"He saved others; _himself_ he cannot save."

_Exclamation is an expression of strong emotion in abrupt, inverted, or elliptical phrases._ It is among sentences what the interjection is among words.

"How far that little candle throws its beams!"

"Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"

_Interrogation is a figure in which a question is asked, not to get an answer, but for the sake of emphasis._

"Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?"

"Fear ye foes who kill for hire?

Will ye to your homes retire?"

"Am I a coward?"

_Climax is a figure in which the intensity of the thought and emotion gradually increases with the successive groups of words or phrases._ (See p. 211.)

"Your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood than they [the American colonists] spread from families to communities, from villages to nations."

_Irony is a figure in which one thing is said and the opposite is meant._

"And Job answered and said, No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you."

"O Jew, an upright judge, a learned judge!"

Four other figures should be mentioned: metonymy, synecdoche, allusion, and hyperbole.

_Metonymy calls one thing by the name of another which is closely related to the first._ The most common relations are cause and effect, container and thing contained, and sign and the thing signified.

"From the cradle to the grave is but a day."

"I did dream of money-bags to-night."

_Synecdoche is that figure of speech in which a part is put for the whole, or the whole for a part._

"Fifty sail came into harbor."

"The redcoats are marching."

_Allusion is a reference to something in history or literature with which every one is supposed to be acquainted._

"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!"

Men still sigh for the flesh pots of Egypt; still worship the golden calf.

There is no "Open Sesame" to the treasures of learning; they must be acquired by hard study.

Milton and Shakespeare are full of allusions to the classic literature of Greece and Rome.

_Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement made for effect._

"He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together."

"And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us, till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart!"

Exercises in Figures.

Name the following figures. Of those that are based upon likeness, tell in what the similarity consists. In many of the selections more than one figure will be found.[55]

1. "The long, hard winter of his youth had ended; the spring-time of his manhood was turning green like the woods."

2. A pig came up to a horse and said, "Your feet are crooked, and your hair is worth nothing."

3. "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but they were drawn swords."

4. "The lily maid of Astolat."

5. "O Truth! O Freedom! how are ye still born In the rude stable, in the manger nursed!"

6. "The birch, most shy and ladylike of trees, Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves, And hints at her foregone gentilities With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves."

7. "O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port grandly, or sail with God the seas!"

8. "Primroses smile and daisies cannot frown."

9. "How deeply and warmly and spotlessly Earth's nakedness is clothed!--the 'wool' of the Psalmist nearly two feet deep. And as far as warmth and protection are concerned, there is a good deal of the virtue of wool in such a snow-fall. It is a veritable fleece, beneath which the shivering earth ('the frozen hills ached with pain,' says one of our young poets) is restored to warmth."

10. "We can win no laurels in a war for independence.

Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are there places for us by the side of Solon and Alfred and other founders of States. Our fathers have filled them."

11. "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my judgment was as a robe and diadem.

"I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.

"I was father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

"And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth."

12. "His head and his heart were so well combined that he could not avoid becoming a power in his community."

Spenser, writing of honor, says:--

13. "In woods, in waves, in wars, she wonts to dwell, And will be found with peril and with pain; Nor can the man that moulds an idle cell Unto her happy mansion attain: Before her gate high God did Sweat ordain, And wakeful watches ever to abide; But easy is the way and passage plain To pleasure's palace: it may soon be spied, And day and night her doors to all stand open wide."

14. "Over the vast green sea of the wilderness, the moon swung her silvery lamp."

15. "The peace of the golden sunshine was supreme. Even a tiny cloudlet anchored in the limitless sky would not sail to-day."