Emirabitur insolens, Qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea: Qui semper vacuam, semper amabilem Fallacis. Horat. Carm. 1. i. de 1. Pour moi sur cette mer, qu'ici bas nous courons, Et sauver, s'il se peut, ma Raison du naufrage. Boileau, Epitre v. ["There is a time," observes Lord Bolingbroke, “when factions, by the vehemence of their fermentation, stun and disable one another." The author represents factions, first, as discordant fluids, the mixture of which produces violent fermentation; but he quickly relinquishes this view of them, and imputes to them operations and effects, consequent only on the supposition of their being solid bodies in motion: they maim and dismember one another by forcible collisions. "Those whose minds are dull and heavy," according to Swift, "do not easily penetrate into the folds and intricacies of an affair, and therefore can only scum off what they find at the top." That the writer had a right to represent his affair, whatever it was, either as a bale of cloth or a fluid, nobody can deny. But the laws of common sense and perspicuity demanded of him to keep it either the one or the other, because it could not be both at the same time. It was absurd, therefore, after he had penetrated the folds of it, an operation competent only on the supposition of its being some pliable solid body, to speak of scumming off what floated on the surface, which could not be performed unless it was a fluid.—Barron, Lect. 17.] 531. A few words more upon allegory. Nothing gives greater pleasure than this figure, when the representative subject bears a strong analogy, in all its circumstances, to that which is represented but the choice is seldom so lucky; the analogy being generally so faint and obscure, as to puzzle and not please. An allegory is still more difficult in painting than in poetry: the former can show no resemblance but what appears to the eye; the latter hath many other resources for showing the resemblance. And therefore, with respect to what the Abbé du Bos (Reflections sur la Poésie, vol. i. sect. 24) terms mixed allegorical compositions, these may do in poetry; because, in writing, the allegory can easily be distinguished from the historical part: no person, for example, mistakes Virgil's Fame for a real being. But such a mixture in a picture is intolerable; because in a picture the objects must appear all of the same kind, wholly real or wholly emblematical. In an allegory, as well as in a metaphor, terms ought to be chosen 530. The jumbling of metaphorical and natural expression. Examples from Bolingbroke and Swift. that properly and literally are applicable to the representative subject; nor ought any circumstance to be added that is not proper to the representative subject, however justly it may be applicable properly or figuratively to the principal. The following allegory is therefore faulty: For though blood may suggest the cruelty of love, it is an improper or immaterial circumstance in the representative subject: water, not blood, is proper for a whetstone. 532. We proceed to the next head, which is, to examine in what circumstance these figures are proper, in what improper. This inquiry is not altogether superseded by what is said to be the same subject in the chapter of Comparisons; because upon trial it will be found that a short metaphor or allegory may be proper, where a simile, drawn out to a greater length, and in its nature more solemn, would scarce be relished. And first, a metaphor, like a simile, is excluded from common conversation, and from the description of ordinary incidents. Second, in expressing any severe passion that wholly occupies the mind, metaphor is improper. For which reason the following speech of Macbeth is faulty: Methought I heard a voice cry, Sleep no more! Act II. Sc. 3. The following example of deep despair, besides the highly figurative style, hath more the air of raving than of sense: Calista. It is the voice of thunder, or my father? Peace shall return, and all be calm again.—Fair Penitent, Act IV. The metaphor I next introduce is sweet and lively, but it suits not a fiery temper inflamed with passion: parables are not the language of wrath venting itself without restraint. Chamont. You took her up a little tender flower, Just sprouted on a bank, which the next frost Where the sun always shines: there long she flourish'd, 531. When allegory gives great pleasure.-More difficult in painting than in poetry.Choice of terms in allegory.-Circumstances 532 When these figures are proper and when improper Grew sweet to sense and lovely to the eye, Till at the last a cruel spoiler came, Cropt this fair rose, and rifled all its sweetness, Orphan, Act IV. The following speech, full of imagery, is not natural in grief and dejection of mind: Gonsalez. O my son! from the blind dotage Of a father's fondness these ills arose. For thee I've been ambitious, base, and bloody: Mourning Bride, Act V. Sc. 6 533. There is an enchanting picture of deep distress in Macbeth (Act IV. Sc. 6), where Macduff is represented lamenting his wife and children, inhumanly murdered by the tyrant. Stung to the heart with the news, he questions the messenger over and over; not that he doubted the fact, but that his heart revolted against so cruel a misfortune. After struggling some time with his grief, he turns from his wife and children to their savage butcher; and then gives vent to his resentment, but still with manliness and dignity : O, I could play the woman with mine eyes, And braggart with my tongue. But, gentle Heaven! Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; Within my sword's length set him.