parison with the sudden, irresistible effect of a shaft of lightning. When Shelley says:

My soul is an enchanted boat,

Which like a sleeping swan doth float

Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing,

And thine doth like an angel sit

Beside the helm conducting it,

we are not to imagine that the words in these lines are
used in their ordinary sense, which would make the whole
a piece of arrant nonsense. Yet the enchanted boat, the
sleeping swan, the silver waves, and the angel sitting at
the helm form, by their suggestions to our fancy, a vivid
picture of the soul's quiet and dream-like rapture. The
face of the words imports one thing-a material object;
their intent, another - a spiritual condition. When, as
in these examples, words are employed to signify some-
thing different from their original and common meaning,
they are said to be used figuratively. The literal mean-
ing being the one first given to a word, a figurative
meaning is a meaning different from the first, yet sug-
gested by it on account of a similarity. Thus the literal
meaning of head is that part of the body containing the
brain: its figurative meaning is any secondary use to
denote a similar relation of parts; as, the head of this
chapter, the head of a column, the head of a stream.
The word dull is literally applied to a sensible object-
an edged tool. Imagining that there is some likeness
between the mental effect of a stupid essay and the ma-
terial effect of a blunt instrument, we may speak of the
essay as being dull-using the word in an extended or
changed sense. 'A deep stream' is literal. 'A deep
thinker' is figurative. Sometimes the deviation is, as has
been intimated, formal rather than significant. Thus:
I saw a vision in my sleep

That gave my spirit strength to sweep
Adown the gulf of time.-Campbell.

We ne'er are angels till our passions die.-Decker.
Whilom in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth
Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight;
Ah me! in sooth he was a godless wight,
Childe Harold was he hight.-Byron.

Figurative Association.-When words are thus used in a sense different from that first or commonly assigned to them, three things require our attention: the literal, or, as it is sometimes called, the proper meaning of the word; the idea meant to be conveyed by it; and the connecting link between them. This connecting link, as has been indicated, is no other than the association of ideas. When a word has in the first instance been appropriated to any particular thing, and is afterward turned or converted to the representation of some other thing, its new meaning must arise from some association with the old.

Sources of Figurative Association.-1. As all human ideas are derived either from outward objects or from the reflections of our own minds upon such objects, it follows that the most abundant source of figurative association is the real or fancied resemblance between matter and spirit. This is a point so important that it deserves particular illustration, though already illustrated by each of the preceding examples. In the Scriptures, God is said to have made man in his own image, after his own likeness; and in all his providences, with which sacred history abounds, he is ever represented as operating by physical organs-as seeing, hearing, speaking, working, and resting, like the mere clod of humanity. Nothing could be more absurd than to insist that such statements were meant to be construed literally. To make the idea of immaterial energies intelligible to the mind of man—especially to that of the young and the uneducated they must be presented in sensible im

agery imagery borrowed from objects perceptible to the five senses. Nothing that relates to spiritual nature can be so clearly and forcibly expressed as by material images that is, by the likeness which we can all see between our thoughts and things outward. So, to signify the inward cleansing of the soul, the Psalmist says: "Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.' To those who ask, God is said to give the living water, meaning the Divine truth and grace, which nourish the soul, as the water of the spring strengthens the thirsty. Selecting the beauties of early summer to describe the prevalence of the Gospel, Isaiah says: 'The desert shall blossom as the rose.' Borrowing the imagery of war, the Scriptures speak of the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, the sword of the spirit. In the parable of the sower, the several natures of men are denoted by the different kinds of soil, and Divine truth is the seed. Using the material images of plants to explain the growth of mind with its different qualities and productions, John the Baptist exhorts men to repent or to look for the speedy execution of judgment: The axe is laid unto the root of the tree; therefore, every tree which beareth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.' The brevity of life and the transitory nature of human things are illustrated, with peculiar beauty and power, by the herbs of the field: 'He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down.' 'All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.'

2. A second important source of figurative association is the analogy between one material substance and another, whether animate or inanimate. The names for various parts of the body are applied to things without life. Thus we speak of the leg of a stool; of the foot, crest, spur, or shoulder of a mountain; of the teeth of a comb; of the neck of a bottle; of the tongue of a shoe; of the eye of a

needle; of the head of a cabbage; of the breast of a wave, and the bosom of a rose. Plants are named from animals or the limbs of animals; as fox-tail, cock's-comb, cranebill, lark-spur. Attributes and functions of animate beings are transformed to the inanimate, as living water, living rock, quick-silver, lively colors, dying embers; a comparison stumbles, the ground thirsts, and drinks in the dew, the hills clap their hands, the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing. By a reverse process, the life of vegetables is applied to the physical life of man. We speak of the scion of a noble stock, the fruit of good works. In the same manner, human relationships are attributed by analogy to external things. In Eschylus, the Salmydessian harbor is a step-mother of ships; flamesmoke is the sister of fire; dust, the brother of wind. Hebrew and Arabic, the arrow is the son of the bow; sparks are the sons of fire. In modern poetry, Peele calls lightning the fair spouse of thunder, and Tennyson says: Earn well the thrifty days, nor wed Raw Haste, half-sister of Delay.

Figures of Diction may therefore be defined as deviations from the significant or formal value of words.

FIGURES OF THOUGHT.

What they are.—Sometimes the figure results not from a turn of the word, but rather from a turn of the thought a deviation from the usual form of the sentence, or usual arrangement of its parts. Thus, instead of the usual form, 'Men are ungrateful,' we may employ the unusual form, 'Oh, the ingratitude of men!'- which is more pleasing and far more forcible. When we desire to express an opinion more strongly than by a simple statement, we may put it in the form of a question - not to receive answer or information, but to secure greater animation and energy: Who is here so vile, that will

not love his country?' 'Canst thou by searching find out God?' 'Cannot God create another world many times more fair, and cast over it a mantle of light many times more lovely?' Things of an opposite or different nature, like contrasted colors, may be rendered more striking by placing them near together: 'Every sweet has its sour, every evil has its good.' A thought may be expressed with increased force by arranging its particulars, when possible, in the ascending order of their importance; as, 'The power of man, his greatness, his glory, depend on essential qualities.' If it is desired to weaken. the meaning, the order is descending; as, 'He lost his wife, his child, his household goods, and his dog, at one fell swoop.' For the sake of greater energy, a speaker may suddenly change the current of his thought, and, instead of speaking of an object in the third person, may address himself to it or to some other object directly, as if it were listening:

You have now assembled within these sacred walls to perform the last duties of respect and love, on the birthday of your benefactor, beneath that roof which has resounded of old with the master voices of American renown. Listen, Americans, to the lessons which seem borne to us on the very air we breathe, while we perform these dutiful rites. Ye winds, that wafted the Pilgrims to the land of promise, fan in their children's hearts the love of freedom! Blood, which our fathers shed, cry from the ground! Echoing arches of this renowned hall, whisper back the voices of other days! Glorious Washington, break the long silence of that votive canvas: speak, speak, marble lips, teach us the love of liberty protected by law.- Edward Everett.

It is thus seen that, while the words may, for the most part, be used in their established significations, the thought may be turned, or the form of the sentence may be varied from the common usage for purposes of vivacity and emphasis.

Figures of thought, therefore, are deviations from the