ractical value in his work.
Figures of speech, however, are great aids, not only to clearness and
conciseness, but to the vividness of an article. They assist the reader
to grasp ideas quickly and they stimulate his imagination and his
emotions.

Association of ideas is the principle underlying figurative expressions.
By a figure of speech a writer shows his readers the relation between a
new idea and one already familiar to them. An unfamiliar object, for
example, is likened to a familiar one, directly, as in the simile, or by
implication, as in the metaphor. As the object brought into relation
with the new idea is more familiar and more concrete, the effect of the
figure is to simplify the subject that is being explained, and to make
it more easy of comprehension.

A figure of speech makes both for conciseness and for economy of mental
effort on the part of the reader. To say in a personality sketch, for
example, that the person looks "like Lincoln" is the simplest, most
concise way of creating a mental picture. Or to describe a smoothly
running electric motor as "purring," instantly makes the reader hear the
sound. Scores of words may be saved, and clearer, more vivid impressions
may be given, by the judicious use of figures of speech.

As the familiar, concrete objects introduced in figures frequently have
associated emotions, figurative expressions often make an emotional
appeal. Again, to say that a person looks "like Lincoln" not only
creates a mental picture but awakes the feelings generally associated
with Lincoln. The result is that readers are inclined to feel toward the
person so described as they feel toward Lincoln.

Even in practical articles, figurative diction may not be amiss. In
explaining a method of splitting old kitchen boilers in order to make
watering troughs, a writer in a farm journal happily described a cold
chisel as "turning out a narrow shaving of steel and rolling it away
much as the mold-board of a plow turns the furrow."

The stimulating effect of a paragraph abounding in figurative
expressions is well illustrated by the following passage taken from a
newspaper personality sketch of a popular pulpit orator:

His mind is all daylight. There are no subtle half-tones, or
sensitive reserves, or significant shadows of silence, no landscape
fading through purple mists to a romantic distance. All is clear,
obvious, emphatic. There is little atmosphere and a lack of that