Virgil has not escaped this puerility :

-Galathæn thymo mihi dulcior Hyblæ.

Bucol. vii. 37.

-Ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis.

Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas,
Quantum vere novo viridis se subjicit alnus.

Nor Tasso, in his Aminta:

Picciola e' l'ape, e fa col picciol morso
Pur gravi, e pur moleste le ferite;
Ma, qual cosa é più picciola d'amore,
Se in ogni breve spatio entra, e s'asconde
In ogni breve spatio? hor, sotto a l'ombra
De le palpebre, hor trá minuti rivi

D'un biondo crine, hor dentro le pozzette
Che forma un dolce riso in bella guancia;
E pur fa tanto grandi, e si mortali,

E cosi immedicabili le piaghe.

Ibid 41.

Bucol, x. 37.

Act II. Sc. 1.

Nor Boileau, the chastest of all writers, and that even in his art of poetry.

Ainsi tel autrefois, qu'on vit avec Faret
Charbonner de ses vers les murs d'un cabaret,
S'en va mal a propos d'une voix insolente,
Chanter du peuple Hebreu la fuite triomphante,
Et poursuivant Moise au travers des desérts,
Court avec Pharaon se noyer dans les mers.

Chant. I. 1. 21.

Mais allons voir le Vrai, jusqu'en sa source même.
Un dévot aux yeux creux, et d'abstinence blême,
S'il n'a point le cœur juste, est affreux devant Dieu,
L'Evangile au Chrêtien ne dit, en aucun lieu,
Sois devot: elle dit, Sois doux, simple, equitable:
Car d'un devct souvent au Chrêtien veritable
La distanee est deux fois plus longue, à mon avis,
Que du Pôle Antarctique au Détroit de Davis.

But for their spirits and souls
This word rebellion had froze them up

As fish are in a pond.

Boileau, Satire, xi.

Second Part, Henry IV. Act I. Sc. 3.

Queen. The pretty vaulting sea refus'd to drown me; Knowing, that thou would'st have me drown'd on shore; With tears as salt as sea, through thy unkindness.

Second Part Henry VI. Act III. Sc. 6.

Here there is no manner of resemblance but in the word drown; for there is no real resemblance between being drown'd at sea, and dying of grief at land. But perhaps this sort of tinsel wit may have a propriety in it, when used to express an affected, not a real passion, which was the Queen's case.

Pope has several similes of the same stamp. I shall transcribe one or two from the Essay on Man, the gravest and most instructive of all his perform

ances:

And hence one master passion in the breast,
Like Aaron's serpent swallows up the rest.

Epist. ii. l. 131,

And again, talking of this same ruling or master passion:

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;
Wit, spirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and power;

As heav'n's bless'd beam turns vinegar more sour.

Ibid. 1. 145.

Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of historians:

Where their sincerity as to fact is doubtful, we strike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collison of flints and steel.

Let us vary the phrase a very little, and there will not remain a shadow of resemblance.

Thus,

We discover truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out sparks of fire by the collision of flints and steel.

Racine makes Pyrrhus say to Andromaque,

VOL. II.

21+

Vaineu chargé de fers, de regrets consumé,
Brulé de plus de feux que je n'en allumai,
Helas! fus-je jamais si cruel que vous lêtes?

And Orestes in the same strain:

Que les Scythes sont moins cruel qu' Hermoine.

Similes of this kind put one in mind of a ludicrous French song:

Again:

Je croyois Janneton
Aussi douce que belle:

Je croyois Janneton

Plus douce qu'un mouton ;

Helas! Helas !

Elle est cent fois mille fois, plus cru elle

Que n'est le tigre aux bois.

Helas! l'amour ma pris,

Comme le chat fait la souris.

A vulgar Irish ballad begins thus :

I have as much love in store

As there's apples in Portmore.

Where the subject is burlesque or ludicrous, such similes are far from being improper. Horace says pleasantly,

Quanquam tu levior cortice.

And Shakspeare,

L. iii. ode 9.

In breaking oaths he's stronger than Hercules.

And this leads me to observe, that beside the foregoing comparisons, which are all serious, there is a species, the end and purpose of which is to excite gaiety or mirth. Take the following examples:

Falstaff, speaking to his page:

I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one.

Second Part, Henry VI. Act I. Sc. 4.

I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a covered goblet, or a worm eaten nut,

As you like it, Act III. Sc. 10.

This sword a dagger had his age,
That was but little for his age;
And therefore waited on him so,
As dwarfs upon knights-errant do,

Description of Hudibras's horse:

He was well stay'd, and in his gait
Preserv'd a grave, majestic state.
At spur or switch no more he skipt,
Or mended pace than Spaniard whipt:
And yet so fiery, he would bound
As if he griev'd to touch the ground:
That Cæsar's horse, who, as fame goes,
Had corns upon his feet and toes,
Was not by half so tender hooft,
Nor trod upon the ground so soft.

Hudibras, canto į

Aud as that beast would kneel and stoop,
(Some write) to take his rider up;
So Hudibras his ('tis well known)
Would often do to set him down.

Honour is, like a widow won
With brisk attempt and putting on,
With entering manfully and urging;
Not slow approaches, like a virgin.

The sun had long since in the lap
Of Thetis taken out his nap;
And, like a lobster boil'd, the morn
From black to red began to turn,

Canto i.

Canto i.

Part II. canto ii.

Books, like men their authors, have but one way of coming into the world; but there are ten thousand to go out of it, and re

turn no more.

Tale of a Tub

And in this the world may perceive the difference between the integrity of a generous author, and that of a common friend. The latter is observed to adhere close in prosperity; but on the decline of fortune, to drop suddenly off: whereas the generous author, just on the contrary, finds his hero on the dunghill, from thence by gradual steps raises him to a throne, and then immediately withdraws, expecting not so much as thanks for his pains. Tale of a Tub.

The most accomplish'd way of using books at present is, to serve them as some do lords, learn their titles, and then brag of their acquaintance.

Tale of a Tub.

Box'd in a chair, the beau impatient sits,
While spouts run clattering o'er the roof by fits;
And ever and anon with frightful din

The leather sounds; he trembles from within.
So when Troy's chairmen bore the wooden steed,
Pregnant with Greeks, impatient to be freed,
(Those bully Greeks, who, as the moderns do,
Instead of paying chairmen run them through),
Laocoon struck the outside with his spear,
And each imprison'd hero quak'd for fear.

Description of a City Shower. Swift.

Clubs, diamonds, hearts, in wild disorder seen,
With throngs promiscuous strow the level green,
Thus when dispers'd a routed army runs,
Of Asia's troops, and Afric's sable sons,
With like confusion, different nations fly,
Of various habit, and of various dye,

The pierc'd battalions disunited, fall

In heaps on heaps; one fate o'erwhelms them all.

Rape of the Lock, canto iii.

He does not consider that sincerity in love is as much out of fashion as sweet snuff; nobody takes it now.

Careless Husband.

Lady Easy. My dear, I am afraid you have provoked her a little too far.

Sir Charles. O! Not at all. and she'll cool like a dish of tea.

You shall see, I'll sweeten her,

Ibid.