viewing the example as a whole, or in outline; as in irony and the third degree of personification, where the figure depends quite as much on the pervading thought as on the idea of a particular word. Again, it may be advisable to restrict the view, and inspect, slowly and carefully, one line at a time. Perhaps not infrequently it will be found expedient to employ, in turn, both modes of procedure. You can never analyze an example by a prolonged stare. Think, and think by method. There must be in your mind's eye standards of comparison by which to judge and classify, and these standards are no other than the definitions with their typical illustrations. EXERCISES. I. Most of the following contain figures- -some do not. Indicate the figurative parts, without naming them, carefully discriminating, where required, (1) the literal meaning of the word, (2) the intended or figurative meaning, (3) the association between the two, (4) the source or basis of association. Thus: 1. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. Literal: The sun shines without effect upon the blind, because the proper sense is wanting. Intended: The effect of sin, corrupting the heart and clouding the judgment, is insensibility to spiritual instruction. Association: Similitude, or resemblance. The spiritually blind are insensible to the Divine teachings, as the physically blind are insensible to the light of the sun. Basis: The analogy between matter and spirit. 2. 'Give us this day our daily bread.' Literal: A species of food made of flour or meal. Intended Food in general. Association: Relation between the whole and a part, or between the genus and a species. Basis: Analogy between one material substance and another. 3. Streaming grief his faded cheek bedewed.' Literal: Mental distress. Intended: Tears-effect of grief. Association: Relation between cause and effect. Basis: Analogy between spirit and matter. 4. It was a brilliant thought.' Literal: A glittering or lustrous appearance. Intended: A thought of unusual excellence or merit. 5. Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.' Literal: A body suspended from a fixed point and swinging to and fro between limits, as the pendulum of a clock. Intended: Man's life is full of contrasted experiences, alternately happy and sorrowful. Association: Resemblance. Basis: Analogy between matter and spirit. 6. A sunny disposition. 7. A flashy character. 8. Hazy thoughts. 9. Unclouded hopes. 10. Starless despair. 11. Rosy-fingered morn. 12. Wheeling planets. 13. The natural world. 14. Golden clouds. 15. A gorgeous sunset. 16. Ruffled spirits. 17. Checkered life. 18. The very head and front of my offending. 19. I will run in the way of thy commandments. 20. Joy brightened his soul. 21. It cannot be wondered at, considering the greenness of his years. 22. The swan gives out his snowy plumage to the gale. 23. Time had worn deep furrows in his face. 24. No beauty beaming on his clouded mind. 25. O thou, who sweetly bendst my stubborn will. 26. He almost sank beneath the iron arm of war. 27. Virtue is a jewel. 28. That the earth is a sphere is easily proved. 29. Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 30. Groans are the flowers plucked from the tree of anguish. 31. A green memory. 32. Satan is a roaring lion. 33. She was the favorite lamb of his little flock. 34. My advent'rous song. 35. The pilot steers the fearless ship. 36. Shapeless age brings thy father to his drooping chair. 37. My soul is melted because of trouble. 38. But sent leanness into their souls. 39. The artist commenced with a soft streamy note of celestial quality; and with three or four whips of his bow elicited points of sound as bright as stars. 40. Teachers are the parents of the mind. II. Introduce figurative language into the following. In doing so, endeavor to call to mind other objects and ideas related in some way to the ones proposed for the exercise. Thus: Plain. 1. The earth is dry 2. Avoid intoxicating drinks 3. Sorrow saddens the heart 4. The lake was still 5. He was brave 6. Old age Figurative. The earth thirsts. - Flee from the bottle. = Sorrow is a cloud on the heart. = The lake was asleep. He was a lion. The sunset of life. 7. He was number one in his class. (Head.) 8. Misfortunes soon pass away. (Clouds.) 9. The beauty of that fair face is wasted. (Bloom.) 10. Can old age make folly venerable? (Gray hairs.) 11. Confusion on thy soldiers wait. (Banners.) 12. The sound of the thunder is echoed from peak to peak. (Leaps.) 13. He is greatly afflicted. (Has laid her hand heavily.) 14. He sank in the ocean. (Swallowed.) 15. The waters made a pleasant noise among the rocks. (Danced merrily.) 16. A poor peasant who had never been educated. (Ignorance, lap, nursed.) 17. He was invisible, owing to the darkness of the night. (Hidden, shadows; or, shrouded, dark mantle.) 18. Thou must pass many years in this world, where wise men may suffer difficulties and hardships, and foolish persons must find trouble. (Sea, long voyage, shipwreck.) 19. The sun shines on the mountain tops. (Gilds.) 20. I fear his honesty is a—of recent growth. 21. Sorrow like - darkens the soul. 22. The wind is. 23. The message. 24. The desire. 25. The policy of the administration. 26. His ambition 27. The music was-. (Let the predicate be a symbol of some smell, taste, or touch, as also in the two following.) 28. Praise-. 29. The heart. 30. His purpose · ; but his execution. (Let the predicate be a symbol of motion.) 31. The good man enjoys comfort in the midst of adversity. (Light, darkness.) 32. Fortune, though it may involve us in temporal difficulties, cannot make us perma nently unhappy, if we do no evil. III. Point out and name the various figures in the following extracts: 1. Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.'-Bible. 2. Procrastination is the thief of time.-Young. 3. All experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades 4. Where are the bodies of the lost ones over whom the melancholy waves alone have been chanting requiem? What shrouds were wrapped round the limbs of beauty, and of manhood, and of placid infancy, when they were laid on the dark floor of the secret tomb?— Greenwood. 5. Like leaves on trees, the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now withering on the ground, Another race the following spring supplies; They fall successive, and successive rise; So generations in their course decay; So flourish these, when those are past away.-Shelley. 6. A tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.-Irving. 7. Where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?—Bible. 8. Intemperance dethrones man's reason, and hides her bright beams in the mystic clouds that roll around the shattered temple of the human soul, curtained with midnight.-Gough. 9. As immediately after looking at the sun we cannot perceive the light of a fire, while by looking at the fire first and the sun afterwards we can perceive both; so, after receiving a brilliant, or weighty, or terrible thought, we cannot appreciate a less brilliant, less weighty, or less terrible one, while, by reversing the order, we can appreciate each.-Spencer. (Simile, Antithesis, Metaphor, Climax.) 10. If the flights of Dryden, therefore, are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant.-Dr. Johnson. 11. Malicious envy rode Upon a ravenous wolf, and still did chaw All in a kirtle of discolourd say He clothed was ypaynted full of eies, And in his bosom secretly there lay An hateful snake, the which his taile uptyes In many folds, and mortall sting implyes.-Spenser. 12. In mortals, there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.-Ruskin. 13. You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! (Five different figures, two of which are Climax and Hyperbole.) 14. The accomplished orator treads the stage and holds in his hand the audience, hour after hour, descanting on the nation's fate, the nation's duty. Men look up and say how easy it is, that it is very wonderful, and how fortunate it is to be born with such a power. But behind every little point of accomplishment there is a great beam of endeavor and toil that reaches back from the man's manhood, to his earliest youth.-Theodore Parker. 15. The Soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, As they draw near their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view That stand upon the threshold of the new.-Goethe. (Antithetical and highly Metaphorical, with Climax.) 16. They fall away like the flower on which the sun looks in his strength, when the mildew has passed over it, and its head is heavy with the drops of the night.-Ossian. 17. The soul of man is like the rolling world, |