—If he 'scape, One ex The whole scene is a delicious picture of numan nature. He hath no children-all my pretty ones! What! all my pretty little chickens and their dam, At one fell swoop! Metaphorical expression, I am sensible, may sometimes be used with grace, where a regular simile would be intolerable; but there are situations so severe and dispiriting, as not to admit even the slightest metaphor. It requires great delicacy of taste to determine with firm ness, whether the present case be of that kind: I incline to think it and yet I would not willingly alter a single word of this admirable scene. is; But metaphorical language is proper when a man struggles to bear with dignity or decency a misfortune however great; the struggle agitates and animates the mind: Wolsey. Farewell, a long rarewell, to all my greatness ! 583. Picture of distress from Macbeth.-Instances where metaphorical expression is allowable. The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms, Henry VIII. Act III. Sc. 6. SECTION VII. Figure of Speech. 534. In the section immediately foregoing, a figure of speech is defined, "The using a word in a sense different from what is proper to it ;" and the new or uncommon sense of the word is termed the figurative sense. The figurative sense must 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 shall endeavor to unfold its capital beauties and advantages. In the first place, a word used figuratively or in a new sense, suggests at the same time the sense it commonly bears; and thus it has the effect to present two objects; one signified by the figurative sense, which may be termed, the principal object; and one signified by the proper sense, which may be termed accessory : the principal makes a part of the thought; the accessory is merely ornamental. In this respect, a figure of speech is precisely similar to concordant sounds in music, which, without contributing to the melody, make it harmonious. I explain myself by examples. Youth, by a figure of speech, is termed the morning of life. This expression signifies youth, the principal object, which enters into the thought; it suggests, at the same time, the proper sense of morning, and this accessory object, being in itself beautiful, and connected by resemblance to the principal object, is not a little ornamental. Imperious ocean is an example of a different kind, where an attribute is expressed figuratively: together with stormy, the figurative meaning of the epithet imperious, there is suggested its proper meaning, viz., the stern authority of a despotic prince; and these two are strongly connected by resemblance. 535. In the next place, this figure possesses a signal power of aggrandizing an object, by the following means: Words which have no original beauty but what arises from their sound, acquire an adventitious beauty from their meaning: a word signifying any thing that is agreeable, becomes by that means agreeable; for the agreeableness of the object is communicated to its name. (See chapter ii. part i. sec. 5.) This acquired beauty, by the force of custom, ad 584. The figurative sense. To what it must bear a close relation. Two objects pre vented Examples. Youth, the morning of life. heres to the word even when used figuratively; and the beauty received from the thing it properly signifies, is communicated to the thing which it is made to signify figuratively. Consider the foregoing expression, 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 signifies by means of their intimate connection; and the thing is therefore brought down in our feeling. This bad effect is prevented by using a figurative word instead of one that is proper; as, for example, when we express the sky by terming it the blue vault of heaven; for though no work of art can compare with the sky in grandeur, the expression however is relished, because it prevents the object from being brought down by the familiarity of its proper name. Lastly, By this figure language is enriched, and rendered more copious; in which respect, were there no other, a figure of speech is a happy invention. This property is finely touched by Vida : Quinetiam agricolas ea fandi nota voluptas Exercet, dum læta seges, dum trudere gemmas Poet. lib. iii. 1. 90. The beauties I have mentioned belong to every figure of speech. Several other beauties, peculiar to one or other sort, I shall have occasion to remark afterwards. 536. Not only subjects, but qualities, actions, effects, may be expressed figuratively. Thus as to subject, the gates of breath for the lips, the watery kingdom for the ocean. As to qualities, fierce for stormy, in the expression Fierce winter: Altus for profundus; Altus puteus, Altum mare: Breathing for perspiring; Breathing plants. Again, as to actions, The sea rages; Time will melt her frozen thoughts; Time kills grief. An effect is put for the cause, as lux for the sun; and a cause for the effect, as boum labores for corn. The relation of resemblance is one plentiful source of figures of speech, and nothing is more common than to apply to one object the name of another that resembles it in any respect; height, size, and worldly greatness, resemble not each other; but the emotions they produce resemble each other, and, prompted by this resemblance, we naturally express worldly greatness by height or size: one feels a certain uneasiness in seeing a great depth; and hence depth is made to express any thing disagreeable by excess, as depth 535. By what means this figure aggrandizes an object. How this figure has a happy effect. Its influence on language. |