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of comparison, or association, or when they originate in feelings, or emotions excited by the subject; hence —

First. If they be sought and studied, figures will appear to be stiff and formal and, of course, unnatural.

1.

"I was glad that day;

The June was in me, with its multitudes

Of nightingales all singing in the dark,
And rosebuds reddening where the calyx split."-Aurora Leigh.

2. "Death's black dust, being blown

Infiltrated through every secret fold
Of this sealed letter by a puff of fate,
Dried up for ever the fresh-written ink,
Annulled the gift, disutilized the grace,
And left these fragments!"

Aurora Leigh.

Second. If they be unnatural, or have been studied, they will detract from the beauty of composition. Studied and unnatural figures render a subject ridiculous, burlesque, or bombastic, or even mere twaddle.

3. Twaddle. "The stars struck dumb and washed away in dews

Of golden glory, and the mountains steeped in divine languor !" SECOND RULE. Figures must be appropriate to the subject.

Figures are appropriate when they accomplish the purpose for which they are used; and they may be used to dignify, or to demean.

First. When used to dignify, they must be drawn from a subject more dignified than the primary and yet not so far above as to eclipse it.

4. Human law can not be as perfect as the Divine law, because it is both made and administered by fallible beings.

5. Human like Divine laws aim at the perfection of justice.

In the former example, human law is dignified by comparing even its fallibility with the infallibility of the Divine; in the latter, it is eclipsed; for how can the perfection of the human be favorably compared with that of the Divine.

Second. When used to demean, or degrade, the figure must be drawn from something meaner than the primary.

6. "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion."

RULE THIRD. Trite, or worn-out figures, should be avoided.

Some figures have been so long in use, and have become so common-place that they neither illustrate, nor adorn.

7. "My love is like the red, red rose."

8. Her brow is fair as alabaster, her cheeks are red as roses, and her teeth are as white as milk.

Remember; novelty is a great part of what is pleasing in figures.

RULE FOURTH. Figures should not be drawn from subjects whose relations to the primary parts are either faint, or not generally known.

A figure can explain and embellish only as it brings to mind familiar ideas; figures confuse and annoy us, when they suggest relations which we do not perceive, or ideas which are not familiar.

9. "The holy book like the eighth sphere doth shine."

RULE FIFTH. Figures should not be pursued too far. Nothing is more insufferably dull and stupid than the violations of this rule. It is like listening to a detailed description of another person's dress. We should presume that the hearer, or reader will supply some of the particulars, after the attention has once been aroused by the figure.

10. "The tackle of my heart is cracked and burnt;
And all the shrouds wherewith my life should sail
Are turned to one thread, one little hair:
My heart hath one poor string to stay it by,

Which holds till thy news be uttered."

Shakspeare.

SIXTH RULE. Figurative and Plain language should not be mixed in the same period.

That is, the sentences must not be so constructed that a part of each must be taken literally, while a part is taken figuratively.

11. "But up in groves Paradise full surely we shall see

Our morning-glory beautiful twine round our dear Lord's knee."

In example eleventh, we have a morning-glory in the groves of Paradise; a very good picture; but who has ever seen, or wishes to see one twine round the knee of a person. This last is plain language.

In addition to a careful study of Figurative Language, as given in this Work, every student should read attentively Blair's Lectures, and Kame's Elements of Criticism. In these, the teacher also may find a good variety of examples, and some fine specimens of criticism, which may be read and explained before the class.

EXERCISE.

IN the following Exercise, the pupil will find examples, which it will be well for him to examine, and tell whether they belong to Plain or to Figurative Language, and if Figurative, to what Figure.

1. Hail, then, all hail, thou fair morning of this fairest of the months! 2. Till morning waked by the circling hours,

With rosy hand unbarred the gates of light.

3. While overhead the moon sits arbitress.

4. Thy verse created like thy theme sublime,

In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhyme.

5. Your bodies may at last turn all to spirit;

Improved by tract of time, and wing'd ascend ethereal.

6. Hypocrisy, the only evil that walks invisible.

7. The morning stars sang together.

8. The sky was clear and of the milky-cerulean of chrysoprase.

9. The south wind stole suddenly back from the tropics, and found his flowery mistress asleep, and insensible to his kisses beneath her snowy mantle.

10. There are moments in existence which comprise the power of years; as thousands of roses are contained in a few drops of their

essence.

