RULES FOR USE OF ALLEGORY. 129 fanciful, but it will be found that allegory is very prevalent in literature and art, and that its principles will richly deserve careful attention. 49. Elements of a good Allegory.-Three qualities are demanded in every written allegory: (1.) The narrative must be so constructed as to please and interest, even if the real lesson designed to be conveyed is overlooked. (2.) The real lesson or object of the Allegory should be easily seen; and if there would be any doubt about its being understood, let a few words of explanation be prefaced. (3.) Both meanings of the Allegory should, if possible, be valuable. A strict adherence to an order of nature or facts in a long allegory, so that every thing said of the secondary subject should illustrate some truth, is not always possible, and the writer of an allegory or parable is allowed to combine incidents in any way that imagination, guided by reason, sees conducive to the end in view. EXAMPLES OF ALLEGORY. Inasmuch as this figure is much more frequently employed by some good writers than has been usually supposed, we give a few more specimens. The first two are from Macaulay: "The final and permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, moderation, and mercy. Its immediate effects are often atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, skepticism on points the most clear, dogmatism on points the most mysterious. It is just at this crisis that its enemies love to exhibit it. They pull down the scaffolding from the half finished edifice; they point to the flying dust, the falling bricks, the comfortless rooms, the frightful irregularity of the whole appearance, and then ask in scorn where the promised splendor and comfort are to be found." "A pedestrian may show as much muscular vigor on a treadmill as on the highway road. But on the road his vigor will assuredly carry him forward; on the tread-mill he will not advance an inch. The ancient philosophy was a tread-mill, not a path. "There stands an ancient architectural pile, with tokens of its venerable age covering it from its corner-stone to its topmost turret; and some imagine these to be tokens of decay, while to others they indicate, by the years they chronicle, a massiveness that can yet defy more centuries than it has weathered years. Its foundation is buried in the accumulated mould and clustered masses of many generations. Its walls are mantled and hidden by parasitic vines. Its apartments are some of them dark and cold, as if their very cement were dissolving in chilly vapors. Others, built against the walls, were never framed into them; and now their ceilings are broken, their floors are uneven as the surface of a billow, their timbers seem less to sustain one another than to break one another's fall. You dig away the mould, and lo! the foundation was laid by no mortal hand; it is primitive rock that strikes its roots down an unfathomable depth into the solid earth, so that no frosts can heave it, no convulsions shake it. Such an edifice is Christianity" (Dr. A. P. Peabody's Christianity the Religion of Nature). HYPERBOLE. 131 CHAPTER VIL HYPERBOLES, OR EXTRAVAGANT EXPRESSIONS. 50. Definition.—AN expression which, literally understood, means more than the author really intends to utter, is called a Hyperbole. The word is derived. from two Greek words which signify to throw beyond. Under the influence of strong emotion, this is the most natural and the most common figure of speech. It abounds in conversation, oratory, poetry, in descriptions of persons, places, and events, and indeed is found in almost every species of composition. This The last verse of the Gospel according to St. John informs us, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." can not be supposed to be the literal, arithmetical calculation of the writer, but it is a hyperbolical way of conveying the thought that what he had written was but a scanty description of the deeds and words of the eventful life of Jesus. There are but a few passages of the Bible undoubtedly hyperbolical. 51. Is Hyperbole morally Wrong?-Some critics and moralists have wholly disapproved of its use, but such persons are hypercritical, if not hyperbolical, and, upon a narrow, undiscriminating basis of morality and taste, would rob the world of the most of its healthful passion and poetry. One of the chief elements of efficiency in oratory, and one of the chief charms of poetry, is Hyperbole. Language is not always to be understood literally, or according to what the words would mean if employed without passion and with scientific precision, but according to what the speaker may be properly supposed to mean when he uses it. The hearer is presumed to be able to make all due allowance for strong emotion, and there is a pleasure in feeling the power communicated to thought even by extravagant expression. Many of the common expressions used in conversation and in epistolary writings are not designed to be construed with literal exactness. Washington, when elected Commander-in-chief of the American forces in 1775, wrote to his wife thus: "I should enjoy more real happiness with you at home than I have the most distant prospect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years." Evidently he meant simply to be understood that it was a great sacrifice for him to yield the pleasures of domestic life, to respond to the call of his country. Many years afterward, though his writings are generally very cool and free from extravagance, he wrote to another lady thus: "None of which events, however, nor all of them together, have been able to eradicate from my mind the recollection of those happy moments, the happiest of my life, which I have enjoyed in your company." THE PHILOSOPHY OF HYPERBOLE. 133 Dr. Franklin, writing to David Hume, the historian, said: "We are told that gold and silver in Solomon's time were so plenty, as to be of no more value in his country than the stones in the street. You have at present just such a plenty of wisdom." This was not designed to be flattery, but it was a strong way of expressing his estimation of the accomplishments of Hume and his friends. Even a scientific writer, Gaussen, speaking of the effects of spring on vegetation, says: "The whole creation" (literally, of course, including dead timber, stones, the stars, and all animals, angels, and other existences), "as if raised from a tomb, is penetrated with life, and pulsates with joy." No one could be so inconsiderate as to suppose that "the whole creation" in the above sentence means the same as in the following: "The whole creation, taken together, forms one grand, connected system, the sublime Cosmos, fitly exhibiting the power and wisdom of God." 52. The Philosophy of Hyperbole. — It is a law of the mind that whatever occupies the attention at present should assume a disproportionate relative magnitude; and if others surrender themselves to the influence of that mind, they naturally, and generally unconsciously, expect to receive impressions and thoughts that are really magnified by the emotion and interest of the author. Thus, in a treatise on Physiology, Chemistry, Astronomy, Agriculture, Painting, or any other subject, we expect to see its claims set forth in what would be an undue prominence if we were not intelligent enough to supplement the information and |