In this example, the rhetorical figures, joy, light, are used instead of daughter, the real subject of narration, as its primary part. NOTE II. Rhetorical Figures are sometimes called the Flowers of Rhetoric; because, they attract us to language, as flowers attract us to the study and cultivation of the plants that produce them. 2. Language, according to its use of Figures, is di vided into two kinds; namely, Plain, and Figurative Language. 3. Plain Language directly expresses the thought itself. It is the language of ordinary business statements, of common narrative, of the sciences, and of the highest passions and emotions. 1. Ordinary Business. A sells B $500 worth of goods, payable at the end of six months. 2. Common Narrative. The names of some of the largest trees, and the principal grains have been received from the Saxons. Among these we may mention the oak, beech, ash, and maple. 3. Strong Passion. "Banished from Rome! What's banished, but set free from daily contact of the things I loathe!" 4. Strong Emotions. "I am Joseph; doth my father yet live ?" 5. Emotion of Sublimity. God said, "let there be light; and there was light." 6. "He spoke, and it was done; he commanded and it stood fast." or 4. Figurative Language expresses thoughts by comparing, or associating them with other thoughts ideas. It is the language of feeling, except in statements of the strongest passions and emotions; hence, it is used in animated narration, in oratory, and especially in poetry. The Figures of Rhetoric are sometimes called Tropes, from a Greek word signifying to turn, because the meaning or use of the word is turned from its primary, or first meaning. 7. "I am an aged hemlock. The storms of a hundred winters have whistled through my branches." Example seventh is an extract from the speech of an aged Indian chief. In plain language, it would be; I am an aged man. The storms of a hundred years have whistled around me. By comparing himself to an aged hemlock, other ideas are at once brought to mind, which not only please us by their variety, but assist the narration; and, finally, enable us to retain the whole expression. 5. Figurative Language has its origin in that part of man's mental constitution, which compares and associates the attributes and properties of things while imagining and reflecting. Writers usually ascribe the origin of Figurative Language to a necessity arising from the want of words in the earlier developments of the language itself. The subsequent use of figures they ascribe to a discovery of the convenience and the pleasure afforded by them. We would as soon ascribe the origin and the subsequent use of breathing and of eating to the same causes. It seems to us perfectly natural that mankind should speak as they think; and no species of thinking is more natural than that, which gives birth to figurative language. Because things and their properties in so many ways are constantly suggesting other things and their properties. In Chapter VI., we have shown the constitution of the human mind to be such, that it must begin to learn through the aid of the senses and external things; and, also, that the knowledge thus gained, together with a knowledge of themselves, becomes the elements, from which the mental faculties deduce that higher kind of knowledge, which we have called the abstract, or supersensuous; and we have also shown that in this tendency of the mind to compare, associate, and deduce, Figurative Language has its origin. This statement will explain what a certain writer on this subject means, when he says; "In very many occasions, they [figures] are both the most natural, and the most common method of expressing our sentiments. It is impossible to compose any discourse with out using them often; nay, there are few sentences of any length, in which some expression or other, that may be termed a figure, does not occur. The fact shows that they are to be accounted a part of that language which nature dictates to man. They are not the inventions of the schools, nor the mere product of study; on the contrary, the most illiterate speak in figures, as often as the most learned. [He might have said oftener.] Whenever the imaginations of the vulgar are much awakened, or their passions inflamed against one another, they will pour forth a torrent of figurative language as forcible as could be employed by the most artificial declaimer." Figures, then, are the natural language of imagination and of feeling. 6. Figures should be used as the accompaniment only, never in the place of thoughts. Figures are only the accessories; the means by which thought is rendered more intelligible and more attractive. They are to the thought what dress and culture are to the body; not to take its place, but to take place in connection with it and as an appendage of it. While the figure adorns the thought and adds to its comeliness, it is the thought, that gives the basis of value to the whole; the former is but the guinea's stamp, the latter is the gold which gives it currency. Our common-place thoughts are beneath figures; our noblest and sublimest are above them; the former are unworthy of figures; the value of the latter is recognised at sight and therefore does not need them. It is only those that require more attraction than what they possess in themselves, and are worthy of it, which require and admit figures. I utter a plain truth when I say, "God, from mankind, hides the knowledge of all events except the present," but how much more agreeably and impressively the same is told and enforced by the aid of a very simple figure; "Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate, All, but the page, prescribed their present state." The Great Teacher used figures freely in his instructions, an example of which is his lesson at the well of Samaria, whose water he made the type of "that water, which I shall give him." The lily, the seed-time, the harvest; all seasons and all occasions, furnished him the means wherewith to illustrate and enforce his teachings, and ever afterward to be the monitors, by which they should be recalled. It was in reference to his example in this respect, that we gave the rule for the use of Comparisons. Sensible objects and their properties are the most familiar to us, and, therefore, when abstract ideas are presented, it is always by comparison with sensible objects. Thus the process of acquiring primary knowledge is called the synthetic from its analogy to the process of building. For the same reason we speak of mental and moral operations and their effects in the same terms, which we employ for what we conceive to be similar in objects of sense; as, a hard heart, a great intellect, an acute mind, a dull comprehension. We are inflamed by passion, warmed by love, and melted by grief. It is easy to say that the Roman state was the most prosperous and enjoyed the greatest reputation under Augustus; and that during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, English literature reached a high development, and gained greatly in reputation; but instead of using plain language, we compare the Roman state to a tree and the literature of England to the Roman state, when we say, "The Roman state flourished most under Augustus; and during Elizabeth's reign was the Augustan age of English literature." The effect of this use of terms is to save an increase in the number of words, and the consequent trouble of learning their definitions; and it also enables us to join or associate our knowledge with sensible objects and their properties and thus to be reminded of it by that, which we have called local or incidental association. Indeed, every one must have learned from the experience of childhood, that oftentimes the figure alone was understood and retained, while that, which it typified was not known until years afterward, and even then was recalled and explained by the figure. There is no place where a proper admixture of figurative language would be productive of more good results, than in the daily school; and yet it is not usually found in the schools even in the proportions, in which it is used in the daily walks of life. We too easily forget, that it is the language of nature, and hence is peculiarly fitted for the use of learners. Dr. Blair mentions four reasons why figures, or tropes contribute to the beauty and grace of language; to which we would add, and to the value of language also. "First. They enrich language, and render it more copious. By their means, words and phrases are multiplied for expressing all sorts of ideas; for describing even the minutest differences; the nicest shades and colors of thought; which no language could possibly do by proper words alone, without assistance from tropes. "Second. They bestow dignity upon style. The familiarity of common words, to which our ears are much accustomed, tends to degrade style. When we want to adapt our language to the tone of an elevated subject, we should be greatly at a loss, if we could not borrow assistance from figures; which, properly employed, have a similar effect on language, with what is produced by the rich and splendid dress of a person of rank; to create respect, and to give an air of magnificence to him who wears it. Assistance of this kind, is often needed in prose compositions; but poetry could not subsist without it. Hence, figures form the constant language of poetry. To say, that 'the sun rises,' is trite and common; but it becomes a magnificent image when expressed, as Mr. Thomson has done: 'But yonder comes the powerful king of day, To say, that all men are subject alike to death,' presents only a vulgar idea; but it rises and fills the imagination, when painted thus by Horace ; 'With equal pace, impartial fate Knocks at the palace, as the. cottage gate.' |