11. Life is real life is earnest! and the grave is not its goal.

12. Old Gibblet was a perfect scarecrow to the small fry of the day. 13. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

14. O unexampled love! love nowhere to be found less than divine! 15. He shall not die but live, and thou shalt save his soul alive.

Part III. Rhetorical Composition,

1. DEFINITIONS.

The word, composition,1 means the science and art of putting together.

RHETORICAL COMPOSITION is a term applied to the science and art by which the narrator expresses a thought and its proper mood in an appropriate manner.

a. So far as language is concerned, Composition is a synthetic process, by which we construct sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and volumes s; either for the purpose of communication with our fellow-beings, or for our own improvement. In the Logical, Rhetorical, and Grammatical Analyses, we have attempted to exhibit the nature and constitution of human knowledge, and of language, and also the relations, which they have to, as well as the influence, which they exert upon each other. In this Chapter, we shall endeavor to discuss certain properties, and principles, which belong almost exclusively to Composition as a synthetic process, and to which, of course, we could barely allude in the previous analyses. But these properties and principles, in the synthetic course, become of primary importance; because, in composing, we are obliged to use the knowledge, previously acquired, both for arranging our thoughts properly, and for expressing them correctly. In the analytic stage, the student, for the greater part, is a recipient, a consumer; but as a composer, he becomes a producer, and a contributor to the general stock. Now, in doing this, he is required to use language in a manner altogether different from that, in which he has previously used it, and hence, obtains new views of its uses, and capabilities, and so gains that higher power, by which the human race is so wonderfully distinguished—the Use of Language. Nor should any suppose that exercises in both kinds of this twofold process are not equally necessary. By taking a machine in pieces, we may be enabled to comprehend the relation and fitness of its parts; but it is only by attempting its construction, that we learn to select the proper, and the best materials, to fit each part for its peculiar use, and to give proper adaptation to the whole, so that it shall best fulfil its design.

1COMPOSITION. ition, · -;pos=pon-pot, putting; com con- syn, to

gether.

NOTE. The student should now find the literal definitions of the terms occurring in Chap. V., and VI. If, in doing this, more aid be needing than is furnished in Chap. IV., he may consult some Work, especially devoted to this subject; as, Smith's Hand-Book of Etymology, Lynch's Efology, and the Dictionary.

2. In order to compose successfully, three things are necessary on the part of the writer, or speaker; first, Previous preparation; second, A willingness to work for success; and third, The possession of the ordinary attributes of humanity.

FIRST. Previous Preparation. The student should have definite ideas concerning knowledge, its different varieties, its modes of acquisition, its reproduction; and should be familiar with that part of the nomenclature of mental science usually employed in connection with knowledge; and lastly, should be familiar with the Logical, Rhetorical, and Grammatical Analyses of Sentential Language.

SECOND. A Willingness to work for Success. The student, who would become expert in expressing thought and feeling, must not suppose that this power can be developed without the exercise of all his faculties. He must have great faith in labor, as all the successful have had. He must feel, that "perseverance conquers all," and, that “labor is worship." His task will become easier the more his labor is divided in a proper ratio between the hands, the head, and the heart.

THIRD. The Possession of the ordinary Attributes of Humanity; nothing more, nothing less. He must have sensations and perceptions of objects similar to those, which others have of the same objects. He must remember and imagine as others remember and imagine; that is, these acts must be of the same kind; they may differ in degree. He must reason and judge as a human being; and lastly, he must have human feelings. He must "Rejoice with them, that do rejoice, and weep with them, that weep."

If any one possess these three essentials, let that one speak and write. "Practice makes perfect." Always observing the modes, in which good writers and speakers express themselves; not with the disposition to adopt unhesitatingly all, that may be found therein, but "to mark, learn, and inwardly digest," so that it shall become the food for thought and farther growth. 'Reading makes a full man; conference makes a ready man; writing, an exact man.'

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But above all; let every student remember and preserve his mental, as carefully as he should his physical individuality. As every human being can be distinguished from all the rest, and yet each exceedingly resembles all the others; so, each composer [writer, or speaker] is entitled to have and to preserve his own individualities, or peculiarities of thought, and modes of expressing it, which are known as his style ; only let them not be violations of any essential law of language, or of any long and well-established usage, which is in harmony with these essential laws. Be neither rash innovators, nor servile imitators.

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