(1.) The resemblance should turn on the relevant cir

cumstance.

(2.) The comparison should be more intelligible to those addressed than the thing compared.

(3.) The accompanying circumstances should not be such as to distract the mind from the real point.

This is the most common fault in the use of figures of similarity, and is most likely to occur when they are most profusely employed.

12. II. With a view to heighten the Feelings, the conditions are these:—

(1.) The figure employed should be more impressive than the plain form of expression.

(2.) The degree of elevation should be within the bounds that the hearer can tolerate. (See Hyperbole.) (3.) The similitude should be neither obvious nor trite.

Some degree of novelty, originality, or rarity, is essential to any powerful effect.

(4.) A mere intellectual comparison should not be tendered for an emotional one.*

On the other hand, the absence of intellectual similarity is consistent with emotional keeping. Hence the admissibility of the following:—

"The noble sister of Poplfcola,

The moon of Rome; chaste as the icicle

That's curdled by the frost from purest snow
And hangs on Dian's temple."

13. III. To render comparison, as such, a source of pleasure, the following points must be attended to:— (1.) Novelty, originality, or freshness, is still more requisite than in the previous case.

* The profuse employment of intellectual similitudes without emotional keeping, is the peculiarity of the class of poets designated by Johnson as "metaphysical" (Life of Cowley). For a precise discrimination of the characteristics of this class, see Masson's Life of Milton (Vol. I. p. 441).

CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE COMPARISON.

27

(2.) There should be a harmony between the things compared, and no distasteful accompaniments.

The following well-known passage from Lucretius contains a fine harmony, and also a circumstance that jars on the mind :—

"Sweet it is, when the winds are agitating the waters on a wide sea, to witness from the land the spectacle of another's distress; not because it is agreeable to us that any one should suffer, but because it is pleasant to behold the ills ourselves are free from. Sweet also is it to look upon the mighty encounters of war spread over the plains, without sharing the danger. But nothing is sweeter than to occupy the well-girt serene temple raised by the learning of the wise, whence we may look down upon others and see them straying and wandering, rivals in intellect, and in the pride of birth, striving night and day by surpassing labor to rise to wealth and to win dominion."

The two comparisons quoted are in full harmony with the situation to be illustrated; there is one pervading emotion— the grateful feeling of security from visible woes. But it jars on our sympathies to represent the misery of others as our delight; and the clause of explanation, so awkward in a poem, does not redeem the discord. Better to have simply compared the three situations, without giving any name to the feeling. "Like a man witnessing from the land the struggles of the mariner with the storm, or like one viewing the shock of war from a safe distance, is he that occupies the temple raised by wisdom, and looks down upon the erring crowd beneath."

14. Many figures of similarity are to be found in literature that fail to yield any of the results just named.

It would not be easy to attribute any effect to such as the following from Bacon:—"Certainly it is heaven on earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth." The old writers abound in comparisons equally unmeaning and insipid.

15. The sources of Figures of Resemblance are coextensive with human knowledge.

An idea may be formed of the wide range of figurative

comparison by glancing at some of the objects to which it has been extended.

Natural Agents:—Gravity, Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, affinity, attraction, repulsion, force, solution, diffusion, expansion, matter, solid, liquid, gas.

Celestial Bodies and Operations: -Sun, moon, stars, orbits, eclipses, cycles, seasons, nebulæ, galaxies.

Terrestrial Objects on a grand scale:—Winds, storms, clouds, rain, thunder, lightning, oceans, shores, tides, waves, continents, plains, mountains, villages, rivers, floods, forests, deserts, sands, swamps, rocks, strata.

Minerals and their Properties :—Stone, granite, flint, metal, diamond, ruby, emerald, gold, silver, iron, brass, crystal, transparency, brilliance, lustre, opaque, hard, rough, smooth, symmetrical. Vegetation:—Seed, root, stem, branch, flower, bud, fruit, leaf, growth, sap, ripeness, decay, excrescence. The rose, thorn, lily, oak, fungus, upas-tree.

Animal Life:—Organic processes, and names of parts, as in plants: Birth, procreation, health, disease, food, nourishment, bone, sinew, heart, head, eyes, tongue, foot, arm, breath, digestion. Special Animals:-Lion, tiger, elephant, dog, fox, eagle, lark, nightingale, parrot, serpent, viper, shark, worm, grub, oyster, bee, ant, spider, butterfly.

