The art of interpreting consists in ascertaining the particular ideas conveyed by words in a given combination.
There are two modes of using language which need to be distinctly pointed out, viz., literal and figurative.
In order to understand these modes, it is necessary to refer to the principles of association. Neither our perceptions or conceptions are ever single, disconnected objects except when the power of abstraction is employed. Ordinarily, various objects are united together in the mind, and those objects which are most frequently united in our perceptions, as a matter of course, are those which are most frequently united in our conceptions.
Now, by the power of abstraction, the mind can regard the same object sometimes as a unit or whole, and sometimes can disconnect it, and consider it as several distinct things. Thus it happens that ideas which are connected by the principles of association are sometimes regarded as a whole, and sometimes are disconnected, and considered as separate existences.
Language will be found to be constructed in exact conformity to this phenomenon of mind. We shall find that objects ordinarily united together, as cause and effect, have the same name given, sometimes to the cause, sometimes to the effects, and sometimes it embraces the whole; or the thing, its causes and its effects. As an example of this use of language may be mentioned the term pride. We sometimes hear those objects which are the cause of pride receiving that name. Thus a child is called the pride of its parents. The same name is applied simply to the state of mind, as when a man is said to be under the influence of pride, while the effects of pride receive the same appellation when we hear a haughty demeanor and consequential deportment called pride. The term is used in its most extended signification as including the thing, its causes, and its effects, when we hear of the "pride of this world," which is soon to pass away, signifying equally the causes of this feeling, the feeling itself, and the effects of it.
Literal language is that in which all words have the ordinary meaning as commonly used.
Figurative language is that in which the ordinary names, qualities, and actions of things are ascribed to other things with which they have been associated.
As an example of the use of language which is figurative, we find tears, that are the effects of grief, called by the name of the cause; thus:
"Streaming grief his faded cheek bedewed."
On the contrary, we find the cause called by the name of the effects in this sentence: