every word is distinguished by a pause; and every foot in verse may be considered as a verse word, composed of syllables pronounced at once without a pause.

CHAPTER XIX.

COMPARISONS.

Comparisons serve to instruct and to please-They suggest some unusual contrast or resemblance-They set objects in their proper light-They associate them with other objects that are agreeable-They elevate objects-They depress them-Objects of different senses not to be compared-Things of the same kind not to be compared-Things of different kinds not to be contrasted-Abstract terms not the subject of comparison, unless personified-Two kinds of comparisons-Comparisons not proper for every occasion-Illustrated-Not disposed to pathetic flights, when cool and sedate, or when oppressed with care-Similes delightful, when the mind is elevated or animated by passion-The mind often in a tone to relish embellishing comparisons-The severe passions enemies to comparisons-A comparison faulty, though properly introduced-By being too faint-By being too low-By being too high-A comparison not to be drawn from a disagreeable object-Comparisons existing in words only, the most objectionable-A species of comparison that excites gayety.

COMPARISONS, as observed above,* serve two purposes; when addressed to the understanding, their purpose is to instruct; when to the heart, their purpose is to please. Various means contribute to the latter; first, the suggesting of some unusual resemblance or contrast; second, the setting of an object in the strongest light; third, the associating of an object with others that are agreeable; fourth, the elevating of an object; and, fifth, the depressing of it. And that comparisons may give pleasure by these various means, appears from what is said in the chapter above cited; and will be made still more evident by examples, which shall be given after premising some general observations.

Objects of different senses cannot be compared together; for such objects, being entirely separated from each other, have no circumstance in common to admit either resemblance or contrast. Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also of taste, of smell, and of touch: but the chief fund of comparison are objects of sight; because, in writing or speaking, things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of sight are more distinct and lively than those of any other sense.

When a nation emerging out of barbarity begins to think of the fine arts, the beauties of language cannot long lie concealed; and when discovered, they are generally, by the force of novelty, carried beyond moderation. Thus, in the early poems of every nation, we find metaphors and similes founded on slight and distant resemblances, which, losing their grace with their novelty, wear gradually out of repute; and now, by the improvement of taste, none but correct metaphors and similes are admitted into any polite composition

Chap. 8.

COMPARISONS.

[Ch. 19.

To illustrate this observation, a specimen shall be
of such metaphors as I have been describing; with respect to similes,
given afterward
take the following specimen:

Behold, thou art fair, my love: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead: thy teeth are like a flock of sheep from the washing, every one bearing twins: thy lips are like a thread of scarlet: thy neck like the tower of David built for an armory, whereon hang a thousand shields of mighty men: thy two breasts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. thy eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damascus.

Song of Solomon.

Thou art like snow on the heath; thy hair like the mist of Cromla, when it curls on the rocks, and shines to the beam of the west: thy breasts are like two smooth rocks seen from Branno of the streams; thy arms like two white pillars in the hall of the mighty Fingal. Fingal.

It has no good effect to compare things by way of simile that are of the same kind; nor to compare by contrast things of different kinds. The reason is given in the chapter quoted above; and the reason shall be illustrated by examples. The first is a comparison built upon a resemblance so obvious as to make little or no impression. This just rebuke inflam'd the Lycian crew,

They join, they thicken, and th' assault renew
Unmov'd th' embody'd Greeks their fury dare,
And fix'd support the weight of all the war;
Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian pow'rs,
Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian tow'rs.
As on the confines of adjoining grounds,

Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their bounds;
They tug, they sweat; but neither gain, nor yield,
One foot, one inch, of the contended field:

Thus obstinate to death, they fight, they fall;

Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall.

Iliad, XII. 505.

Another, from Milton, lies open to the same objection. Speaking of the fallen angels searching for mines of gold,

A numerous brigade hasten'd: as when bands

Of pioneers with spade and pick-ax arm'd,
Forerun the royal camp to trench a field

Or cast a rampart.

The next shall be of things contrasted that are of different kinds.

Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind
Transform'd and weak? Hath Bolingbroke depos'd
Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart?

The lion thrusteth forth his paw,

And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
To be o'erpower'd: and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility?

Richard II. Act V. Sc. 1.

This comparison has scarcely any force: a man and a lion are of different species, and therefore are proper subjects for a simile; but there is no such resemblance between them in general, as to pro duce any strong effect by contrasting particular attributes or circum

stances.

A third general observation is, that abstract terms can never be

1

the subject of comparison, otherwise than by being personified. Shakspeare compares adversity to a toad, and slander to the bite of a crocodile; but in such comparisons these abstract terms must be imagined sensible being".

To have a just notion of comparisons, they must be distinguished into two kinds; one common and familiar, as where a man is com pared to a lion in courage, or to a horse in speed; the other more distant and refined, where two things that have in themselves no resemblance or opposition, are compared with respect to their effects. This sort of comparison is occasionally explained above; and for farther explanation take what follows. There is no resemblance between a flower-pot and a cheerful song; and yet they may be compared with respect to their effects, the emotions they produce being similar. There is as little resemblance between fraternal concord and precious ointment; and yet observe how successfully they are compared with respect to the impressions they make:

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon Aaron's beard, and descended to the skirts of his garment. Psalm 133.

