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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, fo Swaran's hoft came on; as meets a rock a thousand waves, fo Inisfail met Swaran.

Ibid.

I beg peculiar attention to the following fimile for a reason that fhall be mentioned.

Thus breathing death, in terrible array,
The clofe compacted legions urg'd their way
Fierce they drove on, impatient to deftroy;
Troy charg'd the first, and Hector first of Troy.
As from fome 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 mafs defcends;
From fteep to fteep the rolling ruin bounds:
At every fhock the crackling wood refounds;
Still gath'ring force, it smokes; and urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain:
There ftops-So Hector. Their whole force he prov'd;
Refistless when he rag'd; and when he ftopt unmov'd.
Iliad xiii. 187.

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

So faying, a noble stroke he lifted high,
Which hung not, but fo fwift with tempeft fell
On the proud creft of Satan, that no fight,
Nor motion of fwift thought, lefs could his fhield
Such ruin intercept. Ten paces huge

* See chap. 4.

He

He back recoil'd; the tenth on bended knee
His mafly fpear upftaid; as if on earth
Winds under ground or waters forcing way,
Sidelong had puth'd a mountain from his feat
Halt funk with all his pines.

Milton, b. 6.

A comparison by contraft may contribute to grandeur or elevation, no lefs than by refemblance; of which the following comparison of Lucan is a remarkable inftance:

Victrix caufa diis placuit, fed victa Catoni.

Confidering that the Heathen deities poffeffed a rank but one degree above that of mankind, I think it would not be eafy by a fingle expreffion, to exalt more one of the human fpecies, than is done in this comparison. I am fenfible, at the fame time, that fuch a comparison among Christians, who entertain more exalted notions of the Deity, would justly be reckoned extravagant and abfurd.

The laft article mentioned, is that of leffening or depreffing a hated or difagreeable object; which is effectually done by refembling it to any thing low or defpicable. Thus Milton, in his defcription of the rout of the rebel-angels, happily expreffes their terror and difmay in the following fimile:

-As a herd

Of goats or timerous flock together throng'd,
Drove them before him thunder-ftruck, purfu'd
With terrors and with furics to the bounds
And chrystal wall of heav'n, which op'ning wide,
Rowl'd inward, and a fpacious-gap difclos'd
Into the wafteful deep: the monstrous fight

Struck

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

Milton, b. 6.

In the fame view, Homer, I think, may be juftified in comparing the fhouts of the Trojans in battle to the noise of cranes, and to the bleating of a flock of fheep † it is no objection that thefe are low images, for it was his intention to leffen the Trojans by oppofing their noify march to the filent and manly march of the Greeks. Addifon, defcribing the figure that men make in the fight of a fuperior being, takes opportunity to mortify their pride by comparing them to a fwarm of pifmires.

A comparison that has none of the good effects mentioned in this difcourfe, but is built upon common and trifling circumftances, makes a mighty filly figure:

Non fum nefcius, grandia confilia a multis plerumque caufis, ceu magna navigia a plurimis remis, impelli. Strade de bel Belgico.

By this time, I imagine, the different purposes of comparison, and the various impreffions it makes on the mind, are fufficiently illuftrated by proper examples. This was an eafy talk. 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 circumftances they are out of place. It is evident, that a comparifon is not proper on every occafion: a man when cool and fedate, is not difpofed to poetical flights, nor to facrifice truth and reality to imaginary beauties far lefs is he fo difpofed

Beginning of book 3.
VOL. II.

+ Book 4.1. 498. Guardian, No. 153

L

disposed when oppreffed with care, or interested in fome important tranfaction that engroffes him totally. On the other hand, a man, when elevated or animated by paffion, is difpofed 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 boldest fimiles and metaphors relished. But without foaring fo high, the mind is frequently in a tone to relifh chafte and moderate ornament; fuch as comparisons that fet the principal object in a ftrong point of view, or that embellish and diverfify the narration. In general, when by any animating paffion, whether pleasant or painful, an impulse is given to the imagination; we are in that condition difpofed to every fort of figurative expreffion, and in particular to comparisons. This in a great measure is evident from the comparisons already mentioned; and fhall be further illuftrated by other inftances. Love, for example, in its infancy, roufing the imagination, prompts the heart to difplay itself in figurative language, and in fimiles :

Troilus. Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we ?
Her bed is India; there the lies, a pearl :
Between our Ilium, and where the refides,
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 Creffid, act 1. fc. 1.

Again:

*It is accordingly obferved by Longinus, in his Treatife of the Sublime, that the proper time for metaphor, is when the paffions are fo fwelled as to hurry on like a torrent,

Again:

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

Romeo and Juliet, act 3. fc. 4.

The dread of a misfortune, however eminent, involving always fome 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 hafte now to my fitting. I fhall fall,
Like a bright exhalation in the evening,
And no man fee me more.

Henry VIII. act 3. Sc. 4.

But it will be a better illustration of the prefent head, to give examples where comparisons are improperly introduced. I have had already occafion to obferve, that fimiles are not the language of a man in his ordinary state of mind, dispatching his daily and ufual work. For that reafon, the following fpeech of a gardener to his fervants, is extremely improper:

Go bind thou up yon dangling apricots,
Which, like unruly children make their fire
Stoop with oppreffion, of their prodigal weight:
Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs.
Go thou; and, like an executioner,
Cut off the heads of too faft-growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth;
All must be even in our government.

L 2

Richard II. at 3. Sc. 7

The

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