EXERCISE LXI. DIRECTION. - Point out the personification in these sentences, and give the grade to which it belongs; express the ideas in plain language: 1. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, so fast they follow. 2. Religion, blushing, veils her sacred fires, 3. This fell sergeant, Death, is strict in his arrest. 4. The morn, in russet mantle clad, walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill. 5. The conscious water saw its Lord, and blushed. 6. The lowering element scowls o'er the darkened landscape. 7. At whose sight all the stars hide their diminished heads. 8. Over them, triumphant Death shook his dart. 9. Virtue could see to do what virtue would by her own radiant light, though sun and moon were in the flat sea sunk. 10. The Pyramids, doting with age, have forgotten the names of their founders. 11. For Truth hath such a face and such a mien, as to be loved needs only to be seen. 12. Beauty calls, and glory shows the way. 13. Night, sable goddess, now stretches forth her leaden scepter o'er a slumbering world. 14. Alas! it is not till Time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life, to light the fires of passion with, from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number. 15. Earth proudly wears the Parthenon as the best gem upon her zone. 16. Every gift of noble origin is breathed upon by Hope's perpetual breath. 17. Stern Winter loves a dirge-like sound. 18. The Waves to sleep had gone. 19. In winter when the dismal rain And Wind, that grand old harper, smote 20. O mountains, rivers, rocks, and savage herds, 21. With other ministrations, thou, O Nature, 22. There is no malice in this burning coal; DIRECTION.- Bring to the class examples of personification. Let them illustrate the three grades of this figure. ALLEGORY. Allegory is a form of expression in which the words are symbolical of something. The allegory is a continued metaphor or a narrative representing objects and events that are intended to be symbolical of other objects and events having usually a moral or spiritual character. Allegory, Metaphor, and Simile are all founded in resemblance, there being in each case two subjects having certain points of likeness. In the simile, this resemblance is expressed in form; as, "Israel is like a vineyard in a very fruitful hill." In metaphor the sign of comparison is dropped; as, “Israel is a vineyard in a very fruitful hill." In allegory, the principal subject and the formal comparison are both dropped; the secondary subject is described, leaving the application entirely to the imagination of the reader, but so obviously that he can not miss it; as, "My well beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes." Though there is neither simile nor metaphor, there is resemblance, and the reader knows that the "choicest vine" is a figurative expression used to represent God's people, Israel. This allegory is found in the 5th chapter of Isaiah. The principal thing to be observed in regard to Allegory is to avoid mingling the literal signification with the figurative. The figure must be in itself an intelligible, consistent statement, and this requires much skill. Allegory, Parable, and Fable are closely related. The Parable, one form of the allegory, is properly the exhibition of a religious truth by means of facts from nature and human life. It is not to be supposed that the statements are historically true; they are offered only as a means of conveying a higher general truth. They are, however, always true to nature; the laws of the nature of the different beings introduced are strictly observed, and the events are such as might have taken place. "The Prodigal Son," "The Sower," "The Ten Virgins," are allegorical tales in Scripture, which were introduced for the purpose of illustrating a truth to which they have a similitude. The Fable differs from the parable in this, that it gives the actions and words of human beings to brutes and inanimate objects-brutes and plants are made to think, and speak, and act like men. Purely fictitious, it serves to teach some moral lesson or to inculcate some prudent maxim. Some of our finest literature is in the form of allegory. The allegory may be short, as in many proverbs, but it is usually an extended composition. Pope's Temple of Fame, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Spenser's Faerie Queene, and Swift's Tale of a Tub and Gulliver's Travels, are long allegories. EXERCISE LXII. DIRECTION.-Explain what is described in these allegorical selections: 1. Vessels large may venture more, But little boats should keep near the shore. 2. The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king over them; and they said unto the olive tree, "Reign thou over us." But the olive tree said unto them, "Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they honor God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" And the trees said to the fig tree, "Come thou, and reign over us." But the fig tree said unto them, "Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees?" Then said the trees unto the vine, "Come thou, and reign over us." And the vine said unto them, "Should I leave my wine which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" Then said all the trees unto the bramble, "Come thou, and reign over us." And the bramble said unto the trees, "If in truth ye anoint me king over you, then come and put your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of Lebanon." -Judges ix: 8-16. DIRECTION. - Bring into the class examples of Allegory, Parable, and Fable. Bring, to be read in class, Ps. lxxx: 8-16: this is one of the finest and most correct allegories. Explain the "Fable," by T. B. Aldrich, page 105. METONYMY. Metonymy is a figure of speech in which the name of one object is put for some other object, the two being so closely related that the mention of one naturally suggests the other. Among the various relations which give rise to metonymy are (1) sign and the thing signified; (2) cause and effect, or source and what flows from it; (3) instrument and the user of it; (4) container and the thing contained; (5) material and the thing made out of it. Thus: Cause for effect; as, "I read Milton"; "He shall bear his iniquity." Effect for cause; as, "Man shall live by the sweat of his brow." Container for what is contained; as, "He is fond of the bottle"; "France would not consent." Instrument for the user; as, "He thought himself not a bad oar." Material for thing made out of it; as, "The sanctity of the lawn should be kept unsullied." Sign for thing signified; as, The "olive branch," instead of peace; the "throne," the "purple," the "scepter," instead of kingly power. EXERCISE LXIII. DIRECTION. - Classify the metonymies below, and recast the sentences, using plain language: 1. Strike for your altars and your fires. 2. Socrates drank the fatal cup. 3. The pen is mightier than the sword. 4. Gray hairs should be respected. 5. Bayonets think. 6. The kettle boils. 7. They have Moses and the prophets. 8. He smokes his pipe. 9. Address the chair. 10. Take away the sword; states can be saved without it. 11. Their discords sting through Burns and Moore. 12. We sat by the flesh-pots. 13. We hanged our harps upon the willows. 14. There is death in the pot. 15. England's commerce whitens every sea. 16. Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein. 17. This dish is well cooked. Rhet.-20. |