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

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

employed a most expressive and successful figure to vilify the courage and resistance of the fallen angels:

Of goats, or tim'rous flock, together thronged,
Drove them before him, thunder-struck, pursued
With terrors and with furies, to the bounds
And crystal wall of heaven."

Example 3. Shakspeare could not have devised a more effectual method of exposing the character of a fop, than by contrasting him with his most valorous hero, Hotspur. The passage supplies a pertinent illustration of the nature of contrasts, and of their powers to diminish or depress. Hotspur thus addresses the king about the prisoners whom he had taken, and whom he had been accused of refusing to surrender :

My liege, I did deny no prisoners,
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap'd,
Shav'd like a stubble-land at harvest home.
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held

A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose. And still he smil'd and talk'd: 45

And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,

He call'd them untaught slaves, unmannerly,

To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me. Among the rest demanded
My prisoners in your majesty's behalf:

I, all smarting with my wounds, being gall'd
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd neglectingly; I know not what ;

He should, or he should not; for it made me mad,
To see him shine so bright, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds.

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmacety for an inward bruise;
And that it was a pity, so it was,

That this villanous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroyed
So cowardly; and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier."

Obs. Having explained the nature of comparisons, and illustrated the purposes which they are calculated to serve, to guard the student against errors, we shall enumerate the capital mistakes committed in the use of these figures; and then conclude the chapter by some remarks on the propriety of the occasions in which they may be intro

duced.

279. Comparisons should not be instituted between objects, the resemblance of which is either obscure, faint, or remote.

Example. The following simile was intended by Milton to illustrate the anxiety with which Satan traversed the creation, in order to find out subjects for destruction and revenge.

"As when a vulture on Imaus bred,

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds.

Dislodging from a region scarce of prey,
To gorge the flesh of lambs or yearling kids,
On hills where flocks are fed, flies to the springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes Indian streams,
But in his way lights on the barren plains
Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and wind their cany waggons light;

So on this windy sea of land the fiend

Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey."

Analysis. The objects contained in this comparison are so little! known, even to those who claim the character of being learned, and they are so totally unknown to the greater part of readers, that it has the appearance of a riddle, or a pompous parade of erudition, rather than of a figure to illustrate something less conspicuous and striking than itself. Many of the similes, also, which were frequent and beautiful among the Greeks and Romans, as those drawn from the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the sphinx, the griffin, animals with the characters and properties of which they were supposed to be well acquainted, are retained by modern poets with much impropriety. To the learned they are destitute of novelty, an essential ingredient in every good comparison; to the unlearned, they are involved in much greater obscurity than the subjects they are brought to illuminate.

280. Comparisons should not be deduced from objects which rise much above, or fall much below the primary object; nor should they suggest feelings discordant with the tone of the emotion which the object prompts. If a comparison soar too high, it throws ridicule, instead of embellishment, on the object it is intended to adorn; the latter suffering from contrast, instead of being elevated by similitude.

Example 1. The subsequent comparison is reprehensible in this view. Homer paints the noise of opening the great lock of the repositories of Ulysses, by a comparison that borders on burlesque :

"Loud as a bull makes hill and valley ring,

So roar'd the lock when it released the spring."

281. If, again, a comparison be destitute of dignity, some portion of its insignificance is transferred to the principal object.

Example. Milton describes the surprise of the fallen angels by a similitude which savours of levity.

"They hear'd, and were abashed, and up they sprung

Upon the wing; as when men wont to watch

On duty, sleeping found by whom they dread,
Rouse and bestir themselves ere well awake."

Analysis. Milton did not intend to ridicule the appearance of fallen angels by this comparison; if he had so intended, he would have deserved applause, for every reader feels how successful he would have been.

Example 2. Homer paints the equality of the contest between the Greeks and Trojans, in a well-fought field, by the equilibrium of a balance destined to weigh wool

"As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads,
From side to side the trembling balance nods,
(While some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store),
Till poised 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 flight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his host with loud repeated cries."

Scholium. Similes like these not only degrade the principal object, but they hurt it in another point of view; they disgust the imagination by a reversal of that order of ideas which is the most pleasant. In transitions from one object to another, the most agreeable succession is, to rise from the less to the greater. The mind inclines to extend its views, and to enlarge the sphere of its gratifications. In reversing this order of succession, it holds an opposite course. It is obliged to retrench its views, and to circumscribe its enjoyments; an operation manifestly unpleasant.

282. But comparisons are still more censurable, when they prompt feelings discordant with the aim of the principal object, or when they suggest sentiments painful or disagreeable.

Example. Addison, speaking of the later Greeks' poems, in the shape of eggs, wings, and altars, introduces the following similitude: "The poetry was to contract or dilate itself according to the mould in which it was cast; in a word, the verses were to be cramped or extended to the dimensions of the frame prepared for them, and to undergo the fate of those persons whom the tyrant Procrustes used to lodge in his iron bed; if they were too short, he stretched them on the rack; and if they were too long, he chopped off a part of their body, till they fitted the couch he had prepared for them."

Analysis. The comparison is abundantly pertinent, but the tone of it is totally discordant with that of the subject which it is brought to illustrate. The pleasantry inspired by the foolish efforts of the minor poets is extinguished by the horror excited at the conduct of Pro

crustes.

283. It is to be observed, in the last place, that comparisons should never be founded on resemblances which are too obvious and familiar, nor on those which are imaginary.

Illus. 1. To compare love to a fire, violent passion to a tempest, virtue to the sun, or distress to a flower dropping its head, are all similes, either so obvious or so trite, as long ago to have lost all power of pleasing.

Illus. 2. In comparisons founded on imaginary resemblances, the literal sense of the comparison bears an analogy to the metaphorical sense of the primary object. Thus, chastity is cold metaphorically, and an icicle is cold naturally; and for this whimsical reason, a chaste woman is compared to an icicle. The best poets have either indulged in such exceptionable similes, or have inadvertently adopted them. Examples. Thus Shakspeare, in Coriolanus:

"The noble sister of Poplicola,

The moon of Rome; chaste as an icicle
That's curled by the frost from purest snow,
And hangs on Diana's temple."