3.  A SIMILE or COMPARISON is when the resemblance between two objects, whether real or imaginary, is expressed in form.

Thus, we use a simile, when we say, “The actions of princes are like those great rivers, the course of which every one beholds, but their springs have been seen by few.”  “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his people.”  “The music of Caryl was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul.”  “Our Indians are like those wild plants which thrive best in the shade, but which wither when exposed to the influence of the sun.”

  “The Assyrian came down, like the wolf on the fold,
  And his cohorts were gleaming with purple and gold;
  And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
  When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.”

4.  A METONYMY is where the cause is put for the effect, or the effect for the cause; the container for the thing contained; or the sign for the thing signified.

When we say, “They read Milton,” the cause is put for the effect, meaning “Milton’s works.”  “Gray hairs should be respected;” here the effect is put for the cause; meaning by “gray hairs,” old age, which produces gray hairs.  In the phrase, “The kettle boils,” the container is substituted for the thing contained.  “He addressed the chair;” that is, the person in the chair.

5.  A SYNECDOCHE OR COMPREHENSION.  When the whole is put for a part, or a part for the whole; a genus for a species, or a species for a genus; in general, when any thing less, or any thing more, is put for the precise object meant, the figure is called a Synecdoche.

Thus, “A fleet of twenty sail, instead of, ships.”  “The horse is a noble animal;” “The dog is a faithful creature:”  here an individual is put for the species.  We sometimes use the “head” for the person, and the “waves” for the sea.  In like manner, an attribute may be pat for a subject; as “Youth” for the young, the “deep” for the sea.

6.  PERSONIFICATION or PROSOPOPOEIA is that figure by which we attribute life and action to inanimate objects.  When we say, “The ground thirsts for rain,” or, “the earth smiles with plenty;” when we speak of “ambition’s being restless,” or, “a disease’s being deceitful;” such expressions show the facility, with which the mind can accommodate the properties of living creatures to things that are inanimate.

The following are fine examples of this figure: 

    “Cheer’d with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles;”

    “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and
    the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.”

7.  AN APOSTROPHE is an address to some person, either absent or dead, as if he were present and listening to us.  The address is frequently made to a personified object; as, “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death! where is thy sting?  O grave! where is thy victory?”