Operations of Human Industry :-(Agriculture), shepherd, flocks, herds, dig, till, plough, manure, water, sow, reap, harvest, thresh, winnow, prune, graft. (Mining), vein, ore. (Building), foundation, stone, cement, wall, roof, door, house, palace, temple, pyramid. (Seamanship), launch, set sail, chart, steer, compass, tack, breeze, wreck, founder. (War), army, array, battle, conquest, defeat, sword, arms, shot, broadside, parry, strategy, generalship. (Trade), buy, sell, import, traffic, capital, interest, borrow, credit, security, market, goods, exchange, money, currency, weight, measure. (Manufactures), hammer, forge, shape, carve, cut, joint, dovetail, spin, weave, embroider, tinsel.

Government:—Sovereign, king, rule, court, regulate, minister,

judge, law.

Social Relations :—Father, mother, friend, neighbor, companion, society, communion, wedlock.

Social Intercourse:

Road, highway, carriage, conveyance, canal, harbor, haven, post, letter, arts of writing and printing. Medicine:-Physic, pill, unguent, syrup, purge, plaster, bleed, blister, disease, symptom, remedy, fever, inflammation, pulse, scar, sore, ache, wound, delirium, heart-burn, dropsy, gangrene. Teaching-Master, pupil, lesson, school.

Science-Sum, fraction, equation, equivalent, theorem, axiom, postulate, definition, demonstrate, induction.

Fine Arts:—Melody, harmony, discord, dance, rhythm, paint, color, sculpture, engrave, carve.

Religion:—God, angel, offering, sacrifice, atonement, prayer, propitiation, intercession, sacrament, priest, worship, bible, revelation, inspiration, divine, heaven, hell.

Recreations:—Games, sports, cards, dice, chess, counters, hunt, snare, trap, decoy, angle, hook, bait.

Historical Allusions:—The geese in the capitol, the gordian knot, crossing the Rubicon, magna charta.

Customs of Nations:—Avatar, Juggernaut, palaver, ordeal.

Feelings and Operations of the Mind :—Sweet, soft, harsh, sour, charm, rejoice, kiss, laugh, smile, frown, angry, loving, relent, disdain.

SIMILE, OR COMPARISON.

16. Simile, or Comparison, consists in likening one thing to another formally or expressly. "As the stars, so shall thy seed be." "The condemnation of Socrates took him away in his full grandeur and glory, like the setting of a tropical sun."

The following are further examples :—

(1.) "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learnt to dance."

(2.) "We have often thought that the public mind in our country resembles that of the sea when the tide is rising. Each successive wave rushes forward, breaks, and rolls back; but the great flood is steadily coming on."'

(3.) "Nothing is more dangerous to reason than the flights of imagination, and nothing has been the occasion of more mistakes among philosophers. Men of bright fancies may, in this respect, be compared to those angels whom the Scriptures represent as covering their eyes with their wings."

(4.)

"I have ventured,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,

This many summers in a sea of glory."

(5.) "It is on the death-bed, on the couch of sorrow and of pain, that the thought of one purely virtuous action is like the shadow of a lofty rock in the desert—like the light footsteps of that little child who continued to dance before the throne of the unjust king, when his guards had fled, and his people had forsaken him—like the single thin stream of light which the unhappy captive has at last learned to love—like the soft sigh before the breeze that wafts the becalmed vessel and her famished crew to the haven where they would be."

(6.) "The illusion that great men and great events came oftener in early times than now, is partly due to historical perspective. As

in a range of equidistant columns, the farthest off look the closest; so the conspicuous objects of the past seem more thickly clustered, the more remote they are."

The characteristic effects of these examples have been given. by anticipation (p. 24).

The terms "simile" and "comparison" are sometimes considered as slightly different in meaning. When a likeness is followed out in detail, it is called a comparison, in the stricter meaning of the term.

METAPHOR.

17. Metaphor is a comparison implied in the language used as, he bridles his anger; he was a lion in combat; the fact is clear.

This figure is in frequent use. By dispensing with the phrases of comparison—like, as, &c.—it has the advantages of being brief and of not disturbing the structure of the composition.

Like similitudes generally, Metaphors may (1) aid the understanding, (2) deepen the impression on the feelings, and (3) give an agreeable surprise.

Examples:—

(1.) To aid the understanding:—"The wish is father to the thought;""the light of Nature;" "the geological record ;" "reasoning in a circle; "the moralist is a scout for consequences."

(2.) To deepen the impression on the feelings:—"I speared him with a jest;""the town was stormed;" "to let loose these horrible hounds of war;" "the news was a dagger to his heart;" "the power of directing the local disposition of the army is the royal prerogative, the master-feather in the eagle's wing." (Chatham.)