Or he may state also something which the fact resembles. He may― 66 2. Speak of the fact as being like something else: add to the example above, as one sees a summer sky begin to overcloud." 3. Speak of something else, and imply that the fact in question resembles it: "In the midst of his eager anticipation he began to perceive difficulties. There appeared on the horizon a small cloud about the size of a man's hand." 4. Speak of the fact in terms of something else: "As he sunned himself in the warmth of his anticipations he suddenly realized that it was clouding up." These last three modes of statement are three different ways of suggesting a likeness. One states it directly; another leaves it wholly to inference; the third stands between the two. 2 is Simile, 4 is Metaphor, and 3 I will call Allegory,' although that term is usually used of productions more elaborate than a mere simile or metaphor. Each of these figures we will consider for a little, premising that they are on the whole only typical, and that the student will find in his reading many cases which stand upon some borderland. Simile. As to Simile, it is rather hard to say whether it be a more natural mode of expression than metaphor. Metaphor is so common a linguistic phenomenon that it is by its means largely that the scope and meaning of a language grows. Were it not for man's passion for metaphor we should need twice as many words as we now have. But, on the other hand, whoever will notice the daily speech of his companions will remark that conscious metaphor is not so common as conscious simile. "Like lightning, like a shot, like a breeze, like anything." ever common among uncivilized people, is rather rare in Real metaphor, how 'Following P. Souriau: La Suggestion dans l'Art, p. 228, note. the speech of civilized people except in the case of particular words where, as a rule, the metaphor is hardly thought of. We say prevent or get ahead of, he was much incensed or he flared right up, without much thought of the figure involved. In literature, metaphor is the more common, certainly at the present day. It is hardly necessary to give examples of Simile. I will, however, as examples of formal simile transcribe an example from Homer and one from Matthew Arnold. They will illustrate one distinguishing point. In a Simile the writer states a resemblance between some idea which he is considering and some other idea. For convenience let us speak of the latter idea as the image; let us say that in Simile one says that the idea is like the image, or as the image so the idea. A simile may be put in various ways, but the characteristic is that both ideas, the original and the image, are presented to the mind, each separate, and a likeness is affirmed between them. Each idea exists clearly and distinctly itself in the mind. This is most obvious in the similes of Homer and such as are modelled upon his. In such similes there is usually noted but one point of resemblance between two ideas, yet each is fully described. E.g.: "As when some woman of Maionia or Karia staineth ivory with purple, to make a cheek-piece for horses, and it is laid up in the treasure-chamber, though many a horseman prayeth to wear it, but it is laid up to be a king's boast, alike an ornament for his horse and a glory for his charioteer; even in such wise, Menelaos, were thy shapely thighs stained with blood and thy legs and thy fair ankles underneath."-Iliad, iv.; trans. Leaf. Now here the only point of similarity in the image is the color of the ivory and the purple stain. The fact that the staining is done by a woman of Maionia or Karia, that the ivory is a cheek-piece for horses, that it is laid up in the treasury, that many horsemen pray to wear it,—these points and some others have nothing to do with the thighs, legs, and ankles of Menelaos. They are mentioned by Homer to bring the image clearly before the mind, to give a more adequate, distinct picture of it, not because they have any connection with the resemblance. So in Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum, 11. 329–336: "As some rich woman, on a winter's morn, Eyes through her silken curtains the poor drudge وو Here the silken curtains, the poor drudge, the blackened fingers, the frost-flowers, the cockcrow, the other details, have nothing at all in common with the original idea. They exist only to make the image called up more distinct. It will, I think, be found that they have this effect. These figures, although at the time it may seem as though they were needlessly full and explicit, do have a remarkable power of standing out sharply in our minds. They are not easily forgotten, for they impress themselves distinctly upon our attention. Somewhat different from these figures are those careful similes which will be remembered in the work of Cardinal Newman, in which, although it is not always possible to follow out the resemblance through every particular, we usually feel that detail after detail is added to the image not merely to secure its greater distinctness, but to make the more full and sure our apprehension of the resemblance. "To a near-sighted person colors run together and intermix, outlines disappear, blues and reds and yellows be come russets or browns, the lamps or candles of an illumination spread into an unmeaning glare or dissolve into a milky way. He takes up an eyeglass, and the mist clears up; every image stands out distinct, and the rays of light fall back upon their centres. It is this haziness of intellectual vision which is the malady of all classes of men by nature of those who read and write and compose quite as well as of those who cannot, of all who have not had a really good education."-The Idea of a University, p. 333. "It is natural to expect this from the very circumstance that the philosophy of Education is founded on truths in the natural order. Where the sun shines bright, in the warm climate of the south, the natives of the place know little of safeguards against cold and wet. They have, indeed, bleak and piercing blasts; they have chill and pouring rain, but only now and then, for a day or a week; they bear the inconvenience as they best may, but they have not made it an art to repel it; it is not worth their while; the science of calefaction and ventilation is reserved for the north. It is in this way that Protestants stand relatively to Catholics in the science of education; Protestants depending on human means mainly are led to make the most of them," etc.-Ibid., p. 5. 74. Allegory. In a Simile the author presents two ideas and affirms a resemblance. In Allegory he contents himself with presenting one idea only and implying a resemblance to some other idea which may or may not have been stated beforehand. The term Allegory is commonly restricted to longer and more sustained examples. Thus the Pilgrim's Progress depicts the journey of a wanderer from one city to another. The implication is obvious that Bunyan is presenting the Christian Life, but he does not state the comparison explicitly. Spenser in the Faerie Queene presents to us the adventures of various knights and ladies. He explains at the beginning that his characters are typical of virtues and vices. Both are Allegories, for both are statements of one idea with an implied representation of another. 1 The short allegories of the Bible are commonly called Parables. A good example is that parable first recorded, the parable of Jotham, Judges ix. 8-15. The term is also more generally used, although the more generic term for a short allegory is Fable, which term also has with certain writers a restriction' with which we need not trouble ourselves. Oriental literature if we may judge from translations abounds in Allegory in our sense. Here is a story from Saadi's, Gulistan, viii. 1 (trans. James Ross): "A certain nobleman had a dunce of a son. He sent him to a learned man, saying: Verily you will give instruction to this youth, peradventure he may become a rational being. He continued to give him lessons for some time, but they made no impression on him, when he sent a message to the father saying: This son is not getting wise, and he has well nigh made me a fool!—Where the innate capacity is good, education may make an impression upon it; but no furbisher knows how to give a polish to iron. which is of a bad temper. Wash a dog seven times in the 'The Parables in Matthew are usually introduced as Similes. But they are not Similes: the introduction is only formal. E.g.: "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field" (Matt. xiii. 24). Again the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a merchant" (xiii. 45). Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a certain king" (xviii. 23). "For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder" (xx. 10). This is only a form. It is not the kingdom of heaven that is represented by the sower, the merchant, the king, the householder. The expression serves to introduce the parable. In Luke the introduction is almost always omitted, as in the Good Samaritan, x. 30 (cf. p. 276); the Prodigal Son, xv. 11; Dives and Lazarus, xvi. 19; the Talents, xix. 12. So also in some of the parables in Matthew, as the Sower, xiii. 3. 2 Lessing: Abhandlungen über die Fabel, I. Von dem Wesen der Fabel. La Fontaine : Fables Choisis, Préface. |