LECTURE XVI.

HYPERBOLE - PERSONIFICATION -APOSTROPHE.

The next figure concerning which I am to treat,is called Hyperbole , orExaggeration. It confifts inmagnifying an obje& beyond its natural bounds. Rmay beconfidered fometimes as a trope, and fome-times as a figure of thought: and here indeed the dif,tindion between thefe two dalles begins not to beclear, nor is it of any importance that we fhouldhave recourfe to metaphyncal fubtilties, in orderto keep them diltind. Whether we call it trope orfigure , it is plain that it is a mode of fpeechwhich hath fome foundation in nature. For iuall languages , even in common converfation,hyperbolical expreffions very frequently occur;as fwift as the wind; as white as the fnow, andthe like; and our common forms of complimentare almoft all of them extravagant Hyperboles,If any thing be remarkably good or great in itskind, we are inftantly ready to add to it fomeexaggerating epithet; and to make it the greateftor befk we ever faw. The imagination has always

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