Shall bring thy father to his drooping chair."
We have examples of the qualities of one thing ascribed to another which it resembles in such expressions as these—"imperious ocean," "tottering state," "raging tempest." The following is an example of a thing called by the name of one of its qualities or attending circumstances:
"What art thou, that usurpest this time of night,
Together with the fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes walk?"
Here a king is called by the name of a quality and by the name of his kingdom.
It is owing to the principle of association that another mode of figurative language is employed called personification. This consists in speaking of a quality which belongs to living beings as if it were the being in which such a quality was found. This is owing to the fact that the conceptions of qualities of mind are always united with some being, and therefore such ideas are connected ones. Thus it is said in the sacred writings,
"Mercy and truth are met together."
"Righteousness and peace have embraced each other."