LESSON VII.—­FIGURES OF RHETORIC.

FIGURE III.—­ALLEGORY.

“But what think ye?  A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.’  He answered and said, ’I will not;’ but afterward he repented, and went.  And he came to the second, and said likewise.  And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir;’ and went not.  Whether of them twain did the will of his father?  They say unto him, ’The first.’”—­Matt., xxi, 28-31.

FIGURE IV.—­METONYMY.

“Swifter than a whirlwind, flies the leaden death.”—­Hervey. “’Be all the dead forgot,’ said Foldath’s bursting wrath.  ’Did not I fail in the field?’”—­Ossian.

   “Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke.”—­Gray.

    “Firm in his love, resistless in his hate,
    His arm is conquest, and his frown is fate.”—­Day.

    “At length the world, renew’d by calm repose,
    Was strong for toil; the dappled morn arose.”—­Parnell.

    “What modes of sight betwixt each wide extreme,
    The mole’s dim curtain and the lynx’s beam! 
    Of hearing, from the life that fills the flood,
    To that which warbles through the vernal wood!”—­Pope.

FIGURE V.—­SYNECDOCHE.

   “’Twas then his threshold first receiv’d a guest.”—­Parnell.

    “For yet by swains alone the world he knew,
    Whose feet came wand’ring o’er the nightly dew.”—­Id.

    “Flush’d by the spirit of the genial year,
    Now from the virgin’s cheek a fresher bloom
    Shoots, less and less, the live carnation round.”—­Thomson.

LESSON VIII.—­FIGURES OF RHETORIC.

FIGURE VI.—­HYPERBOLE.

“I saw their chief, tall as a rock of ice; his spear, the blasted fir; his shield the rising moon; he sat on the shore, like a cloud of mist on the hill.”—­Ossian.

   “At which the universal host up sent
    A shout, that tore Hell’s concave, and beyond
    Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.”—­Milton.

    “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
    Clean from my hand?  No; this my hand will rather
    The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
    Making the green one red!”—­Shakspeare.

FIGURE VII.—­VISION.

“How mighty is their defence who reverently trust in the arm of God!  How powerfully do they contend who fight with lawful weapons!  Hark!  ’Tis the voice of eloquence, pouring forth the living energies of the soul; pleading, with generous indignation and holy emotion, the cause of injured humanity against lawless might, and reading the awful destiny that awaits the oppressor!—­I see the stern countenance of despotism overawed!  I