Page images
PDF
EPUB

striking comparison is at once seen to consist in likening the blind fury of a mob to the united characters of these two fabled monsters of antiquity.

4. A few additional examples of allusions may be given, to show more fully their character as implied comparisons. a "The excesses of our youth are drafts upon our old age, payable with interest about thirty years after date." b "Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakspeare, and trash will remain."

"To give the semblance of purity to the substance of corruption, is to proffer the poison of Cir'ce in a crystal goblet."

5. a "Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, like Minerva from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped."

e “The inundation of lawless power, after covering the rest of Europe, threatens England; and we are most critically placed in the only position where it can be successfully repelled-in the Thermopyla of the universe."

f "It is a melancholy pity when a man's philosophy, instead of being the angel that steps down into the Bethesda of his speculations, to trouble its waters to effect a cure, only perplexes the depth of his being, and turns up mire and dirt."

g "Nothing tends so much to the corruption of science as to suffer it to stagnate; these waters must be troubled before they can exert their virtues."-BURKE.

6. From Holmes's humorous poem, 66 The Social Meeting," we take a couple of verses, the last of which contains two very happy allusions. The "Doctor" is excusing himself from attending a convivial gathering, on the ground that it would injure his business "prospects."

7. Besides-my prospects-don't you know that people won't employ

A man that wrongs his manliness by laughing like a

boy'?

And suspect the azure blossom that unfolds upon a

shoot,

As if wisdom's old potato could not flourish at its

root'?

8. It's a vastly pleasing prospect, when you're screwing out a laugh,

That your very next year's income is diminished by a
half,

And a little boy trips barefoot, that Pegasush may go,
And the baby's milk is watered, that your Heliconh

may flow!

9. When we reflect that allusions are drawn from every variety of sources-from books ancient and modern, and from Nature-it becomes apparent how extensive must be one's attainments to understand and appreciate all those that are found even in the standard literature of the age. So numerous have already become the allusions to noted persons and places mentioned in fiction, that a descriptive vocabulary of them has been thought necessary in Webster's Quarto Dictionary.

10. In originating allusions of our own, we should see to it that they be not labored and far-fetched, nor low and degrading'; that they be suited to the occasion', appropriate to the subject', and drawn from topics familiar to the persons addressed'. Too much use of them is chargeable with pedantry-an unreasonable ostentation of learning.

a A commercial allusion to drafts payable, with interest, at some future day. In this respect are the excesses of youth like them.

b An arithmetical allusion.

• An allusion to the fabled Cir'ce, who is said to have first feasted those who landed on her island, and afterward to have converted them into swine, on their tasting the contents of her magic cup. The fable is designed to show the brutalizing influence of sensual indulgence.

d A classical allusion to Minerva, the goddess of memory, wisdom, and skill, who is said to have leaped forth, in full panoply, from the brain of Jupiter. The comparison is, that, in like manner, should eloquence be armed at all points.

• An allusion to the celebrated pass of Thermopyla, where Leonidas and his little band of heroes withstood the attack of the immense Persian host under Xerxes. In the extract above, England is compared to Thermopyla, as being the only spot where the inundation of lawless power is likely to be repelled.

A scriptural allusion. See the 4th verse of the 5th chapter of St. John.

h Peg'a sus, a fabulous winged steed (a favorite of the Muses), which every poet is supposed to bestride. Helicon, a mountain in Boeotia, Greece. From its summit the Fountain of Helicon, sacred to the Muses, burst forth when Pegasus struck the mountain with his hoof.

For notices of other Allusions, see Note, page 307, and Hood's "Bridge of Sighs," page 359.

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small]

[Analysis.-1. How a metaphor differs from a simile. Illustration.-2. Great abundance of metaphors. Scripture illustrations. When the metaphor becomes important.-3. Ossian's description of a hero. Of a vain woman. Striking metaphor from Byron.-4. Explanation of it.-5. The metaphor used by Cardinal Wolsey in describing the state of man.-6. "The State of Man."-7. The simile. The vanity of earthly glory.-S. How the words in a metaphor are to be taken. How the metaphor differs from a simile. Illustration of metaphor.-9. Metaphor resembles painting. Its peculiar effect. What is requisite to produce this effect. The reading of metaphor. -Note, mixed metaphors.]

1. A METAPHOR differs from a simile in form only, not in substance; and is, indeed, no other than a comparison, abridged by the omission of the words denoting the similitude. Thus, if we say, "A hero is like a lion," we fairly make a comparison; but if we now call in the aid of the imagination, and feign or figure the hero to be a lion, we convert the simile into a metaphor; and the figure is continued by describing all the qualities of a lion that resemble those of the hero.

