den, but it is there.

Another metaphor, connected with metals and coins, is contained in the
word _sterling_. We speak of "sterling qualities" or a "sterling
character" in praising people for being straightforward and truthful,
and not boastful. But the expression originally applied only to metals
and coins. Sterling gold or silver is gold or silver of a certain
standard of purity and not mixed with too much of any base metal.

Even the art of the baker has given us a word with a hidden metaphor.
We speak of sending out another "batch" of men to the front; but
_batch_ originally meant, and still means, the loaves of bread
produced at one baking. It is now used generally to describe a number
of things coming together or in a set.

The butcher's shop has given us the word _shambles_, by which we now
mean a place of slaughter. Thus we speak of a terrible battlefield as
a "shambles." This metaphor is really due to a mistake. People came to
think that a shambles was a singular noun meaning slaughter-house, or
place where cattle were killed; but really the shambles were the
benches on which the meat was spread for sale.

We speak of a person being the "tool" of another, and this is a
metaphor taken from the general idea of work. The "tool" is merely
used by the other person for some purpose of his own, just as a
workman uses his tools. The greatest poem, or book, or picture of a
poet, writer, or painter is often described as a "masterpiece." This
word now means a "splendid piece of work," but in the Middle Ages a
"masterpiece" was a piece of work by which a person working at a trade
showed himself sufficiently good to be allowed to be a "master."
Before that he was a "journeyman," and worked for a master himself,
and, earlier still, an apprentice merely learning his trade. We often
now use the expression to try one's "'prentice hand" on a thing when
we mean that we are going to do a thing for the first time.

The commonest actions have naturally given us most metaphorical words,
for these were the actions of which the word-makers were most easily
reminded. We speak of our passions or emotions being "kindled," taking
the metaphor from the common action of lighting a fire.

The two words _lord_ and _lady_ contain very homely metaphors. The
lord was the "loaf-keeper," in Old English _hlaford_, the person on
whom the household depended for their food. The lady might even make
the bread, and often did so; and the word lady