not confined to a slothful indolence, that it not only received nourishment, but supplied it to the others, conveying to every part of the body, that blood on which depends our life and vigor, by distributing it equally through the veins, after having brought it to perfection by digestion of the food."

For additional examples of admirably sustained allegories, refer to Addison's "Vision of Mirza," Goldsmith's "Asem, an Eastern Tale," and Dr. Johnson's "Voyage of Life," Rambler, No. 102, vol. iii.

The principal Rule for the Allegory is, to avoid mingling the literal and figurative significations. The attributes of the primary and of the secondary subject must not be interchanged. The difficulty of sustaining a long allegory suggests to writers of moderate ability to study brevity.

LESSON C.

HYPERBOLE.

This figure is the product of imagination and passion, under the influence of which we are prone to magnify the good qualities of objects we love, and to diminish or degrade the qualities of objects which we dislike or envy. Fear of an enemy tends to augment our conceptions of his size and prowess.

The scout in Ossian thus portrays a hostile chief:

"I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice; his spear, the blasted fir; his shield, the rising moon; he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the hill."

The Hyperbole (exaggeration), therefore, consists in representing objects either greater or smaller, better or worse, than they really are; and this is dore by applying to them exaggerated epithets.

Thus the Apostle John says of the deeds of our Saviour, "If they should be written, every one of them, I suppose that even the world itself

could not contain the looks that should be written." So the promise of an increase of the Hebrew population is in these hyperbolic or exaggerated terms: "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.' Homer's allegorical description of Discord,

"Her head she raised to heaven, and trod on earth;"

and Milton's description,

"So frown'd the mighty combatants, that Hell
Grew darker at their frown;"

tongue

In every wound of Cæsar, that should move the
Stones of Rome to rise and mutiny;"

are fine examples of hyperbole.

RULES FOR HYPERBOLE.-I. They should not be overstrained and labored.

Dryden unduly compliments Charles II. at the expense of the sun himself:

"That star that at your birth shone out so bright,
It stain'd the duller sun's meridian light."

Prior supposes the fire of a lady's eyes to outshine the flames of Rome, when lighted up by Nero:

"To burning Rome when frantic Nero play'd,
Viewing thy face, no more he had survey'd

The raging flames, but, struck with strange surprise,
Confess'd them less than those in Anna's eyes."

Guarini (in Pastor Fido) represents a shepherd as addressing his beloved thus: "If I had as many tongues, and as many words as there are stars in the heavens, and grains of sand on the shore, my tongues would be tired, and my words would be exhausted, before I could do justice to your immense merit."

RULE II. They should seldom be used except under the influence of emotion, and when the mind of the reader has been excited and thus prepared to relish them.

RULE III.-They should be expressed in few words.

LESSON CI.

PERSONIFICATION.

This is a figure which imparts to a composition great animation and beauty, by giving more distinct conceptions of an object to the mind. It personifies (regards, and speaks of, as persons) inanimate or irrational objects, and abstract qualities. It endows them with life, speech, feeling, and activity :

"The sea saw the and fed &c.; "What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest," &c.

This figure is profusely employed in Thomson's Seasons and in Virgil's Georgics; so that it has been said, that if you divest them of this sprightly ornament, you reduce two of the most beautiful didactic poems the world ever saw into dry and uninteresting details of natural history.

All the various passions of the soul prompt to the use of this lively figure.

Eve, just before she was compelled to leave Paradise, feelingly exclaims:

"Oh, unexpected stroke, worse than death:

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise? thus leave

Thee, native soil, these happy walks and shades!

That never will in other climate grow,

My early visitation, and my last

*

At even, which I bred up with tender nand,

From your first opening buds, and gave you names !"

So on the occasion of Eve's eating the forbidden fruit, external Nature is represented as moved to grief and consternation:

"Nature from her seat,

Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe

That all was lost."

'Sky lower'd, and muttering thunder, some sad drops
Wept, at completing of the mortal sin."

At the previous period of the happy nuptials of the innocent

pair,

"All heaven,

And happy constellations, on that hour
Shed their selectest influence; the earth
Gave signs of gratulation."

Satan, in "Paradise Lost," thus addresses the sun:

"O Sun! to tell thee how I hate thy beams,

That bring to my remembrance from what state

יין I fell

Adam, impatient to know his origin, personifies and thus addresses the prominent natural objects around him:

"Thou Sun, said I, fair light!

And thou, enlighten'd Earth, so fresh and gay!
Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains,
And ye that live and move, fair creatures, tell,
Tell, if you saw, how came I thus, how here?"

King Lear, in extreme distress, personifies the elements, and charges them with aiding his daughters to effect his ruin:

"I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindness;
I never gave you kingdoms, call'd you children;
You owe me no subscription; then let fall

Your horrible displeasure. Here I stand your slave;
A poor, infirm, weak, nd despised old man!

But yet I call you servile ministers,

That have, with two pernicious daughters, join'd
Your high engender'd battles 'gainst a head

So old and white as this."

The personifications of Night (in the Complaint of Young Book I. 18-25); of the Nature and Offices of Law (in Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity); of Natural Religion (in Bishop Sherlock's comparison of our Saviour with Mohammed), are deserving of admiration.

The most animated personification of abstract ideas is found in Collins' ode on the Passions. Milton's "coy submission," "proud humility," "astonished thought;" Ossian's "joy of grief;" the personifying style of Johnson, "indolence reposes," instead of "the indolent man reposes;” “criticism pronounces," instead of "the critics pronounce," are clear instances of personification.

Errors to be avoided: (1.) Avoid the introduction of fantastic and trifling circumstances.

(2.) Personifications are not to be employed when the subject is destitute of dignity. An address to the several parts of one's body as if they were animated, is not suitable to the dignity of passion. Hence the following lines are exceptionable, in Pope's beautiful poem of "Eloise to Abelard: "

"Dear, fatal name! rest ever unreveal'd,

Oh! write it not, my hand!—his name appears
Already written :-blot it out, my tears!"

In prose compositions, the figure requires to be used with greater moderation and delicacy than in poetry.

LESSON CII.

APOSTROPHE.

This is a figure in which we address the absent or dead, as if present or alive, and the inanimate as if living; or in which we turn from the logical order of thought, or regular course of our subject, to address the person or thing spoken of.

"() gentle sleep,

Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?"

Shakspeare.

Of the apostrophe there are two classes-the protracted and picturesque, the product of imagination; and the more brief and suggestive, which originates in the violence of passion.

Ossian's address to the Moon is regarded as one of the most splendid apostrophes in any language: