the contrary, a good effect, by raifing or fwelling the mind for one paffes with fatisfaction from a fmall to a great object; but cannot be drawn down, without reluctance, from great to fmall, Hence the fol lowing fimiles are faulty.
Meanwhile the troops beneath Patroclus' care,
Invade the Trojans, and commence the was.
As wafps, provok'd by children in their play,
Pour from their manfions by the broad highway,
In fwarms the guiltlefs traveller engage,
Whet all their flings, and call forth all their rage;
All rife in arms, and with a general cry
Affert their waxen domes, and buzzing progeny :
Thus from the tents the fervent legion fwarins,
So loud their clamours, and so keen their arms,
So burns the vengeful hornet (foul all o'er)
Repuls'd in vain, and thirty ftill of gore;
(Bold fon of air and heat) on angry wings
Untam'd, untir'd, he turns, attacks and itings.
Fir'd with like ardour fierce Atrides flew,
And fent his foul with ev'ry lance he threw.
Inftant ardentes Tyrii: pars ducere murcs,
Molirique arcem, et manibus fubvolvere faxa;
Pars aptare locum tecto, et concludere fulco.
Jura magiftratufque legunt, fan&tumque fenatum,
Hic portus alii effodiunt: hic alta theatris
Fundamenta locant alii, immanefque columnas
Rupibus excidunt, fcenis decora alta futuris.
Qualis apes æftate nova per florca rura
Exercet fub fole labor, cum gentis adultos
Educunt foetus, aut cum liquentia mella
Stipant, et dulci diftendunt nectare cellas
Aut onera accipiunt venientum, aut agmine facto
Ignavum fucos pecus a præfepibus arcent.
Feryet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
Eneid. i. 427.
To defcribe bees gathering honey as refembling the builders of Carthage, would have a much better effect.*
Tum vero Teucri incumbunt, et littore celfas
Deducunt toto naves: natat uncta carina;
Frondentefque ferunt remos, et robora fylvis
Infabricata, fugæ ftudio.
Migrantes cernas, totaque ex urbe ruentes.
Ac veluti ingentem formica farris acervum
Cum populant, hyemis memores, tectoque reponunt ;
It nigrum campis agmen, prædamque per herbas
Convectant calle angufto: pars grandia trudunt
Obnixæ frumenta humeris: pars agmina cogunt,
Caftigantque moras: opere omnis femita fervet.
Eneid. iv. 397-
The following fimile has not any one beauty to recommend it. The subject is Amata, the wife of King Latinus.
Tum vero infelix, ingentibus excita monftris,
Immenfam fine more furit lymphata per urbem :
Ceu quondam torto volitans fub verbere turbo,
Quem pueri magno in gyro vacua atria circum
Intenti ludo exercent. Ille actus habena
Curvatis fertur fpatiis: ftupet infcia turba,
Impubefque manus, mirata volubile buxum ;
Dant animos plaga. Non curfu fegnior illo
Per medias urbes agitur, populofque feroces.
This fimile feems to border upon the burlesque.
An error oppofite to the former, is the introducing a refembling image, fo elevated or great as to bear no proportion to the principal fubject. Their remarkable difparity, feizing the mind, never fails to deprefs the principal fubject by contrast, instead of raifing
* And accordingly Demetrius Phalerius (of Elocution, se&t. 85.) ob. ferves, that it has a better effect to compare fmall things to great than great things to fmall.
raifing it by refemblance and if the difparity be very great, the fimile degenerates into burlefque ; nothing being more ridiculous than to force an ob ject out of its proper rank in nature, by equalling it with one greatly fuperior or greatly inferior. This will be evident from the following comparisons.
Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella.
Ac veluti lentis Cyclopes fulmina maflis
Cum properant: alii taurinis follibus auras
Accipiunt, redduntque: alii ftridentia tingunt.
Era lacu gemit impofitis incudibus Ætna:
Illi inter fefe magna vi brachia tollunt
In numerum; verfantque tenaci forcipe ferrum.
Non aliter (fi parva licet componere magnis)
Cecropias innatus apes amor urget habendi,
Munere quamque fuo. Grandævis oppida curæ,
Et munire favos, et Dædala fingere tecta.
At feffæ multâ referunt fe nocte minores,
Crura thymo plena; pafcuntur et arbuta paffim,
Et glaucas falices, cafiamque crocumque rubentem,
Et pinguem tiliam, et ferrugineos hyacinthos.
Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus unus.
Georgic. iv. 169.
The Cyclopes make a better figure in the follow ing fimile;
The Thracian leader preft,
With eager courage, far before the reft;
Him Ajax met, inflam'd with equal rage:
Between the wond'ring hofts the chiefs engage;
Their weighty weapons round their heads they throw,
And fwift, and heavy, falls each thund'ring blow.
As when in Ætna's caves the giant brood,
The one-ey'd fervants of the Lemnian god,
In order round the burning anvil ftand,
And forge, with weighty ftrokes, the forked brand;
The thaking hills their fervid toils confefs,
And echoes rattling through each dark recefs:
Se rag'd the fight.
Tum Bitian ardentem oculis animifque frementem;
Non jaculo neque enim jaculo vitam ille dediffet;
Sed magnum ftridens contorta falarica venit
Fulminis acta modo, quam nec duo taurea terga,
Nec duplici fquama lorica fidelis et auro
Suftinuit collapfa ruunt immania membra :
Dat tellus gemitum, et clypeum fuper intonat ingens.
Qualis in Euboico Baiarum littore quondam
Saxea pila cadit, magnis quam molibus ante
Conftructam jaciunt ponto: fic illa ruinam
Prona trahit, penitufque vadis illifa recumbit:
Mifcent fe maria, et nigræ attolluntur arenæ :
Tum fonitu Prochyta alta tremit, durumque cubile
Inarime Jovis imperiis impofta Typhoëo.
Loud as a bull makes hill and valley ring,
So roar'd the lock when it releas'd the fpring.
Such a fimile upon the fimpleft of all actions, that of opening a door, is pure burlefque.
A writer of delicacy will avoid drawing his comparisons from any image that is naufeous, ugly, or remarkably difagreeable: for however ftrong the refemblance may be, more will be loft than gained by fuch comparison. Therefore I cannot help condemning, though with fome reluctance, the following fimile, or rather metaphor,
O thou fond many! with what loud applaufe
Did it thou beat heav'n with bleffing Bolingbroke
Before he was what thou would'ft have him be?
And now being trimm'd up in thine own defires,
Thou, beafly feeder, art fo full of him,
That thou provok'it thyfelf to caft him up.
And fo, thou common dog, didft thou difgorge
Thy glutton bofom of the royal Richard,
And now thou would't eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'ft to find it.
Second part, Henry IV. aết 1. fc. 6.
The strongest objection that can lie against a com parifon is, that it confifts in words only, not in fenfe. Such falfe coin, or baftard wit, does extremely well in burlesque; but is far below the dignity of the epic, or of any ferious compofition:
The noble fifter of Poplicola,
The moon of Rome; chaite as the ificle
That's curdled by the froft from pureít fnow,
And hangs on Dian's temple.
Coriolanus, act 5. fc. 3.
There is evidently no refemblance between an ificle and a woman, chafte or unchafte but chaflity is cold in a metaphorical fenfe, and an ificle is cold in a proper fenfe and this verbal refemblance, in the hurry and glow of compofing, has been thought a fufficient foundation for the fimile. Such phantom fimiles are mere witticifms, which ought to have no quarter, except where purpofely introduced to provoke laughter. Lucian, in his differtation upon hif tory, talking of a certain author, makes the following comparison, which is verbal merely :
This author's defcriptions are fo cold, that they furpafs the Cafpian fnow, and all the ice of the north.
Virgil has not escaped this puerility:
Galathea thymo mihi dulcior Hyblæ.
Ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis.
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