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peated in another; as, "When we have practised good actions a while, they become easy; and, when they are easy, we begin to take pleasure in them; and, when they please us, we do them frequently; and, by frequency of acts, they grow into a habit." So, Pope, to heighten compassion for the fate of an unfortunate lady, repeats the idea that she lacked friendly sympathy in her distress:

"By foreign hands thy dying eyes were closed,

By foreign hands thy decent limbs composed;

By foreign hands thy humble grave adorned,

By strangers honored and by strangers mourned."

Some make this an independent figure, and style it Repetition.

$339. Irony is a figure by which is expressed directly the opposite of what it is intended shall be understood; as when Elijah said to the priests of Baal, who were trying to induce their false god to manifest himself miraculously, "Cry aloud, for he is a god," &c. This figure has been already considered under the head of Ridicule.

§ 340. Apophasis, Paralipsis, or Omission, is the pretended suppression of what one is all the time actually mentioning; as, "I say nothing of the notorious profligacy of his character; nothing of the reckless extravagance with which he har wasted an ample fortune; nothing of the disgusting intemper ance which has sometimes caused him to reel in our streets; -but I aver that he has exhibited neither probity nor ability in the important office which he holds."

§ 341. Onomatopeia is the use of a word or phrase formed to imitate the sound of the thing signified; as when we say, rat tat tat, to denote a knocking at the door; bow wow, to express the barking of a dog; or, buzz, buzz, to indicate the noise made by bees.

§ 389. What is Irony?

§ 340. What other names has Apophasis? Define this figure.

8841. What is Onomatopoeia? Exemplify it.

LESSON LI.

EXERCISE ON FIGURES.

POINT out the figures that occur in the following passages, and state to which of the four classes they belong. There may be more than one in the same sentence.

1. They that are of a froward heart are abomination to the Lord: but such as are upright in their way are His delight. 2. As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion. 3. 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 separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 4. The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. 5. Weep on the rocks of roaring winds, O maid of Inistore! Bend thy fair head over the waves, thou lovelier than the ghost of the hills, when it moves on the sunbeam, at noon, over the silence of Morven. He is fallen: thy youth is low! 6. He smote the city. 7. There are a million truths that men are not concerned to know. 8. On this side, modesty is engaged; on that, impudence: on this, chastity; on that, lewdness: on this, integrity; on that, fraud: on this, piety; on that profaneness: on this, constancy; on that, fickleness: on this, honor; on that, baseness: on this, moderation; on that, unbridled passion. 9. For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forAnd I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that, if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. 10. Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, from which we must first erase. 11. Horatius was once a very promising young gentleman; but in process of time he became so addicted to gaming, not to mention his drunkenness and debauchery, that he soon exhausted his estate, and ruined his constitution. 12. Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man's days? 13. Streaming grief his faded cheek bedewed. 14. My heart is turned to stone: I strike it, and it hurts my hand. 15. Friendship is no plant of hasty growth. 16. Cool age advances, venerably wise. 17. Oh! that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom. 18. Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge; but he that hateth re proof is brutish. 19. His arm soon cleared the field.

ever.

20. Some lead a life unblamable and just,
Their own dear virtue their unshaken trust.

21. The combat thickens. On, ye brave,
Who rush to glory or the grave!

22. Oh! unexpected stroke, worse than of death!
Must I thus leave thee, Paradise! thus leavu
Thee, native soil, these happy walks, and shades,
Fit haunt of gods!

23. O books, ye monuments of mind, concrete wisdom of the wisest;
Sweet solaces of daily life; proofs and results of immortality;

Trees yielding all fruits, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations;
Groves of knowledge, where all may eat, nor fear a flaming sword.

24. Earth felt the wound and Nature from her seat

Sighing, through all her works, gave signs of woe
That all was lost.

25. How slow yon tiny vessel ploughs the main !
Amid the heavy billows now she seems
A toiling atom; then from wave to wave
Leaps madly, by the tempest lashed; or reels,
Half wrecked, through gulfs profound.

26. Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell,—
And in the lowest depth, a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.

