§ 331. Those forms of figurative energy which depend on the kind of words employed, are denominated Tropes, which may be defined as follows: A TROPE is a word employed for the sake of energy in a different import from that which is proper to it. It is obvious to remark that tropes are figurative uses of the proper import of words. A tropical impropriety is denominated a catachresis. A trope presupposes two objects which when compared resemble each other in some respect. The name appropriated to the one is used to denote the other object. A trope is thus, as its name imports, a turn or change in the use of a word. § 332. Tropes impart energy to style by representing the object in a more individual or sensible form than the proper denomination of it; and thus bringing it more impressively before the imagination, as scepter instead of dominion; Homer instead of the Homeric poems; Britain instead of the government of Great Britain. § 333. Tropes may be distributed into two classes according as they are founded on a resemblance of properties, or a resemblance of relations. The former class may be denominated simple tropes ; the latter are called metaphors. All tropes are founded on resemblance, or, more philosophically speaking, on a more or less perfect identity. partial identity or resemblance can always be traced even in the most remote cases. When we say, thus, "The crescent wanes," instead of, "The Mohammedan power declines," we first conceive of the flag of that power from its characteristic symbol; and then of the power itself from the flag which represents it; and in both cases the conception is founded on a species of local identity. The place of the crescent is in the flag; and of the flag with the presence of the power or authority. Without this identity, the mind has no power to conceive of the object represented. If the identity respect only one or two obscure particulars, or, in other words, if the resemblance be but faint and dim, the trope is catachrestic-harsh and far-fetched. The explanation of tropical energy is hence obvious. By the trope, the mind addressed is placed in a certain place or time or analogous relation, from which it views the object represented; as in the trope "a boisterous multitude," the mind is referred to a furious wind swelling and roaring, and in that sensible image perceives the characteristic given in the epithet to the “multitude." Hence, when a word originally tropical ceases, from familiar use, to call up the sensible or singular object or scene to which it properly refers, it loses its tropical character. It is no longer turned from its accepted import. Such is the tendency in the progress of language with all tropes. Here we find the explanation of the fact that the same discourse pleases an imaginative mind skilled in the use of language and accustomed to refer the words to the sensible object which they originally represented, that, to another mind, seems wholly destitute of beauty. Here, too, is found the explanation of the peculiar energy and beauty of that species of style which puts the imagination of the reader constantly in the way of making this reference. These general observations apply with equal force to the second class of figures or those founded on the representative imagery. § 334. Simple Tropes are of two species: 1. Those in which the objects compared differ in quantity, whether of extent or degree; and, 2. Those in which the objects differ in kind. A trope of the latter species is called a Metonymy; as "the father of Jupiter" for "Saturn;"" the grave for "death." § 335. SYNECDOCHE is a trope in which either the part is put for the whole, or a species or individual for the class. Examples of the former variety are: "England is still flourishing for the instruction of the world," for "Great Britain."- Mirabeau. "By thousands," for "great numbers." The following are instances of the latter variety : — Romanus proelio victor, for Romani. "Some village Hampden that, with dauntless breast, The little tyrant of his fields withstood; Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood." — Gray. So thought the countries of Demosthenes and the Spartan: yet Leonidas is trampled by the timid slave, etc. § 336. When the whole is put for a part, or the class for the species or individual, the trope is still called a synecdoche. In this case, for the most part, the energy of the expression is weakened. "To appropriate to one's self," is more general language and less forcible than "to steal." "He went to his rest," is a softer expression than "he died." The use of the plural "we" is thus less egotistical than the singular" I.” § 337. A METONYMY is a trope in which the object is represented by a word properly applied to something else that differs in kind from the represented object. The additional energy imparted to the expression by this trope is owing to the circumstance that the object is repre sented by means of one more familiar, or more readily conceived, in consequence of its being single or cognizable by the senses. The different varieties of this trope may be thus classified :· 1. Cause represented by the effect, or vice versa; as "gray hairs" for "old age;" ""Milton" for "Milton's writings." This variety is ultimately founded on identity of time, as the following is on that of place. 2. Substance by quality, property, or accident, and vice versa; as, "the sun" for "the heat of the sun;""Brutus ” for "inflexible firmness; "wealth counts its cattle" for "the man of wealth." Here belongs the metonymy of the sign for the thing signified, and the reverse; as scepter" for "dominion." 66 66 3. The time, for what existed or transpired in it, and vice versa; as, “antiquity" for "the men of antiquity;" posterity" for "the future." Under this variety is included the metonymy founded on proximity of time. 4. The place, for what is in it or associated with it, and vice versa; as "Greece " for "the Greeks;" "the forum ” for "a judicial tribunal," or "judicial business." By the use of an epithet the trope is made more significant and vivid, as : — Streaming grief his faded cheek bedewed. Here grief, the cause, is tropically used for tears, the effect the epithet streaming — properly characterizing only the latter. § 338. A METAPHOR is a trope in which the representation of the object is effected by the use of a word properly denoting something analogous; and is founded on a resemblance or identity of relations. A metaphor being founded on an identity of relation is by this distinguished from simple tropes, (§ 333.) The nature of the metaphor may be seen from the following illustrations :— "Time had plowed his venerable front." The word "plowed" is here used metaphorically. The use of it is justified on the ground of the analogy of the effect of literal plowing to that of time. In other words, what the driving of the plow is to the soil, time was to the forehead. The resemblance on which the metaphor is founded is obviously one of relation and not of properties. Oh! when the growling winds contend, and all There is in these lines an accumulation of metaphors, all clearly distinguishable by the characteristic named from the simple trope. The winds are said to growl from the analogy of the effect on the mind to the growls of a wolf. What growling is to the wolf, the noise of the storm is to the wind. So the motion of the forest is to the trees what the fluctuation of the water is to the waving sea. The same remark is applicable to "the howling of the din over the battlement." It is to be observed that in the first and last of these metaphors there is, besides the metaphor, also, the figure of personification. Metaphors, like simple tropes, are of two classes, which may be called Metaphors of Synecdoche and Metaphors of Metonymy. Thus in the distich : Apollo bade me check my fond desire, Nor on the vast Tyrrhenian spread my little sail. "Tyrrhenian" is a metaphorical synecdoche, being used for any large sea; which is to a little bark what epic themes were to the lyric spirit of Horace. The following is a metaphor of metonymy: Or have ye chosen this place After the toils of battle, to repose |