And then the whining school-boy with his satchel, Made to his mistress' eyebrow: Then the soldier, Even in the cannon's mouth: And then, the justice, Is second childishness, and mere oblivion: WIZARD-LOCHIEL. WIZARD. Lochiel! Lochiel, beware of the day When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! Johnson, Shakspeare's contemporary, upon a convivial occasion, put the following question in order to pose him: "If but stage actors all the world display, Where shall we find spectators for our play?" To which the immortal bard unhesitatingly replied, "Little or much of what we see we do, We are both actors and spectators too." "Tis thine, oh Glenullin! whose bride shall await, LOCHIEL. Go, preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer! WIZARD. Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn? From his home, in the dark rolling clouds of the north? For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood. LOCHIEL. False Wizard, avaunt! I have marshalled my clan: When Albin her claymore indignantly draws; *The Gaelic appellation of Scotland, more particularly the Highlands. When her bonnetted chieftains to victory crowd, WIZARD. -Lochiel, Lochiel, beware of the day! With the bloodhounds, that bark for thy fugitive king. Now, in darkness and billows, he sweeps from my sight: "Tis finished. Their thunders are hushed on the moors; Culloden is lost, and my country deplores; But where is the iron-bound prisoner? Where? Say, mounts he the ocean-wave, banished, forlorn, The war-drum is muffled, and black is the bier; LOCHIEL. -Down, soothless insulter! I trust not the tale; For never shall Albin a destiny meet So black with dishonor-so foul in retreat. Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore, Like ocean-weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore, Lochiel, unattainted by flight or by chains, While the kindling of life in his bosom remains, Shall victor exult, or in death be laid low, With his back to the field, and his feet to the foe! Look proudly to heaven from the death-bed of fame. CAMPBELL. XVIII. METAPHOR. Metaphor is that figure which changes one thing into another, or a real subject into a figurative, and ideal one. If judiciously used it imparts beauty and often sublimity. A flight may sometimes be taken from this our earth, "upon imagination's airy wing!" but the ærial traveller must first well try and feel the strength of his pinion, else he may resemble the Cretan in his fall, although not in his fame. The rule for reading or speaking metaphorical passages, is to give them in the spirit of the subjects whence the passages are taken. it Examples. "Here stands the oak, the monarch of the wood." HOME. "He is a rock opposed to the rude sea that beats against G. COLMAN THE YOUNGER. "Where Andes, Giant of the western star" CAMPBELL. "He arose a collossal pillar to perpetuate to future ages XIX. COMPARISON. Metaphor and comparison being often confounded with each other, it is proper that the distinction should be pointed out. Metaphor, as has been said, absolutely changes one thing into another; as, for instance, speaking of a courageous man, we say he is a lion; when, by comparison, it would be he is like a lion. Examples. "Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions." 2 SAMUEL, i. 23. "As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, GOLDSMITH. "She came in all her beauty, like the moon from the cloud in the east. Loveliness was around her, as light. Her steps were like the music of songs." OSSIAN. XX. PERSONIFICATION OR PROSOPOPIA. Personification is that figure by which we attribute life and motion to inanimate objects. It aspires to the utmost heights of poetry, and furnishes one of the best tests by which an author's merits may be fairly judged; for nothing but genius will supply this most sublime poetic essential. Personification should generally be read or spoken in monotone; so indeed should all passages which approach the sublime. Examples. "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, how hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The whole earth. is at rest and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the |