"The tear down childhood's cheek that flows
Is like the dewdrop on the rose:

When first the summer breeze comes by,

And shakes the bush, the flower is dry."

The comparison has two characteristics. First, it is expressed by as, like, so, or some other term of resemblance. Secondly, the names of the things compared are used in their literal sense. Thus in the similes, The manna was like coriander seed, white; the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; the wicked are like the troubled sea-the terms manna, staff of his spear, and the wicked, on the one hand, are used in their literal sense. It is manna, spear-staff, and the wicked, not anything else, that are said to be like the objects with which they are compared; and, on the other, it is coriander seed, a weaver's beam, and a troubled sea, and not anything else, which they are severally declared to resemble; and so of all other comparisons. If the names were not used literally, there would be no means of determining what the things are that are compared. This characteristic is of great moment; as it results from it, that when comparisons are employed in predictions and promises, the things which are promised or foreshown in the comparison, are the identical things that are named, not others of an analogous kind; and are literally to

come to pass in the manner in which the prediction or promise specifies. Thus in the announcement (Matt. xxiv. 27), "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be;" his visible coming, which is compared to the shining of a lightning flash, is his literal, personal coming, not some other event; and that with which it is compared is a shaft of lightning that flashes athwart the firmament from east to west, not an event or appearance of another kind. In the promise, also, "As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me" (Jeremiah xxxiii. 22), it is the actual offspring of David, and the literal Levites, and not anything else, that are to be multiplied so as to exceed the power of enumeration as much as the host of heaven exceeds it, and as much as the sand of the sea transcends our power of measuring it.

1

As things of all kinds present resemblances to others, comparisons are framed betwixt objects of all classes. Thus agents are compared to agents, acts to acts, qualities to qualities, modes to modes, conditions to conditions, effects to effects; and these with one another in innumerable relations. Christ,

in his glorified humanity, is compared to a son of man (Rev. i. 14-15); his hairs to snow in whiteness; his feet to glowing brass in brilliancy; and his voice to the sound of a trumpet. Man is compared to the beasts that perish (Ps. xlix. 20); his tongue to a sharp razor (Ps. lii. 2); his counsels to deep water (Prov. xx. 5); his agitation, under fear, to the swaying of a forest under a powerful wind (Isa. vii. 2); and his frailty to that of a flower (Ps. ciii. 15). The agency of the Spirit on man is resembled to that of the wind on the trees, which is known only by its effects (John iii. 8). The righteousness of God is likened to the great mountains, vast, conspicuous, and immovable (Ps. xxxvi. 6); and the elevation of his thoughts above ours, to the height of the heavens above the earth (Isaiah lv. 9). And thus his various attributes, acts, and works; the faculties and affections, the thoughts and aims, the achievements and misfortunes of men; and the numberless objects and processes of the natural world, are illustrated by similitudes that are presented by other agents, objects, or acts.

The comparisons employed by the poets and orators are very numerous; and those of the second class especially, in which the resemblances are specified, contribute more than any other figures to the embellishment of their writings.

Akenside represents all intelligent beings as drawn to God by a power analogous to that of

gravity in the material world; which, in respect to men, is rather what should be than what is:

"As flame ascends,

As bodies to their proper centre move,
As the proud ocean to the attracting moon
Obedient swells, and every headlong stream
Devolves its winding waters to the main,
So all things which have life aspire to God,
The sun of being, boundless, unimpaired,
Centre of souls."

PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION, b. ii.

Goldsmith compares the minister of his Deserted Village to a cliff towering above the clouds, and basking in perpetual sunshine:

"The service past, around the pious man, With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran;

E'en children followed, with endearing wile,

And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile.
His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed,
Their welfare pleased him, and their cares distrest;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.
As some tall cliff, that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm;
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head."

"The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest,

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes."
SHAKSPEARE

In some similes, like one already quoted, several objects are presented as resembling that which is the subject of comparison.

"As from the wing no scar the sky retains,
The parted wave no furrow from the keel,
So dies in human hearts the thought of death."

"Like a boat on the wave

YOUNG.

When a storm's in the sky;

Like the rose o'er a grave

When the winter is nigh;

Like a star when it streams

Through the blue heavens bright;

Like the fabric of dreams

'Mid the slumbers of night;

Like the lamp that is lit

In the mist o'er the moor,

Or the bubbles that flit

By the rude, rocky shore,

Is the vision of life in this tempest-tost clime;
A shadow fast fleeting—a moment of time."