to be a part of one organization?******

536. What, besides subjects, may be expressed figuratively. Examples.--When the name of me object may be applied to another.