2. Metaphors abound in all writings; and brief metaphors are so common, even in familiar conversation, that we no longer notice them as differing from plain language. From Scripture a vast variety might be produced. Thus the Savior is called a vine, a lamb, a lion; and men, according to their different dispositions, are styled wolves, dogs, serpents, etc. But it is when the metaphor is not confined to single words that its importance, as a figure of speech, is chiefly to be considered.

3. How striking is the following metaphor, in which Ossian describes a hero: "In peace thou art the gale of spring; in war the mountain storm:"-and this, also, a portraiture of a vain woman: "She was covered with the light of beau

ty, but her heart was the house of pride." Byron has the following striking metaphor:

66
"Man!

Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear."

4. In this bold and brief metaphor, the writer, under a deep impression of the vicissitudes in the life of man, moved by sudden feeling, calls him a pendulum, and leaves it to the excited imagination of the reader to trace out the resemblance.

5. A more continued, but no less beautiful metaphor on the same subject, is that in which Cardinal Wolseya, suddenly stripped of all his wealth and honors, keenly feeling the disgrace into which he had fallen by the king's disfavor, but struggling to bear his misfortune with dignity, in the following soliloquy describes the state of man under the figure of a tree, but with the covert meaning that the picture is drawn from his own experience.

6.

"Farewell, a long farewell, to all my greatness!
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honors thick upon him:
The third day comes a frost-
'-a killing frost';
And when he thinks', good easy man', full surely
His greatness is a ripening'-nips his root',

And then he falls', as I' do.”

7. Then dropping the metaphor, and introducing a simile, in the most touching language he thus describes himself: "I have ventured,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory;

But far beyond my depth: my high-blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me
Weary, and old with service, to the mercy

Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me."

Then, how naturally, and with what feelings of almost loathing satiety, he alludes to the vanity of all earthly glory:

"Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I hate ye:

I feel my heart new opened: oh, how wretched
Is that poor man, that hangs on princes' favors!"

SHAKSPEARE'S Henry VIII., Act III., Scene 2.

8. From the examples that have been given, it is seen that the words in a metaphor are not taken literally, as in a comparison, but are changed from their proper to a figurative sense. Hence, while a simile asserts nothing but what is true, a metaphor asserts what is literally false. When we say, of some great man, "He is the pillar of the state," we mentally compare the man to a pillar which supports the weight of a whole edifice; and, by the abrupt manner in which we express the happy comparison, we form a bold picture which conveys a striking truth.

9. There is nothing which delights the fancy more than this mode of comparing things; and, of all the figures of speech, none comes so near to painting as metaphor. Its peculiar effect is to give light and strength to description; to make intellectual ideas, in some sort, visible to the eye, by giving them color, and substance, and sensible qualities. But, in order to produce this effect, a delicate hand is required in their construction, and taste and judgment in their use. In the reading of a prolonged metaphor, the same principles apply as in the reading of a simile.

с

a THOMAS WOLSEY, who for fifteen years held almost unlimited sway in England, through his influence over the mind of the king, Henry VIII., and who possessed greater wealth, power, and honors than ever fell to the lot of any other English subject, was born at Ipswich in 1471, of humble and obscure parents. Eight hundred servants, including gentlemen knights, and even young noblemen, served in the train of Wolsey, who was advanced to the dignity of Cardinal, and Chancellor of England.

At length the fickle king quarreled with his minister. His office and incomes were taken from him, and the late primate of the realm fled on a mule to Leicester Abbey. As the abbot and monks met him at the gate, he exclaimed, "Father Abbot, I am come to lay my weary bones among you." On his assurance of approaching death, he exclaimed, "If I had served my God as diligently as I have served my king, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs."

b Observe the use and beauty of the Rhetorical Pause in this extract. See Rule XIII.

A frequent fault of young and imaginative writers is the application, to the same subject, of mixed metaphors; that is, of such as are inconsistent with each other. The following is an example of this inaccuracy:

"I bridle in my struggling muse with pain,

That longs to launch into a bolder strain."

In the beginning of this extract the muse is figured as a horse, and therefore may be bridled; but when we speak of launching it, we make it a ship, which, by no force of imagination, can be bridled. Either figure alone would have been appropriate, but the mingling of the two is an incongruity.

« PreviousContinue »