works." On the other hand, when it is said, Gray
hairs should be respected," we put the effect for the
cause, meaning by "gray hairs," old age. "The kettle
boils," is a phrase where the name of the container is
substituted for that of the thing contained.
"To assume
the sceptre" is a common expression for entering on royal
authority; the sign being put for the thing signified.

When the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole; a genus for a species, or a species for a genus; in general, when any thing less, or any thing more, is put for the precise object meant ; the figure is then called a Synecdoche or Comprehension. It is very common, for instance, to describe a whole object by some remarkable part of it as when we say: "A fleet of twenty sail," in the place of "ships;" when we use the "head" for the "person," the "waves" for the "sea." In like manner, an attribute may be put for a subject: as, "Youth" for the "young," the "deep" for the "sea;" and sometimes a subject for its attribute.

Personification or Prosopopocia, is that figure by which we attribute life and action to inanimate objects. The use of this figure is very natural and extensive there is a wonderful proneness in human nature, under emotion, to animate all objects. When we say, "the ground thirsts for rain," or, "the earth smiles with plenty;" when we speak of "ambition's being restless, or "a disease's being deceitful;" such expressions show the facility with which the mind can accommodate the properties of living creatures to things that are inanimate, or to abstract conceptions of its own forming. The following are striking examples from the Scriptures : "When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Judah from a people of strange language; the sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back! The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea! that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob."

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"The wilderness and the solitary place shai be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose."

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Apostrophe is a turning off from the regular course of the subject, to address some person or thing; as, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory?"

The following is an instance of personification and apostrophe united: "O thou sword of the Lord! how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put thyself up into thy scabbard, rest and be still! How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Askelon, and against the sea-shore? there hath he appointed it.' See also an extraordinary example of these figures, in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, from the 4th to the 19th verse, where the prophet describes the fall of the Assyrian empire.

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The next figure in order, is Antithesis. Comparison is founded on the resemblance; antithesis, on the contrast or opposition of two objects. Contrast has always the effect, to make each of the contrasted objects appear in the stronger light. White, for instance, never appears so bright as when it is opposed to black; and when both are viewed together. An author, in his defence of a friend against the charge of murder, expresses himself thus: "Can you believe that the person whom he scrupled to slay, when he might have done so with full justice, in a convenient place, at a proper time, with secure impunity; he made no scruple to murder against justice, in an unfavourable place, at an unseasonable time, and at Le risk of capital condemnation ?"

The following examples further illustrate this figure. Tho' deep, yet clear; tho' gentle, yet not dull; Strong, without rage; without o'erflowing, full. "If you wish to enrich a person, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires."

"If you regulate your desires according to the standard of nature, you will never be poor; if according to the standard of opinion, you will never be rich."

A maxim of moral saying, very properly receives the form of the two last examples; both because it is sup

posed to be the fruit of meditation, and because it is designed to be engraven on the memory, which recalls it more easily by the help of such contrasted expressions. But where such sentences frequently succeed each other; where this becomes an author's favourite and prevailing manner of expressing himself, his style appears too much studied and laboured; it gives us the impression of an author attending more to his manner of saying things, than to the things themselves.

Interrogation. The unfigured, literal use of interrogation, is to ask a question: but when men are strongly moved, whatever they would affirm or deny, with great earnestness, they naturally put in the form of a question, expressing thereby the strongest confidence of the truth of their own sentiment, and appealing to their hearers for the impossibility of the contrary. Thus Balaam expressed himself to Balak. "The Lord is not a man that he should lic, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said it? and shall he not do it? Hath he spoken it? and shall he not make it good?"

Exclamations are the effect of strong emotions of the mind; such as, surprise, admiration. joy, grief, and the like. "Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!" Psalms.

"O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of way-faring men!” Jeremiah.

The last figure of speech that we shall mention, is what writers call Amplification or Climax. It consists in heightening all the circumstances of an object or action, which we desire to place in a strong light. We shall give an instance from the charge of a judge to the jury, in the case of a woman accused of murdering her own child. "Gentlemen, if one man had any how slain another; if an adversary had killed his opposer, or a woman occasioned the death of her enemy; even these criminals would have been capitally punished by the Cornelian law; but if this guiltless infant, that could make enemy, had been murdered by its own nurse,

what punishment would not then the mother have demanded? With what cries and exclamations would she have stunned your ears! What shall we say then, when a woman, guilty of homicide, a mother, of the murder of her innocent child, hath comprised all those misdeeds in one single crime? a crime, in its own nature, detestable; in a woman, prodigious; in a mother, incredible; and perpetrated against one whose age called for compassion, whose near relation claimed affection, and whose innocence deserved the highest favour."

We have now finished what was proposed, concerning Perspicuity in single words and phrases, and the accurate construction of sentences. The former has been considered, under the heads of Purity, Propriety, and Precision; and the latter, under those of Clearness, Unity, Strength, and the proper use of Figurative Language. Though many of those attentions which have been recommended, may appear minute, yet their effect upon writing and style, is much greater than might, at first, be imagined. A sentiment which is expressed in accurate language, and in a period, clearly, neatly, and well arranged, makes always a stronger impression on the mind, than one that is expressed inaccurately, or in a feeble or embarrassed manner. Every one feels this upon a comparison: and if the effect be sensible in one sentence, how much more in a whole discourse, or composition that is made up of such sentences?

The fundamental rule for writing with accuracy, and into which all others might be resolved, undoubtedly is, to communicate, in correct language, and in the clearest and most natural order, the ideas which we mean to transfuse into the minds of others. Such a selection and arrangement of words, as do most justice to the sense, and express it to most advantage, make an agreeable and strong impression. To these points have tended all the rules which have been given. Did we always think clearly, and were we, at the same time, fully masters of the language in which we write, there would be occasion for few rules. Our sentences would then, of course, acquire all those properties of clearness, unity, strength,

and accuracy, which have been recommended. For we may rest assured, that whenever we express ourselves ill, besides the mismanagement of language, there is. for the most part, some mistake in our manner of conceiving the subject. Embarrassed, obscure, and feeble sentences, are generally, if not always, the result of embarrassed, obscure, and feeble thought. Thought and expression act and re-act upon each other. The understanding and language have a strict connexion; and they who are learning to compose and arrange their sentences with accuracy and order, are learning, at the same time, to think with accuracy and order; a consideration which alone will recompense the student, for his attention to this branch of literature.