+Theme XIII.+—­Reproduce a story read to you by the teacher.

(Before writing, picture to yourself the scenes and recall the order of their occurrence.  If it is necessary to condense, omit events of the least importance.)

+29.  Comparison.+—­Writing which contains unfamiliar words fails to call up complete and definite images.  It is often difficult to form the correct mental picture, even though the words in themselves are familiar.  Definitions, explanations, and descriptions may cause us to understand correctly, but our understanding usually can be improved by means of a comparison.  We can form an image of an object as soon as we know what it is like.

If I wished you to form an image of an okapi, a lengthy description would give you a less vivid picture than the statement that it was a horselike animal, having stripes similar to those of a zebra.  If an okapi were as well known to you as is a horse, the name alone would call up the proper image, and no comparison would be necessary.  By means of it we are enabled to picture the unfamiliar.  In this case the comparison is literal.

If the comparison is imaginative rather than literal, our language becomes figurative, and usually takes the form of a simile or metaphor.  Similes and metaphors are of great value in rendering thought clear.  They make language forceful and effective, and they may add much to the beauty of expression.

We may speak of an object as being like another, or as acting like another.  If the comparison is imaginative rather than literal, and is directly stated, the expression is a simile.  Similes are introduced by like, as, etc.

    He fought like a lion. 
    The river wound like a serpent around the mountains.

If two things are essentially different, but yet have a common quality, their implied comparison is a metaphor.  A metaphor takes the form of a statement that one is the other.

    “He was a lion in the fight.” 
    “The river wound its serpent course.”

Sometimes inanimate objects, abstract ideas, or the lower animals are given the attributes of human beings.  Such a figure is called personification, and is in fact a modified metaphor, since it is based upon some resemblance of the lower to the higher.

    This music crept by me upon the waters.

    Time is a very bankrupt, and owes more than he is worth to
      season. 
    Nay, he’s a thief, too; have you not heard men say,
    That time comes stealing on by night and day?

—­Shakespeare.

+30.  Use of Figures of Speech.+—­The three figures of speech, simile, metaphor, and personification, are more frequently used than are the others.  Figures of speech are treated in a later chapter, but some suggestions as to their use will be of value to beginners.