100 On Figurative Language. 
to that meaning, is so common, that it may be, 
and is generally, deemed extrafigurative. 
Ache was originally an exclamation expressive 
of pain; by metaphorical transformation, it 
came, in process of time, to signify pain itself: 
The verb to bite, besides its common or proper 
meaning, has a metaphorical one in the follow- 
ing not uncommon expression, the biter is bit. 
It formerly likewise had another metaphorical 
meaning, still preserved in the compound 
back-bite, which sigmifies to speak ill of a man 
behind his back. 
If we but open a system of geography, 
and read but the definitions, we shall imme- 
diately discover the method of metaphorizing 
which I have been endeavouring to explain. 
An isthmus is a neck or tongue of land, which 
joins a peninsula to a continent. A gulf or 
bay is an am of the sea which runs or stretches 
into the land. A cape is a point or nose of 
land which stretches out into the sea. In these 
definitions, the use of the words neck, tongue, 
jos, arm,. runs, nose, stretches, sufficiently 
corroborates the foregoing obse’ vations. 
It is generally acknowledged that the Greek 
language is one of the most copious with 
which we are acquainted, and yet it is well 
known that its primitives are comparatively 
very few. 'These two facts, seemingly incon- 
