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nothing to do with the variations of the weather; and never can be effected by the operation of vapors. In rigorous analysis here is a mixed metaphor, one part of which has reference to an atmospherical phenomenon, and the other to the motions of the planetary system. Yet who would have the hardihood to efface one stroke of the pencil in this beautiful image ?

I have dwelt the more earnestly upon this distinction between the three classes of words and expressions, which may be termed the figurative, the literal, and the intermediate, because it appears to me essential for adjusting the principles of composition and of criticism; and because inattention to it is one of the most abundant sources of erroneous judgment concerning works of taste.

I shall conclude this lecture with an example of false criticism in Dr. Johnson, originating in this same error, a misapplication of the rules, that govern literal language, to figurative speech.

In Gray's bard he apostrophizes the tower of London in the following lines.

"Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame,
By many a foul and midnight murder fed,
Revere his consort's faith, his father's fame,
And spare the meek usurper's holy head.

Here, says Johnson with a sneer, we are told how 66 towers are fed." In the literal sense it would certainly be absurd to speak of feeding a tower. But the personification of inanimate objects is one of the most unquestionable privileges of poetry; and Gray's bard might personify the towers of London, as well as any other object. He does So. Once personified, all the attributes of living persons may be applied to them; and of those towers, the towers of London, where many a foul and midnight murder had been committed, there was strict propriety, as well as striking energy in saying, that with such murders they were fed.

The result then is, that literal and figurative language are governed by different laws; that the realm of imagination has a code of its own, differing materially from that of grammar, and which must not be confounded with it.

Perhaps the rules for the management of figures might all be comprehended under this universal principle of unity, which I have here endeavoured to explain. There are however some others, which, though subordinate, deserve a distinct consideration; which shall be given them in my next lecture.

LECTURE XXXII

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.

IN my last lecture I endeavoured to point out a line of discrimination between figurative and literal language, essentially necessary for fixing the rules of composition; and as a standard of judg ment upon the compositions of others. In illustrating the rule of unity, the great and vital principle of figurative speech, I was naturally led to a comparative view of that and of literal language. In the communication of thought by articulate sounds these are so intermingled together, and yet are governed by systems of regulation so different from each other, that their combinations and oppositions have often produced the effect of perplexing the writer, and entangling the critic.

This distinction I would again recommend to your observation and study. Literal speech, you will remember, is a direct representation of things to the memory and to the rational faculty. Figurative speech is an indirect representation of things to the senses and to the imagination. Literal speech therefore is combined upon principles of mere ratiocination; and the words, which stand for ideas, are put together by the rules of syntax. But figurative speech is subject in some sort to the dominion of the senses, and to the laws of

matter.

Literal and figurative expressions are so blended together in the practice of speech, that the boundaries between them are imperceptible; like the colors of the rainbow, of which the dullest eye can perceive the varieties, while the keenest cannot catch the precise point, at which every separate tint is parted from its neighbouring hue. I have observed, that a great proportion of all human language consists of expressions originally figurative, but which from frequency of use have become literal; and I have urged, that to them the principles of figurative language can seldom be applied; that the abuse of such application to them is one of the great sources of erroneous criticism, and a

principle cause why "ten censure wrong, for one who writes amiss." I have particularly shown you by a variety of examples, that derivative words, adopted from foreign languages, can seldom be bound to the figurative analogies of their primary meaning. In this respect I have pleaded for a degree of indulgence perhaps greater, than most philological writers have hitherto been willing to allow. I plead for it however from the necessity of the case. That theory of human science must be false, to which no practice ever was or ever can be made to conform. They, who insist that the figure of a primitive word must be retained through all the changes, which it undergoes in its intercourse with mankind, should remember, that even the modifications of matter disdain all such limitations. Shakspeare's Hamlet traces the dust of Caesar and Alexander, until they stop the bunghole of a beer barrel. But he does not contend that the patch, which expels the winter's flaw, is still to be admired as a hero, or obeyed as the conqueror of the world.

The second rule for the management of figu rative language is that of congruity. As the power of imagery results from the association of ideas, to make the communication clear and distinct, ey

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