in which things are employed, the words are used in their ordinary manner, and the objects which they denote are employed for illustration and embellishment; as when the flying of a hawk round in a circle without moving its wings, is said to be like the motion of a ship borne round in the wide sweep of a rapid whirlpool, without changing its canvas.

An expression or passage is figurative that contains a figure of either of these classes. A phrase or sentence cannot be figurative without a figure. To prove that an expression or sentence is figurative, it must be shown that there is a figure in it, and the class determined to which it belongs.

There are nine kinds of figures-the Comparison, the Metaphor, the Metonymy, the Synecdoche, the Hyperbole, the Hypocatastasis, the Apostrophe, the Prosopopoia or Personification, and the Allegory or Parable.

A Comparison is an affirmation of the likeness of one thing to another; as when it is said of man-His days are as grass; as a flower of the field so he flourisheth, for the wind passeth over it and it is gone.

A Metaphor is an affirmation, or representation by words, that an agent, object, quality, or act, is that which it merely resembles; as when God is

said to be a high tower or fortress to them that trust in him for protection, to indicate the safety in which he preserves them.

A Metonymy is a change of name by the denomination of a thing by a noun that is not its proper nor its metaphorical denominative, but is the proper name of something with which, as a scene or place, it is intimately connected; as when a person is said to have a long head, to signify that he has a farseeing and comprehensive mind.

The Synecdoche is the use of a term that properly denotes only a part of a thing, or one of a kind, in place of one that denotes the whole, or of one that denotes the whole instead of one that signifies only a part; as a species for a genus, such as a day for time, man for mankind.

The Hyperbole is an exhibition of things as greater or less in dimensions, more or less in number, or better or worse in kind, than they truly are; as when it is said of a large man, he is a giant; or of a splendid mansion, it is a palace.

The Hypocatastasis is a substitution, without a formal notice, of an act of one kind, with its object

or conditions, for another, in order by a resemblance to exemplify that for which the substitute is used; as when a person attempting to accomplish something that either from its nature, or his power or condition, is impossible or of extreme difficulty to him, is said to undertake to force his bark against wind and tide—a work of one kind which is known to be hopeless, being employed to exemplify the impracticableness of the other.

The name Hypocatástasis, in Greek "Iñonatáσtãσis, denoting substitution, is drawn, like the names of all the other figures, from that language, and is, like them, descriptive of the figure itself, which consists in the use of one thing as the substitute for another for the purpose of illustration.

The Apostrophe is a direct address, in a speech, argument, narrative, or prediction, to a person or object that is the subject of discourse, or to one who hears it, and is to form a judginent respecting it; as when one, in pronouncing a funeral eulogy, directly addresses the departed, as though he were listening to what is uttered, and able to respond to and confirm it.

The Prosopopoeia, or Personification, is an ascription of intelligence to an inanimate object, by

addressing it as though it had the organs of hearing or sight, or ascribing to it the passions or actions of men; as when the prophet calls to the heavens to hear, and to the earth to attend to his word.

The Allegory, or Parable, is the use of intelligences acting in one sphere or relation, to exemplify and illustrate their own or the agency of others in another; or the use of unintelligent objects in a natural or supposititious relation, to exemplify the conduct of men. They are sometimes employed together; as in the lxxxth Psalm, a vine is used as the representative of the Israelites; and God's planting and rearing it is employed to exemplify his administration over them. There is always an intimation at the beginning or close of the Allegory or Parable, who or what it is, that it is employed to exemplify.

Figures differ essentially from symbols; figures being used only for illustration and ornament, and the agents or objects to which they are applied being always the agents or subjects of the acts or qualities which they ascribe to them; while symbols, on the other hand, instead of mere names or predicates of agents or objects, are themselves agents, objects, qualities, acts, conditions, or effects,

that are used as representatives of agents, objects, qualities, acts, conditions, or effects, generally of a different but resembling class. Thus in Daniel's vision, wild beasts are employed as prophetic representatives of cruel, bloody, and destroying men: powerful and ferocious creatures in the animal world, that preyed on inferior beasts, being put in the place of men in the political world of a corresponding character towards mankind; and destructive acts of the one employed to represent the resembling acts of the other. In like manner, in the Apocalypse, candlesticks, or lamp stands, whose office it is to support lights, are used to represent churches which support teachers that spread the knowledge of the Gospel; and stars whose office it is to shed light on the world when wrapped in the darkness of night, are employed as representatives of teachers of the church, whose work it is to spread the light of the Gospel in the world of men, which is involved in moral darkness.

Questions which the learner should answer in respect to the nature of figures, their classes, and kinds.

What is a figure of speech? How many classes of figures are there! What are they! Give an example of one that lies in the use of a word. Give an example of one that lies in the use of a thing. For what purpose are they used; or what service do they render in the treatment of subjects? What figures belong to the