the form and matter united, or the form for the matter, it is called a metonymy; as, clothed in purple, meaning purple garments. That is his hand, meaning his hand writing. When we put the name of a part for that of the whole, or the name of the whole for that of the part, it is a synecdoche; as, he gets his bread by his industry, meaning his support. When our words convey a sense contrary to what they express, but agreeable to what we intend, or are understood to intend, it is an irony; as, when we call a profli→ ·. gate, a very pious, good man. Particular care should be taken in pronouncing this trope, that our emphasis should have such expression that our meaning may not be misunderstood. These are, strictly speaking, tropes.

The difference between tropes and figures consists in this, that tropes affect single words only or chiefly; figures, are phrases, sentences, or even a continuation of sentences, used in a sense different from the original and literal sense, and yet so used as not to occasion obscurity. Hence, when tropes are extended into a description they become figures. Of figures the most important are the following, allegory, comparison, prosopopeia or personifi cation, apostrophe, hyperbole, climax, and antithesis.

As metaphor is intended to ornament and give animation to a subject, a change of tone, of look, and of general expression, must take place, accommodated to the nature of the illustration introduced. For instance, lord Bolingbroke, speaking of the behaviour of Charles I to his last parliament, says, "In a word, about a month after their meeting, he dissolved them; and, as soon as he dissolved them, he repented; but he repented too late, of his rashness. Well might he repent; for the vessel was now full, and this last drop made the waters of bitterness overflow. Here we draw the curtain, and put an end to our remarks.' This, though a perfectly correct and apposite metaphor, does certainly not require the animation in its delivery which the fol lowing does.

King Lear, when expelled from his house and exposed to all the violence of the tempest, exclaims, in this animated metaphor,

"Poor naked wretches! whereso'er ye are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness defend you
From seasons such as these?"

SHAKSPEARE.

A very different expression from either of the foregoing, viz. a softness of tone, a complacency and gayety of countenance, with a sudden change to the frown of contempt and indignation, and a corresponding tone at the last line, is required in Chamont's speech in the Orphan, which is full of brilliant metaphors: and, at the last of keen resentment against the treatment of his sister:

"You took her up a little tender flower

Just sprouted on a bank, which the next frost
Had nipt; and with a careful loving hand,

Transplanted her into your own fair garden,

Where the sun always shines. There long she flourish'd,

Grew sweet to sense, and lovely to the eye,

Until at last a cruel spoiler came,

Cropt this fair rose, and rified all its sweetness,
Then cast it like a loathsome weed away!"

OTWAY.

The most powerful indications of awe and terror in the tones, looks, and gesture of the speaker, are requisite to give proper expression to the following metaphorical description of the last day by Dr. Young:

"At the destined hour,

By the loud trumpet summoned to the charge,
Shall all the formidable sons of fire,

Eruptions, earthquakes, comets, lightnings, play
Their various engines, all at once disgorge
Their blazing magazines, and take by storm,
This poor, terrestrial, citadel of man."

Night 9.

The following metaphorical description of expiring life, by Dr. J. Watts, should be pronounced with the utmost pathos and solemnity, in a low and tremulous tone of voice, with strong emphatic pauses:

"Here am I bound in chains, a useless load

Of breathing clay-a burden to the seat
That bears these limbs-a borderer on the grave;
Poor state of worthless being! While the lamp
Of glimmering life burns languishing and dim;
The flame just hovering o'er the dying snuff
With doubtful alternations, half disjoin'd,
And ready to expire with ev'ry blast."

Lord Chesterfield, in his speech on restraining the liberty of the press, furnishes us with an assemblage of correct and beautiful metaphors:

"Every unnecessary restraint is a fetter upon the legs, is a shackle upon the hands of Liberty: and one of the greatest blessings we enjoy, one of the greatest blessings, my lords, which a people can enjoy is liberty. But, every good in this life has its allay of evil. Licentiousness is the allay of liberty. It is an ebullition, an excrescence; it is a speck upon the eye of the political body, which I dare never touch but with a gentle, with a trembling hand, lest I injure the body; lest I destroy the eye upon which it is apt to appear. There is such a connexion between licentiousness and liberty, that it is not easy to correct the one without dangerously wounding the other. It is extremely hard to distinguish the true limit between them. In a changeable silk we can easily see there are two different colours, but we cannot easily discover where the one ends and the other begins: they blend insensibly."

