tion of the phrase, as it were. When metaphors require such an apology, it would be better to omit them. To say of gaming, that it has been the gulf of many a man's fortune, is clear and significant, because every one knows that things may be swalIcwed up and lost in it; but to say that gaming has been the Charybdis or the Scylla of many a man's fortune, would not be understood by multitides. 4. Metaphorical and plain language should not be intermixed in the same period or description, thus distracting the mind by the association of incongruous ideas, or by multiplied images. Examples: "Now from my fond embrace by tempests torn, Our other column of the State is borne,- Here acts are attributed to a column, of which it is incapable. Flame is a figurative expression for the passion of love, but to say of a lover that he whispered his flame into the ear of his mistress, would be faulty language, for it is not the property of flame to be blown into the ear, nor of a whisper to convey flame. Ossian, at first, says, with accuracy and beauty: "Trotheel went forth with the stream of his people, but they met a rock; for Fingal stood unmoved; broken, they rolled back from his side." But he then unhappily mixes literal language with the metaphorical, and confuses the picture; "Nor did they roll in safety; the spear of the king pursued their flight." At first they are presented as the waves of a stream rolling onward, and in the next instant as men that may be pursued and wounded with a spear. 5. Two different metaphors should not meet on one object; this is called a mixed metaphor. All metaphorical combinations that do not coalesce or group well together, make a ridiculous image before the mind; as in the phrases and sentences, "To take arms against a sea of troubles;" "To extinguish the seeds of pride;" "Women were not formed to set an edge on the minds of men, and blow up in them those passions which are apt to rise of their own accord." "I bridle in my struggling muse with pain, Here the muse is presented under the incongruous images of a horse and of a ship. Errors of this kind may easily be avoided by imagining the metaphor represented in a painting. This would make plain all incongruities. 6. Avoid multiplying metaphors on the same subject, or in the same description, producing confusion similar to that arising from the mixed metaphor. Dean Swift says: "Those whose minds are dull and heavy, dc not easily penetrate into the folds and intricacies of an affair, and therefore can only scum off what they find at the top." Here is confusion indeed. The affair is presented under the image of a bale of cloth, and also under that of a boiling and impure liquid. It cannot be both. It might have been presented under the one or the other, without objection. A metaphor should not be spun out, extended, or continued too long. It thus becomes tiresome, and requires too much effort to trace the resemblance. Cowley, Shaftesbury, and Young err greatly in this particular. Thus Dr. Young, speaking of old age, says it should "Walk thoughtful on the silent shore Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon, And put good works on board, and wait the wind Another instance of the same kind is taken from the writings of Rev. James Hervey: "The religious seem to lie in the bosom of the earth, as a wary pilot in some well-sheltered bark. Here they enjoy safe anchorage, are in no danger of foundering among the seas of prevailing iniquity, or of being shipwrecked on the rocks of temptation. But ere long we shall behold them shifting their flag of hope," &c. 7. The abuse of metaphor, or a metaphor carried to excess, in expressing extravagance of emotion, is called Catachresis; e. g., "This moment I could scatter Kingdoms like half-pence. I am drunk with joy. A. Smith. Another example of the abuse of metaphor, is when the young of beasts are called “their sons and daughters;" or when the instinctive economy of bees is called their " government;" when the goat is called "the husband of the flock;" when wine is called "the blool of the grape." 8. Similar to metaphor is allusion, which produces a pleasing effect when understood-from the associations and reminiscences which it awakens. The allusion may be derived from the Scriptures, from the ancient and modern classics, from the sciences, and from the arts. LESSON XCIX. THE ALLEGORY. In the Allegory we rehearse a story or description under which a meaning is veiled different from that which appears on the surface. The analogy is designed to be so obvious, that the application can easily be made, and practical conclusions correctly drawn. It is employed when it is desired to convey information, but not in direct and plain terms; or when there is an aim to interest the imagination; or to get unwelcome truth before the understanding and conscience of those who are prejudiced against it. Horace, in his 14th Ode, Book I., addresses the Roman Commonwealth as a ship; represents the civil wars as a storm at sea; and the return of tranquillity, by a safe harbor. Sometimes whole poems or prose treatises are allegorical; as Spenser's "Faery Queen," Swift's "Tale of a Tub," "Gulliver's Travels," Butler's "Hudibras," and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog ress;" the figures, personages, and scenes represented in them being entirely imaginary, though the moral and the satire contained in them apply to real life. The nature of allegory will be best understood by introducing some examples. Take first that beautiful allegorical representation of the Jewish people which you will find in the 80th Psalm: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered witl. the shadow She sent out Why hast thou of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself." From this instance, it will be noticed that no resemblance is expressly stated to exist between this vine and the Jewish people, and yet there is an obvious resemblance. It is not said that the Jewish people is a vine, nor that it is like a vine thus planted, and defended, and assailed. We are left to discover for ourselves the application, the analogy. It is also to be observed that a minute resemblance in every circumstance or particular is not to be expected or looked for. If the general purpose of the Allegory is discerned, that is sufficient. It is also apparent that the Allegory is neither a Metaphor nor a Comparison, but a story complete in itself, yet furnishing a figurative representation of certain persons, facts, or events. Take, as another beautiful instance of Allegory, that which Nathan, the Hebrew prophet, delivered to King David: "There were two men in one city: the one rich, the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew up together with him and with his children; it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveller unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him." The purpose and the application of this inimitable allegory, as conveyed by the prophet, may be read in the twelfth chapter of Second Samuel. In Prior's "Henry and Emma," we have an allegorical description, admirably sustained and distinct, of Emma's constancy in the Voyage of life: "Did I but purpose to embark with thee On the smooth surface of a summer's sea, But would forsake the ship and make the shore, Allegories have been divided into three kinds: those designed for ornament; for instruction; and for both of these purposes. Of the first sort is Akenside's allegory, in which he beautifully conveys the fact that cultivation is necessary to develop and mature the powers of the human mind, and render them beneficial to society. The allegory, it will be observed, contains no adventitious or foreign circumstance to impair its unity, or obscure its beauty. "In vain Without fair Culture's kind parental aid, His will obsequious, whether to produce For excellent examples of the moral species of allegory, designed principally for instruction, the student is referred to the Allegory of Prodicus, in Xenophon's "Memorabilia," and to the Picture of Human Life, exhibited in the Tablature of Cebes. The power of the Allegory is finely shown in the address of Menenius Agrippa, reported by Livy (Book ii., 32 ), in which he thus adroitly seeks to reconcile the commons to the patricians, between whom, at that time, a dangerous contest seemed to be imminent: "At a time when the members of the human body did not, as at present, all unite in one plan, but each member had its own scheme, and its own language; the other parts were provoked at seeing the fruits of all their care, of all their toil and service, applied to the use of the stomach; and that the stomach meanwhile remained at its ease, and did nothing but enjoy the pleasures provided for it: on this they conspired together, that the hand should not bring food to the mouth, nor the mouth receive it if offered, nor the teeth chew it. While they wished, by these angry measures, to subdue the stomach through hunger, the members, and the whole body, were, together with it, reduced to the las stage of decay from thence it appeared that the office of the stomach tself was 1 |