+ to represent the deftruction that flames make upon fuel. If perfons will not limit the fenfe of Metaphors by the context, or what appears to be their plain and obvious meaning, a man shall be made to speak quite different from what he really designs. So an iron heart may denote ei ther courage or cruelty. So a dove may ftand in Metaphor either for innocence or fear. Care therefore ought to be taken that Metaphors fhould not be wrested into meanings which were never fo much as imagined. Draw up, when you are examining a Metaphor, at once the limpid ftream, and do not, under the notion of going deep, plunge lower and lower, again and again, till at last you only gather up the mire from the bottom. Let the firft obvious idea be regarded; and if there is manifeftly no further similitude, let the matter rest there, and proceed no farther. Some Preachers and Writers may indeed acquire the reputation of being deep by making fuch interpretations of Scripture-Metaphors and Parables as were never designed, and which it may be their own fancies firft conceived, but no compliments are due to them. They rather deserve to be called muddy than profound; and may be more properly refembled to ponds or puddles, whofe mire gives them the advantage of being thought deep, whereas in truthily spreads a veil over their poverty and fhal $16. But at the fame FI ing to confefs, that whe not unwill ors and Sim lies admit a double or a treble refemblance, that they may in the fame proportion be accounted beautiful. When GOD is called a fun in Scripture, methinks light and life and joy, permanent and unbounded, at once difclofe themselves in the Metaphor. "There is a "double beauty in images, fays Mr MELMOTH, "when they are not only Metaphors but Allu"sions. I was much pleased with an inftance "of this uncommon fpecies in a little Poem, in"titled, the Spleen. The Author of that piece (who has thrown together more original thoughts than I ever read in the fame com« pass of lines) speaking of the advantage of "exercise in difsipating thofe gloomy vapours " which are so apt to hang upon some minds, " ́employs the following image; J Throw but a stone, the giant dies. "You will obferve, ORONTES, that the Meta, phor here is conceived with great propriety of thought, if we consider it only in its primary "view; but when we fee it pointing still farther, "and hinting at the ftory of DAVID and Go, "LIATH, it receives a considerable improvement "from this double application +." Mr ADDISON'S comparison of the Duke of the heat of battle to an An MARLBOROU gel presid 'parison that nly for his Is a courage, storm, his H Lette 53.54. courage, but for his wifdom; and at the fame time very happily glances a compliment of the highest kind to the illuftrious Princefs whofe. forces he commanded, whofe commission he bore, and whose orders he executed. We have an honourable notice and a criticism upon this passage in the Tatler †, which well merits our regard. "The highest art of man, fays the Author, is to possess itself with tranquillity in "imminent danger, and to have its thoughts fo free, as to act at that time without perplexity. "The ancient Authors have compared this fe"date courage to a rock that remains immove“able amidst the rage of winds and waves; but "that is too ftupid and inanimate a similitude, "and could do no credit to the Hero.. At other "times they are all wonderfully obliged to a Li byan Lion, which may indeed give very agree"able terrors to a description, but is no com"pliment to the perfon to whom it is applied. .. Eagles, Tygers, and Wolves, are made use of 66 66 on the fame occasion, and very often with "much beauty; but this is ftill an honour done to the brute rather than the Hero. MARS, "PALLAS, BACCHUS, and HERCULES, have each "of them furnifhed very good similies in their time; and made doubtlefs a greater impres“sion on the mind of an Heathen, than they "have on that of a modern Reader. the fublime image that I am talking "I really think as great as ever + N° 43. 66 thought of man, is the Poem called the Cams6 paign; where the simile of a ministering Angel "fets forth the most fedate and the most active courage, engaged in an uproar of nature, a "confusion of elements, and a scene of divine "vengeance. Add to all, that thefe lines compliment the General and the Queen at the "fame time, and have all the natural horrors heightened by the image that was still fresh in "the mind of every Reader." 66 'Twas then great MARLB'ROUGH's mighty foul was prov❜d, That in the fhock of charging hofts unmov'd, ADDISON'S Campaign. CHAPTER III. The ALLEGORY Confidered. § 1. The definition of an Allegory. § 2. Examples of the Allegory. § 3. Allegories of two forts, pure and mixed. § 4. Mixed Allegories confidered, with inftances of them. § 5. Mixed Allegories defended. § 6. Great beauty arifing from the combination of the Allegory, Comparison, and Single Trope. § 7. Parables and Fables to be placed under the bead of Allegory. SI. WE E have treated fo largely upon the Metaphor, that we shall have the less to say upon the Allegory, which is fo nearly allied to it. An Allegory* is a chain or continuation of Tropes, and more generally of Metaphors +; and differs from a single Trope in the fame * From aλλnyogɛw, I declare another thing. Though an Allegory commonly confifts of a series of Metaphors, yet there are inftances of Allegories being made up of Metonymies, as that of TERENCE, Sine Cerere & Baccho friget Venus. EUNUCH. act. 4. fc. 5. Without CERES and BACCHUS, VENUS dies. And SAMSON's riddle is made up of Synecdoches; Judg. |