LESSON 72. p. 111.

FIGURES OF RHETORIC.

EXERCISES ON THE SIMILE.

136. Note. In all these Lessons, the words, &c., exemplifying the Figures are printed in Italics, and Remarks on each example, where necessary, are added.

EXAMPLE. 1. The path of the just is as a shining light. Remarks.

An expressed resemblance between the meta

phoric word and the object figured.

2. Is not my word (like) as a fire, saith the Lord. Remarks. - The same as No. 1.

3. Still o'er those scenes my memory wakes,
And fondly broods with miser care;
Time but the impression stronger makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.

Remarks.

The depth of the impression becomes greater by time, as channels by the continual flow of water. 4. Pleasures are like poppies spread,

You seize the flower-its bloom is shed.

Remarks.

Pleasures, fine in appearance, but deceptive,

are, like poppies, pleasant, but without fragrance. 5. Give me the line, that ploughs its stately course, Like a proud swan, conquering the stream by force. Remarks. A good sentence, full and strong in sense, repels opposition, as a swan resists the stream.

6. As from some rocky cliff the shepherd sees,

Clust'ring in heaps on heaps, the driving bees,
Rolling and black'ning, swarms succeeding swarms,
With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms;
Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd,
And o'er the vale descends a living cloud :

So, from the tents and ships, a length'ning train
Spreads o'er the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain;
Along the region runs a deaf'ning sound;

Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.

-as

Remarks. The objects of comparison in this simile exactly correspond in the appearance which they present ;a swarm of bees obviously resembles a large army, the flight of the former appropriately illustrates the movements of the latter.

LESSON 74. — p. 119.

Metaphor.

146. EXAMPLE-1. Childhood and youth are vanity. Remarks. - To denote the fickleness and inconstancy of these periods.

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

Remarks.

- A torch sets fire to anything; so Antony's hot ambition and constant plotting would set fire to the

state.

3. Conscience is a thousand swords.

Remarks. A thousand swords might inflict a thousand wounds; so conscience would inflict as many, and as deep. 4. The tree of knowledge blasted by disputes,

Produces sapless leaves instead of fruits.

Remarks.- As a blasted tree produces only sapless leaves, so knowledge, occupied in angry disputes, yields no practical or beneficial results.

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. - Here the word fluctuates appropriately exhibits an image of struggling.

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.-The opportunities which men have of rising in the world are finely depicted by a flowing tide, which bears away a vessel through the ocean; while the neglect of these is considered equally unfavourable to future success, as that of the mariner is to his voyage, when he sets out after the tide has subsided.

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 Gloucester, giving an account of the royal pedigree 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. In this description, the metaphor consists in supposing King Edward to be the root of a tree, and his seven sons the branches, of which some are cut down by the des tinies, and that Gloucester is hacked down by an axe wielded by the hand of Envy. The resemblance between a man who is the father of seven sons, and a tree, from which issue seven branches, is evident upon the slightest comparison. The words root, branches, cut, hacked, axe, hand, applied to

the metaphor, are equally applicable to the tree which it represents.

8. Remarks to No. 8. from St. Jude. The seducers are appropriately designated by the words spots-clouds-without water-trees whose fruit withereth-raging waves-wandering stars.

LESSON 75. — p. 122.

Metonymy, Synecdoche, Personification,

Apostrophe.

EXERCISES.

152.-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 cup runs over." ―g.

"The thorns of state."

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

e.

Remarks. Here the qualities Mercy and Truth, being personified, have the attributes of personification ascribed to them.

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.

Wisdom, being personified, claims all the eminent attributes of prudence, counsel, understanding, &c.

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

Thy scattered hair 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. Here, Winter is represented as an aged man with scattered hair, breath congealed, and the other characteristics of a man.

d. Night, sable Goddess! from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty, now stretches forth

Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumb'ring world.

Remarks. Here, Night is personified as a Goddess, and the pronouns employed are adapted to this figure. 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!"
The meek intelligence of those dear eyes
(Blest be the art that can immortalize,
The art that baffles Time's tyrannic claim

To quench it) here shines on me still the same.

Remarks. Here, the writer, when viewing the picture of his dead mother, is excited by the recollection of her excellences, and considers her lips, eyes, and smile, as if belonging to her alive and present.

Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss,

But cheerly seek how to redress their harms.