e to the distant future,
it may sometimes be difficult to determine whether we are to look for a
literal or a figurative fulfilment of them. But this subject will come
up for consideration in another place.

3. In regard to the _different kinds of figures_ a few words may be in
place.

(1.) The term _trope_ (Greek, _tropos_, _a turn_) is applied, in a
general sense, to figures of words and speech of every variety; but, in
stricter usage, to a word or sentence _turned_ from its literal
signification to a figurative sense. Quintilian adds (Inst. Orator. 8.
6. 1) that this must be _with good effect_ (_cum virtute_); that is, it
must add clearness, force, or beauty to the thought.

The principal varieties of the trope are the _metonymy_ and the
_metaphor_. The _metonymy_ is founded on the _relation_ of one thing to
another. Thus when Abraham says to the rich man: "They have Moses and
the prophets, let them hear them" (Luke 16:29), Moses and the prophets
are put for their writings; that is, the _authors_ for their _works_. "A
soft tongue," says the wise man, "breaketh the bone." Prov. 25:15. Here
the word tongue is put for speech, the _instrument_ for the _thing
effected_, and this metonymy is joined with a metaphor. (See below.) The
_synecdoche_, in which a _part_ is put for the _whole_, as the _sword_
for _war_, is in its nature essentially a metonymy. Rhetoricians give
elaborate classifications of metonymies, but they are of little value to
the scriptural student, since all are interpreted according to the few
simple principles given in the preceding chapter.

The _metaphor_ is founded on the _resemblance_ of one thing to another;
as in the examples already given: "The Lord God is a sun and shield"
(Psa. 84:11); "I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman." John
15:1. It may lie not in a single word, but in an entire expression,
thus: "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks" (Acts 26:14); "I
counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be
rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame
of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve,
that thou mayest see." Rev. 3:18. The metaphor and metonymy may be
joined, as in the words already quoted: "A soft tongue breaketh the
bone;" or they may blend themselves with each other, as when Nahum says
of the princes of Nineveh: "The sword shall devour thy young lions."
Chap. 2:13. In this last exampl