A FIGURE

A FIGURE, the means or instrument conceived to be the agent. 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 conceptions 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 first of 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.

As when the force
Of subterranean wind transports a bill.
Paradise Lost.

As when the potent rod
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day,
Wav'd round the coast, upcall'd a pitchy cloud
Of locusts.
Paradise Lost.

A FIGURE, which, among related objects, extends the properties of one to another. This figure is not dignified with a proper name, because it has been overlooked by writers. 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 on 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 thought, 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? It is observed, that the mind passeth 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 slightest 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

VOL. VIII. Part II.

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 intimate kind.

1. An attribute of the cause expressed as an attribute of the effect.

Audax facinus.
Of yonder fleet a bold discovery make.
An impious mortal gave the daring wound.

To my adventurous 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 misero censebam in mari.
PLAUTUS.

No wonder, fallen such a pernicious height.
Paradise Lost.

3. An effect expressed as an attribute of the cause.

Jovial wine, Giddy brink, Drowsy night, Musing midnight, Panting height, Astonish'd thought, Mourful gloom.

Castling a dim religious light. MILTON, Comus.

And the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks sound. MILTON, Allegro.

4. An attribute of a subject bellowed upon one of its parts or members.

Longing arms.
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear.
Romeo and Juliet, act iii. sc. 7.

Oh, lay by
Those most ungentele looks and angry weapons:
Unless you mean my griefs and killing fears
Should stretch me out at your relentless feet.
Fair Penitent, act iii.

And ready now
To stoop with wearied wing and willing feet,
On the bare outside of this world.
Paradise Lost, book iii.

5. A quality of the agent given to the instrument with which it operates.

Why peep your coward swords half out their sheaths?

6. An attribute of the agent given to the subject upon which it operates.

High-climbing hill. MILTON.

7. A quality of one subject given to another.

Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
Gazis. HORAT. Carm. lib. i. ode 29.

When sapless age, and weak unable limbs,
Shall bring thy father to his drooping chair.
SHAKESPEARE.

4 I By

By art, the pilot through the boiling deep,
And howling tempest, scers the fearless ship.
Iliad, book xxiii. l. 385.

Then, nothing loth, th' enamour'd fair he led,
And sunk transported on the conscious bed.
Odyssey, book viii. l. 337.

A stupid moment motionless she stood.
Summer, l. 1336.

8. A circumstance connected with a subject, expressed as a quality of the subject.

Breezy summit.

'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try,
Iliad, book v. l. 301.

Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall.
Odyssey, book v. l. 395.

From this table it appears, that the adorning 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 paning height, astonish'd thought, are strain'd 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:

Submersaque obtrude puppes. Æneid, book i. l. 73.

And mighty ruins fall. Iliad, book v. l. 411.

Impious sons their mangled fathers wound.

Another rule regards this figure. That the property of one subject ought not to be bestowed upon another with which the property is incongruous.

K. Rich.—How dare thy joints forget

To pay their awful duty to our presence?
Richard II. act iii. sc. 6.

The connexion between an awful 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.

FIGURE of Speech, as peculiarly distinguished from the above and from those first referred to. Under the article METAPHOR and Allegory, a figure of speech is defined, "The using a word in a sense different from what is proper to it;" and the new or uncommon sense of the word is termed the figurative sense. The figurative sense must have a relation to that which is proper; and the more intimate the relation is, the figure is the more happy. How ornamental this figure is to language, will not be readily imagined by any one who hath not given peculiar attention; and therefore we shall endeavour to unfold its capital beauties and advantages. In the first place, a word used figuratively, or in a new sense, suggests at the same time the sense it commonly bears: and thus it has the effect to present two objects; one signified by the figurative sense, which may be termed the principal object; and one signified by the proper sense, which may be termed accessory: the principal makes a part of the thought; the accessory is merely ornamental. In this respect, a figure of speech is precisely similar to concordant sounds

in music, which, without contributing to the melody, make it harmonious.

To explain the matter by examples. Youth, by a figure of speech, is termed the morning of life: This expression signifies youth, the principal object which enters into the thought; it suggests, at the same time, the proper sense of morning; and this accessory object, being in itself beautiful, and connected by resemblance to the principal object, is not a little ornamental. Impious ocean, is an example of a different kind, where an attribute is expressed figuratively: Together with stormy, the figurative meaning of the epithet impious, there is suggested its proper meaning, viz. the stern authority of a despotic prince; and these two are strongly connected by resemblance. Upon this figurative power of words, Vida descants with elegance, Poet. lib. iii. l. 44.

