its original meaning. It is the transferring of a word from the object to which it properly belongs, and applying it to another to which that object bears some resemblance or analogy. It shows similitude without the sign of comparison.

1. The moral and political system of Hobbes was a palace of ice: transparent, exactly proportioned, majestic, admired by the unwary as a delightful dwelling; but gradually undermined by the central warmth of human feeling, before it was thawed into muddy water by the sunshine of true philosophy.-Sir JAMES MACINTOSH.

2. Short-lived, indeed, was Irish independence. I sat by her cradle; I followed her hearse.-GRATTAN.

3. There is no such thing as happiness in this world. The sole distinction is, that the life of a happy man is a picture, with a silver ground studded with stars of jet; while, on the other hand, the life of a miserable man is a dark ground with a few stars of silver.-NAPOLEON.

METONYMY.

§ 459. METONYMY, from Greek metonumia, a change of name, is a figure by which one word is put for another; as the cause for the effect, or the effect for the cause; the container for the contained; the sign for the thing signified. The relation is always that of causes, effects, or adjuncts.

1. Substituting the cause for the effect:

A time there was, ere England's griefs began,

When every rood of ground maintained its man.-GOLDSMITH.

2. Substituting the effect for the cause:

Can gray hairs make folly venerable ?—JUNIUS.

3. Substituting the container for the contained:

"The toper loves his bottle." The highwayman says, "Your purse or your life!"

4. Substituting the sign for the thing signified:

"He carried away the palm."

5. Substituting the abstract for the concrete term:

We wish that Labor may look up here, and be proud in the midst of its toil. We wish that Infancy may learn the purpose of its creation from maternal lips; and that weary and withered Age may behold and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests.-DANIEL WEBSTER. There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,

6.

To deck the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall a while repair

To dwell a weeping hermit there.-COLLINS.

PARABLE.

§ 460. PARABLE, Greek parabole, from paraballo, to

compare, is an allegorical representation or relation of something real in life or nature, from which a moral is drawn. See the Parable of the Poor Man and his Lamb, 2 Sam., xii.; the Parable of the Ten Virgins, Matt., xxv.

PARALEIPSIS.

§ 461. PARALEIPSIS, Greek paraleipsis, omission, is a figure by which a speaker pretends to pass by what at the same time he really mentions.

1. "I might say many things of his liberality, kindness to his domestics, his command in the army, and moderation during his office in the province; but the honor of the state presents itself to my view, and, calling me to it, advises me to omit these lesser matters."

2. "I do not speak of my adversary's scandalous venality and rapacity; I take no notice of his brutal conduct, I do not speak of his treachery and malice."

PARONOMASIA.

§ 462. PARONOMASIA, from the Greek para, near, and onomia, a name, is a pun or a play upon words, in which the same word is used in different Lenses, or words similar in sound are set in opposition to each other.

1. “Voltaire had a stupid fat friar at Ferney, who was useful to him, and who went by the name of Père Adam, Father Adam. A gentleman who was visiting there, happening to get a glimpse of this inmate, asked Voltaire if that was Father Adam. Yes,' replied Voltaire, 'that is Father Adam, but not the first of men.'"

2. "Mr. Curran, the late celebrated Irish advocate, was walking one day with a friend who was extremely punctilious in his conversation. Hearing a person near him say curosity instead of curiosity, he exclaimed, How that man murders the English language!' Not so bad,' said Curran; 'he has only knocked an i out.'

PROSOPOPEIA OR PERSONIFICATION.

§ 463. PROSOPOPEIA, from the Greek prosopon, a person, and poieo, I make, is a figure by which the absent are introduced as present, and by which inanimate objects and abstract ideas are represented as living.

1.

His was the spell o'er hearts
That only acting lends,
The youngest of the sister arts,
Where all their beauty blends;

For Poetry can ill express

Full many a tone of thought sublime;

And Painting, mute and motionless,

Steals but one partial glance from time:

§ 464. PROVERB, Latin proverbium, a short sentence, expressing a well-known truth or common fact ascertained by experience or observation; a maxim of wisdom. "Out of sight out of mind."

REPARTEE.

§ 465. REPARTEE, French repartie, a smart, witty reply.

"Said a would-be agreeable, taking his seat between Madame de Staël and the reigning beauty of the day, 'How happy I am to be thus seated between a wit and a beauty.' 'Yes,' replied Madame de Staël, 'and without possessing either!" "

SARCASM.

