Now shield with shield, with helmet helmet clos'd,
To armor armor, lance to lance oppos'd.
Host against host with shadowy squadrons drew,
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew,
Victors and vanquish'd join promiscuous cries,
And shrilling shouts and dying groans arise;
With streaming blood the slipp'ry fields are died,
And slaughter'd heroes swell the dreadful tide.

ILIAD, iv. 508. Quintilian is sensible that this figure is natural "For," says he, "not contented with truth, we naturally incline to augment or diminish beyond it; and for that reason the hyperbole is familiar even among the vulgar and illiterate:" and he adds, very justly, "that the hyperbole is then proper, when the subject of itself exceeds the common measure."

Having examined the nature of this figure, and the principle on which it is erected, I proceed, as in the first section, to the rules by which it ought to be governed. And, in the first place, it is a capital fault to introduce an hyperbole in the description of any thing ordinary or familiar; for, in such a case, it is altogether unnatural, being destitute of surprise, its only foundation. Take the following instance, where the subject is extremely familiar, viz. swimming to gain the shore after a shipwreck:

I saw him beat the surges under him,

And ride upon their backs; he trod the water;
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted

The surge most swoln that met him: his bold head
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
Himself with his good arms, in lusty strokes
To th' shore that o'er his wave-borne basis bow'd,
As stooping to relieve him.

TEMPEST.-Act II. Sc. 1.

In the next place, it may be gathered from what is said, that an hyperbole can never suit the tone of any dispiriting passion: sorrow, in particular, will never prompt such a figure; for which reason the following hyperboles must be condemned as unnatural:

K. Rich. Aumerle, thou weep'st, my tender-hearted
cousin!

We'll make foul weather with despised tears;

Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer-corn,
And make a dearth in this revolting land.

RICHARD II.-Act III. Sc. 6.

Draw them to Tyber's bank, and weep your tears
Into the channel, till the lowest stream
Do kiss the most exalted shores of all.

JULIUS CESAR.-ACT 1. Sc. 1.

Thirdly, A writer, if he wish to succeed, ought always to have the reader in his eye; he ought, in particular, never to venture a bold thought or expression, till the reader be warned and prepared. For that reason, an hyperbole in the beginning of a work can never be in its place.

The nicest point of all is to ascertain the natural limits of an hyperbole, beyond which, being overstrained, it hath a bad effect. Longinus, in the abovecited chapter, with great propriety of thought, enters a caveat against an hyperbole of this kind: he compares it to a bow-string, which relaxes by overstraining, and produces an effect directly opposite to what is intended. To ascertain any precise boundary, would be difficult, if not impracticable. Mine shall be an humbler task; which is, to give a specimen of what I reckon overstrained hyperbole; and I shall be brief upon them, because examples are to be found everywhere. No fault is more common among writers of inferior rank; and instances are found even among classical writers. Witness the following hyperbole, too bold even for a Hotspur.

Hotspur, talking of Mortimer:

In single opposition, hand to hand,

He did confound the best part of an hour

In changing hardiment with great Glendower.

Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink,
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;

Who, then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank,
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.

FIRST PART HENRY IV.-ACT 1. Sc. 3

Speaking of Henry V.:

England ne'er had a king until his time:
Virtue he had, deserving to command:

His brandish'd sword did blind men with its beams:
His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings:
His sparkling eyes, replete with awful fire,
More dazzled, and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces.
What should I say? His deeds exceed all speech:
He ne'er lift up his hand, but conquer'd.

FIRST PART HENRY VI.-ACT I. Sc...

Lastly, An hyperbole, after it is introduced with al advantages, ought to be comprehended within the fewest words possible. As it cannot be relished but in the hurry and swelling of the mind, a leisurely view dissolves the charm, and discovers the description to be extravagant at least, and perhaps also ridiculous.

There is in Chaucer a thought expressed in a single line, which gives more lustre to a young beauty, than the whole of this much-labored poem:

Up rose the sun, and up rose Emilie.

SECTION IV.-The means or instrument conceived to be the Agent.

When we survey a number of connected objects, that which makes the greatest figure, employs chiefly our attention; and the emotion it raises, if lively, prompts us even to exceed nature in the conception we form of it. Take the following examples:

For Neleus' son Alcides' rage had slain.

A broken rock the force of Pirus threw.

In these instances, the rage of Hercules and the force of Pirus, being the capital circumstances, are so far exalted as to be conceived the agents that produce the effects.

In the following instances, hunger being the chief circumstance in the description, is itself imagined to be the patient.

Whose hunger has not tasted food these three days.
JANE SHORE.

As when the force

Of subterranean wind transports a hill.

PARADISE LOST.

As when the potent rod ·

Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day

Wav'd round the coast, up-call'd a pitchy cloud
Of locusts.

REVIEW.

IBID.

What is an apostrophe ?

Give examples of it.

Give examples of its union with personification
What does this figure require?

What is hyperbole ?--describe its origin.

How is it most successfully used?--why?

Give examples.

When is hyperbole proper, according to Quintilian?

Where should hyperbole be avoided

Give an example of the violation of this rule.

To what passions is it unsuitable?

Give examples.

Point out the faulty expressions in these examples.

What caution should the writer observe?

What examples of overstrained hyperbole are given?

Should a hyperbole be expressed concisely?

Give examples of the figure of speech in which the means or instrument is conceived to be the agent.

SECTION V.-A Figure which, among related objects, extends the properties of one to another.

This figure is not dignified with a proper name, because it has been overlooked by writers. It merits, however, a place in this work; and must be distinguished from those formerly handled, as depending on a different principle. Giddy brink, jovial wine, daring wound, are examples of this figure. Here are adjectives that cannot be made to signify any quality of the substantives to which they are joined: a brink, for example, cannot be termed giddy in a sense, either proper or figurative, that can signify any of its qualities or attributes. When we examine attentively the expression, we discover that a brink is termed giddy from producing that effect in those who stand on it. In the same manner, a wound is said to be daring, not with respect to itself, but with respect to the boldness of the person who inflicts it; and wine is said to be jovial, as inspiring mirth and jollity. Thus the attributes of

one subject are extended to another with which it is connected; and the expression of such a thought must be considered as a figure, because the attribute is not applicable to the subject in any proper sense.

How are we to account for this figure, which we see lies in the thought, and to what principle shall we refer it? Have poets a privilege to alter the nature of things, and at pleasure to bestow attributes upon a subject to which they do not belong? We have had often occasion to inculcate, that the mind passeth easily and sweetly along a train of connected objects; and, where the objects are intimately connected, that it is disposed to carry along the good and bad properties of one to another, especially when it is in any degree inflamed with these properties. From this principle is derived the figure under consideration. Language, invented for the communication of thought, would be imperfect, if it were not expressive even of the slighter propensities and more delicate feelings. But language cannot remain so imperfect among a people who have received any polish; because language is regulated by internal feeling, and is gradually improved to express whatever passes in the mind. Thus, for example, when a sword in the hand of a coward is termed a coward sword, the expression is significative of an internal operation; for the mind, in passing from the agent to its instrument, is disposed to extend to the latter the properties of the former. Governed by the same principle, we say listening fear, by extending the attribute listening of the man who listens, to the passion with which he is moved. In the expression bold deed, we extend to the effect what properly belongs to the cause. But, not to waste time by making a commentary upon every expression of this kind, the best way to give a complete view of the subject, is to exhibit a table of the different relations that may give occasion to this figure. And, in viewing the table, it will be observed, that the figure can never have any grace but where the relations are of the most intimate kind.