In the next place, this figure possesses a signal power of aggrandizing an object, by the following means.—Words, which have no original beauty but what arises from their sound, acquire an adventitious beauty from their meaning: a word signifying any thing that is agreeable, becomes by that means agreeable; for the agreeableness of the object is communicated to its name. This acquired beauty, by the force of custom, adheres to the word, even when used figuratively; and the beauty received from the thing it properly signifies, is communicated to the thing which it is made to signify figuratively. Consider the foregoing expression Impious ocean, how much more elevated it is than Stormy ocean.

Thirdly, This figure hath a happy effect by preventing the familiarity of proper names. The familiarity of a proper name is communicated to the thing it signifies by means of their intimate connexion; and the thing is thereby brought down in our feeling. This bad effect is prevented by using a figurative word instead of one that is proper: as for example, when we express the sky by terming it the blue vault of heaven; for though no work of art can compare with the sky in grandeur, the expression however is relished, because it prevents the object from being brought down by the familiarity of its proper name. With respect to the degrading the familiarity of proper names, Vida has the following passage:

Hinc si dura mihi passus dicendus Ulysses,
Non illum vero memorabo nomine, sed qui
Et mores hominum multorum vidit, et urbes,
Naufragus everſæ post fœva incendia Trojæ.
Poet. lib. ii. l. 460.

Lastly, By this figure, language is enriched, and rendered more copious; in which respect, were there no other, a figure of speech is a happy invention. This property is finely touched by Vida; Poet. lib. iii. l. 90.

The beauties we have mentioned belong to every figure of speech. Several other beauties, peculiar to one or other sort, we shall have occasion to remark afterwards.

Not only subjects, but qualities, actions, effects, may be expressed figuratively. Thus, as to subjects, gates of breath for the lips, the watery kingdom for the ocean. As to qualities, fierce for stormy, in the expression Fierce winter; Altus for profundus, Altus puteus, Altum mare;

mare; breathing for perspiring, Breathing plants. Again, as to actions, The sea rages, Time will melt her frozen thoughts, Time kills grief. An effect is put for the cause, as lux for the sun; and a cause for the effect, as boum labores for corn. The relation of resemblance is one plentiful source of figures of speech; and nothing is more common than to apply to one object the name of another that resembles it in any respect: Height, size, and worldly greatness, resemble not each other; but the emotions they produce resemble each other, and, prompted by this resemblance, we naturally express worldly greatness by height or size: One feels a certain uneasiness in seeing a great depth; and, hence depth is made to express any thing disagreeable by excess, as depth of grief, depth of despair: Again, Height of place, and time long past, produce similar feelings; and hence the expression, Ut altius repetam! Distance in time past, producing a strong feeling, is put for any strong feeling; Nihil mihi antiquius nostra amicitia: Shortness with relation to space, for shortness with relation to time; Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio: Suffering a punishment resembles paying a debt; hence pendere penas. In the same manner, light may be put for glory, sunshine for prosperity, and weight for importance.

Many words, originally figurative, having, by long and constant use, lost their figurative power, are degraded to the inferior rank of proper terms. Thus the words that express the operation of the mind, have in all languages been originally figurative; the reason holds in all, that when these operations came first under consideration, there was no other way of describing them but by what they resembled: it was not practicable to give them proper names, as may be done to objects that can be ascertained by sight and touch. A soft nature, jarring tempers, weight of woe, pompous phrase, beget compassion, assuage grief, break a vow, bend the eye downward, shower down curses, drowning in tears, wrap in joy, warm'd with eloquence, loaded with spoils, and a thousand other expressions of the like nature, have lost their figurative sense. Some terms there are that cannot be said to be altogether figurative or altogether proper: originally figurative, they are tending to simplicity, without having lost altogether their figurative power. Virgil's Regina saucia cura, is perhaps one of these expressions: with ordinary readers, saucia will be considered as expressing simply the effect of grief; but one of a lively imagination will exalt the phrase into a figure.

For epitomizing this subject, and at the same time for giving a clear view of it, Lord Kames† gives a list of the several relations upon which figures of speech are commonly founded. This list he divides into two tables; one of subjects expressed figuratively, and one of attributes.

1. A word proper to one subject employed figuratively to express a resembling subject.

There is no figure of speech so frequent, as what is derived from the relation of resembling. Youth, for example, is signified figuratively by the morning of life. The life of a man resembles a natural day in several particulars: the morning is the beginning of a day,

youth the beginning of life; the morning is cheerful, so is youth, &c. By another resemblance, a bold warrior is termed the thunderbolt of war; a multitude of troubles, a sea of troubles.

