Job v., 26; vi., 15-20; vii., 7, 9; viii., 11-15. Psa. i., 3, 4; cxxxiii. Jer. xxxi., 12. We add here an important reflection: In arranging figures, three heads of arrangement at once suggest themselves-Figures of Similarity, Figures of Contigu ity, Figures of Contrast. A fourth class, such as Interrogation, Exclamation, Apostrophe, instead of being departures from the ordinary application of words, are departures from the ordinary structure of sentences. But we might as well expect to be able to reduce, under four or under fifty classes, all the varieties into which the spray of the sea is tossed by the wind, as to be able to reduce all the very numerous varieties into which language is whirled by the agitations of the mind. Mark it well, that the trope contains in its single self many varieties of linguistic form, just as the metonymy does. Unless you fully appreciate this fact, you are by no means sufficiently awake to the rich susceptibilities of language. In taking our final leave of tropes, we once more urge on literary men the adoption of the reform suggested by us. Unless this improvement in the nomenclature be admitted, there will be an unnecessary appellation intruded on the metonymy, while "change of adjective" will be destitute of an appellation devoted solely to itself. But is "change of adjective" deserving of a name all to itself? This chapter presents you with a sufficient reply. These adjectival changes are innumerable; and they are most susceptible of exquisite delicacy and beauty. Let us welcome them, then, to a separate niche in the Pantheon of Rhetoric. And never can a department of thought conquer for itself a reputable place in literature till its nomenclature is strictly arranged and defined. One name for one thing, and no more. Let change of noun mean metonymy; let change of adjective mean trope. CHAPTER XI. FIGURES OF RHETORIC. PART SIXTH. Hypocatastasis or Implication. -Epanarthosis or Correction. Anamnesis or Recalling-Aposiopesis or Sudden Silence. Sudden Self-interruption.-Emblem. XLI. HYPOCATASTASIS is now before us; that is, Implication: unnamed, undiscriminated by literary men in general-an humbling and extraordinary proof of the wretched neglect into which this subject has fallen. This most beautiful and far-reaching figure had a name in Quintilian's day; scarce any one knows of it by a distinct name in our day, or since Addison's time, at latest. Implied resemblance — a resemblance not stated expressly, but taken for granted. The Saviour's favorite figures were interrogation and implication. If metaphor be ofttimes more forcible than simile, implication can be more forcible than metaphor; so that no point is better fitted to arouse to a vivid consciousness of the marvelous capabilities of English, those who hitherto have no adequate conception of what a wondrous thing our language is. An implication is an implied metaphor or an implied simile. Thus Southey: "No palm-grove islanded amid the waste." It is implied that the wide desert is an ocean, or is like Yet as the adjective, islanded, is not turned an ocean. aside from such a word as it originally fits, it is not a trope that is before us; another and distinct name is demanded to classify such a usage. Heeren discourses sublimely of Persepolis "Rising above the deluge of years;" whereby is implied that years sweep over the loftiest edifices of the past as did the flood over the mountainpeaks. Frederick Tennyson, brother of the laureate, sings: "The vales are surging with the grain." A simile or resemblance is implied between fields waving with grain and a full sea with its surges. Washington Irving draws a picture of his second Dutch Governor, William the Testy: "He was some such a little Dutchman as we may now and then see stumping briskly about the streets of our city, in a broad-skirted coat, with huge buttons, an old-fashioned cocked hat stuck on the back of his head, and a cane as high as his chin. His visage was broad and his features sharp; his nose turned up with the most petulant curl; his cheeks were scorched into a dusky red, doubtless in consequence of the neighborhood of his fierce little gray eyes, through which his torrid soul beamed with tropical fervor." It is not asseverated, simile-fashion, that his soul was like the tropics, nor, metaphor-wise, that his soul was the tropics: the simile is implied. Matt. iii., 8, 10, 12; v., 29, 30; vii., 3-6; xvi., 6, 12; Mark i., 17. Turn to the closing lines of the "Pleasures of Memory," the leading poem of Samuel Rogers, banker and poet. The implied similes are thick inlaid: "Hail, Memory, hail! In thy exhaustless mine, Thy pleasures most we feel when most alone- In a companion-piece to this, Campbell's "Pleasures of Hope," you will find implication abounding as much. In the closing lines: "Eternal Hope! When yonder spheres sublime Thy joyous youth began; but not to fade When all the sister planets have decayed; When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow, And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below, And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile." Here are a class of ornaments to style, deep imbedded in it, that are as ethereal as the down of the peach or blush of the primrose. A ballad, much renowned, by John Lowe, opens thus: "The moon had climb'd the highest hill Her thoughts on Sandy far at sea; 'Sweet Mary, weep no more for me.'" If Lowe had told us that the moon's light was like sil ver, he would have presented us with a simile; if he had informed us that it was silver, this would have been a metaphor; as it is, we have neither the one nor the other, nor yet a metonymy, for it lies not in a noun; but in an adjective, not subjected to a turn or trope. It is an "implied simile or metaphor," there being a refined delight in the reader's making the application for himself. We quote the famous speech of the Rev. Sydney Smith in favor of Reform in the British House of Commons: "I do not mean to be disrespectful; but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824 there set in a great flood upon that town; the tide rose to an incredible height; the waves rushed in upon the houses, and every thing was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house, with mop and pattens, trundling the mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused; Mrs. Partington's spirit was up; but I need not tell you the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle; but she should not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease; be quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington." At a time when a nation's passions were roused, this hypocatastasis, in which the wit says not that the House of Lords was the dame, nor was like her, set all England a-laughing, and helped considerably to make that revolution a bloodless one. We throw together a few implications, without com ment: "Life, struck sharp on Death, Makes awful lightning."-Mrs. Browning. "America is as yet in the youth and gristle of her strength." -Burke. |