For illustrating this sort of comparison, I add some more examples:

Delightful is thy presence, O Fingal! it is like the sun on Cromla, when the hunter mourns his absence for a season, and sees him between the clouds.

Did not Ossian hear a voice? or is it the sound of days that are no more? Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul. His countenance is settled from war; and is calm as the evening-beam, that from the cloud of the west looks on Cona's silent vale.

Sorrow, like a cloud on the sun, shades the soul of Clessammor.

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

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

These quotations are from the poems of Ossian, who abounds with comparisons of this delicate kind, and appears singularly happy in them.†

I proceed to illustrate by particular instances the different means. by which comparisons, whether of the one sort or the other, can afford pleasure; and, in the order above established, I begin with such instances as are agreeable, by suggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast:

* Page 72.

Sweet are the uses of Adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in her head.

As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1.

Gardener. Bolingbroke hath seized the wasteful King.
What pity is't that he had not so trimm'd

And dress'd his land, as we this garden dress,

+ The nature and merit of Ossian's comparisons is fully illustrated, in a Dissertation on the poems of that Author, by Dr. Blair, Professor of Rhetoric in the College of Edinburgh; a delicious morsel of criticism.

COMPARISONS.

[Ch. 19

And wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Lest, being over proud with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself.
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste and idle hours have quite thrown down.
Richard II. Act III. Sc. 4.

See, how the Morning opes her golden gates,
And takes her farewell of the glorious Sun;
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love!

Second Part, Henry IV. Act II. Sc. 1.

Brutus. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb,
That carries anger as the flint bears fire:
Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,
And straight is cold again.

Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Sc. 3.

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief:
As when from mountain-tops, the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heav'n's cheerful face, the lowering element

Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape, snow and show'r
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet
Extends his ev'ning-beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

As the bright stars, and milky way,
Show'd by the night, are hid by day:
So we in that accomplish'd mind,
Help'd by the night, new graces find,
Which by the splendor of her view,
Dazzled before, we never knew.

Paradise Lost, Book 2.

Waller.

The last exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing, Tasso Gierusalem, canto 19. st. 22.

None of the foregoing similes, as they appear to me, tend to illustrate the principal subject: and therefore the pleasure they afford must arise from suggesting resemblances that are not obvious: I mean the chief pleasure; for undoubtedly a beautiful subject introduced to form the simile affords a separate pleasure, which is felt in the similes mentioned, particularly in that cited from Milton..

The next effect of a comparison in the order mentioned, is to place an object in a strong point of view; which effect is remarkable in the following similes:

As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads,
From side to side the trembling balance nods,
(Whilst some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store,)
Till pois'd aloft, the resting beam suspends
Each equal weight; nor this nor that descends
So stood the war, till Hector's matchless might.
With fates prevailing, turn'd the scale of fight,
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his host with loud repeated cries.

Niad, b. XII 521.

Ut flos in septis secretis nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quem mulcent auræ, firmat sol, educat imber,
Multi illum pueri, multæ cupiêre puellæ;
Idem, cum tenui carptus defioruit ungui,
Nulli illum pueri, nullæ cupiêre puellæ:

Catullus.

Sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis; sed
Cum castum amisit, polluto corpore, florem,
Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis.
As the fair flower doth in the garden grow
Safe from the flock, and touched not by the plough,
Soothed by the wind and strengthened by the sun,
Nursed by the shower, sought for by every one,
But rudely plucked, its beauty doth expire,
Nor longer boys and girls the flower desire,
So is the untouched virgin very dear,
But virtue lost, she worthless doth appear.

The imitation of this beautiful simile by Ariosto, canto 1. st. 42. falls short of the original. It is also in part imitated by Pope.*

Lucetta. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,

But qualify the fire's extreme rage,

Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason.

Julia. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns:

The current, that with gentle murmur glides,

Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage;

But when his fair course is not hindered,

He makes sweet music with th' enamel'd stones,

Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge

He overtaketh in his pilgrimage:

And so by many winding nooks he strays
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
Then let me go, and hinder not my course:
I'll be as patient as a gentle stream,

And make a pastime of each weary step,
Till the last step have brought me to my love;
And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil,

A blessed soul doth in Elysium.

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Sc. 7

She never told her love;

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,

Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought;

And with a green and yellow melancholy,

She sat like Patience on a monument,

Smiling at Grief.

Twelfth-Night, Act II. Sc. 4..

York. Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke,

Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,

Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,

With slow but stately pace, kept on his course:

While all tongues cry'd, God save thee, Bolingbroke.

Dutchess. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the while!

York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious:

Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes

Did scowl on Richard; no man cry'd, God save him:

No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home;

But dust was thrown upon his sacred head:

Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,
* Dunciad, b. IV. 1. 405