SECTION I

-000000

Orationis lumina.

FIGURES of Speech interest at once the Poet and the Philosopher, and are no less fitted to embellish verse, than to enliven the profoundest reasoning and research. A Metaphor and a Similie are different. A Metaphor always implies comparison, but is not a direct Similie. The Scriptures are highly metaphorical. In Deuteronomy" arrows are said to be drunk with blood," and a "sword to devour flesh." St. Jude, speaking of the wicked, affirms, "they are clouds without water, carried about by winds, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever." The Psalms, the Book of Job, the Prophecies of Isaiah present almost a continuation of Tropes and Figures.

In some Similies, which are simple, two things only are compared, as his countenance is like yours' o 'Cæsar's fortune was greater than Pompey's.' In others, two things are compared in reference to a third.

She never told her love,

But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud
Feed on her damask cheek.

Here concealment' is likened to a worm in the bud,' but the aptness of the comparison can appear only by referring it to a person endeavouring to conceal the passion of love, which like a worm in the tender bud of a flower, destroys the bloom, and saps the foundations of life.

Homer

Homer is a master of Similies. He reserved this brilliant figure for a great occasion. Not one comparison appears in the first Iliad. It is to heighten the consequence and dignity of the Grecian army that he first employs it. When Agamemnon marshalls his troops according to their national rank, a very grand comparison is used to magnify the splendor of their appearance.

Ηντε πυρ αίδηλον επιφλέγει άσπετον υλην

Ούρεος εν κορυφης, εκαθεν δε τε φαίνεται αυγη
Ως των ερχομένων, από χαλκό θεσπέσεοιο
Αιγλη παμφανόωσα δε αθερός, ερανόν επε

As on some mountain, through the lofty grove
The crackling flames arise, and blaze above.
The fires expanding as the winds arise,
Shoot their long beams, and kindle half the skies,
So from their polish'd arms, and brazen shields
A gleamy splendor flash'd along the fields.

Some Similies are so long and diffuse, as to become two opposed descriptions. Such, instead of heightening our ideas of an object, generally divert our attention into another channel. Many, following each other, are qually unfavorable to clear conception. Similies may be compared to diamonds; a few, tastefully disposed, add unspeakable lustre and elegance, but a profusion dazzle the senses and destroy the effect. In the Iliad we often find three or four similies following each other in close succession. No less than four succeed that which we have last mentioned. We have the numbers of the Greeks compared with flights of cranes, and immediately after to legions of insects; the Leaders forming their lines to shepherds collecting their flocks; and the General himself is lastly, likened to the lordly bull. Four successive comparisons are introduced at the conclusion of the 17th Iliad, two of which are employed to exemplify the same object. There is a passage

in

in Paradise Lost, which signally elucidates what has been said of the error of crowding similies together, and of spreading them out too diffusely.

Nathless he so endur'd, till on the beach

Of that inflamed sea he stood, and call'd
His legions, angel-forms; who lay entranc'd
Thick as autumnal leaves, that strew the brooks
In Valombrosa, where the Etrurian shades
High o'er-arch'd embor; or scatter'd sedge
Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion arm'd
Hath vex'd the Red sea coast, whose waves o'er threw
Busiris and his Memphian chivalry,

While with perfidious hatred they pursued
The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld
From the shore their floating carcases

And broken chariot wheels

The reader, after he is well through these lines, is surprized to find how far he has wandered from the original subject. One could almost impute to Milton a vain glorious wish of displaying his learning at the expence of his judgment. How inimitably grand on the contrary, is his comparison of the Arch-deceiver to the Sun eclipsed!

he, above the rest

In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
Stood like a tow'r; his form had not yet lost
All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruined, and the excess
Of glory obscur'd: as when the Sun new-ris'n
Looks through the horizontal misty air
Shorn of his beams; or from behind the moon
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
Above them all th' Arch-Angel.

This

This is not only an apposite and a highly-elevated Similie, but a description, remarkable for sublimity and boldness of thought.

The works of Shakespeare abound in fine comparisons. Metaphorical language was never more beautiful than in the following passages. Volumes could not say more on the folly and instability of human life. All the world's a stage ;

And all the men and women merely players.

Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon a stage,
And then is heard no more! it is a tale,
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing!

The four following similies are admirable, and deserve the rather to be noticed, as I believe, they are unhack. neyed in criticism.

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself

Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.*

Northumberland, reflecting on the uncertain fate of war, exclaims,

The times are wild: contention, like a horse,
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him.

Worcester, speaking of the rebellion, delivers a fine train of ideas on the nature of treason,

*Fit motto for a Life of Buonaparte.

Suspicion,

Suspicion, all our lives, shall be stuck full of eyes:
For treason is but trusted like a fox,

Who neer so tame, so cherish'd and lock'd up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors;

Look how we can, or sad or merrily,
Interpretation will misquote our looks;
And we shall feed like oxen in a stall
The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.

Titus Andronicus compares his high but giddy fortunes to one standing on a rock in the sea.

For now I stand, as one upon a rock.
Environ'd with a wilderness of sea ;

Who marks the waxing tide grow wave by wave;
Expecting ever when some envious surge

Will in his brinish bowels swallow him.

In some cases, there are two or three different statements of the comparison; a plurality of images derived from the same source.

Is death uncertain? therefore, be thou fixt;
Fixt as a centinel, all eye, all ear,

All expectation of the coming foe.

Rouse, stand in arms, nor lean against thy spear; Lest slumber steal one moment on thy soul,

And fate surprize thee nodding.

Night Thoughts.

Two things may be very happily compared, which in themselves have no actual resemblance. One of the most beautiful similies in the Poems of Ossian is of this kind. "The music of Carryl was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul." The resemblance is here founded on the effect which the music of Carryl produced, the effect of pleasing melancholy, like that excited by the recollection of past pleasures.

We