LECTURE XVII.

COMPARISON, ANTITHESIS, INTERROGATION, EXCLAMATION, AND OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH.

WE

E are ftill engaged in the confideration of figures of ipeech; which, as they add much to the beauty of ftyle when properly employed, and are at the fame time liable to be greatly abufed, require a careful difcuffion. As it would be tedious to dwell on all the variety of figurative expreffions which rhetoricians have enumerated, I chose to select the capital figures, fuch as occur moft frequently, and to make my remarks on these; the principles and rules laid down concerning them, will fufficiently direct us to the use of the rest, either in profe or poetry. Of metaphor, which is the most common of them all, I treated fully; and in the laft lecture I difcourfed of hyperbole, perfonification, and apoftrophe. This lecture will nearly finish what remains on the head of figures.

Comparison, or fimile, is what I am to treat of first a figure frequently employed both by poets

and profe-writers, for the ornament of compofition. In a former lecture, I explained fully the difference betwixt this and metaphor. A metaphor is a comparison implied, but not expreffed as fuch; as when I lay," Achilles is a lion," meaning, that he reiembles one in courage or ftrength. A comparifon is, when the refemblance between two objects is expreffed in form, and generally purfued more fully than the nature of a metaphor admits; as when I fay, "The actions of princes are like "thofe great rivers, the courfe of which every

one beholds, but their springs have been feen by "few." This flight inftance will fhow, that a happy comparifon is a kind of fparkling ornament, which adds not a little luftre and beauty to difcourfe; and hence fuch figures are termed by Cicero, "Orationis lumina."

The pleasure we take in comparisons is just and natural. We may remark three different fources whence it arifes. First, from the pleasure which nature has annexed to that act of the mind by which we compare any two objects together, trace refemblances among thofe that are different, and differences among those that refemble each other; a pleasure, the final caufe of which is, to prompt us to remark and obferve, and thereby to make us advance in ufeful knowledge. This operation of the mind is naturally and univerfally agreeable; as appears from the delight which even children have in comparing things together, as foon as they are capable of attending to the objects that furround them. Secondly, the pleasure of comparifon arifes from the illuftration which the fimile employed gives to the principal object; from the clearer view of it which it prefents; or the more ftrong impreffion of it which it ftamps upon the mind and, thirdly, it arifes from the introduction of a new and commonly a fplendid object,

affociated to the principal one of which we treat; and from the agreeable picture which that object prefents to the fancy; new fcenes being thereby brought into view, which, without the affistance of this figure, we could not have enjoyed.

All comparisons whatever may be reduced under two heads, explaining and embellifhing comparisons. For when a writer likens the object of which he treats, to any other thing, it always is, or at leaft always fhould be, with a view either to make us underftand that object more distinctly, or to drefs it up, and adorn it. All manner of fubjects admit of explaining comparisons. Let an author be reafoning ever so strictly, or treating the most abftruse point in philofophy, he may very properly introduce a comparison, merely with a view to make his fubject better understood. Of this nature, is the fol lowing in mr. Harris's Hermes, employed to explain a very abstract point, the diftinction between the powers of fenfe and imagination in the human mind. "As wax," fays he, "would not be ade

quate to the purpose of signature, if it had not "the power to retain as well as to receive the im"preffion; the fame holds of the foul, with respect.

to fenfe and imagination. Senfe is its receptive

power; imagination its retentive. Had it fenfe "without imagination, it would not be as wax, "but as water, where, though all impreffions be "instantly made, yet as foon as they are made, they te are instantly loft." In comparisons of this nature, the understanding is concerned much more than the fancy and therefore the only rules to be obferved, with respect to them, are, that they be clear, and that they be useful; that they tend to render our conception of the principal object more diftinct; and that they do not lead our view afide, and bewilder it with any falfe light.

But embellishing comparifons, introduced not fo

much with a view to inform and instruct, as to adorn the fubject of which we treat, are those with which we are chiefly concerned at present, as figures of fpeech; and those, indeed, which moft frequently occur. Refemblance, as I before mentioned, is the foundation of this figure. We muft not, however, take refemblance, in too ftrict a fenfe, for actual fimilitude or likeness of appearance. Two objects may fometimes be very happily compared to one another, though they refemble each other, ftrictly speaking, in nothing; only, because they agree in the effects which they produce upon the mind; because they raise a train of fimilar, or what may be called, concordant ideas; fo that the remembrance of the one, when recalled, ferves to strengthen the impreffion made by the other. For example, to defcribe the nature of foft and melancholy mufic, Offian fays, "The mufic "of Carryl was, like the memory of joys that are

paft, pleasant and mournful to the foul." This is happy and delicate. Yet, furely, no kind of mufic has any resemblance to a feeling of the mind, fuch as the memory of paft joys. Had it been compared to the voice of the nightingale, or the murmur of the stream, as it would have been by fome ordinary poet, the likeness would have been more ftrict; but, by founding his fimile upon the effect which Carryl's mufic produced, the poet, while he conveys a very tender image, gives us, at the fame time, a much stronger impreffion of the nature and ftrain of that mufic. "Like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the "foul."

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In general, whether comparisons be founded on the fimilitude of the two objects compared, or on fome analogy and agreement in their effects, the fundamental requifite of a comparifon is, that it fhall ferve to illuftrate the object, for the fake of

which it is introduced, and to give us a ftronger conception of it. Some little excurfions of fancy may be permitted in pursuing the fimile; but they muit never deviate far from the principal object. If it be a great and noble one, every circumstance in the comparison must tend to aggrandife it; if it be a beautiful one, to render it more amiable; if terrible, to fill us with more awe. But to be a little more particular: the rules to be given concerning comparifons, refpect chiefly two articles; the propriety of their introduction, and the nature of the objects whence they are taken.

First, the propriety of their introduction. From what has been already faid of comparisons, it appears, that they are not, like the figures of which I treated in the last lecture, the language of strong paffion. No; they are the language of imagination rather than of paffion-of an imagination Iprightly, indeed, and warmed-but undisturbed by any violent or agitating emotion. Strong paffion is too fevere to admit this play of fancy. It has no leisure to caft about for refembling objects; it dwells on that object which has feized and taken poffeffion of the foul. It is too much occupied and filled by it, to turn its view afide, or to fix its attention on any other thing. An author, therefore, can fcarcely commit a greater fault, than, in the midft of paffion, to introduce a fimile. Metaphorical expreffion may be allowable in fuch a fituation; though even this may be carried too far: but the pomp and folemnity of a formal comparison is altogether a stranger to paffion. It changes the key in a moment; relaxes and brings down the mind; and shows us a writer perfectly at his eafe, while he is perfonating fome other, who is fuppofed to be under the torment of agitation. Our writers of tragedies are very apt to err here. In fome of mr. Rowe's plays, thefe flowers of fimiles have been Vol. I. 2 S