Ch. XX. tive fubject, however juftly it may be applicable properly or figuratively to the principal. Upon that acCount the following allegory is faulty.

Ferus et Cupido,

Semper ardentes acuens fagittas

Cote cruenta.

Horat. I. 2. ode 8.

For though blood may fuggeft the cruelty of love, it is an improper or inmaterial circumftance in the reprefentative fubject: water, not blood, is proper for a whetstone.

We proceed to the next head, which is, to examine in what circumftances thefe figures are proper, in what improper. This inquiry is not altogether fuper feded by what is faid upon the fame fubject in the chapter of comparifons; because, upon trial it will be found, that a fhort metaphor or allegory may be proper, where a fimile, drawn out to a greater length and in its nature more folemn, would scarce be relished.

And, in the first place, a metaphor, like a fimile, is excluded from common converfation, and from the defcription of ordinary incidents.

In the next place, in expreffing any fevere paffion that totally occupies the mind, metaphor is unnatural. For which reafon, we muft condemn the following fpeech of Macbeth:

Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more!
Macbeth doth murther fleep; the innocent fleep;
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd fleeve of Care,
The birth of each day's life, fore Labour's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's fecond courfe,
Chief nourisher in Life's feast
Act 2. fc. 3.

The next example, of deep defpair, befide the highly figurative ftyle, hath more the air of raving than of fense:

Califta. Is it the voice of thunder, or my father? Madness! Confufion! let the ftorm come on, Let the tumultuous roar drive all upon me, Dash my devoted bark: ye furges, break it;, 'Tis for my ruin that the tempeft rises, When I am loft, funk to the bottom low, Peace fhall return, and all be calm again.

Fair Penitent, a&t_4.
The

The metaphor I next introduce, is fweet and lively, but it fuits not the fiery temper of Chamont, inflamed with paffion parables are not the language of wrath venting itself without restraint:

Chamont. You took her up a little tender flower,
Juft fprouted on a bank, which the next froft
Had nip'd; and with a careful loving hand,
Tranfplanted her into your own fair garden,
Where the fun always fhines: there long the flourish'd,
Grew fweet to fenfe and lovely to the eye,
Till at the laft a cruel fpoiler came,

Cropt this fair rose, and rifled all its sweetness,
Then caft it like a loathfome weed away.

Orphan, at 4. The following fpeech, full of imagery, is not natural in grief and dejection of mind.

Gonfalez. O my fon! from the blind dotage
Of a father's fondnefs thefe ills arofe.

For thee I've been ambitious, bafe and bloody;
For thee I've plung'd into this fea of fin;
Stemming the tide with only one weak hand,

While t'othe: bore the crown, (to wreathe thy brow), .
Whose weight has funk me ere I reach'd the fhore.

Mourning Bride, act 5. fc 6. There is an inchanting picture of deep diftress in Macbeth, where Macduff is reprefented lamenting his wife and children, inhumanly murdered by the tyrant. Stung to the heart with the news, he queftions the meffenger over and over: not that he doubted the fact, but that his heart revolted against so cruel a misfortune. After ftruggling fome time with his grief, he turns from his wife and children to their favage butcher; and then gives vent to his refentment, but fill with manliness and dignity:

. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,

And braggart with my tongue. But, gentle Heav'n!!
Cut fhort all intermiffion; front to front

Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myfelf;
Within my fword's length fet him

Then Heav'n forgive him too.

* A& 4. fc. 6.

If he 'fcape,

The

The whole scene is a delicious picture of human nature. One expreffion only feems doubtful in examining the meffenger, Macduff expreffes himself thus:

He hath no children

all my pretty ones!
Did you fay, all? what, all? Oh, hell-kite! all?
What! all my pretty little chickens and their dam,
At one fell fwoop!

Metaphorical expreffion, I am fenfible, may fometimes be used with grace where a regular fimile would be intolerable but there are fituations fo fevere and difpiriting, as not to admit even the flighteft metaphor. It requires great delicacy of tafte to determine with firmnefs, whether the prefent cafe be of that nature: I incline to think it is; and yet I would not willingly alter a fingle word of this admirable scene.

But metaphorical language is proper when a man ftruggles to bear with dignity or decency a misfortune however great the ftruggle agitates and animates the mind:

Wolfey, Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness! This is the ftate of man; to-day he puts forth The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow bloffoms, And bears his blushing honours thick upon him; The third day comes a froft, a killing troft, And when he thinks, good eafy man, full furely His greatness is a ripening, nips his root, And then he falls as I do.

