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needle; of the head of a cabbage; of the breast of a wave, and the bosom of a rose. Plants are named from animals or the limbs of animals; as fox-tail, cock's-comb, cranebill, lark-spur. Attributes and functions of animate beings are transformed to the inanimate, as living water, living rock, quick-silver, lively colors, dying embers; a comparison stumbles, the ground thirsts, and drinks in the dew, the hills clap their hands, the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. By a reverse process, the life of vegetables is applied to the physical life of man. We speak of the scion of a noble stock, the fruit of good works. In the same manner, human relationships are attributed by analogy to external things. In Eschylus, the Salmydessian harbor is a step-mother of ships; flamesmoke is the sister of fire; dust, the brother of wind. In Hebrew and Arabic, the arrow is the son of the bow; sparks are the sons of fire. In modern poetry, Peele calls lightning the fair spouse of thunder, and Tennyson says: Earn well the thrifty days, nor wed Raw Haste, half-sister of Delay.

Figures of Diction may therefore be defined as deviations from the significant or formal value of words.

FIGURES OF THOUGHT.

What they are.—Sometimes the figure results not from a turn of the word, but rather from a turn of the thought- -a deviation from the usual form of the sentence, or usual arrangement of its parts. Thus, instead of the usual form, 'Men are ungrateful,' we may employ the unusual form, 'Oh, the ingratitude of men!'- which is more pleasing and far more forcible. When we desire to express an opinion more strongly than by a simple statement, we may put it in the form of a question — not to receive answer or information, but to secure greater animation and energy: 'Who is here so vile, that will

not love his country?' 'Canst thou by searching find out God?' 'Cannot God create another world many times more fair, and cast over it a mantle of light many times more lovely?' Things of an opposite or different nature, like contrasted colors, may be rendered more striking by placing them near together: 'Every sweet has its sour, every evil has its good.' A thought may be expressed with increased force by arranging its particulars, when possible, in the ascending order of their importance; as, 'The power of man, his greatness, his glory, depend on essential qualities.' If it is desired to weaken the meaning, the order is descending; as, 'He lost his wife, his child, his household goods, and his dog, at one fell swoop.' For the sake of greater energy, a speaker may suddenly change the current of his thought, and, instead of speaking of an object in the third person, may address himself to it or to some other object directly, as if it were listening:

You have now assembled within these sacred walls to perform the last duties of respect and love, on the birthday of your benefactor, beneath that roof which has resounded of old with the master voices of American renown. Listen, Americans, to the lessons which seem borne to us on the very air we breathe, while we perform these dutiful rites. Ye winds, that wafted the Pilgrims to the land of promise, fan in their children's hearts the love of freedom! Blood, which our fathers shed, cry from the ground! Echoing arches of this renowned hall, whisper back the voices of other days! Glorious Washington, break the long silence of that votive canvas: speak, speak, marble lips, teach us the love of liberty protected by law.- Edward Everett.

It is thus seen that, while the words may, for the most part, be used in their established significations, the thought may be turned, or the form of the sentence may be varied from the common usage for purposes of vivacity and emphasis.

Figures of thought, therefore, are deviations from the

usual course of the thought or the usual form of the sentence. Figures of diction and figures of thought are not, we are aware, sharply divided by fixed lines - the same figure frequently shares the character of both; but the division is justified educationally if it teaches you no more than this—that some figures refer more especially to the word or idea, while others refer more especially to the sentence or thought.

Figures of speech, accordingly, may be defined as deviations from the plain and ordinary mode of expression, whereby ideas, thoughts, feelings, are conveyed more clearly, more strongly, or more elegantly.

CLASSIFICATION.

Archaism. This may be defined as the intentional use of the older words and terminations of a language: I wis in all the senate

Poe.

There was no heart so bold.- Macaulay.

Eagerly I loved to borrow from my books surcease of sorrow.—

The figure is founded upon the love of the reverend and the old, very dear especially to the hearts of poets. See Spenser's Faerie Queene, Byron's Childe Harold (first canto), and Thomson's Castle of Indolence. Where fiction, too, attempts to represent an earlier period, imitation of the dialect of that period is often an effectual means of securing the truth of resemblance.

Mimesis. Similar to the preceding. It consists in mimicking the mode of spelling or dialect peculiar to individuals or communities, in order to give a lively idea of certain local or national characteristics:

And he said that he had heard

That Hamericans spoke Hinglish.— Saxe.

A ginooine statesman should be on his guard,
Ef he must hev beliefs, nut to b'lieve 'em tu hard;

For, ez sure ez he does, he'll be blartin' 'em out
"Thout regardin' the natur' o' man more'n a spout;
Nor it don't ask much gumption to pick out a flaw
In a party whose leaders are loose in the jaw:

An' so in our own case I ventur' to hint

Thet we'd better nut air our perceedins in print.-Lowell.

Tmesis. This is the division of a compound word into two, lending to expression the force of novel arrangement akin to inversion:

In the pleased infant see this power expand,
When first the coral fills his little hand.
Throned in its mother's lap, it dries each tear
When her sweet legend falls upon his ear.
Next it assails him in his top's strange hum,
Breathes in his whistle, echoes in his drum;
And when the waning hour to bed ward bids,
While gentle sleep sits waiting on his lids,
How winningly he pleads, to gain you o'er,

That he may read one little story more.- Charles Sprague.

Ellipsis. By this is meant the omission of words. When not carried so far as to obscure the sense, it conduces to effectiveness by economizing the time and attention of the reader or hearer:

Women are the opposite of clocks: the clocks serve to remind us of the hours; the women, to make us forget them.-Fontenelle.

Zeugma.-This is a figure in which, by the omission of one word, another is joined to words with which it has properly no connection. It secures brevity by a forced construction:

'Separated by mountains and by mutual fear.'

'They wear a dress like that of the Scythians, but a language peculiar to themselves.'

The Caledonians were indebted for their independence to their poverty no less than to their valor.-Gibbon.

Anacoluthon.-This involves an unfinished construction, in which the first part of the sentence is suspended,

and something else is introduced. Its force lies in its suggestion of emotion or noble forgetfulness:

If thou be'st he- but O, how fallen, how changed
From him who in the happy realms of light,

Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, though bright.—Milton.

Epanorthosis. The retraction of a statement in order that something stronger may be substituted. Thus:

It is a shame, Mr. President, that the noble bulldogs of the administration should be wasting their precious time in worrying the rats of the opposition. [Cries of "Order!"] Rats, did I say?— mice! mice!-John Randolph.

Interruptio. Self-interruption, in which the speaker turns from the course of his thought to something else. As in the similar cases which precede, force is gained by leaving the unuttered words to the imagination:

When Carrier ordered five hundred children under fourteen years of age to be shot, the greater part of whom escaped the fire from their size; when the poor victims ran for protection to the soldiers, and were bayoneted, clinging round their knees, would my friend - but I cannot pursue the strain of interrogation. It is too much. It would be an outrage to my friend. It would be an insult to human nature.-Mackintosh.

Asyndeton. The unusual omission of connectives. It promotes ease and rapidity of movement:

The enemy said: I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.-Bible. All those forms of expression in which words are omitted or suppressed, are examples of ellipsis.

Polysyndeton.-The employment of connectives to an unusual degree. It gives emphasis by introducing circumstances in a slow and formal manner, thus compelling the mind to dwell on the particulars:

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to

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