4. Good name in man or woman is the immediate jewel of their souls.

5. The broad circumference hung on his shoulders like the moon. 6. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.

7. The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree.

8. He died in the meridian of his days, and all men exclaimed that a pillar of the State had fallen.

9. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

10. Who can tell me of the forms and precipices, of the chain of tall white mountains that girdled the horizon at noon yesterday? (referring to the clouds).

11. A flood of ignorance, and misery, and sin, now breaks and roars above the top of the highest tenements.

12. Signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine on all deservers.

67. Rules for figures of Comparison:—

I. The second member of the comparison should be, if possible, more familiar to those addressed than the first. II. The figure should be simple, not complex; i. e., it should contain one comparison,-not two or more mixed up. III. It should not be made to illustrate more than it can illustrate fully and exactly.

Convert the following Similes into Metaphors:

1. The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold.

2. Charity, like the sun, brightens every object on which it shines. 3. Virtue is like the diamond: the more it is rubbed, the more brightly it shines.

4. Benevolence is like the dew of heaven, which, falling silently and unobserved, seeks not to attract attention, but to do good.

5. Religion, like the sun, presents a bright side to every object which is not wholly buried in earth.

6.

7.

8.

As, whence the sun 'gins his reflection,
Shipwracking storms and direful thunders break;
So, from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come,
Discomfort swells.

New honours come upon him,

Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould,
But with the aid of use.

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek.

Exercise 28.

Express the following simple ideas Metaphorically:1. He is the most distinguished man in his profession.

2. There are scenes in nature which are pleasant when we are sad, as well as when we are cheerful.

3. The ship's keel was turning up the waters.

4. The advance of time is little observed.

5. His happiness was very great.

6. The rich die as well as the poor.

7. Misery is the result of vice.

8. The most distinguished of the Scottish nobility fell around their king at Flodden.

9. Perfect taste knows how to unite nature with art, without destroying the simplicity of nature in the connection.

*

68. Personification, which, like Simile and Metaphor, also

*Metaphor and Personification are often confounded. For instance, in one of the best existing text-books the same sentence is given as an example, first of Metaphor, and afterwards of Personification: "The earth thirsts for rain." In determining how we are to distinguish between the two figures, it is necessary to remember that many words have acquired a metaphorical meaning, in which sense we often use them though quite unconscious of the figure they imply. Thus when we are speaking of a storm raging furiously, it is by no means present to our mind that rage and fury are feelings properly belonging only to human beings; and we do not therefore endow the storm with personality when we ascribe to it the action which these feelings imply. In short, it is raging that is here used in a figurative sense, and not "storm." So, when we speak of the "thirsty ground," we use the word thirsty (which primarily denotes a certain physical longing) in a secondary and spiritual sense; but the figure is in thirsty alone, and does not extend to "ground," which it qualifies. Now the test of personality is gender, and the figure is that of Personification only when a masculine or feminine pronoun

implies comparison, is that figure by which the lower animals and inanimate objects are endowed with the powers of human beings, specially with the power of speech; as, "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

69. Personification of the second person forms the figure Apostrophe,-wherein the inanimate and the absent are addressed as if they were present, as, "O death! where is thy sting?"

Exercise 29.

Write sentences in which the following subjects shall be Personified; and the first six Apostrophised:

70. Metonymy is the figure by which correlative terms are interchanged; as when,—

1. A sign is put for the thing signified; as, the sceptre or the crown, for royalty; gray hairs, for age, &c.

2. An author for his works; as, "I am reading Shakespeare," meaning one of Shakespeare's works.

3. A vessel for its contents; as, "He drank the cup," for wine, or poison.

71. Synecdoche is the figure which puts a part for the whole, or the whole for a part; as, "Fifty sail," for fifty ships.

Exercise 30.

Select separately the examples of Metonymy and Synecdoche from the following, and shew the exact nature of the figure :

1. Oh grave, where is thy victory? 2. The sceptre shall not depart from Judah. 3. His mill employs three hundred hands. 4. The country was devastated by the sword. 5. Consider the lilies how they grow. 6. No useless coffin enclosed his breast. 7. He reads Demos

(I, thou, he, or she) can be put in its place. By this test, "earth" in the above expression is not personified; for we should more naturally say, "it thirsts," than either "he or she thirsts for rain."

thenes in the morning, and Homer at night; during the day he is alternately a patron of the gun and of the rod. 8. The whole city came forth to meet him. 9. Fifty winters had gone over his head. 10. Constantine assumed the purple while in Britain. 11. He has three sons: one is studying for the church, another for the bar, and the third has gone to sea. 12. He invaded France with sixty thousand foot, and twelve thousand horse.

Exercise 31.

Write sentences introducing a Metonymy for each of the following expressions ;

Write sentences introducing a Synecdoche for each of the follow

ing expressions:

1. Our men.
2. Ships.

3. Soldiers.

72. The quality of Grace in language requires the avoidance of such words as offend good taste by affectation, vulgarity, or

harshness.

73. Rules for Grace of language :

I. Avoid the unnecessary use of foreign and unusual words or idioms.

II. Avoid the use of vulgar, slang, and provincial expressions. III. Avoid harsh-sounding words.

74. It is not intended by the first of these rules to forbid altogether the introduction of foreign words, or quotations from foreign languages, but only such use of them as seems prompted by affectation or pedantry, and not by a desire to express clearly and intelligibly what one has to say. It may be that a foreign word expresses an idea more simply and tersely than a native word; if so, and if the word be within the knowledge of those

we address, it should by all means be used. Of course, the law against the introduction of foreign idioms, and the use of obsolete words is indisputable, alike on grounds of expediency and of taste. The second and third laws are warnings not only against bad taste, but against that mistaken judgment which supposes that there lies in such expressions greater energy than in those which are purer and more idiomatic.

Exercise 33.

Point out the violations of the rules of Graceful language in the following sentences :

1. Straight again, when he went from her, she fell a-weeping and blubbering, looking ruefully on the matter.

2. He expresses, with almost a muliebris impotentia of language, a semi-official sympathy with the cause of freedom in Europe.

3. The secretary did not come up to the scratch till the close of the debate, when he more than insinuated that his master had put his foot in it.

4. Judge, good Christian reader, whether it be possible that he be any better than a beast, out of whose brutish, beastly mouth cometh such a form of blasphemy.

5. And then, as some satisfaction to the world, he put forth a satire against the wickedness of these blood-suckers, revealing the infernal lies and knavery that he was made privy to.

6. Many of them came readily on deck, and being down on their marrow bones, did not venture to rise till they were positively ordered to do so.

7. Malgré the weather, the meeting was both influential and agreeable.

8. The opusculum itself is an epitome of chemistry.

9. The intrepid virtuosi continued their efforts till a no less e machina deus than the police commissary himself made his appearance.

10. Dixon having contrived, with pettifogging ingenuity, to trump up a charge against the manager, the latter, in a rus in urbe condition, I was left to shift for himself.

11. I left our young poet snivelling and sobbing behind the scenes, and cursing somebody that has deceived him.

12. The tournure of his ideas is thoroughly English.

13. This last and most base imputation he reserved, that he might throw it in his teeth after his whole armoury of invective and abuse seemed to be exhausted.

14. Such a dog-in-the-manger policy lent a good deal of vraisemblance to the statements of his opponents.