Allegory being a metaphor extended so far as to amount to a long continued description, or representation of some one thing by another that resembles it throughout, and the description carried on agreeably to the figurative as well as the literal meaning, requires a similar extension and accommodation of expression, according to the nature of the exemplification. Allegory is sometimes carried through a whole work, as in the Pilgrim's Progress of Bunyan. Spencer's Faery Queen consists of a series of allegories. Opposition of character in allegory, may be exhibited in the following extracts.

Akenside, in his poem on the Pleasures of Imagination, represents by a beautiful allegory, the necessity of industry to promote reputation in every line of life, and that some men are more susceptible of improvement than others:

But, though heav'n

In ev'ry breast hath sown these early seeds
Of love and admiration, yet, in vain,
Without fair Culture's kind parental aid,
Without enliv'ning suns, and genial show'rs,
And shelter from the blast, in vain we hope
The tender plant should rear its blooming head,
Or yield the harvest promis'd in the spring.
Nor yet will ev'ry soil with equal stores
Repay the tiller's labour, or attend
His will obsequious, whether to produce
The olive or the laurel. Different minds
Incline to different objects; one pursues
The vast alone, the wonderful, the wild:
Another sighs for harmony, and grace,
And gentlest beauty.

Here there being little emotion of mind expressed, little action is required: what is used should be slow and graceful; except in the last line but two; when the arms should he raised to the height of the head, and expanded; and at the expressions "wonderful" and "wild" should, though extended, be brought somewhat nearer together, the palms turned outwards, and the fingers expanded, with a corresponding expression of countenance, which should be suddenly contrasted in the next line by a change of tone expressive of tenderness, and a look indicative of love and solicitude, accompanied by a sigh, and inclination of the head to the left shoulder.

In the following extract, the phrenzy of despair is forcibly expressed by Calista, in the Fair Penitent:

It is the voice of thunder, or my father.

Madness! confusion! Let the storm come on,
Let the tumultuous roar drive all upon mel
Dash my devoted bark: ye surges break it!
"Tis for my ruin that the tempest rises!
When I am lost, sunk to the bottom low,
Peace shall return, and all be calm again.

Act 5th

The strongest expressions of grief and terror are to be given to the face and gesture, in the recitation of this energetic passage:

and, as in the former quotation, the last line should exhibit a perfect contrast in tone, look, and action.

I have here selected very brief instances of this figure, being restricted with respect to time, and necessarily led by the nature of my present subject to introduce a variety of examples. For complete allegories I refer you to Dr. Johnson's Rambler, and the other well known periodical works; Milton's allegory of Sin and Death in his second book of Paradise Lost is universally and deservedly applauded.

Nearly allied to metaphor and allegory is comparison, in which the two subjects are kept distinct in the expression as well as in the thought, whereas, in the former, they are distinct in the thought but not in the expression. This sudden change of thought requires an accommodated change of enunciation and action, descriptive of the exemplification introduced.

The degree of action and of general expression must depend altogether upon the nature of the description given: a comparison may be truly eloquent and apposite, and yet admit of very little action, and no variety of tone or change of countenance; as, in the following, from one of the sermons of the late reverend Dr. William Smith;

"Our faith and hope can give us no resemblance of God: but our charity makes us in some sort, what he himself is in a superlative manner-the helpers of the helpless, and partakers of his own joy in beholding a happy world. Our faith and hope may serve us as the handmaids of love here below; but leaving them behind us as of no further use, our love is all that we shall carry hence with us, as our dowery from earth to heaven.

As yonder majestic Delaware is fed and supported in its course by tributary rills and springs, flowing from each mountain's side, till at length it comes to mix its waters with its parent ocean, where it no longer stands in need of their scanty supplies; so faith and hope are the nourishing springs of our love, in our journey heavenwards; but when once arrived there, we shall no longer stand in need of their aid. "When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away." Our faith shall be swallowed up in vision, and our hope in fruition: but our charity and love shall remain forever, mixing and blending in the unbounded ocean of parental and eternal love." Vol. 11, ser. 19.