SECT. VII.

I fpeech is defined,

Henry VIII. act 3. fc. 6.

Figure of Speech.

N the fection immediately foregoing, a figure of "The ufing a word in a fenfe different from what is proper to it," and the new or uncommon fense of the word is termed the figurative fenfe. The figurative fenfe muft have a relation to that which is proper; and the more intimate the relation is, the figure is the more happy. How ornamental this figure is to language, will not be readily imagined by any one who hath not given peculiar attention; and therefore I fhall endeavour to unfold its capital beauties and advantages. In the first place, a word uted figuratively,

in a new sense, fuggefts at the fame time the sense

it commonly bears: and thus it has the effect to prefent two objects; one fignified by the figurative fenfe, which may be termed the principal object; and one fignified by the proper fenfe, which may be termed acceffory: the principal makes a part of the thought; the acceffory is merely ornamental. In this refpect, a figure of fpeech is precifely fimilar to concordant founds in mufic, which, without contributing to the melody, make it harmonious. I explain myfelf by examples. Youth, by a figure of fpeech, is termed the morning of life: this expreffion fignifies youth, the principal object, which enters into the thought; it fuggefts, at the fame time, the proper fense of morning; and this acceffory object, being in itself beautiful, and connected by refemblance to the principal object, is not a little ornamental. Imperious ocean is an example of a different kind, where an attribute is expreffed figuratively together with formy, the figurative meaning of the epithet imperious, there is fuggefted its proper meaning, viz. the ftern authority of a defpotic prince; and thefe two are ftrongly connected by refemblance. Upon this figurative power of words, Vida defcants with great elegance:

Nonne vides, verbis ut veris fæpe relictis
Accerfant fimulata, aliundeque nomina porro
Tranfportent, aptentque aliis ea rebus; ut ipfæ,
Exuviafque novas, res, infolitofque colores
Indutæ, fæpe externi mirentur amictus
Unde illi, læræque aliena luce fruantur,
Mutatoque habitu, nec jam fua nomina mallent?
Sæpe ideo, cum bella canunt, incendia credas
Cernere, diluviumque ingens furgentibus undis.
Contra etiam Martis pugnas initabitur ignis,
Cum furit accenfis acies Vulcania campis.
Nec turbato oritur quondam mor æquore pugna:
Confligunt animofi Euri certamine vasto

Inter fe, pugnantque adverfis molibus undæ.
Ufque adeo paffim fua res infignia læræ
Permutantque, juvantque viciflim; et mutua fefe
Altera in alterius transformiat protinus ora.
Tum fpecie capti gaudent fpectare legentes:
Nain diverfa fimul datur è re cernere eadem

Multarum

Multarum fimulacra animo fubeuntia rerum.

Poet, lib. 3. 1.

44.

In the next place, this figure poffeffes a fignal power of aggrandifing an object, by the following means. Words, which have no original beauty but what arifes from their found, acquire an adventitious beauty from their meaning: a word fignifying any thing that is agreeable, becomes by that means agreeable; for the agreeableness of the object is communicated to its name *. This acquired beauty, by the force of cuftom, adheres to the word even when used figuratively; and the beauty received from the thing it properly fignifies, is communicated to the thing which it is made to fignify figu ratively. Confider the foregoing expreffion Imperious ocean, how much more elevated it is than Stormy ocean,

Thirdly, This figure hath a happy effect by preventing the familiarity of proper names. The familiarity of a proper name, is communicated to the thing it fignifies by means of their intimate connection; and the thing is thereby brought down in our feeling t. This bad effect is prevented by ufing a figurative word instead of one that is proper; as, for example, when we exprefs the fky by terming it the blue vault of heaven; for though no work of art can compare with the fky in magnificence, the expreffion however must be relifhed, because it prevents the object from being brought down by the familiarity of its proper name. With respect to the degrading familiarity of proper names, Vida has the following paffage.

Hinc fi dura mihi paffus dicendus Ulyffes,

Non illum vero memorabo nomine, fed qui
Et mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes,

*See chap. 2. part 1. fect 5.

Naufragus

+ I have often regretted, that a factious spirit of oppofition to the reigning family makes it neceffa y in public worship to distinguish the King by his proper name. One will fearce imagine, who has not made the trial, how much better it founds to pray for our Sovereign Lord the King, without any addition.