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harsh nor strained; they never appear to have been studied or sought after; but seem to rise of their own accord from the subject, and constantly embellesh it.

Scholia. 1. Metaphors expressed by single words may, it seems, be introduced on every occasion, from the most careless effusions of conversation, to the highest and most passionate expression of tragedy; and on all these occasions they are, perhaps, the most beautiful and significant language that can be employed. There is no doubt of the justness of this observation with regard to any species of speaking or writing, except that which denotes violent passion, concerning which the practice of the most correct performers is not uniform; some of them rejecting, others admitting, the use of such figures.

2. Short metaphors appear with perfect propriety in oratory, memoirs, essays, novels, but particularly in history. The historian is scarcely permitted to indulge in hunting after comparisons; he is seldom allowed to introduce the more elevated and poetical figures of apostrophe and personification; he is not even at liberty to amuse with metaphors extended to many circumstances of resemblance, but to those expressed in single or few words, he has the most approved access. Such ornaments are the proper implements of a vigorous and decisive mind, which has leisure only to snatch a ray of embellishment from a passing object, without turning aside from its capital pursuit. The superior attention of the historian to the matter of which he treats, the dignity and gravity of his style, which ought to correspond to the importance of his matter, call upon him to communicate his thoughts in the most correct, perspicuous, and forcible language; and such, in a serene state of the mind, is the language of short metaphor.

3. Both Shakspeare and Otway conceived short metaphors to be perfectly consistent with the most violent agitations of passion. It is in vain to appeal to the authority of other tragic poets. They are unanimous for the use of similar metaphors in similar situations. Many of them, indeed, have so overloaded their pathetic scenes with this brilliant ornament, that it obscures the meaning, diminishes the impression, and sometimes disgusts the reader.

4. But extended metaphors, which chiefly amuse the imagination by a great variety of pretty and pleasant resemblances, are much more circumscribed in their appearance. They are too refined to occur in conversation, or on any occasion that allows not time for recollection, and for tracing similitudes which are at least so remote and unexpected as to surprise and captivate. They present themselves with perfect grace, in pulpit-oratory, in political writings, in works of criticism, and in essays. But their peculiar province is descriptive poetry, and the dispassionate parts of epic. They are inconsistent with violent passion, and are seldom introduced with success into tragedy. They are calculated entirely to please the imagination. They interfere with all the strong feelings of the heart. The mind that can either utter or relish them may be gay and elevated, but must be composed and tranquil. Under the pressure of deep distress, they are disgusting and intolerable.

14

CHAPTER III.

COMPARISONS OR SIMILES.

273. COMPARISONS or similes differ chiefly from metaphors in the vigour of imagination with which they are conceived. In the use of metaphors, we suppose the primary object transformed into the resembling one. In the use of comparisons, we soar not so high, but content ourselves with remarking similitude merely.

Illus. 1. In all comparisons there should be found something new or surprising in order to please and illustrate. There is nothing new or surprising in the resemblance of the individuals of the same species, as when we say, one man, or one horse, or one oak, is like another; because these individuals are formed by nature similar, and no comparison instituted between them can be supposed to produce any novelty or surprise. To find, then, resemblances which are new or surprising, and which, consequently, may produce pleasure or illustration, we must search for them where they are not commonly to be expected, between things of different species.

Example. If, for instance, I discover a resemblance between a man and a horse in swiftness, between a man and an oak in strength, or between a man and a rock in steadiness, such resemblances, being new, and generally unobserved, excite surprise and pleasure, and improve my conceptions of the swiftness, strength, and steadiness, of the

man..

Corol. Hence results the first general principle concerning good comparisons or resemblance; they must be drawn from one species of things to another, and never instituted between things of the same species.

Illus. 2. Again, when we place a great object opposite to a little one, a beautiful picture to an indifferent one, or one shade of the same colour, to another; we are surprised to find, that things which seemed so much alike differ so widely. We conceive the beauties and defects of the objects contrasted greater, perhaps, than they really are, at least much greater than they appear when surveyed apart.

Corol. Hence is derived the second principle respecting compari sons, that contrasts must be instituted between things of the same species, because no pleasure or illustration can result from finding dissimilitude between things naturally different.

Illus. 3. As it is necessary there should be resemblance in all comparisons, it is obvious that the objects of different senses cannot furnish foundation for them. There is no resemblance between a sound and a color, a smell and a surface of velvet.

Corol. Comparisons, then, must farther take place between the objects of the same sense; and, as the sight is the most lively and distinct of all the senses, and the ideas it communicates make the deepest impression on the mind, the most beautiful and striking comparisons are deduced from the objects of this sense. (See the Ex. and Analysis to Art. 218.)

Illus. 4. But though the far greater part of comparisons result from the resemblance of the qualities of sensible objects alone, yet they are sometimes instituted between the qualities of sensible and intellectual objects.

Example. Thus, Shakspeare compares adversity to a toad, and slander to the bite of a crocodile.

Scholium. In all these cases, however, the abstract or intellectual object is personified, and the comparison is founded on the supposed resemblance which the qualities of the intellectual object bear to those of the sensible object, after the former also has become a sensible object. Illus. 5. In addition to the kinds of similes already explained, there is another that frequently occurs, in which the effects only of two objects are compared. The same analogy takes place with regard to them, which was formerly observed to appear in the resemblance of the sound of words to their sense. (Art. 225.) The objects compared are not perhaps similar in their qualities, at least the merit of the figure does not depend on this circumstance, but upon the similarity of the impressions or emotions they produce in the mind.

Examples. Upon this principle, the following comparisons are successfully framed.

