Black omen, for an omen that portends bad

fortune.

Ater odor.

Virgil.

The peculiar beauty of this figure arifes from fuggesting a comparison.

3. A word proper to the fubject, employ'd to exprefs one of its attributes.

Mens for intellectus. Mens for a refolution :

Iftam, oro, exue mentem,

4. When two fubjects have a refemblance by a common quality, the name of the one fubject may be employ'd figuratively to denote that quality in the other.

Summer life for agreeable life.

5. The name of the inftrument made to fignify the power of employing it.

Melpomene, cui liquidam pater

Vocem cum cithara dedit,

The ample field of figurative expreffion difplay'd in these tables, affords great scope for reafoning. Several of the observations relating to metaphor, are applicable to figures of fpeech:

thefe

these I shall slightly retouch, with fome additions peculiarly adapted to the prefent fubject.

In the first place, as the figure under confideration is built upon relation, we find from experience, and it must be obvious from reason, that the beauty of the figure depends on the intimacy of the relation between the figurative and proper fense of the word. A flight refemblance, in particular, will never make this figure agreeable: the expreffion, for example, Drink down a fecret, for liftening to a fecret with attention, is harsh and uncouth, because there is scarce any refemblance between liftening and drinking. The expreffion Weighty crack, used by Ben Johnson for loud crack, is worfe if poffible: a loud found has not the flightest resemblance to a piece of matter that is weighty. The following expreffion of Lucretius is not lefs faulty, "Et lepido 66 quæ funt fucata fonore." i. 645.

Sed magis

Pugnas et exactos tyrannos

Denfum humeris bibit aure vulgus,

Horat. Carm. 1. 2. ode 13.

Phemius! let acts of gods, and heroes old,
What ancient bards in hall and bow'r have told,
Attemper'd to the lyre, your voice employ,
Such the pleas'd ear will drink with filent joy.

Strepitumque exterritus haufit.

Ody fey, i. 433.

Eneid, vi. 559.

U 4

Write

Write, my Queen,

And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you fend.

Cymbeline, act 1. sc. 2.

As thus th' effulgence tremulous I drink.

Summer, l. 1684.

Neque audit currus habenas:

Georg. i. 514.

O Prince! (Lycaon's valiant fon 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, v. 288.

The following figures of fpeech feem altogether wild and extravagant, the figurative and proper meaning having no connection whatever. Moving foftness, Freshness breathes, Breathing profpect, Flowing fpring, Dewy light, Lucid coolnefs, and many others of this false coin may be found in Thomfon's Seafons.

Secondly, The proper fenfe of the word ought to bear fome proportion to the figurative fenfe, and not foar much above it, nor fink much below it. This rule, as well as the foregoing, is finely illuftrated by Vida :

Hæc adeo cum fint, cum fas audere poetis
Multa modis multis; tamen obfervare memento,
Si quando haud propriis rem mavis dicere verbis,

Trandatifque

Tranflatifque aliunde notis, longeque petitis,

Ne nimiam oftendas, quærendo talia, curam.

Namque aliqui exercent vim duram, et rebus iniqui
Nativam eripiunt formam, indignantibus ipfis,
Invitafque jubent alienos fumere vultus.

Haud magis imprudens mihi erit, et luminis expers,
Qui puero ingentes habitus det ferre gigantis,
Quam fiquis ftabula alta lares appeilet equinos,
Aut crines magnæ genitricis gramina dicat.

Poet. l.iii. 148.

Thirdly, In a figure of speech, every circumstance ought to be avoided that agrees with the proper fense only, not the figurative fenfe; for it is the latter that expreffes the thought, and the former ferves for no other purpose but to make harmony:

Zacynthus green with ever-fhady groves,
And Ithaca, prefumptuous boaft their loves;
Obtruding on my choice a second lord,
They prefs the Hymenean rite abhorr’d.

Odyssey, xix. 152.

Zacynthus here ftanding figuratively for the inhabitants, the defcription 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 fenfe.

Write, my Queen,

And with mine eyes I'll drink the words you fend,

Though

1

Though ink be made of gall.

Cymbeline, act 1. fc. 2.

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

In the fourth place, To draw confequences from a figure of speech, as if the word were to be understood literally, is a grofs abfurdity, for it is confounding truth with fiction:

Be Moubray's fins fo heavy in his bofom,
That they may break his foaming courfer's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lifts,
A caitiff recreant to my coufin Hereford.

Richard II. act 1. fc. 3.

Sin may be imagined heavy in a figurative fenfe: but weight in a proper fenfe belongs to the acceffory only; and therefore to defcribe the effects of weight, is to defert the principal fubject, and to convert the acceffory into a principal :

Cromwell. How does your Grace?

Wolfey. Why, well;

Never fo truly happy, my good Cromwell.

I know myself now, and I feel within me

A peace above all earthly dignities,

A ftill and quiet confcience. The King has cur'd me,
I humbly thank his Grace; and, from these shoulders,
These ruin'd pillars, out of pity, taken

A