Ocean followed by all its billows, pours valour forth as a stream, rolling its might along the shore.

Fingal, b. 1.

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 peculiar attention to the following fimile for a reason that shall be mentioned.

Thus breathing death, in terrible array,
The clofe 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 defcends ;
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 ;
Refiftiefs when he rag'd ; and when he stopt unmov'd.

lliad xiii. 187.

The image of a falling rock is certainly not elea vating ;* 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 fwift with tempest fell
On the proud crest of Satan, that no fight,
Nor motion of swift thought, less could his thield
Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge

He

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

Milton, b. 6.

A comparison by contrast may contribute to gran. deur or elevation, no less than by resemblance ; of which the following comparison of Lucan is a remarkable instance :

Vi&trix causa diis placuit, fed vi&ta Catoni.

Considering that the Heathen deities pofseffed a rank but one degree above that of mankind, I think it would not be easy by a single expression, to exalt more one of the human species, than is done in this comparison. I am sensible, at the fame time, that such a comparison among Christians, who entertain more exalted notions of the Deity, would justly be reckoned extravagant and absurd.

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 timcrous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-struck, pursu'd
With terrors and with furics to the bounds
And chrystal wall of heav'n, which op'ning wide,
Rowld inward, and a spacious.gap disclos'd
Into the wasteful deep: the monitrous fight

Struck

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

Milton, i. 6.

!

In the same view, Homer, I think, may be justified in comparing the shouts of the Trojans in battle tò the noise of cranes,* and to the bleating of a flock of feep :t 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 filent and manly march of the Greeks. Addison, describing the figure that men make in the light 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 filly figure :

Non fum nefcius, grandia consilia a multis plerumque caufis, ceu magna navigia a plurimis remis, impelli.

Sirade de beila Belgico. By this time, I imagine, the different purposes of comparison, and the various impressions it makes on the mind, are sufficiently illustrated by proper examples. This was an easy task. It is more dificult 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. It is evident, that a comparison is not proper on every occasion : a man when cool and fedate, is not disposed to poetical flights, nor to facrifice truth and reality to imaginary beautics • far lefs is he fo

disposed Begioning of book 3. + Book 4. 1. 493. Guardian, No. 153. VOL. II.

L

disposed when oppressed with care, or interested in some important transaction that engrosses him totally. On the other hand, a man, when elevated or animated by passion, is disposed to elevate or animate 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 boldelt similes and metaphors relished. But without foaring so high, the mind is frequently in a tone to relish chaste and moderate ornament ; such as comparisons that set the principal object in a strong point of view, or that embellish and diverfify the narration. In general, when by any animating passion, whether pleasant or painful, an impulse is given to the imagination ; we are in that condition disposed to every sort of figurative expression, and in particular to comparisons. This in a great measure is evident from the comparisons already mentioned ; and shall be further illustrated by other instances. Love, for example, in its infancy, rousing the imagination, prompts the heart to display itself in figurative language, and in fimiles :

Troilus. Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Crellid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India ; there the lies, a pearl :
Between our lium, and where the resides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood ;
Ourself the merchant; and this failing Pandar
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.

Troilus and Cresid, act 1. sc. 1.

Again :

Again :

Come gentle Night ; come, loving black-brow'd Night!
Give me my Romeo ; and, when he thall die,
Take him, and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of Heaven so fine,
That all the world shall be in love with Night,
And pay no worship to the garish Sun.

Romeo and Juliet, act 3. fo. 4. The dread of a misfortune, however eminent, involving always some doubt and uncertainty, agitates the mind and excites the imagination:

Wolfey.

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 fitting. I shall fall

,
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man see me more.

Henry VIII. act 3. fc. 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 fimiles 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,

hich, like unruly children make their fire
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 3. sc. 7.