SECTION IV. The means or instrument, conceived to be the agent--Examples. WHEN We survey a number of connected objects, that which makes the greatest figure employs chiefly our attention; and the emotion it raises, if lively, prompts us even to exceed nature in the conception we form of it. Take the following examples: For Neleus' son Alcides' rage had slain. A broken rock the force of Pirus threw. In these instances, the rage of Hercules and the force of Pirus, being the capital circumstances, are so far exalted as to be conceived the agents that produce the effects. In the following instances, hunger being the chief circumstance in the description, is itself imagined to be the patient. Whose hunger has not tasted food these three days. Jane Shore. Paradise Lost. Of locusts. SECTION V. Paradise Lost. A figure which, among related objects, extends the properties of one to anotherWithout a name-The foundation of this figure-Not warrantable, except among things intimately connected-An attribute of a cause for an attribute of an effect-An effect as of a cause-An effect expressed as an attribute of a -An attribute of a subject bestowed on one of its parts-A quality of an agent ascribed to an instrument-The object on which it operates-Quality one subject gives another-Circumstances expressed as a quality of a subject-The property of one object transferred to another. cause THIS figure is not dignified with a proper name, because it has been overlooked by writers. It merits, however, a place in this work; and must be distinguished from those formerly handled, as depending on a different principle. Giddy brink, jovial wine, daring wound, are examples of this figure. Here are adjectives that cannot be made to signify any quality of the substantives to which they are joined: a brink, for example, cannot be termed giddy in a sense, either proper or figurative, that can signify any of its qualities or attributes. When we examine attentively the expression, we discover, that a brink is termed giddy from producing that effect in those who stand on it. In the same manner a wound is said to be daring, not with respect to itself, but with respect to the boldness of the person who inflicts it: and wine is said to be jovial, as inspiring mirth and jollity. Thus the attributes of one subject are extended to another with which it is connected; and the expression of such a thought must be considered as a figure, because the attribute is not applicable to the subject in any proper sense. How are we to account for this figure, which we see lies in the hought, and to what principle shall we refer it? Have poets a privilege to alter the nature of things, and at pleasure to bestow attributes upon a subject to which they do not belong? We have had often occasion to inculcate, that the mind passes easily and sweetly along a train of connected objects; and, where the objects are intimately connected, that it is disposed to carry along the good or bad properties of one to another; especially when it is in any degree inflamed with these properties. From this principle is derived the figure under consideration. Language, invented for the communication of thought, would be imperfect, if it were not expressive even of the slighter propensities and more delicate feelings: but language cannot remain so imperfect among a people who have received any polish; because language is regulated by internal feeling, and is gradually improved to express whatever passes in the mind. Thus, for example, when a sword in the hand of a coward, is termed a coward sword, the expression is significative of an internal operation; for the mind, in passing from the agent to its instrument, is disposed to extend to the latter the properties of the former. Governed by the same principle, we say listening fear, by extending the attribute. listening of the man who listens, to the passion with which he is moved. In the expression, bold deed, or audax facinus, we extend to the effect what properly belongs to the cause. But not to waste time by making a commentary upon every expression of this kind, the best way to give a complete view of the subject, is to exhibit a table of the different relations that may give occasion to this figure. And in viewing the table, it will be observed, that the figure can never have any grace but where the relations are of the most inti mate kind. 1. An attribute of the cause expressed as an attribute of the effect. Audax facinus.t Of yonder fleet a bold discovery make. An impious mortal gave the daring wound. -To my advent'rous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar. Paradise Lost. 2. An attribute of the effect expressed as an attribute of the cause. Quos periisse ambos misera censebam in mari.‡ No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height. 3. An effect expressed as an attribute of the cause. Plautus. Paradise Lost. Jovial wine, Giddy brink, Drowsy night, Musing midnight, Panting height, Astonish'd thought, Mournful gloom. Casting a dim religious light. And the merry bells ring round, And the jocund rebecks sound. Milton, Comus. Millon, Allegro. 4. An attribute of a subject bestowed upon one of its parts or members. *See Chap. 2. Part 1. Sect. 5. † A bold deed. Both of whom perished in the miserable ocean. 5. A quality of the agent given to the instrument with which it operates. Why peep your coward swords half out their shells! 6. An attribute of the agent given to the subject upon which it operates. 3. A circumstance connected with a subject, expressed as a quality of the subject. Breezy summit. 'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try. Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall. Iliad, I. 301. Odyssey, V. 395. From this table it appears, that the adorning of a cause with an attribute of the effect, is not so agreeable as the opposite expression. The progress from cause to effect is natural and easy: the opposite progress resembles retrograde motion; and therefore panting height, astonish'd thought, are strained and uncouth expressions, which a writer of taste will avoid. It is not less strained to apply to a subject in its present state, an epithet that may belong to it in some future state: Submersasque obrue puppes.‡ And mighty ruins fall. Impious sons their mangled fathers wound. Eneid. I. 73. Iliad, V. 411. Another rule regards this figure, that the property of one subject ought not to be bestowed upon another with which that property is incongruous: Iccus, you now envy the happy treasures of the Arabians. ↑ See Chap. 1. King Rich.- -How dare thy joints forget Richard II. A III. Sc. 3. باز The connection between an a vful superior and his submissive dependent is so intimate, that an attribute may readily be transferred from the one to the other; but awfulness cannot be so transferred, because it is inconsistent with submission. SECTION VI. METAPHOR AND ALLEGORY. The difference between a metaphor and a simile-The meaning of metaphor The meaning of allegory-The two rules that govern metaphor and allegory Of construction-Not agreeable where the resemblance is too faint or too strong-not agreeable if not proportionable-Not to be crowded with minute circumstances-Words literally applicable to the imagined nature of the subject to be used-Different metaphors not to be jumbled-Plain language and metaphor not to be jumbled-Metaphors excluded from common conversation-Improper in severe passions that wholly occupy the mind-Proper when a man struggles to bear up against misfortunes. A METAPHOR differs from a simile, in form only, not in substance: in a simile, the two subjects are kept distinct in the expression, as well as in the thought; in a metaphor, the two subjects are kept distinct in the thought only, not in the expression. A hero resembles a lion, and, upon that resemblance, many similes have been raised by Homer and other poets. But instead of resembling a lion, let us take the aid of the imagination, and feign or figure the hero to be a lion: by that variation the simile is converted into a metaphor; which is carried on by describing all the qualities of a lion that resemble those of the hero. The fundamental pleasure here, that of resemblance, belongs to the thought. An additional pleasure arises from the expression: the poet, by figuring his hero to be a lion, goes on to describe the lion in appearance, but in reality the hero; and his description is peculiarly beautiful, by expressing the virtues and qualities of the hero in new terms, which, properly speaking, belong not to him, but to the lion. This will better be understood by examples. A family connected with a common parent, resembles a tree, the trunk and branches of which are connected with a common root: but let us suppose, that a family is figured, not barely to be like a tree, but to be a tree; and then the simile will be converted into a metaphor, in the following manner: Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one, Were sev'n fair branches, springing from one root: Some of these branches by the dest'nies ct: But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Glo'ster, One flourishing branch of his most royal root, Is hack'd down, and his summer-leaves all faded, By Envy's hand and Murder's bloody axe. Figuring human life to be a voyage at sea: There is a tide in the affairs of men, Richard II. Act 1. Sc. 2. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life And we must take the current while it serves, Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Sc. 3. Figuring glory and honor to be a garland of flowers. -Wou'd to heav'n, Hotspur- I'll crop, to make a garland for my head. First Part Henry IV. Act V. Sc. 4. Figuring a man who hath acquired great reputation and honour to be a tree full of fruit: -Oh, boys, this story The world may read in me: my body's mark'd Whose boughs did bend with fruit. But in one night, Shook down my mellow hangings, nay my leaves; Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 3. Blest be thy soul, thou king of shells, said Swaran of the dark-brown shield. In peace thou art the gale of spring; in war, the mountain-storm. Take now my hand in friendship, thou noble king of Morven. Fingal. Thou dwellest in the soul of Malvina, son of mighty Ossian. My sighs arise with the beam of the east: my tears descend with the drops of night. I was a lovely tree in thy presence, Oscar, with all my branches round me: but thy death came like a blast from the desert, and laid my green head low: the spring returned with its showers, but no leaf of mine arose. Fingal. I am aware that the term metaphor has been used in a more extensive sense than I give it; but I thought it of consequence, in a disquisition of some intricacy, to confine the term to its proper sense, and to separate from it things that are distinguished by different names. An allegory differs from a metaphor; and what I would choose to call a figure of speech, differs from both. I proceed to explain these differences. A metaphor is defined above to be an act of the imagination, figuring one thing to be another. An allegory requires no such operation, nor is one thing figured to be another: it consists in choosing a subject having properties or circumstances resembling those of the principal subject; and the former is described in such a manner as to represent the latter; the subject thus represented is kept out of view; we are left to discover it by reflection; and we are pleased with the discovery, because it is our own work. Quintilian* gives the following instance of an allegory · O navis, referent in mare te novi Fluctus. O quid agis? fortiter occupa portum. New floods of strife that swell the main To keep your station in the port. L. 8. cap. 6. sect. 2. Horat. lib. I. ode 14. |