The uses of the metaphor are, to render the style more animated and striking, by introducing a new idea, in which for the moment the original seems to be lost-to diversify and vary the style, and relieve it from that tedious uniformity, which would be the result of a mode of diction, in which every word was used in the literal sense :-they serve to enlarge and elevate a subject, and bestow dignity on composition. Thus the expression, "Death spares neither the rich nor the poor," is low, when compared with the beautiful lines of Horace, expressive of the same idea:

Pallida mors æquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Regumque turres.

In English,

With equal pace, impartial fate

Knocks at the palace, as the cottage gate.

The rules laid down with regard to metaphors are as follow: They should be suited to the nature of the subject of which we treat they should neither be too many, nor too gay, nor too elevated :-they should not be calculated to raise in the mind disagreeable, mean, vulgar, or dirty ideas :—the resemblance, which is the foundation of the metaphor, should be clear and perspicuous, not far-fetched, nor difficult of discovery two different metaphors should never be made to meet on the same object. This is what is called a mixed metaphor, and is a wretched abuse of the figure. Such is Shakspeare's expression, to "take arms against a sea of troubles :" such, also, is the metaphor in Mr. Addison's Letter from Italy

I bridle in my struggling Muse in vain,
That longs to launch into a bolder strain.

It is highly improper to change the muse from a horse to a ship.

Lastly, metaphors ought not to be crowded or heaped one upon another, nor should they be pursued too far. It is true,

that, under circumstances of great agitation, a flow of metaphors may be allowed; of this we have an instance in Macbeth, against which the most fastidious reader will scarcely object:

Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased?
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow?
Rase out the written troubles of the brain;
And, with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the foul bosom of that perilous stuff,
That weighs upon the heart?

CHAP. X.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE,

Continued.

Allegory-Catachresis-Metonymy-Synecdoche-Periphrasis-Prosopopœia, or Personification-Rules for the management of—Apostrophe-Hyperbole― Irony-Paraleipsis-Interrogation— Exclamation; and Repetition.

AN ALLEGORY is, properly, a continued metaphor, or perhaps more correctly, a series of metaphors in one or more sentences; such is that contained in the 14th Ode of the First Book of Horace:

O navis, referent in mare te novi

Fluctus? O quid agis? fortiter occupa
Portum, &c.

In which, the ship is usually held to stand for the Republic; waves, for civil war; port, for peace and concord; oars, for soldiers; and mariners, for magistrates. In Prior's Henry and Emma, the latter describes her constancy to Henry in the following allegorical manner :

Did I but purpose to embark with thee

On the smooth surface of a summer's sea,

While gentle zephyrs play with prosperous gales,
And fortune's favour fills the swelling sails;
But would forsake the ship, and make the shore,
When the winds whistle, and the tempests roar?

A fine example of an allegory is to be found in the 80th Psalm, in which the people of Israel are represented under the image of a vine, and the figure is supported throughout with great correctness and beauty.

Bishop Lowth has, in his treatise "De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum," specified three forms of allegory that occur in sacred poetry. The first is, that which rhetoricians call a continued metaphor; an example of this kind occurs in the beginning of the twelfth chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes, in which old age is so admirably depicted. A second kind of allegory is that which, in a proper and more restricted sense, may be called a parable, and consists of a continued narration of some fictitious event, accommodated by way of similitude to the illustration of certain important truths. Allegories of this kind are called by the Greeks, apologues; by the Latins, fables. Such are the fables of Æsop, and Pilpay, the Indian sage; and such are the narratives of Christ, conveyed under the name of parables. Such, in later times, is Spenser's Fairy Queen, which consists of a series of these allegories; and the very popular work of John Bunyan, "The Pilgrim's Progress." The third species of allegory, which often occurs in prophetic poetry, is that in which a double meaning is couched under the same words; or when the same discourse, differently interpreted, designates different events, dissimilar in their nature, and remote as to time.

The first of these kinds of allegory differs only in length from the simple metaphor; and it may be observed, that no figure is more delicate or difficult in the hands of a young writer. If the great difficulty in the use of a metaphor, is to preserve the allusion in all its parts, it must be increased, by applying a series of metaphors, to illustrate the same subject. Accordingly we perpetually find even good writers forgetting the figurative, and resorting to the literal sense.

The following are given by Dr. Gregory, as excellent (the first, however, is not altogether faultless) allegorical compositions:

This is the state of inan: to-day, he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow, blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost, a killing frost!
And when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening-nips his root,
And then he falls, &c.

HENRY VIII.

In the fifth line, the literal is, in a measure, confounded with the figurative meaning; but, as a whole, it is very beautiful, and the third line is finely descriptive; but it cannot be concealed, that it is unnatural, as coming from Wolsey after his fall; for we cannot imagine that such an exuberance of allegory and metaphor, as we meet with in this speech, ever fell from the lips of a man overwhelmed in distress and grief.

The next is taken from Gibbon's Roman History. The author, in speaking of the speculative dissensions which existed in the Christian church at the period he is describing, says, "It will not be expected, it would not, perhaps, be endured, that I should swell this theological discussion, by a minute examination of eighteen creeds, the authors of which, for the most part, disclaimed the odious name of their parent, Arius. It is amusing enough to delineate the form, and to trace the vegetation of this singular plant; but the tedious detail of leaves without flowers, and of branches without fruit, would soon exhaust the patience, and disappoint the curiosity of the laborious student."

The CATACHRESIS is a figure which signifies, according to the true meaning of the Greek term, an abuse of words; that is, when the words are too far wrested from their native signification, as a voice beautiful to the ear. The catachresis, is very likely to occur, in oratory, when, in the eagerness and warmth inspired by true eloquence, a man, for want of a word proper to express a thought, uses, or, as the term xalaxαoμaι expresses, abuses a word that comes near it: as when we call a person who has killed his mother, his master, or his sovereign, a parricide, a term which can, in strictness of language, only be applied to one who has murdered his