1. "Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul."*

2. "The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul.Ӡ

3. "Sorrow, like a cloud on the sun, shades the soul of Clessamour."+

4." Pleasant are the words of the song, and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the dew of the morning on the hill of roses, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale."

Analysis. There is no resemblance between the evening sun and the memory of past joys, between sorrow and a cloud, or between the words of the song, and the dew of the morning; but every person must perceive, that by these objects similar impressions or emotions are excited in the mind.

274. All comparisons may be reduced to the following heads. I. Those which improve our conceptions of the objects they are brought to illustrate,--we call explaining comparisons. II. Those which augment the pleasure of imagination by a splendid assemblage of other adjacent and agreeable objects,-we call embellishing comparisons. III. And, finally, those which elevate or depress the principal object, an operation often requisite in writing, but more particularly in speaking,—we call comparisons of advantage, or of disadvantage.

275. All manner of subjects admit of explaining comparisons. Let an author be reasoning ever so strictly, or treating the most abstruse point in philosophy, he may very prop

* Ossian.

† Ibid.

+ Ibid.

|| Ibid.

erly introduce a comparison, merely with a view to make his subject better understood.

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Example. Of this nature is the following in Harris's Hermes, employed to explain a very abstract point, the distinction between the powers of sense and imagination in the human mind. As wax," says he, "would not be adequate to the purpose of signature, if it had not the power to retain as well as to receive the impression, the same holds of the soul with respect to sense and imagination. Sense is its receptive power; imagination its retentive. Had it sense without imagination, it would not be as wax, but as water, where, though all impressions be instantly made, yet as soon as they are made they are instantly lost."

Illus. In comparisons of this nature the understanding is concerned much more than the fancy: and therefore the only rules to be observed, with respect to them, are, I. That they be clear; II. That they be useful; III. That they tend to render our conception of the principal object more distinct; and IV. That they do not lead our view aside, and bewilder it with any false light.

276. The most vigorous imagination can scarcely be supposed to have conceived more striking comparisons, or better adapted to improve our conceptions of the principal object, than the following ones of Shakspeare. Describing the effects of concealed love, he makes this happy compari

son:

"She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm in the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek. She pined in thought,
And with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat, like patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief."**

277. Embellishing comparisons,—those with which we are chiefly concerned at present, as figures of speech-are introduced not so much with a view to inform and instruct, as to adorn the subject of which we treat; and they are those, indeed, that most frequently occur.

Illus. Resemblance is the foundation of this figure. We must not, however, take resemblance, in too strict a sense, for actual similitude and likeness of appearance. Two objects may sometimes be very happily compared to one another, though they resemble each other, strictly speaking, in nothing; only because they agree in the effects which they produce upon the mind; because they raise a train of similar, or, what may be called, concordant ideas; so that the remembrance of the one, when recalled, serves to strengthen the impression made by the other. (Illus. 5. Art. 273.)

Example 1. To describe the nature of soft and melancholy music, Ossian says, "The music of Carryl was, like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul."

Analysis. This is happy and delicate. Yet surely, no kind of music has any resemblance to a feeling of the mind, such as the memory of

*Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 4.

past joys. Had it been compared to the voice of the nightingale, or the murmur of the stream, as it would have been by some ordinary poet, the likeness would have been more strict; but, by founding his simile upon the effect which Carryl's music produced, Ossian, while he conveys a very tender image, gives us, at the same time, a much stronger impression of the nature and strain of that music: "Like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul." Example 2. Homer introduces a most charming night-scene, while his main object is only to illustrate the state of the Grecian camp after a battle.

"The troops, exulting, sat in order round,
And beaming fires illumin'd all the ground.
As when the moon, resplendent orb of night,
O'er heaven's pure azure shed her sacred light;
When not a cloud o'ercasts the solemn scene,
And not a breath disturbs the deep serene ;
Around her throne the vivid planets roll,
And stars unnumber'd gild the glowing pole;
O'er the dark trees a yellow verdure spread,
And tipt with silver ev'ry mountain's head.
Then shine the vales, the rocks in prospect rise,
A flood of glory bursts from all the skies,
The conscious swains, rejoicing in the night,
Eye the blue vault, and bless the useful light.
So many flames before proud Ilion blaze,

And lighten glimmering Xanthus with their rays!"

Analysis. This simile needs no comment to display its beauties. Not only is the primary object, the Grecian fires, elucidated by the splendid resemblance of the glowing stars, but the imagination is farther captivated by a delightful collection of connected objects, which together concur to form an extensive and interesting picture.

Scholium. Such comparisons not only supply the most striking illustrations of the objects they are brought to illuminate, but embellish also the general prospect by occasional openings into beautiful adjacent fields. They operate like episodes in a long work, which relax and regale the mind, without distracting it from its capital pursuit. They produce an effect similar to what happens to the traveller, from surveying in his course unexpected and surprising scenes of nature or of art. He turns aside a moment to contemplate them, and then resumes his journey with redoubled ardour and delight.

278. The third sort of comparisons are employed to elevate or depress the principal object.

Example 1. The following example must aggrandize our conceptions of the valour of Hector, howsoever great we can suppose it to have been in reality.

"Girt in surrounding flames, he seems to fall
Like fire from Jove, and bursts upon them all
Bursts as a wave, that from the clouds impends,
And swell'd with tempest o'er the ship descends.
White are the decks with foam; the winds aloud
Howl o'er the masts, and ring through every shroud,
Pale, trembling, tired, the sailors freeze with fears,
And instant death in every wave appears.
So pale the Greeks the eyes of Hector meet,
The chief so thunders, and so shakes the fleet."

Example 2. The following quotation will explain the manner in which comparisons operate to depress the primary object. Milton has

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