to show that in ease and celerity its motion is like that of a bird.

The metaphor is thus a verbal figure, and differs from the simile by directly ascribing to agents and objects the natures, the characteristics, or acts, of other beings and things, which, in the comparison, are themselves the medium of the figure; as in the following passages: "I am thy shield" (Gen. xv. 1); and "Thou Lord wilt bless the righteous, with favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield" (Ps. v. 12); in the first of which the word shield is used by a metaphor, in the other the shield itself is used by a simile. The meaning of a metaphorical expression, accordingly, is precisely what that of a comparison would be if the things, the names of which are used by the metaphor, were employed to illustrate the same object by a comparison. Thus the sentences: God is a rock, and God is like a rock, are in sense the same. So also the metaphor, "I will make thee a fenced brazen wall" (Jer. xv. 20), is equivalent to the simile, I will make thee like a fenced brazen wall. The metaphor is the most bold and emphatic; the simile, as it admits a fuller exhibition of the resemblances, is often the most illustrative and elegant.

Metaphors, like comparisons, are of two kinds. In the first, that to which the figure is applied, is directly declared to be that, of which the word used by the

figure is the proper name; as "God is a sun and shield" (Ps. lxxxiv. 11); "A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband" (Prov. xii. 4); "My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother; for they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck” (Prov. i. 8, 9); "I will make my words in thy mouth fire" (Jer. v. 14); "I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the people round about” (Zech. xii, 2); "I will make you fishers of men " (Matt. iv. 19).

Verbs, the names of acts, are also metaphorized in the same manner as nouns: "Thou crownest the year with goodness;" "The fields smile," "The skies frown."

In all metaphors of this class the persons or things to which the figure is applied, are expressly named as the subject of the metaphor.

In the second class, there is an ellipsis of the direct affirmation that the person or object to which the figure is applied, is that which the term used by the metaphor denotes, and it is spoken of as though that affirmation had been previously made; as when the prophet, addressing the rulers and people of Jerusalem, says, "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah” (Isa. i. 10); the import of which is the same as though the expression had

been, Hear ye, who are rulers of Sodom, and give ear ye who are people of Gomorrah. In like manner, the meaning of the passage, "The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a city that has been besieged" (Is. i. 8), is the same as though the language had been, The people who are the daughter of Zion are left as a cottage, as a lodge, and as a city that has been besieged. Who or what it is to which the metaphorical name is applied, is always known from the connexion; as in the following passages, in which it is seen that daughter is used for a people, and the people of Jerusalem: "Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion; for thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money" (Isa. lii. 2, 3); "Behold the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold thy salvation cometh; behold his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord" (Isa. lxii. 11, 12).

The characteristics of the metaphor are:

1. The figure lies in the peculiar use of a word, or words, in contradistinction from a thing.

2. The metaphorical proposition consists of two parts-the subject to which the figure is applied, or

of which the metaphorical affirmation is made; and the affirmation itself. Thus in the expression, "all flesh is grass," the nominative "all flesh" is the subject of the sentence, and the verb and noun "is grass" the affirmation.

3. The name of the subject of the figure, or that to which it is applied, is always used in its literal sense; as in the expression, "God is my fortress," God, the nominative of the proposition, is used literally as the name of Jehovah; not by a meta phor, as the name of some other being. In the expression, "Say unto wisdom thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kinswoman" (Prov. vii. 4), it is wisdom, not anything else, that is called a sister; and understanding, and not anything else, that is denominated a kinswoman. And, in like manner, when it is said, "the fields smile," "the winds sigh," "the raindrops dance," "the heavens frown," it is the literal fields, the literal winds, the literal raindrops, and the real heavens, that are the subjects of that which the several verbs are employed to denote; not objects of another kind. If the names of the subjects of which the affirmations are made were not used literally, there would be no means of knowing what the agents or things are for which they stand. How, for example, could it be known what the word boat, in the expression "the

boat gallops over the waves," means; or the noun ship, in the proposition, "the ship flies along the water," if the words boat and ship were not used in their proper sense, to denote a real boat and a real ship, to the exclusion of everything else? When the subject of the metaphorical term is not expressly mentioned in the proposition itself, as in elliptical metaphors, it is still indicated with equal certainty in the connexion.

4. The figure lies wholly in the affirmative part of the proposition; as in the prediction, "The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap hands" (Isa. lv. 12), the predicates, "suall break forth into singing," and "shall clap hands," are the parts that are used by the figure; the nominatives, "the mountains and the hills" and "the trees," are employed in their literal sense. In like manner, in the expressions, "The beasts of the field shall honor me;" "The land mourneth, it languisheth;" "Lebanon is put to shame" "The desert and the waste shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice and flourish;" the metaphor lies exclusively in the predicates; that is, in the declarations made by the verbs.

This and the preceding characteristics belong to metaphors universally, and are of the utmost im