And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage
To be o'erpower'd: and wilt thou, pupil-like,
Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod,
And fawn on rage with base humility?

Richard II. Act v. Sc. 1.

This comparison has scarce any force: a man and a lion are of different species, and therefore are pro per subjects for a simile; but there is no such resemblance between them in general, as to produce any strong effect by contrasting particular attributes or circumstances.

A third general observation is, That abstract terms can never be the subject of comparison, otherwise than by being personified. Shakespeare compares adversity to a toad, and slander to the bite of a crocodile; but in such comparisons these abstract terms must be imagined sensible beings.

To have a just notion of comparisons, they must be distinguished into two kinds; one common and familiar, as where a man is compared to a lion in courage, or to a horse in speed; the other more distant and refined, where two things that have in themselves no resemblance or opposition, are compared with respect to their effects. This sort of comparison is occasionally explained above;* and for further explanation take what follows. There is no resemblance between a flower-pot and a cheerful song; and yet they may be compared with respect to their effects, the emotions they produce being similar. There is as little resemblance be

* Page 73,

tween fraternal concord and precious ointment; and yet observe how successfully they are compared with respect to the impressions they make :

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon Aaron's beard, and descended to the skirts of his garment. Psalm 133.

For illustrating this sort of comparison, I add some more examples :

Delightful is thy presence, O Fingal! it is like the sun on Cromla, when the hunter mourns his absence for a season, and sees him between the clouds.

Did not Ossian hear a voice? or is it the sound of days that are no more? Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul.

His countenance is settled from war; and is calm as the evening-beam, that from the cloud of the west looks on Cona's silent vale.

Sorrow, like a cloud on the sun, shades the soul of Cles

sammor.

The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul.

Pleasant are the words of the song, said Cuchullin, and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the calm dew of the morning on the hill of roes, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale.

These quotations are from the poems of Ossian, who abounds with comparisons of this delicate kind, and appears singularly happy in them.*

* The nature and merit of Ossian's comparisons is fully illustrated in a Dissertation on the poems of that Author, by Dr

I proceed to illustrate by particular instances the different means by which comparisons, whether of the one sort or the other, can afford pleasure; and, in the order above established, I begin with such instances as are agreeable, by suggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast:

Sweet are the uses of Adversity,

Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in her head.

As you like it, Act II. Sc. 1.

Gardener. Bolingbroke hath seized the wasteful King.

What pity is't that he had not so trimm'd
And dress'd his land, as we this garden dress,
And wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Lest, being over proud with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself.
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste and idle hours have quite thrown down.

Richard II. Act III. Sc. 4.

See, how the Morning opes her golden gates,
And takes her farewel of the glorious Sun;
How well resembles it the prime of youth,
Trimm'd like a younker prancing to his love!

Second Part Henry IV.

Brutus. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, That carries anger as the flint bears fire;

Blair, Professor of Rhetoric in the College of Edinburgh; a delicious morsel of criticism,

Who, much enforced, shows a hasty spark,

And straight is cold again.

Julius Caesar, Act IV. Sc. 3.

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief:
As when from mountain-tops, the dusky clouds
Ascending, while the North-wind sleeps, o'erspread
Heaven's cheerful face, the lowring element
Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape, snow and show'r;
If chance the radiant sun with farewell sweet
Extends his ev'ning-beam, the fields revive,
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings.

Paradise Lost, Book 2..

As the bright stars, and milky way,
Show'd by the night, are hid by day:
So we in that accomplish'd mind,
Help'd by the night new graces find,
Which by the splendour of her view,
Dazzled before, we never knew.

Waller.

The last exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing, Tasso Gierusalem, canto 19. st. 22.

None of the foregoing similies, as they appear to me, tend to illustrate the principal subject; and therefore the pleasure they afford must arise from suggesting resemblances that are not obvious: I mean the chief pleasure; for undoubtedly a beautiful subject introduced to form the simile affords a separate pleasure, which is felt in the similies mentioned, particularly in that cited from Milton.

The next effect of a comparison in the order mentioned, is to place an object in a strong point of view; which effect is remarkable in the following similies:

As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads,
From side to side the trembling balance nods,
(Whilst some laborious matron, just and poor,
With nice exactness weighs her woolly store),
Till pois'd aloft, the resting beam suspends
Each equal weight; nor this nor that descends:
So stood the war, till Hector's matchless might,
With fates prevailing, turned the scales of fight.
Fierce as a whirlwind up the wall he flies,
And fires his host with loud repeated fries.

Iliad, b. XII. 521.

Ut flos in septis secretis nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quem mulcent auræ, firmat sol, educat imber,
Multi illum pueri, multæ cupiêre puellæ ;

Idem, cum tenui çarptus defloruit ungui,

Nulli illum pueri, nullæ cupiêre puellæ :

Sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis; sed
Cum castum amisit, polluto corpore, florem,
Nec pueris jucunda manet, nec cara puellis.

Catullus.

The imitation of this beautiful simile by Ariosto, canto 1. st. 42. falls short of the original. It is also part imitated by Pope.*

in

Lucetta. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire,

*Dunciad, b. iv. l. 405.