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33. But, as Longfellow says, "things are not what they seem." 34. The reason, as Macaulay would have said, is obvious.

35. And this, as Touchstone in As You Like It would say, is Good, very good, very excellent good."

XXXI. Point out the devices used in the following to secure emphasis.

I. You, if you are brilliant, such men will hate; you, if you are dull, they will despise.

2. Popular in some degree from the first, they entered upon the inheritance of their fame almost at once. Far different was the fate of Wordsworth.

3. We venture to say, on the contrary, paradoxical as the remark may appear, that no poet has ever had to struggle with more unfavourable circumstances than Milton.

4. Never before were such marked originality and such exquisite mimicry found together.

5. It is when Milton escapes from the shackles of the dialogue, when he is discharged from the labour of uniting two incongruous styles, when he is at liberty to indulge his choral raptures without reserve, that he rises even above himself.

And trembling, shrinking from the spoiler's hand,
Far, far away, thy children leave the land.

6.

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9. Then ensued a scene of woe, the like of which no eye had seen, no heart conceived, and which no tongue can adequately tell. On Linden when the sun was low, All bloodless lay the untrodden snow.

IO.

II.

If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, I never would lay down my arms, never-never-never!

12. The fleur-de-lys was marked on the tree where he was hung with my own proper hand.

13.

Yelled on the view the opening pack;

Rock, glen and cavern paid them back.

14. The more, the merrier.

15. Many men, many minds.

CHAPTER VI

FIGURES OF SPEECH

The ordinary form of expression, however perspicuous, is sometimes felt to be without strength or without vividness. If too familiar, it may fail to attract: if too mean, it may lack dignity. Accordingly, we employ certain deviations from the ordinary application of words, from their ordinary number, from their ordinary arrangement. These deviations are called Figures of Speech, or Tropes. For example, instead of the usual "No one could be so foolish," we may say "Could anyone be so foolish?"; or an unfeeling, merciless man may be described as having “a heart of stone."

Such Figures are intended to impress an idea on the understanding more strikingly or to touch the feelings more effectively. At the same time they often add beauty; but in ordinary prose they should not be introduced merely for ornament. ornamental use should be left to poets.

The

SIMILE. A Simile is a variety of comparison, but it is unlike an ordinary comparison in this. In the Simile, the things I compared differ in kind, and attention is called to some resemblance possessed by them in spite of the difference. When Milton and Dante, both poets, are compared by Macaulay, that is an ordinary comparison. But when Wordsworth addresses Milton, "Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart:

Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea," he uses two Similes.

"Lord Marmion turned-well was his need,
And dashed the rowels in his steed,
Like arrow through the archway sprung."

This shows the idea of a simile. However dissimilar a mounted knight and an arrow are, they may resemble each other in swift, straight flight; and that is the point insisted on here.

METAPHOR. If, instead of comparing things different in kind, we identify them and transfer the name of the one to the other, we have metaphor: e.g. when a crafty man is called "a fox." Compare "The French Revolution was the explosion of a prodigious volcano, which scattered its lava over every kingdom." Sometimes the terseness of the metaphor is used, sometimes the more copious simile. Contrast the two methods applied to one idea in the following:

Metaphor: "Nature, a mother kind alike to all,

Simile:

Still grants her bliss at labour's earnest call."
"As a fond mother, when the day is o'er,
Leads by the hand her little child to bed,
Half willing, half reluctant to be led
And leave his broken playthings on the floor;
So Nature deals with us, and takes away

Our playthings one by one, and by the hand
Leads us to rest."

Similes and metaphors should be in harmony with the tone of the subjects which they illustrate-not high for humble subjects, not low for subjects of dignity. An exception occurs when an inappropriate simile or metaphor is employed either for comic effect; as in Hudibras,

“And, like a lobster boiled, the morn
From black to red began to turn";

or to express contempt; as Burke deriding the Chatham Ministry,

"I venture to say, it did so happen, that persons had a single office divided between them, who had never spoke to each other in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle-bed."

Hackneyed figures do not arrest attention and should be avoided: e.g. "swift as thought." Farfetched similes or metaphors do not illustrate but obscure; as in Cowley's The Mistress,

"Woe to her stubborn heart if once mine come

Into the self-same room!

'T will tear and blow up all within,

Like a grenado shot into a magazine."

MIXED METAPHORS. These render their subjects obscure or absurd. Sometimes the metaphorical is mixed with the literal ; as in "The ship of state weathered the storm, thanks to the skilful pilot at home and the brave armies abroad." Here either make the brave armies also metaphorical, or turn the metaphor into a literal statement. The commonest mixing of metaphor is when the same subject is at one and the same time illustrated by different metaphors intermingled.

"He is one of the careless, good-for-nothing, happy fellows, who float, cork-like, on the surface for the world to play at hockey with." Here the person is a cork floating in water, and at the same time is used for a hockey ball.

Note the absurdity of the mixture in "We may require in things of consequence to stem the popular tide. Let it flow now, in matters of no moment, bolt up hill to get its sweat out. Easy then to flog a tired horse home."

No mixing occurs when we have a succession of metaphors or similes, provided they are kept distinct. An example occurs in Tam O'Shanter:

"But pleasures are like poppies spread,

You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,

A moment white-then melts for ever;
Or like the borealis race,

That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form

Evanishing amid the storm."

Such redundancy should be used seldom and with caution.

Great care should be taken not to wander from the real point of resemblance expressed by the metaphor. This wandering usually consists in running into needless details; and the metaphor is then said to be strained.

"And the year's new gold is pouring from its mint
Through the young hands of its cashier March."

The spring flowers may appropriately be described as newly minted gold; but to drag in the month of March as cashier is straining the figure. The last two lines of the following are also strained: "It (Old Age) should

Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore

Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon:

And put good works on board: and wait the wind
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown."

Sometimes a word is wrested too far from its natural signification, as "a wide-minded man" for "broad-minded"; or "tones palatable to the ear" for "pleasant." This is called catachresis.

ALLEGORY. This is rather a form of literature than a simple figure of speech, but it is essentially a long-sustained metaphor. When one subject is described with wealth of details and all the time another subject with its ramifications is intended to be understood, we have allegory. As an example, take the parable of the Sower (St Luke, ch. viii.).

"A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold." Now follows the explanation which Jesus gave of the parable.

"The seed is the word of God. Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."

Many New Testament parables are allegorical. Allegories occur also in the Old Testament; as Judges, ch. ix. (Jotham's story) and Psalms, lxxx. "The Vision of Mirza" is one by Addison, The Spectator, No. 159. Of the long allegories of English literature it is enough to mention Spenser's Faerie Queene; Swift's

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