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, for

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 V1.

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.

boldest 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.

The fertility of Shakspeare's vein betrays him frequently into this error. There is the same impropriety in another simile of his :

-Hero. Good Margaret, run thee into the parlor:
There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice;
Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her; say, that thou overheard'st us:
And bid her steal into the pleached bower.
Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter; like to favorites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.-ACT III. Sc. 1.

Rooted grief, deep anguish, terror, remorse, despair, and all the dispiriting passions, are enemies to the pomp and solemnity of comparison. Upon that account, the simile pronounced by Rutland, under terror of death from an inveterate enemy, and praying merсу, is unnatural.

So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch
That trembles under his devouring paws;
And so he walks insulting o'er his prey,
And so he comes to rend his limbs asunder.
Ah, gentle Clifford, kill me with thy sword,
And not with such a cruel threat'ning look.

THIRD PART HENRY VI.-ACT I. Sc. 5.

Nothing appears more out of place, nor more awkwardly introduced, than the following simile:

Lucia.

Farewell, my Portius;

Farewell, though death is in the word, for ever!

Portius. Stay, Lucia, stay; what dost thou say? for ever?
Lucia. Have I not sworn? If, Portius, thy success

Must throw thy brother on his fate, farewell:

Oh, how shall I repeat the word, for ever!

Portius. Thus o'er the dying lamp th' unsteady flame

Hangs quivering on a point, leaps off by fits,

And falls again, as loath to quit its hold.

-Thou must not go; my soul still hovers o'er thee,
And can't get loose.
CATO. ACT III. Sc. 2.

Nor doth the simile which closes the first act of the same tragedy make a better appearance; the situation there represented being too dispiriting for a simile.