§ 466. SARCASM, from the Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazo, to sneer at or deride, primarily to flay or pluck off the skin, is a keen, reproachful expression, uttered with scorn or contempt. It is sometimes bitter, biting irony.

Sir Philip Francis, after his return to Parliament in 1784, gave great offense to Mr. Pitt by exclaiming, after he had pronounced an animated eulogy on Lord Chatham, the father, “But he is dead, and has left nothing in this world that resembles him."

SIMILE.

§ 467. SIMILE, from the Latin similis, like, is a comparison expressed in form, and is founded on resemblance. 1. The ship kept on away up the river, lessening and lessening in the waning sunshine like a little white cloud melting away in the summer sky.-W. IRVING.

2. "Like the Aurora Borealis of their native sky, the poets and historians of Iceland not only illuminated their own country, but flashed the light of their genius through the night which hung over the rest of Europe."

3. The poems of Byron are as the scenes of a summer evening, where all is tender, and grand, and beautiful; but the damps of disease descend with the dews of heaven, and the pestilent vapors of night are breathed in with the fragrance and the balm, and the delicate and the fair are the surest victims of the exposure.-Professor FRISBIE.

SYLLEPSIS.

§ 468. SYLLEPSIS, from the Greek sullepsis, taken together, is a trope by which a word is taken in two senses, the literal and the metaphorical; when we conceive the sense of the words to be otherwise than what the words impart, and construe them according to the sense of the writer.

1.

Lie heavy on him, Earth, for he

Laid many a heavy load on thee.-Epitaph on a bad Architect. 2. "And hope shall revive again, and, brighter and warmer than the beams of the morning sun, shall illumine and invigorate his dark soul." Perchance she died in youth; it may be, bowed With woes far heavier than the ponderous tomb That weighed upon her gentle dust.-BYRON.

3.

SYNECDOCHE.

§ 469. SYNECDOCHE, from the Greek word sunekdoche, a taking together, is a trope by which the whole of a thing is put for a part, or a part for the whole; as a species for a genus, or a genus for a species. It comprehends more or less in the expression than the word which is employed literally signifies.

1.

A sail! a sail! a promised prize to hope,
Her nation's flag-how speaks the telescope?
No prize, alas! but yet a welcome sail.-BYRON.

Here we have a part for the whole.

2.

Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay.-POPE. Here we have the whole for a part.

3. I attest heaven and earth, that in all places and at all times I have steadfastly shoved aside the gilded hand of corruption, and endeavored to stem the tide which threatened to overwhelm this island.—BURKE. 4. "The governor came forth and delivered up the keys of the fort to the conqueror."

CHAPTER III.

PERSPICUITY.

He

§ 470. WHATEVER be the end aimed at by the orator, unless he speaks so as to be understood, he speaks to no purpose. If he fails in perspicuity, he fails in being understood. It is not enough that he can be understood by the closest attention on the part of the hearer. must be easily understood. Perspicuity is eminently a rhetorical quality. Just as a sentence may be perfectly grammatical, and yet be false in reference to logic, so it may be perfectly grammatical, and yet be deficient in perspicuity.

I. Obscurity may arise from ELLIPSIS; as, "You ought to contemn all the wit in the world against you." As the writer does not mean to say that all the wit in the world is actually excited against the person whom he addresses, there is a defect in the expression, which may be removed by filling up the ellipsis. "He taiks all the way up stairs to a visit." Fill up the ellipsis, and you remove the obscurity. "He talks all the way as he walks up stairs to make a visit."

II. Obscurity may arise from bad ARRANGEMENT. There should be such an arrangement as will indicate the order and connection. "He advanced against the fierce ancient, imitating his address, his pace, and career, as well as the vigor of his horse and his own skill would allow." The clause, as well as the vigor of his horse, appears at first to belong to the former part of the sentence, and is afterward found to belong to the latter. "After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness." This sentence is deficient in unity and connection.

III. Obscurity may arise from using the SAME WORD IN DIFFERENT SENSES. "That he should be in earnest it is hard to conceive, since any reasons of doubt which he might have in the case would have been reasons of doubt in other men, who may give more, but can not give more evident signs of thought than their fellow-creatures." Instead of using the same word more as an adjective and an adverb in the same sentence, the following form might be advantageously substituted: "Who may give more numerous, but can not give more evident signs of doubt than their fellow-creatures." "The sharks who prey upon the inadvertency of young heirs are more pardonable than those who trespass on the good opinion of those who treat with them on the footing of choice and respect."

IV. Obscurity may arise from the injudicious use of TECHNICAL TERMS. Every important science or art has its peculiar terms, which