the story of David and Goliath, it receives a very considerable improvement from the double application. a Several examples of impropriety in the use of metaphor have been pointed out: we shall now turn to the contemplation of examples of a different kind. 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, Howl o'er the steady battlements. Armstrong. Here the word fluctuates is used with admirable efficacy: it not only exhibits an image of struggling, but also echoes to the sense. * The metaphor, which is simple and consistent, depends upon the resemblance between the waves of the sea, and the violent agitation of trees during a storm. Talents, disjoined from kindness, meekness, and charity, are not those glorious luminaries that shed their benignant influence on earth, but the glaring lightning that alarms, and blasts, and ravages whatever is placed in its way.-- Brown's Sermons. I have sometimes considered the bosom of an old maid as a kind of cell, in which it was intended that the lively bee, affection, should treasure up its collected sweets; but this bee happening to perish, before it could properly settle on the flowers that should afford its wealth, the vacant cell may unluckily become the abode of that drone indifference, or of the wasp malignity.--Hayley's Essay on Old Maids. I consider Chaucer as a genial day in an English spring. A brilliant sun enlivens the face of nature with an unusual lustre : the sudden appearance of cloudless skies, and the unexpected warmth of * Goldsmith's Essays and Criticisms, vol. ii. p. 201. a a a tepid atmosphere, after the gloom and the inclemencies of a tedious winter, fill our hearts with the visionary prospect of a speedy summer ; and we fondly anticipate a long continuance of gentle gales and vernal serenity. But winter returns with redoubled horrors : the clouds condense more formidably than before ; and those tender buds, and early blossoms, which were called forth by the transient eam of a temporary sun-shine, are nipped by frosts, and torn by tempests.- Warlon's History of English Poetry. In the last of these examples, the metaphorical language is perhaps carried to as great an extent as could safely be attempted in such a composition ; and yet it is uniformly supported with taste and propriety. The next paragraph begins with a sentence which renders the previous metaphor intelligible to the plainest reader : “ Most of the poets that immediately succeeded Chaucer, seem rather relapsing into barbarism, than availing themselves of those striking ornaments which his judgment and imagination had disclosed." Addison, in his well-known criticism on Paradise Lost, is taking notice of those changes of nature which the author of that divine poem describes as immedi- . ately succeeding the fall. Among other prodigies, Milton represents the sun in an eclipse, and at the same time a bright cloud in the western regions of the heavens descending with a band of angels. The critic, to shew his author's art and judgment in the conduct and disposition of this sublime scenery, employs the following metaphor : The whole theatre of nature is darkened, that this glorious machine may appear in all its lustre and magnificence. Here the figure is beautiful and expressive. In the following passage, the noble author alludes to the behaviour of Charles the First to his last parliament: About a month after their meeting, he dissolved tbem; and as soon as he dissolved them, he repented; but he repented too late of his rashness. Well might he repent; for the vessel was now full, and this last drop made the waters of bitterness overflow. Here we draw the curtain, and put an end to our remarks.-Bolingbroke's Remarks on the History of England. Nothing could be more happily conducted. A figure of this kind, judiciously managed, forms a spirited and dignified conclusion to a subject: the author retires with a good grace, and leaves a strong impression on the reader's mind. The judicious use of metaphor serves to add light to the expression, and energy to the sentiment: but, on the contrary, when this figure is unskilfully employed, it tends effectually to cloud the sense ; and, upon some occasions, it may even tend to conceal the author's want of meaning. This may happen, not only when there is in the same sentence a mixture of discordant metaphors, but also where the metaphorical style is too long continued, or too far pursued. The reason is obvious. In common speech the words are the immediate signs of the thought. But here the case is different: for when a writer, instead of adopting such metaphors as naturally and opportunely present themselves, rummages the universe in quest of these flowers of oratory, and piles them one above another ; when he cannot so properly be said to use metaphor, as to speak in metaphor, or rather from metaphor he runs into allegory, and thence into enigma ; his words cannot be affirmed to be the immediate signs of his thoughts ; they are the signs of the signs of his thoughts. His composition may then be termed what Spenser styles his Faery Queen, “a perpetual allegory , a perpetual allegory or dark conceit.” Writers that fall into this error, are often misled by a desire of flourishing on the several attributes of a metaphor which they have pompously ushered into their discourse, without taking the trouble to examine whether there be any qualities in the subject to which these attributes can with justice and perspicuity be plied. Of exuberance of metaphor I shall produce one example. Men must acquire a very peculiar and strong babit of turning their eye inwards, in order to explore the interior regions and recesses of the mind, the hollow caverns of deep thought, the private seats of fancy, and the wastes and wildernesses, as well as the more fruitful and cultivated tracts of this obscure climate. --Shaftesbury's Miscellaneous Reflections. ap Here the author, having determined to represent the human mind under the metaphor of a country, revolves in his thoughts the various objects which might be found in a country, but has never dreamt of considering whether there be any common points of resemblance between those subjects of his figure. Hence the strange parade he makes with regions, recesses, hollow caverns, private seats, wastes, wildernesses, fruitful and cultivated tracts ; terms which, though they have an appropriate meaning as applied to a country, have no definite signification when applied to mind. Some objects may, without impropriety, be alluded to in a cursory manner, though they will become ridiculous by being too long tortured in a figure or trope. Thus, notwithstanding the impropriety of the passage now quoted from Shaftesbury, there is nothing , reprehensible in the following distich, which contains a metaphor of the same nature and origin. Farewell, for clearer ken design’d, Collins. CHAP. XVII. OF ALLEGORY. a An allegory may be considered as a continued metaphor. It consists in representing one subject by another analogous to it: the subject thus represented is not formally mentioned, but we are left to discover it by reflection ; and this furnishes a very pleasant exercise to our faculties. There cannot be a finer or more correct allegory than the following, in which the Jewish nation is represented under the symbol of a vineyard. Thou bast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The bills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts ; look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.-Psalms. |