This figure, above all others, affords pleasure to the mind by variety of beauties. Besides the beauties above mentioned, common to all sorts, it possesses in particular the beauty of a metaphor or a simile: a figure of speech built upon resemblance, suggests always a comparison between the principal subject and the accessory; whereby every good effect of a metaphor or simile may, in a short and lively manner, be produced by this figure of speech.

2. A word proper to the effect employed figuratively to express the cause.

Lux for the sun; Shadow for cloud. A helmet is signified by the expression glittering terror; a tree by shadow or umbrage. Hence the expression,

Nec habet Pelion umbras. OVID.

Where the dun umbrage hangs. Spring, l. 1023.

A wound is made to signify an arrow:

Vulnere non pedibus te consequar. OVID.

There is a peculiar force and beauty in this figure: the word which signifies figuratively the principal subject, denotes it to be a cause by suggesting the effect.

3. A word proper to the cause employed figuratively to express the effect.

Boumque labores for corn. Sorrow or grief for tears.

Again Ulysses veil'd his pensive head;

Again unmann'd, a shower of sorrow shed.

Streaming grief his faded cheek bedew'd.

Blindness for darkness:

Cæcis erramus in undis. Æneid. iii. 200.

There is a peculiar energy in this figure, similar to that in the former: the figurative name denotes the subject to be an effect by suggesting its cause.

4. Two things being intimately connected, the proper name of the one employed figuratively to signify the other.

Day for light. Night for darkness; and hence, A sudden night. Winter for a storm at sea:

Interea magno misceri murmure pontum,

Emisfamque Hyemem sensit Neptunus.

This last figure would be too bold for a British writer, as a storm at sea is not inseparably connected with winter in this climate.

5. A word proper to an attribute, employed figuratively to denote the subject.

Youth and beauty for those who are young and beautiful:

Youth and beauty shall be laid in dust.

Majesty for the king:

What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the Majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? Hamlet, act i. sc. 1.

4 I 2 ———— Oe

Or have ye chosen this place,
After the toils of battle to repose
Your weary'd virtue? Paradise Lost.
Verdure for a green field. Summer, l. 301.

The pigmy nations, wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing,
Iliad, book iii. l. 10.

Cool age advances venerably wise.
Iliad, book iii. l. 149.

The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting an attribute that embellishes the subject, or puts it in a stronger light.

6. A complex term employed figuratively to denote one of the component parts.

Funus for a dead body. Burial for a grave.

7. The name of one of the component parts instead of the complex term.

Fada for a marriage. The East for a country situated east from us. Jovis vestigia servat, for imitating Jupiter in general.

8. A word signifying time or place, employed figuratively to denote what is connected with it.

Climo for a nation, or for a constitution of government: hence the expression, Merciful clime, Fleecy winter, for snow, Seculum felix.

9. A part for the whole.

The pole for the earth. The head for the person.

Triginta minas pro capite tuo dedi. PLAUTUS.

Tergum for the man:

Fugiens tergum. OVID.

Vultus for the man:

Jam fulgor armorum fugaces
Terret equos, equitumque vultus. HORAT.

Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus
Tam chari capitis? HORAT.

Dumque virent genua? HORAT.

Thy growing virtues justify'd my cares,
And promis'd comfort to my silver hairs.
Iliad, book ix. l. 616.

Forwith from the pool he rears
His mighty stature. Paradise Lost.

The silent heart which grief assails. PARNEL.

The peculiar beauty of this figure consists in marking that part which makes the greatest figure.

10. The name of the container, employed figuratively to signify what is contained.

Grove for the birds in it; Vocal grove. Ships for the seamen; Agonizing Ships. Mountains for the sheep pasturing upon them; Bleating mountains. Zacynthus, Ithaca, &c. for the inhabitants; Ex mæstis domibus. LIVY.

11. The name of the sustainer, employed figuratively to signify what is sustained.

Altar for the sacrifice. Field for the battle fought upon it; Well-fought field.

12. The name of the materials, employed figuratively to signify the things made of them.

Ferrum for gladius.

13. The names of the Heathen deities, employed figuratively to signify what they patronize.

Jove for the air, Mars for war, Venus for beauty, Cupid for love, Ceres for corn, Neptune for the sea, Vulcan for fire.

This figure bestows great elevation upon the subject; and therefore ought to be confined to the higher strains of poetry.

1. When two attributes are connected, the name of the one may be employed figuratively to express the other.

Purity and virginity are attributes of the same person: hence the expression Virgin snow, for pure snow.

2. A word signifying properly an attribute of one subject, employed figuratively to express a resembling attribute of another subject.

Tottering state. Imperious ocean. Angry flood. Raging tempest. Shallow fears.

My sure divinity shall bear the shield,

And edge thy sword to reap the glorious field,
Odyssey, book xx. l. 61.

Black omen, for an omen that portends bad fortune.

Ater omen.

The peculiar beauty of this figure arises from suggesting a comparison.

3. A word proper to the subject, employed to express one of its attributes.

Mens for intellectus. Mens for a resolution:

Istam, oro, exue, mentem.

4. When two subjects have a resemblance by a common quality, the name of the one subject may be employed figuratively to denote that quality in the other:

Summer life for agreeable life.

5. The name of the instrument made to signify the power of employing it:

Melpomene, cui liquidam pater

Vocem cum cithara dedit.

The ample field of figurative expression displayed in these tables, affords great scope for reasoning. Several of the observations relating to metaphor †, are applicable to figures of speech: these shall be slightly re-touched, with some additions peculiarly adapted to the present subjects.

1. As the figure under consideration is built upon relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason, that the beauty of it depends on the intimacy of the relation between the figurative and proper sense of the word. A slight resemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable: the expression, for example, Drink down a secret, for listening to a secret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any resemblance between listening and drinking. The expression weighty crack, used by Ben Johnson for loud crack, is worse if possible; a loud sound has not the slightest resemblance to a piece of matter that is weighty.

Phemius! let acts of gods, and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bow'r have told,
Attemper'd

Attemper'd to the lyre, your voice employ,
Such the pleas'd ear will drink with silent joy.

Odyssey, book i. l. 433.

Strepitumque exterritus hausti.

Æneid, book vi. l. 559.

Write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send.

Cymbeline, act i. sc. 2.

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink.

Summer, l. 1684.

Neque audit currus habenas.

Georg. book i. l. 514.

O prince! (Lycaon's valiant son reply'd),
As thine the steeds, be thine the task to guide.
The horses practis'd to their lord's command,
Shall hear the rein, and answer to thy hand.

Iliad, book v. l. 288.

The following figures of speech seem altogether wild and extravagant, the figurative and proper meaning having no connexion whatever. Moving softness, Freshness breathes, Breathing prospect, Flowing spring, Dewy light, Lucid coolness, and many others of this false coin, may be found in Thomson's Seasons.

2. The proper sense of the word ought to bear some proportion to the figurative sense, and not soar much above it, nor sink much below it. This rule, as well as the foregoing, is finely illustrated by Vida, Poet. book iii. l. 148.

3. In a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper sense only, not with the figurative sense: for it is the latter that expresses the thought, and the former serves for no other purpose but to make harmony:

Zacynthus green with ever-shady groves,
And Ithaca, presumptuous boast their loves;
Obtruding on my choice a second lord,
They press the Hymenean rite abhorr'd.

Odyssey, book xix. l. 152.

Zacynthus here standing figuratively for the inhabitants, the description of the island is quite out of place: it puzzles the reader, by making him doubt whether the word ought to be taken in its proper or figurative sense.

Write, my queen,
And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you send,
Though ink be made of gall.

Cymbeline, act i. sc. 2.

The disgust one has to drink ink in reality, is not to the purpose where the subject is drinking ink figuratively.

4. To draw consequences from a figure of speech, as if the word were to be understood literally, is a gross absurdity; for it is confounding truth with fiction:

Be Moubray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lifts,
A castrif recreant to my cousin Hereford.

Richard II. act i. sc. 3.

Sin may be imagined heavy in a figurative sense: but weight in a proper sense belongs to the accessory only;

and therefore to describe the effects of weight, is to desert the principal subject, and to convert the accessory into a principal:

Cromwell. How does your Grace?

Wolsey. Why, well;

Never so truly happy, my good Cromwell.
I know myself now, and I feel within me
A peace above all earthly dignities,
A still and quiet conscience. The king has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his Grace: and, from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken
A load would sink a navy, too much honour.

Henry VIII. act iii. sc. 6.

Ulysses speaking of Hector—

I wonder now how yonder city stands,
When we have here the base and pillar by us.
Troilus and Cressida, act iv. sc. 9.

Othello. No; my heart is turned to stone: I strike it, and it hurts my hand. Othello, act iv. sc. 5.

Not less, even in this despicable now,
Than when my name fill'd Afric with affrights,
And froze your hearts beneath your torrid zone.

Don Sebastian King of Portugal, act i.

How long a space, since first I lov'd, it is!

To look into a glass I fear,
And am surpris'd with wonder, when I miss
Gray hairs and wrinkles there.