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Of vivacity as depending on the choice of words.

but we should say, "his behaviour to those unhappy people was quite brutal." The word brutish, however, though derived from the same root, is employed like beastly, to donote stupid or ignorant. Thus, to say of any man, "He acted brutishly," and to say, " he acted brutally," are two very different things. The first implies, he acted stupidly; the second, he acted cruelly and rudely. If we recur to the nature of the things themselves, it will be impossible to assign a satisfactory reason for these differences of application. The usage of the language is therefore the only reason.

It is very remarkable that the usages in different languages are in this respect not only different, but even sometimes contrary; insomuch that the same trope will suggest opposite ideas in different tongues. No sort of metonymy is commoner amongst every people than that by which some parts of the body have been substituted to denote certain powers or affections of the mind, with which they are supposed to be connected. But as the opinions of one nation differ on this article from those of another, the figurative sense in one tongue will by no means direct us to the figurative sense in another. The same may be said of different ages. A commentator on Persius has this curious remark, "Naturalists affirm, that men laugh "with the spleen, rage with the gall, love with the liver, understand with the heart, and boast with the

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Sect. II.

Rhetorical tropes.... Part I. Preliminary observations.

lungs *." A modern may say, with Sganarelle in the comedy," It was so formerly, but we have changed all that +." For so unlike are our notions, that the spleen is accounted the seat of melancholy and ill-humour. The word is accordingly often used to denote that temper; so that with us a splenetic man, and a laughing merry fellow, form two characters that are perfect contrasts to each other. The heart we consider as the seat, not of the understanding, but of the affections and of courage. Formerly indeed we seem to have regarded the liver as the seat of courage; hence the term milk-livered for cowardly +.

* Cornutus on these words of the first satire, Sum petulanti splene cachinno. "Physici dicunt homines splene ridere, felle irasci, jecore amare, corde sapere, et pulmone jactari."

+ "Cela etoit autrefois ainsi; mais nous avons changé tout "cela." Le medecin malgré lui. Molière.

From these things we may observe, by the way, how unsafe it is in translating, especially from an ancient language into a modern, to reckon that because the proper sense in two words of the different languages perfectly corresponds, the metaphorical sense of the same words will correspond also. In this last respect, the words, as we have seen, may nevertheless be very different in signification, or even opposite. I think in particular, that many translators of the Bible have been betrayed into blunders, through not sufficiently adverting to this circumstance. For instance, nothing at first appears to be a juster, as well as a more literal version of the Greek oxangoxagd, than the English hard-hearted. Yet I suspect, that the true meaning of the former term, both in the Sep

Of vivacity as depending on the choice of words.

ONE plain consequence of the doctrine on this head, which I have been endeavouring to elucidate, is, that in every nation where from time to time there is an increase of knowledge, and an improvement in the arts, or where there often appear new works of genius in philosophy, history, or poetry, there will be in many words a transition more or less gradual, as that improvement is more or less rapid, from their being the figurative to their being the proper signs of certain ideas, and sometimes from their being the figurative signs of one, to their being the figurative signs of another idea. And this, by the way, discloseth to us one of the many sources of mutation to be found in every tongue. This transition will perhaps more frequently happen in metaphor than in other tropes, inasmuch as the relation of resemblance is generally less striking, and therefore more ready to be overlooked, than those relations on which the others are founded. Yet that they too will sometimes be affected by it, we have no reason to question. That in those metonymies in particular, of which some instances have been given, wherein the connection may be justly accounted more imaginary than real, such changes in the application should arise, might naturally be expected. The transition from the figurative to the proper, in regard to such terms

tuagint and in the New Testament, is not cruel, as the English word imports, but indocile, intractable. The general remark might be illustrated by numberless examples, but this is not the place.

Sect. II.

Rhetorical tropes....Part I. Preliminary observations.

as are in daily use, is indeed inevitable. The word vessel in English hath doubtless been at first introduced by a synecdoché to signify a ship, the genus for the species, but is now become by use as much a proper term in this signification, as the word ship itself.

WITH regard to metaphor, it is certain, that in all languages there are many words which at first had one sense only, and afterwards acquired another by metaphorical application, of which words both senses are now become so current, that it would be difficult for any but an etymologist, to determine which is the original, and which the metaphorical. Of this kind, in the English tongue, are the substantives, conception, apprehension, expression; the first of these, conception, when it notes an action of the mind, and when the beginning of pregnancy in a female, is alike supported by use; the second and third terms, apprehen-· sion for seizure, and expression for squeezing out, are now rather uncommon. Yet these are doubtless the primitive significations.

Ir may be further remarked, that in some words the metaphorical sense hath justled out the original sense altogether, so that in respect of it they are become obsolete. Of this kind, in our tongue, are the verbs to train, to curb, to edify, to enhance, the primitive significations whereof were, to draw, to bend, to to build, to lift. And if one should now speak of the

Of vivacity as depending on the choice of words.

acuteness of a razor, or of the ardour of a fire, we could not say that to a linguist he would speak unintelligibly, but by every man of sense he would be thought to express himself both pedantically and improperly. The word ruminate, though good in the metaphorical sense, to denote musing on a subject, would scarce be admitted, except in poetry, in the literal sense, for chewing the cud. Thus it happens with languages as with countries; strangers received at first through charity, often in time grow strong enough to dispossess the natives.

Now in regard to all the words which fall under the two last remarks, whatever they were formerly, or in whatever light they may be considered by the grammarian and the lexicographer, they cannot be considered as genuine metaphors by the rhetorician. I have, upon the matter, assigned the reason already. They have nothing of the effect of metaphor upon the hearer. On the contrary, like proper terms, they suggest directly to his mind, without the intervention of any image, the ideas which the speaker proposed to convey by them.

FROM all that hath been said, it evidently follows, that those metaphors which hold mostly of the thought, that is, those to which the ear hath not been too much familiarised, have most of the peculiar vivacity resulting from this trope; the invariable effect of very frequent use being to convert the metaphorical into a