"_Tropes_ are of two kinds: 1st, such as tend to illustrate our meaning; and 2dly, such as tend to render it obscure. The first are of great use in the _sermo pedestris_; the second in the sublime. They give the _os magna sonans_; or, as the same poet says in another place, the _ore rotundo_; an expression, which shows, by the bye, that it is as necessary to round your mouth, as to round your periods.--But of this more hereafter, when I come to treat of _mouthing_, or, as the Latins call it, _elocutio_.
"In the course of my reflections on tropes, I have frequently lamented the want of these embellishments in our modern _log-books_. Strabo says they were frequently employed by the ancient sailors; nor can we wonder at this difference, since our young seamen are such bad scholars: not so in other countries; for I have seen children at the island of _Zanti_, who knew more of Greek than any First Lieutenant. Now to return to Tropes, and of their use in Parliament. I will give you some examples of the most perfect kind in each species, and then quit the subject; only observing, that the worst kind of tropes are _puns_; and that tropes, when used in controversy, ought to be very obscure; for many people do not know how to answer what they do not understand.
"Suppose I was desirous of pressing forward any measure, and that I apprehended that the opposite party wished to delay it, I should personify procrastination by one of the following manners:
1. "_This measure appears to be filtered through the drip-stone of procrastination._" This beautiful phrase was invented by a near relation of mine, whose talents bid fair to make a most distinguished figure in the senate.
2. "_This is another dish cooked up by the procrastinating spirit._" The boldness of this figure, which was invented by Mr. Drake, cannot be too much admired.
3. "_This appears to be the last hair in the tail of procrastination._"
"The _Master of the Rolls_, who first used this phrase, is a most eloquent speaker; but I think the two former instances much more beautiful, inasmuch as the latter personification is drawn from a dumb creature, which is not so fine a source of metaphor as a Christian.
"Having thus exhausted the subject of metaphors, I shall say a few words concerning _similes_, the second of tropical figures, in point of importance."