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 Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their bounds; 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 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 And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage RICHARD II.-ACT V. Sc. 1. 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 produce any strong effect by contrasting particular attributes or circumstances. Comparisons must be distinguished into two kinds; one common and familiar, as where a man is compared 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. There is no sort of 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 eveningbeam, 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 *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. are agreeable, by suggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast: Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, AS YOU LIKE IT. ACT II. Sc. 1. Gardener. Bolingbroke hath seiz'd the wasteful king. See, how the morning opes her golden gates, SECOND PART HENRY IV. Brutus. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, JULIUS CESAR.--ACT IV. Sc. 3. Thus they their doubtful consultations dark As when, from mountain-tops, the dusky clouds Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape, snow and show'r: PARADISE LOST.-BOOK II. As the bright stars and milky-way, WALLER. The last exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing-Tasso Gierusal., canto 19. st. 22. None of the foregoing similies, 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 similies 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 simile: As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads, ILIAD.-BOOK XII. 521. 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' enamell'd stones, He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; And so by many winding nooks he strays, 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. 10 But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, And, with a green and yellow melancholy, 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 cried, God save thee, Bolingbroke! Duchess. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the while? After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage, Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes But dust was thrown upon his sacred head: That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd RICHARD II.-ACT V. Sc. 3. Northumberland. How doth my son and brother? And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd; And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. SECOND PART HENRY IV.-Acr I. Sc. 3. Why, then I do but dream on sov'reignty, And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, And so I chide the means that keep me from it, Flatt'ring my mind with things impossible. THIRD PART HENRY VI.-ACT III. Sc. 3. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, MACBETH.-Acr V. Sc. 5. |