My murdered child! had thy fond mother feared
The loss of thee, she had loud fame defied,

Despised her father's rage, her father's grief,

And wandered with thee through the scorning world.”

Of Hyperbole.

WHEN any thing very great, or very little, is presented to our view, there is in us a natural tendency to magnify it beyond the truth; we feel the same disposition on seeing any thing remarkable for beauty or ugliness, for regularity or deformity. An expression that exaggerates the object of which we speak, is termed a hyperbole. It is a mode of expression to be found in every species of composition, and even in the most familiar discourse. By using this figure no deception is either intended or effected; the speaker or writer means nothing more than to represent the object in the extreme of greatness or insignificance, and the hearer or reader makes the necessary allowance. In the proper use of hyperbole, however, as in other modes of expression, some degree of taste and judgment is necessary, for when carried beyond a certain point, it ceases to produce the intended effect, and instead of conveying more forcibly the sentiment of him who employs it, it becomes mere bombast.

To ascertain with precision the natural limits of this figure, beyond which it would be over-strained and ludicrous, would be, at least, a difficult if not an impracticable task, and would not be attended with any certain advantage. It will be sufficient to produce a few examples.

"I saw their chief," says the scout of Ossian, "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."

We find the following in Homer's Iliad, as translated by Pope:

"Now shield with shield, with helmet helmet closed,

To armour armour, lance to lance opposed.

Host against host with shadowy squadrons drew,
The sounding darts in iron tempests flew;
Victors and vanquished join promiscuous cries,
And shrilling shouts and dying groans arise,
With streaming blood, the slippery fields are dyed,
And slaughtered heroes swell the dreadful tide."

Shakspeare says of Henry the Fifth,

England ne'er had a king until his time;

Virtue he had, deserving to command;

His brandished sword did blind men with its beams;

His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings:

His sparkling eyes, replete with awful fire,
More dazzled and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces.
What should I say? his deeds exceed all speech;
He never lifted up his hand, but conquered."

It is scarcely possible that hyperbole can be more extravagant than we have it in the following lines of Prior.

"To burning Rome, when frantic Nero played,
Viewing thy face, no more he had surveyed

The raging flames, but, struck with strange surprise,
Confessed them less than those in Anna's eyes.
But had he heard thy lute, he soon had found
His rage eluded, and his crime atoned;

Thine, like Amphion's hand, had waked the stone,
And from destruction called the rising town.
Malice to music had been forced to yield,

Nor could he burn so fast as thou couldst build.”

Of Antithesis.

ANTITHESIS, or contrast, has usually been enumerated among the figures of speech. The object to be attained by it, is to heighten or improve our conception of a thing, by placing it in opposition to another of the same kind. The rule to be observed in using it is the very reverse of that to be observed in comparisons; for as, in the latter, things of the same kind cannot be compared, so in the former, things of a different kind cannot be contrasted. The following example of this figure is from Blair's Sermons.

"The refined pleasures of a pious mind are, in many respects, superior to the coarse gratifications

of sense: they are pleasures which belong to the highest powers and best affections of the soul; whereas the gratifications of sense reside in the lowest region of our nature. To the latter, the soul stoops below its native dignity. The former raise it above itself. The latter leave always a comfortless, often a mortifying, remembrance behind them. The former are reviewed with applause and delight. The pleasures of sense resemble a foaming torrent, which, after a disorderly course, speedily runs out, and leaves an empty and offensive channel. But the pleasures of devotion resemble the equable current of a pure river, which enlivens the fields through which it passes, and diffuses verdure and fertility along its banks."

No writer seems fonder of this figure than Dr. Young; and it must be granted, that though in some instances he pursues it too far, yet his writings furnish many admirable examples. The following passage is the conclusion of a contrast between a Christian, and men who are governed entirely by worldly principles:

66

They kindle at the shadow of a wrong;

Wrong he sustains with temper, looks on heaven,
Nor stoops to think his injurer his foe:

Nought but what wounds his virtue, wounds his peace.

A covered heart their character defends;

A covered heart denies him half his praise.
His joys create, theirs murder future bliss.
To triumph in existence, his alone;
And his alone triumphantly to think
His true existence is not yet begun.”

OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF COMPOSITION IN PROSE.

THE term composition, as it refers to language, has been already explained, and various circumstances have been noticed, by which the thoughts of a writer may be, and frequently are, embellished. In addition to what has been already stated, it may be useful to observe, that compositions have been classified according to the nature of the subjects of which they treat; and that each kind has been distinguished by certain qualities peculiar to itself. The most general division of literary performances is into prose and verse; the nature of the former is so well understood, as to render any definition superfluous, but it is worthy of remark, that though in a refined state of society, thousands express their thoughts in prose, for one who does so in verse, yet it appears from the history of nations in general, that in every country the