All her original brightness, nor appear'd
Less than archangel ruin'd, and th' excess
Of glory obscur'd: as when the sun new-risen
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.

As when a vulture on Imaus bred,

MILTON.-BOOK I.

Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds,
Dislodging from a region scarce of prey

To gorge the flesh of lambs, or yeanling kids,

On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs
Of Ganges or Hydaspes, Indian streams,

But in his way lights on the barren plains

Of Sericana, where Chineses drive

With sails and winds their cany wagons light:
So on this windy sea of land, the fiend

Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey.

Yet higher than their tops

MILTON.-BOOK I.

The verd'rous wall of paradise up-sprung:
Which to our general sire gave prospect large
Into his nether empire neighboring round.
And higher than that wall, a circling row
Of goodliest trees laden with fairest fruit,
Blossoms and fruits at once of golden hue,
Appear'd, with gay enamell'd colors mix'd,
On which the sun more glad impress'd his beams,
Than in fair evening cloud, or humid bow,

When God had shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd
That landscape: and of pure now purer air

Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires

Vernal delight and joy, able to drive

All sadness but despair: now gentle gales
Fanning their odorif'rous wings, dispense

Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole

Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail

Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at sea north-east winds blow

Sabean odor from the spicy shore

Of Araby the Blest; with such delay

Well-pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league
Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles.
MILTON.-BOOK IV

With regard to similies of this kind, it will readily occur to the reader, that when a resembling subject is once properly introduced in a simile, the mind is transitorily amused with the new object, and is not dis

P

satisfied with the slight interruption. Thus, in fine weather, the momentary excursions of a traveller for agreeable prospects or elegant buildings, cheer his mind, relieve him from the languor of uniformity, and, without much lengthening his journey, in reality shorten it greatly in appearance.

Next, of comparisons that aggrandize or elevate. These affect us more than any other sort; the reason of which may be gathered from the chapter of Grandeur and Sublimity; and, without reasoning, will be evident from the following instances:

As when a flame the winding valley fills,

And runs on crackling shrubs between the hills,
Then o'er the stubble, up the mountain flies,
Fires the high woods, and blazes to the skies,
This way and that, the spreading torrent roars;
So sweeps the hero through the wasted shores.
Around him wide, immense destruction pours,
And earth is delug'd with the sanguine show'rs.

ILIAD, XX. 569.

Through blood, through death, Achilles still proceeds,
O'er slaughter'd heroes, and o'er rolling steeds.

As when avenging flames with fury driv'n,
On guilty towns exert the wrath of Heav'n,
The pale inhabitants, some fall, some fly,
And the red vapors purple all the sky:
So rag'd Achilles: Death and dire dismay,
And toils, and terrors, fill'd the dreadful day.

ILIAD, XXI. 605.

Methinks, king Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock,
At meeting, tears the cloudy cheeks of heav'n.

RICHARD II.-ACT III. Sc. 5.

As rusheth a foamy stream from the dark shady steep of Cromla, when thunder is rolling above, and dark brown night rests on the hill so fierce, so vast, so terrible, rush forward the sons of Erin. The chief, like a whale of Ocean followed by all its billows pours valor forth as a stream, rolling its might along the shore. FINGAL.-BOOK I.

As roll a thousand waves to a rock, so Swaran's host came on as meets a rock a thousand waves, so Inisfail met Swaran.

IBID.

I beg particular attention to the following simile, fo

a reason that shall be mentioned:

Thus breathing death, in terrible array,
The close-compacted legions urg'd their way:
Fierce they drove on, impatient to destroy;
Troy charg'd the first, and Hector first of Troy.
As from some mountain's craggy forehead torn,
A rock's round fragment flies with fury borne,
(Which from the stubborn stone a torrent rends)
Precipitate the pond'rous mass descends;
From steep to steep the rolling ruin bounds:
At every shock the crackling wood resounds;
Still gath'ring force, it smokes, and, urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain
There stops-So Hector. Their whole force he prov'd:
Resistless when he raged; and when he stopp'd, unmov'd.
ILIAD, Xiii. 187.

