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The connection or relation indicated by this figure should be clear and distinctly expressed, to render it an effective rhetorical aid, or to conduce to the energy and vivacity of style, which these figures principally seek. Thus, the prophecy that "the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come," borrows much of its fine effect from the use of sceptre for regal dominion, of Judah for the tribe and people from whom Christ should be descended; lawgiver stands for the maintenance and preservation of the law of Moses, or the first dispensation, until the coming of the Saviour.

The Psalms are full of the use of this beautiful figure, and in many cases it runs like a thread of gold through a whole chapter. It is found at the beginning of the eightieth Psalm: «Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come and save us."

In the following lines we have states of mind and body, put for the persons who are in them:

"In these green days,

Reviving sickness lifts her languid head,
Life flows afresh, and young-eyed health exalts
The whole creation round; Contentment walks
The sunny glade, and feels an inward bliss

Spring o'er his mind, beyond the power of kings
To purchase."

(101.) Of Hyperbole.

The next of the rhetorical tropes to be considered is Hyperbole. This word (Greek, vяɛρ Вanλw, to throw beyond, or exceed) has also been translated into English by the plain word Exaggeration.

Hyperbole consists in representing an object or emotion as of greater dimensions and greater extent than it really is, much better, or much worse, in order to produce a striking effect. This figure is of frequent and lamentable use in ordinary conversation; and has brought into misuse all our adjectives and adverbs expressing size, extent, or degree: immense, huge, vastly, are applied to small and unimportant things; unbounded, interminable, to really finite and perhaps quite limited extension.

We speak of the sun burning like fire; we are ourselves as cold as ice. While these are in reality verbal figures, they depend also very much upon the imagination, and are in so much purely figures of thought. The design of their legitimate use is to magnify the object before us, and give it additional interest and energy, by thus increasing its size and its extension. Thus, a large man, whether in mind or body, is a giant; a fine house is a palace; a beautiful child is an angel. We might continue to draw examples of this, as of the other figures, from the Bible, and here, indeed, its use is always beautiful and interesting; but

it is a figure by no means so frequently used as the others; and even where it has been used, it has been a stumbling-block to some. Thus, the phrase the everlasting hills, has led to a doubt concerning the use of this word everlasting, and its companion word eternal, in other places in the Bible, where it is of vital concern. Again, it is asserted that the seed of Abraham should be as "sands on the sea-shore." "The land is full of idols."

It has been justly observed that nations, in their early periods, when every manifestation of God in nature must strike them with awe and astonishment, are most apt to use this figure, partly as a vent to their surprise, and partly because, in the dim light through which they see objects, they do in reality loom up in exaggerated proportions. This is preeminently the case with the Oriental nations, who dwell in the vicinity of the cradle of the world.

It must also be remarked that children and youth indulge in hyperbolical language to a much greater extent than persons of maturer age. The reason is analogous to the one just given; the exuberance of spirits lends itself to all around them, and gives vigour and proportions to the world, commensurate with their own thoughts and hopes. Children's eyes are magnifying glasses, which lose their powers as they grow older.

Strictly speaking, the hyperbole is an improper

figure, since it ostensibly deviates, whenever used, from the exact truth; but the conventions of society have agreed upon a scale of exaggerations and superlatives, and consent to understand them as not really expressing the true meaning of the words used: in other words, due allowance is made for the hyperbole, and the truth is understood, though not expressed. The qualities ascribed to a certain object in the hyperbole, do really belong to it, but not in the degree expressed. Literary criticism abounds in exaggeration; an author's excellencies are magnified, his defects rendered greater and more glaring, by being detached from his beauties, and thus garbled: one is the most splendid orator of the period; another absolutely the poorest speaker in the world. And thus the unfortunate necessity, which seems forced upon us by the conventions of the world, that we should take one or the other side'in every question involving partisanship, seems to demand the use of hyperbole in praising our partisans and abusing our opponents. And besides all this it is more lamentable still that exaggeration in speech sometimes becomes a fashion, a social convention, and that conversation is considered tame without it.

(102.) Of Hypocatastasis.

This figure (Greek, vño, xaτα, cornu, to substitute) consists in substituting, without any previous state

ment of such a design, one act, or object, for another; in order, by a resemblance, to illustrate that for which the substitution is made.

Thus, we speak of a person "rowing against the tide," to illustrate one who is encountering serious obstacles.

The Scriptures have many fine examples of the use of this figure: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." "Taking

up the cross" is an illustration in constant use. When we speak of a person who is approaching the end of his life, we say, "he is near his journey's end;" and so also we pray that he may reach the haven of eternal rest," in allusion to the voyage of life. So also the prophet, speaking of the judgments of God, says, “Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks ye have kindled. This shall ye have at my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow."

(103.) Personification.

This figure ascribes to inanimate objects the attributes of animate beings; or to brutes and inferior animals the powers of men; in a word, it invests with personal dignity anything which is before impersonal. Thus, an American poet addresses our flag as though it were endowed with life :

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