Yet let us think, that, as there's naught above

The all-embracing atmosphere of Art,
So also there is naught that falls below

Her generous reach, though grimed with guilt and woe."

So in the following passage the objection to the italicized words is not that they are incorrect, but that they fall below the level of the rest of the passage: "The task was indeed mighty, but Luther was a giant among men. Nor was his fatherland entirely out of sorts. The life-lessons of Wyckliffe and Huss had not been lost."

A few years ago a very amusing little biography, written in English by a native Hindostanee, was published in Calcutta; and the most ludicrous faults in its style were due to the fact that the writer, having obtained all his words from a dictionary, had no sense of the difference of tone and spirit in different expressions. Words, idioms, proverbial expressions belonging to the most curiously discordant strata of thought were jumbled together. The following two or three sentences will illustrate this. "His first business, on making an income was to extricate his family from the difficulties in which it had been lately enwrapped, and to restore happiness and sunshine to those sweet and well-beloved faces on which he had not seen the soft and fascinating beams of a simper for many a grim-visaged year." "It was all along the case, and it is so up to this time with the Lieutenant Governors, to give seats to non-professional men (who are or were as if cocks of the roost, or in other words, Natives of high social status) in the Council." "He then came in his chamber

to take his wonted tiffin, and felt a slight headache, which gradually aggravated and became so uncontrollable that he felt like a toad under a harrow."

CHAPTER III.

FIGURES OF SPEECH.

Definition. A figure of speech is an intentional deviation from the plain and ordinary mode of speaking, for the sake of greater effect.

The fact that figurative language deviates from ordinary expression is not to be taken as an argument against its naturalness. It is just as spontaneous and artless in its place as any manner of speaking, for cultured and uncultured alike; being the natural result of the effort to illustrate and vivify what the writer or speaker has to communicate.

Nor are figures of speech to be reckoned as mere ornaments of discourse. They generally add beauty to the style, it is true; but if they are introduced for no other object than this, especially in prose discourse, the employment of them is a blemish. The same rule holds with them as with other embellishments of style : nothing is really an embellishment except as it is useful toward effecting the purpose of the discourse, that is, in making the

thought conveyed more clear or vivid or emphatic. How should I figure affect the thought?

a

I.

General Suggestions regarding the Use of Figurative Language. As to the use of figures in general the following cautions are to be noted.

1. It is to be borne in mind that figures of speech are not the real thought, but only helpers to the thought. The substance of the discourse, its leading ideas, must exist and be clearly brought out apart from them; then, if they are once introduced, they fulfil their proper subordinated office.

what is there in discourse of scamomet to the figures?

3

2. A preliminary question often to be determined, therefore, is, whether in any passage the thought will profit by figurative expression, or will stand better without it. For sometimes an idea is so palpable in itself that a figurative illustration would be only an impertinence; sometimes also a thought, especially if it is one on which much of the discourse depends, needs to be put as barely and plainly as possible. This is particularly to be heeded in argumentative discourse, in which not infrequently figures are mistaken for arguments, whereas they can never be more than illustrations of arguments.

3. Care should be taken that the figure be a real illustration of

чиваю When the thought, not a mere effort of the fancy. It is a blemish if its

use is not obvious, or if it is far-fetched, or if it diverts attention maya to itself apart from its conditioning thought. A good test of a

fig. be figure's usefulness is its naturalness; it ought to rise spontaneously

a

lelut of the subject, as if it were the one necessary form of expres

sion. This ideal can be attained only by earnest effort to give power to the thought.

NOTE. In the character of King Richard II. Shakespeare portrays a tendency to manufacture far-fetched and elaborate conceits, as a mere play of fancy, and not from any necessity of the subjects about which he is speaking. Sometimes the King finds his problem too hard for him:

"I have been studying how I may compare
This prison where I live unto the world:
And for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer it out."

Effective and practical figures of speech are not apt to be the result of a
"hammering-out" process.

4. A figure of speech once introduced may lose its power by being too labored, or carried too much into detail. Beyond a certain point, of which in any case the writer's judgment and good taste must be aware, it ceases to carry useful significance and becomes fantastic, artificial, a conceit; or else so elaborate that the reader can no longer carry it and its illustrated thought together.

NOTE. — Dr. E. A. Abbott, in his “Shakespearian Grammar," thus exemplifies this point: "Every additional detail increases the improbability that the correspondence of the whole comparison can be sustained. Thus, if King Richard (Rich. II. v. 5. 50) had been content, while musing on the manner in which he could count time by his sighs, to say

'For now hath Time made me his numbering clock,'

there would have been little or no offense against taste. But when he con-
tinues-

'My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch,
Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,

Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now, sir, the sound that tells what hour it is

Are clamorous groans which strike upon my heart,

Which is the bell'

we have an excess of detail which is only justified because it illustrates the character of one who is always 'studying to compare,' and 'hammering out' unnatural comparisons."

II.

Classification and Description of the Most Important Figures what of Speech. — As according to the above definition figures are are the employed for the sake of greater effect, the most practical classi2 classe fication for the present purpose is according to the effect they are adapted to produce. On this basis the figures here defined fall naturally into two classes: figures that promote clearness and concreteness, and figures that promote emphasis.

1. FIGURES THAT PROMOTE CLEARNESS AND CONCRETENESS.

Principle of this Class. A figure of speech promotes clearness or concreteness by associating the object of thought with some other object, so that either by what is associated or by the

simple juxtaposition the thought gains. And thus the gain may

be in clearness, when the associated object is something better known; or in concreteness, when the associated object is less abstract and general, more impressive to the senses. Both of these qualities are usually present, in varying proportions; and

sometimes the choice between figures, especially between simile and metaphor, is determined by the question which shall predominate, clearness or concreteness, for the effectiveness of the passage. The following are the most important figures of this class, arranged progressively, beginning with the simplest.

Synecdoche and Metonymy.-The most elementary association is made by naming, not the whole object, but the part or accompaniment of it which is of significance for the writer's purpose. This gives rise to the figures synecdoche and metonymy, which, because they are essentially alike in principle, are here described together. Synecdoche lets some striking part of an object stand for the whole, or, less frequently, the whole for a part. Metonymy names, not the object, but some aspect or accompaniment of it so closely related in idea as to be naturally interchangeable with it.

These figures, using as they do merely the significant or serviceable feature of an object, promote concreteness by choosing what is most evident to the senses, or clearness by choosing what most strongly impresses the mind.

EXAMPLES. -These figures, and the advantage flowing from them, may perhaps best be exemplified from Herbert Spencer's "Philosophy of Style."

Synecdoche. "The advantage sometimes gained by putting a part for the whole, is due to the more convenient, or more accurate, presentation of the idea. If, instead of saying 'a fleet of ten ships,' we say 'a fleet of ten sail,' the picture of a group of vessels at sea is more readily suggested; and is so because the sails constitute the most conspicuous parts of vessels so circumstanced: whereas the word ships would very likely remind us of vessels in dock. Again, to say, 'All hands to the pumps,' is better than to say, 'All men to the pumps'; as it suggests the men in the special attitude intended, and so saves effort. Bringing 'gray hairs with sorrow to the grave,' is another expression, the effect of which has the same cause."

Metonymy. "The low morality of the bar,' is a phrase both more brief and more significant than the literal one it stands for. A belief in the ultimate supremacy of intelligence over brute force, is conveyed in a more concrete, and therefore more realizable form, if we substitute the pen and the sword for the two abstract terms. To say, 'Beware of drinking!' is less effective than to say, 'Beware of the bottle!' and is so, clearly because it calls up a less specific image."