rugged and gigantic elevations. The roses and myrtles bloom unchilled on the verge of the avalanche." A metaphor is a simile that may often be reduced to a single word; or, it may be said to be a similitude without the signs of comparison. Thus, if we say, "That man is like a fox,” we make use of a simile; but if we say, "That man is a fox," we employ a metaphor to illustrate the character of the man. Hence, a simile may be literally true in a limited sense, but a metaphor must be literally false. 1. It was said of Demosthenes, that "He was the bulwark of Athens." This is an appropriate and striking metaphor; and if it be asked why it is so, we answer, by resolving it into a simile, thus :-" Because, as a bulwark guards a place from its enemies, so Demosthenes, by his cloquence, guarded the Athenian state." Let the following metaphors be explained in a similar manner. 2. In the poems long attributed to Ossian, a hero is described in the following language:-"In peace thou art the gale of spring; in war the mountain storm.”—Macpherson. 3. The following is said of a vain woman:— "She was covered with the light of beauty; but her heart was the house of pride." 4. Byron has the following striking metaphor:— "Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear." 5. "The giant, man, long crushed by usurpers of divine right, is flinging off the Etna from his mangled breast." His limbs are not yet drawn from under the quaking and groaning, fire-spouting mass."-Dr. Bethune. a The allusion, here, is to the fabled giant Enceladus. See Fifth Reader, p. 409. 6. Of party strife, it has been said, "Into this turbid maelstrom, from which virtue and conscience never come forth without a stain, good but ambitious men, of facile morality and feeble purposes, are ever ready to plunge."Dr. Olin. 7. In the following extract from a speech of Daniel Webster at the laying of the corner-stone of Bunker Hill Monument, in 1825, the rising of South America into the light of intellectual and political freedom is illustrated by the metaphor of a continent emerging from the waters of the ocean into the light of day :: "When the battle of Bunker Hill was fought, the existence of South America was scarcely felt in the civilized world. Borne down by colonial subjugation, monopoly, and bigotry, those regions of the South were hardly visible above the horizon. But in our day there has been, as it were, a new creation. The southern hemisphere emerges from the sea. Its lofty mountains begin to lift themselves. into the light of heaven; its broad and fertile plains stretch out in beauty to the eye of civilized man, and at the mighty bidding of the voice of political liberty the waters of darkness retire." 8. The following, in which ancient oratory is represented as a flood, etc., is a beautiful and forcible metaphor, however extravagant the statement may be: "The mighty flood of speech rolls on in a channel ever full, but which never overflows. Whether it rushes in a torrent of allusions, or moves along in a majestic exposition of enlarged principles, descends hoarse and headlong in overwhelming invective, or glides melodious in narrative and description, its course is ever onward and entire―never scattered, never stagnant, never sluggish."-Lord Brougham. 9. A metaphor is sometimes used to detract from the importance of the subject to which it is applied; thus: "It was in self-defence that Puritanism began those transient persecutions of which the excess shall find in me no apologist; and which yet were no more than a train of mists hovering, of an autumn morning, over the channel of a fine river, that diffused freshness and fertility wherever it wound."-George Bancroft. 10. But metaphors should not introduce comparisons that are inconsistent with the subject, and impossible. Hence the following incongruous metaphor is very objectionable and ludicrous: "The apple of discord is now fairly in our midst, and if not nipped in the bud it will burst forth into a conflagration which will deluge the sea of politics with an earthquake of heresies." An apple, certainly, could not burst forth into a conflagration; nor could a conflagration deluge a sea with heretical earthquakes! LESSON IV.-The Allegory. 1. An Allegory is the representation of one thing by another that is described in its stead, and hence it is a continued allusion to something that is not mentioned. 2. When the prophet Hosea said, "Israel is an empty vine," he employed a metaphor; if he had said, “Israel is like an empty vine," he would have made use of a simile: but when the prophets describe "an empty vine," or "an unfruitful vine," as they frequently do, while all the time they mean Israel, the comparison, thus hidden, becomes an allegory. We have an allegory of this kind in the eightieth Psalm 3. "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted." 4. Allegories are numerous; volumes might be filled with them ; and among them may be found some of the choicest gems of language. The parables of the New Testament are allegories. Other good specimens are The Hill of Science, by Dr. Aiken; Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress; The Vision of Mirza, by Addison; and The Celestial Railroad, by Hawthorne. Riddles and fables are allegories; but while a fable asserts what is generally impossible, the allegory might be true. LESSON V.-Antithesis. 1. Antithesis is a figure of speech by which two or more objects, words, or sentiments are compared by being brought into contrast. Hence, like the simile, the metaphor, and the allegory, it is founded on comparison; but, as in the metaphor, the comparison is not expressed. 2. In the simplest forms of antithesis, single words or objects are brought into contrast, as in the following example:-" "Yet, at thy call, the hardy tar pursued, Pale, but intrepid; sad, but unsubdued." Here "pale" is contrasted with "intrepid," and “sad” with "unsubdued." 3. The comparison between "the living great" and "the sordid dust" of mortality, as suggested by the marble monument, is forcibly expressed by the following antithesis:— a "Here lies the great false marble, where? See, also, Lesson V. p. 40, for further examples, and suggestions for the reading of antitheses. 4. Antithesis compares things that are alike in some respects, for the purpose of showing, to better advantage, some of their striking differences; and the greater the contrasts while the resemblances are also apparent, the greater the beauty of the figure. Thus :-" Cæsar died a violent death, but his empire remained: Cromwell died a natural death, but his empire perished." As these men were alike in being great generals, and in each having founded an empire, the contrasts stated are thereby rendered the more striking. 5. The book of Proverbs abounds in antitheses. Thus :a. "Open rebuke is better than secret love." b. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are as bold as a lion." c. "There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." 6. In the following, the antithesis is composed of two similes : "The style of Canning is like the convex mirror, which scatters every ray of light that falls upon it, and shines and sparkles in whatever position it is viewed that of Brougham is like the concave speculum, scattering no indiscriminate radiance, but having its light concentrated into one intense and tremendous focus." 7. An antithesis may extend from mere words, and short passages, to pages of description. It is a beautiful and forcible figure when properly employed, but monotonously tiresome when carried to excess. It has been well remarked, in a truthful metaphor, that "antithesis may be the blossom of wit; but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root." LESSON VI.-Hyperbole and Irony. 1. An hyperbole is an extravagant expression, which, if literally understood, means either more or less than the |