The image of a falling rock is certainly not elevating; and yet undoubtedly the foregoing simile fires and swells the mind; it is grand, therefore, if not sublime. And the following simile will afford additional evidence that there is a real, though nice, distinction between these two feelings:

So saying, a noble stroke he lifted high,

Which hung not, but so swift with tempest fell
On the proud crest of Satan, that no sight,
Nor motion of swift thought, less could his shield
Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge

He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee
His massy spear upstaid; as if on earth
Winds under ground or waters forcing way,
Sidelong had push'd a mountain from his seat
Half-sunk with all his pines.

MILTON.-Book VI.

A comparison by contrast, may contribute to grandeur or elevation, no less than by resemblance.

The last article mentioned, is that of lessening or depressing a hated or disagreeable object; which is effectually done by resembling it to any thing low or despicable. Thus Milton, in his description of the rout of the rebel angels, happily expresses their terror and dismay in the following simile:

As a herd

Of goats or timorous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursu'd
With terrors and with furies to the bounds
And crystal wall of heav'n, which, op'ning wide,

Roll'd inward, and a spacious gap disclos'd

Into the wasteful deep: the monstrous sight

Struck them with horror backward, but far worse
Urg'd them behind; headlong themselves they threw
Down from the verge of heav'n.

MILTON.-Book VI.

In the same view, Homer, I think, may be justified in comparing the shouts of the Trojans in battle to the noise of cranes,* and to the bleating of a flock of sheep:† it is no objection that these are low images; for it was his intention to lessen the Trojans, by opposing their noisy march to the silent and manly march of the Greeks. Addison,† describing the figure that men make in the sight of a superior being, takes opportunity to mortify their pride by comparing them to a swarm of pismires.

A comparison that has none of the good effects mentioned in this discourse, but is built upon common and trifling circumstances, makes a mighty silly figure.

By this time, the different purposes of comparison, and the various impressions it makes on the mind, are sufficiently illustrated. This was an easy task. It is more difficult to lay down rules about the propriety or impropriety of comparisons; in what circumstances they may be introduced, and in what circumstances they are out of place. A comparison is not proper on every occasion: a man, when cool and sedate, is not disposed to poetical flights, nor to sacrifice truth and reality to imaginary beauties: far less is he so disposed when oppressed with care, or interested in some important transaction. On the other hand, a man, when animated by passion, is disposed to elevate all his objects: he avoids familiar names, exalts objects by circumlocution and metaphor, and gives even life and voluntary action to inanimate beings. In this heat of mind, the highest poetical flights are indulged, and the

* Beginning of Book III.

Guardian No. 153.

+ Book IV. 1. 498.

poldest similies and metaphors relished.* But without soaring so high, the mind is frequently in a tone to relish chaste and moderate ornament; such as comparisons that place the principal object in a strong light, or embellish and diversify the narration. In general, when, by an animating passion, an impulse is given to the imagination, we are disposed to figurative expression, and particularly to comparisons. This in a great measure is evident from the comparisons already mentioned; and shall be further illustrated by

other instances.

The dread of a misfortune, however imminent, involving always some doubt and uncertainty, agitates the mind, and excites the imagination:

Wolsey.

Nay, then, farewell;

I've touch'd the highest point of all my greatness,
And from that full meridian of my glory
I haste now to my setting. I shall fall,
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.

HENRY VIII.-ACT III. Sc. 4.

But it will be a better illustration of the present head, to give examples where comparisons are improperly introduced. I have had already occasion to observe, that similies are not the language of a man in his ordinary state of mind, dispatching his daily and usual work. For that reason, the following speech of a gardener to his servants is extremely improper:

Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricots,

Which, like unruly children, make their sire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:
Give some supportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou; and, like an executioner,

Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.

RICHARD II.-ACT III. Sc. 7.

*It is accordingly observed by Longinus, in his Treatise of the Sublime, that the proper time for metaphor, is when the passions are so swelled as to hurry on like a torrent.