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§342. For a practical view of the figures defined in Lesson L., and to learn under what circumstances they are most effectively introduced, the young writer is recommended to a careful and critical perusal of standard authors. A few remarks, however, on figures in general, and some brief rules respecting the use of the most important ones, will be found of service.

§ 343. In the first place, an observation already made must be remembered, that composition is by no means dependent on figures for all, or even the greater part, of its beauties and

§ 342. Where is the student referred for a practical view of figures?

843. What observation is first made respecting the effect of figures on compo

merits. Examples of the most sublime and pathetic writing abound, and many have been cited above, in which, powerful as is their effect, no assistance is derived from this source. Figures, therefore, though valuable as auxiliaries, should not be the chief object had in view. If a composition is destitute of striking thoughts, or even if the style is objectionable, all the figures that can be employed will fail to render it agreeable. They may dazzle a vulgar eye, but can never please a judicious

one.

In the second place, to be beautiful, figures must rise naturally from the subject. Dictated by imagination or passion, they must come from a mind warmed by the object it would describe. They must flow in the same train as the current of thought. If deliberately sought out, and fastened on where they seem to fit, with the express design of embellishing, their effect will be directly the opposite of what is intended.

Again, even when imagination prompts and the subject naturally gives rise to figures, they should not be used to excess. The reader may be surfeited with them; and, when they recur too often, they are apt to be regarded as evidence of a superficial mind that delights in show rather than in solid merit.

Lastly, without a genius for figurative language, no one should attempt it. Imagination is derived from nature; we may cultivate it, but must not force it. We may prune its redundancies, correct its errors, and enlarge its sphere; but the faculty itself we can not create. We should therefore avoid attempts which can result only in making our weakness apparent.

With these general principles in view, we proceed to certain rules and cautions relating to simile, metaphor, and hyper bole, the commonest ornaments of style.

§ 344. SIMILE.

sition? What is essential to the beauty of figures? When they are deliberately sought for, what is their effect? What is said of using them to excess, even when they arise naturally from the subject? What writers should avoid attempts at figurative language?

I. Objects must not be compared to things of the same kind, that closely resemble them. Much of the pleasure we receive from this figure arises from its discovering to us similitudes where at first glance we would not expect them. When Milton compares Satan's appearance, after his fall, to that of the sun suffering an eclipse and terrifying the nations with portentous darkness, we are struck with the point and dignity of the simile. But when he likens Eve's bower in Paradise to the arbor of Pomona, or Eve herself to a wood-nymph, we receive but little entertainment, as one bower and one beautiful woman must obviously, in many respects, resemble another.

II. Still less should similes be founded on faint resemblances. In this case they neither explain nor embellish, and instead of entertaining the mind distract and perplex it. Shakspeare, bold in his use of figures, rather than delicate or correct, frequently violates this rule. lowing is a case in point:

"Give me the crown-Here, Cousin, seize the crown:

Here on this side, my hand; on that side, thine.

Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

That owes two buckets, filling one another;

The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen and full of water:

That bucket down, and full of tears, am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high."

The fol

III. Trite similes are by all means to be avoided. Among these may be classed the comparison of a hero to a lion, that of a person in sorrow to a flower drooping its head, of a violent passion to a tempest, of a ruddy cheek to a rose, of a fair brow to alabaster,-which have been handed down from one generation to another, and are still in great favor with second-rate writers. As originally used by those who took them direct from nature, they were beautiful; but frequent use has divested them of all their charm. Indeed this is one criterion by which the true genius may be distinguished from the empty imitator. To the former, the treasures of nature are open; he discerns new shapes and forms, and points of resemblance before unobserved: the latter must humbly follow in the train of those more gifted than himself. Unable to originate any new comparison, he can only re-express the inventions of others.

844. To what must objects not be compared? From what does much of the pleasure we receive from the use of simile arise? Illustrate this by a reference to two of Milton's similes. What is said of similes founded on faint resemblances? Who frequently violates this rule? To what does he make one of his characters compare a crown? What is the effect of this figure? What is the third class of similes that must be avoided? Instance some of these. Show the difference in this respect between the true genius and the imitator. In the fourth place, to what must objects not be tom

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