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 of 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 comparisons, 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 colour, 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, Shakespeare 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 ob. jects 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 similarily 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 soult."

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

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 compar isons. Let an author be reasoning ever so strictly, or treating the most abstruse point in philosophy, he may very pro

• Ossian.

+ Ibid.

Ibid.

Ibid.

perly 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 prineipal 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 Shakespeare. 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 bis 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 aggrandise 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:

"Gabriel

as a herd

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. Shakespeare could not have devised a more effectual method of exposing the character of a fop, than by contrasting him with his most valourous 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, aud whom he had been accused of refusing to surrender:

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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:
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 villainous 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 illustrateá 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 introduced.

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,