(b.) “The agents or objects to which figures are applied are always expressly mentioned. Figures, in that respect, differ wholly from symbols, which never formally indicate, unless an interpretation is given, who the agents, or what the objects are which they represent.”—Ib.
(c.) “The figurative terms are always predicates, or are employed in affirming something of some other agent or object; and are therefore either nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.”—Ib.
(d.) “As their terms are used literally, the figure lies, when they are employed in an unusual manner, simply in [pg 013] their being applied to objects to which they do not properly belong.”—Ib.
(e.) “They are used accordingly in all such cases for the purpose of illustration, and their explication is accomplished, not by assigning to them some new and extraordinary meaning, but simply by conjoining with them the terms of a comparison which expresses the relation in which they are employed.”—Ib.
(f.) “It is in metaphors and personification only that acts and qualities are ascribed to agents and objects that are incompatible with their nature; or do not properly belong to them.”—Ib. Theo. & Lit. Jour., vol. 1, p. 354.
26. A Simile, or comparison, is an affirmation that one agent, object, or act, is like, or as, another,—there being a real or imaginary resemblance. Sometimes only the mere fact of a resemblance is affirmed. At others, the nature of the resemblance is indicated.
Examples.—“As for man, his days are as grass.” Psa. 103:15. “Whose garment was white as snow.” Dan. 7:9.
27. Antithesis is a contrast, or placing in opposite lights things dissimilar.
Example.—“The wicked are overthrown and are not; but the house of the righteous shall stand.” Prov. 12:7.
28. A Metaphor is a simile comprised in a word, without the sign of comparison. It is an affirmation of an object, incompatible with its nature—i.e., it affirms that an object is, what literally it is only like; or attributes to it acts, to which its acts only bear a resemblance.