PERSONIFYING, or PERSONALIZING, the giving an inanimate being the figure, sentiments, and language of a person.
Dr Blair, in his Lectures on Rhetoric, gives this account of personification. "It is a figure, the use of which is very extensive, and its foundation laid deep in human nature. At first view, and when considered abstractly, it would appear to be a figure of the utmost boldness, and to border on the extravagant and ridiculous. For what can seem more remote from the track of reasonable thought, than to speak of stones and trees, and fields and rivers, as if they were living creatures, and to attribute to them thought and sensation, affections and actions? One might imagine this to be no more than childish conceit, which no person of taste could relish. In fact, however, the case is very different. No such ridiculous effect is produced by personification when properly employed; on the contrary, it is found to be natural and agreeable, nor is any very uncommon degree of passion required in order to make us relish it. All poetry, even in its most gentle and humble forms, abounds with it. From prose it is far from being excluded; nay, in common conversation, very frequent approaches are made to it. When we say, the ground thrusts for rain, or the earth smiles with plenty; when we speak of ambition's being restless, or a disease being deceitful; such expressions show the facility with which the mind can accommodate the properties of living creatures to things that are inanimate, or to abstract conceptions of its own forming.
"Indeed, it is very remarkable, that there is a wonderful proneness in human nature to animate all objects. Whether this arises from a sort of assimilating principle, from a propensity to spread a resemblance of ourselves over all other things, or from whatever other cause it arises, so it is, that almost every emotion which in the least agitates the mind bestows upon its object a momentary idea of life. Let a man, by an unwary step, sprain his ankle, or hurt his foot upon a stone, and in the ruffled discomposed moment he will sometimes feel himself disposed to break the stone in pieces, or to utter passionate expressions against it, as if it had done him an injury. If one has been long accustomed to a certain set of objects, which have made a strong impression on his imagination; as to a house, where he has passed many agreeable years; or to fields, and trees, and mountains, among which he has often walked with the greatest delight; when he is obliged to part with them, espe-
Personify- cially if he has no prospect of ever seeing them again, he
can scarce avoid having somewhat of the same feeling as
when he is leaving old friends. They seem endowed
with life. They became objects of his affection; and,
in the moment of his parting, it scarce seems absurd to
him to give vent to his feeling in words, and to take a
formal adieu.
"So strong is that impression of life which is made
upon us, by the more magnificent and striking objects
of nature especially, that I doubt not in the least of this
having been one cause of the multiplication of divinities
in the heathen world. The belief of dryads and naiads,
of the genius of the wood and the god of the river,
among men of lively imaginations, in the early ages of
the world, easily arose from this turn of mind. When
their favourite rural objects had often been animated
in their fancy, it was an easy transition to attribute to them
some real divinity, some unseen power or genius which
inhabited them, or in some peculiar manner belonged to
them. Imagination was highly gratified, by thus gain-
ing somewhat to rest upon with more stability; and
when belief coincided so much with imagination, very
slight causes would be sufficient to establish it.
"From this deduction may be easily seen how it
comes to pass that personification makes so great a fig-
ure in all compositions where imagination or passion
have any concern. On innumerable occasions it is the
very language of imagination and passion; and therefore
deserves to be attended to, and examined with peculiar
care. There are three different degrees of this figure,
which it is necessary to remark and distinguish, in order
to determine the propriety of its use. The first is, when
some of the properties or qualities of living creatures are
ascribed to inanimate objects; the second, when those
inanimate objects are introduced as acting like such as
have life; and the third, when they are represented ei-
ther as speaking to us, or as listening to what we say
to them."
The ingenious professor goes on to investigate the na-
ture of personification at considerable length. We shall
give his caution for the use of it in prose compositions,
in which he informs us this figure requires to be used
with great moderation and delicacy. "The same li-
berty is not allowed to the imagination there as in
poetry. The same assistances cannot be obtained for
raising passion to its proper height by the force of num-
bers and the glow of style. However, addresses to in-
animate objects are not excluded from prose; but have
their place only in the higher species of oratory. A
public speaker may on some occasions very properly ad-
dress religion or virtue; or his native country, or some
city or province, which has suffered perhaps great cala-
mities, or been the scene of some memorable action.
But we must remember, that as such addresses are among
the highest efforts of eloquence, they should never be at-
tempted unless by persons of more than ordinary genius;
for if the orator fails in his design of moving our pas-
sions by them, he is sure of being laughed at. Of all
frigid things, the most frigid are the awkward and un-
seasonable attempts sometimes made towards such kinds
of personification, especially if they be long continued.
We see the writer or speaker toiling and labouring to
express the language of some passion which he neither
feels himself nor can make us feel. We remain not only
cold, but frozen; and are at full leisure to criticize on
the ridiculous figure which the personified object makes,
when we ought to have been transported with a glow of
enthusiasm. Some of the French writers, particularly
Bossuet and Flechier, in their sermons and funeral ora-
tions, have attempted and executed this figure not with-
out warmth and dignity. Their works are exceedingly
worthy of being consulted for instances of this and of fe-
veral other ornaments of style. Indeed the vivacity and
ardour of the French genius is more suited to this bold
species of oratory, than the more correct but less ani-
mated genius of the British, who in their prose works
very rarely attempt any of the high figures of elo-
quence."