This last figure would be too bold for a British writer, as a storm at sea is not inseparably connected with winter in this climate. 5. A word proper to an attribute, employed figuratively to denote the subject. Youth and beauty for those who are young and beautiful: Youth and beauty shall be laid in dust. Majesty for the King: What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night In which the Majesty of buried Denmark Did sometime march? 1 Or have ye chosen this place After the toils of battle, to repose Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 1. Your weary'd virtue. Paradise Lost. Verdure for a green field. Summer, l. 301. Speaking of cranes, The pigmy nations wounds and death they bring, Cool age advanees venerably wise. Iliad, iii. 10. Iliad iii. 149. The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting an attribute that embellishes the subject, or puts it in a stronger light. 6. A complex term employed figuratively to denote one of the component parts. Funus for a dead body. Burial for a grave. 7. The name of one of the component parts instead of the complex term. Tada for a marriage. The East for a country situated east from us. Jovis vestigia servat, for im itating Jupiter in general. 8. A word signifying time or place, employed figuratively to denote what is connected with it. Clime for a nation, or for a constitution of government: hence the expression Merciful clime, Fleecy winter for snow, Seculum felix. 9. A part of the whole. The Pole for the earth. The head for the Triginta minas pro capite tuo dedi. person: Plautus. The silent heart with grief assails. Parnell. The peculiar beauty of this figure consists in marking that part which makes the greatest figure. 10. The name of the container, employed figu ratively to signify what is contained. Grove for the birds in it, Vocal grove. Ships for the seamen, agonizing ships. Mountains for the sheep pasturing upon them, Bleating mountains. Zacynthus, Ithaca, &c. for the inhabitants. Ex mæstis domibus, Livy. 11. The name of the sustainer, employed figuratively to signify what is sustained. Altar for the sacrifice. Field for the battle fought upon it, Well-fought field. 12. The name of the materials employed figuratively to signify the things made of them. Ferrum for gladius. 13. The names of the Heathen deities, employed figuratively to signify what they patronise. Jove for the air, Mars for war, Venus for beauty, Cupid for love, Ceres for corn, Neptune for the sea, Vulcan for fire. The figure bestows great elevation upon the subject; and therefore ought to be confined to the higher strains of poetry. 4. When two subjects have a resemblance by a common quality, the name of the one subject may be employed figuratively to denote that quality in the other. the Summer life for agreeable life. 5. The name of the instrument made to signify power of employing it. -Melpomene, cui liquidam pater Vocem cum cithara, dedit. The ample field of figurative expression displayed in these tables, affords great scope for reasoning. Several of the observations relating to metaphor, are applicable to figures of speech: these I shall slightly retouch, with some additions peculiarly adapted to the present subject, In the first place, as the figure under consideration is built upon relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason, that the beauty of the figure depends on the intimacy of the relation between the figurative and proper sense of the word. A slight resemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable; the expression, for example, Drink down a secret, for listening to a secret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any resemblance between listening and drinking. The expression weighty crack, used by Ben Johnson for loud crack, is worse if possible: a loud sound has not the slightest resemblance to a piece of matter that is weighty. The following expression of Lucretius is not less faulty. "Et lepido quæ sunt fucata sonore." i. 645. |