“Circumstances spoke” does not state literal human speech, but circumstances do indicate information. That expressive role creates a likeness between spoken communication and meaningful circumstances, yet the common effect does not automatically establish a single technical classification for every theory.
If “spoke” denotes the disclosure made by circumstances, a lexical-transfer analysis is available. If circumstances are assimilated to a speaker, implicit metaphor becomes central. If the focus rests on assigning the action to a non-speaker, attribution is the concern.
These are distinctions of analytical respect, not proof that the intended communicative meaning is unknown.