III. But, befides a certain decorum which is requifite to conftitute a perfect metaphor, a writer of true taste and ge nius will always fingle out the most obvious images, and place them in the most unobferved points of refemblance. Every metaphor fhould carry the appearance of having been led, not of having forced itself into the place of that word whofe room it occupies: it fhould feem to have come thither of its own accord, and not by constraint. All allufions which point to the more abftrufe branches of the arts or fciences, and with which none can be fuppofed to be acquainted but thofe who have penetrated far into the deeper ftudies, fhould be carefully avoided, not only as pedantic, but as impertinent: they pervert the ufe of this figure, and add neither grace nor force to the idea they would elucidate. The moft pleafing metaphors, therefore, are thofe which are derived from the most frequent accurrences of art or nature, or the civil tranfactions and cuftoms of mankind. Thus how expreffive, yet at the fame time, how familiar, is that image which Otway has put into the mouth of Metellus, in his tragedy of Caius Marius, where he calls Sulpitius

That mad bull whom Marius lets loofe

On each occafion, when he'd make Rome feel him,
To tofs our laws and liberties i' th' air.

The tranfgreffion of the above rules forms what are called harth or forced metaphors. With metaphors of this kind, Jonfon, Donne, Cowley, and other poets of the fame clafs, abound. They feem to have confidered it as the perfection of wit, to trace likeneffes which no other perfon could have difcovered and at the fame time they carry these metaphors fo far, that it requires fome ingenuity to follow them out, and comprehend them. Inftead of illuftrating the fubject of which they treat, their metaphors generally caft around it a cloud of impenetrable darkness.

Some writers endeavour to palliate the harshness of their metaphors by interpofing fuch mitigating phrases as, so to speak, as it were, if I may be allowed the expression: and this method has received the fanction of Ariftotle, Theophraftus, Longinus, Cicero, and Quinctilian. It must certainly be allowed, however, that any of thefe phases forms a very awkward parenthesis and perhaps metaphors which require fuch an apology, would be better omitted.

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IV. In conftructing a metaphor, the writer ought to confine himself to the fimpleft expreffions, and to make use of fuch words only as are literally applicable to the imagined nature of his fubject. Figurative words ought carefully to be avoided for fuch complicated figures, instead of placing the principal fubject in a clear light, involve it in obscurity. A ftubborn and unconquerable flame

Creeps in his veins, and drinks the ftreams of life.

Rowe.

That a fever may be imagined a flame, I admit; though more fteps than one are neceffary to come at the refemblance a fever, by heating the body, refembles fire; and it requires no ftretch to imagine a fever to be a fire again, by a figure of speech, flame may be put for fire, becaufe they are commonly conjoined; and therefore a fever may be termed a flame. But admitting this, the effects of the fever ought to be explained in words which apply to a flame in a literal fenfe. This rule, however, is not obferved; for a flame drinks figuratively only, not properly.

I am convinced that the method of teaching which approaches moft nearly to the method of inveftigation, is incomparably the beft; fince not content with ferving up a few barren and lifele fs truths, it leads to the state on which they grow. Burke on the Sublime and Beautiful.

The metaphor which occurs in the latter part of this fentence, is of the fame defcription. Truth is here figured to be the fruit of a tree; but the epithet lifeless can only be applied metaphorically to fruits.

There is not a fingle view of human nature, which is not fufficient to extinguifh the feeds of pride.

Addison, Spectator.

When a feed has loft its power of vegetation, we might fay, in a metaphorical fenfe, it is extinguished but when in the fame fense we call that difpofition of the heart which produces pride, the feed of paffion, we cannot, without introducing a confufion of ideas, apply any word to feed, but what corresponds with its real properties or circumftan

ces.

V. Different metaphors ought never to be confused together in the fame fentence. The ufe of mixed metaphor is one of the groiïeft abuses of this figure. Some writers begin fentences with ftorms and tempefts, and close them with fire and flames.

Though in their corrupt notions of divine worship, they are apt to multiply their gods, yet their earthly devotion is feldom paid to above one idol at a time, whofe oar they pull with lefs murmuring and much more skill, than when they fhare the lading, or even hold the helm.

Swift on the Contests and Dissentions in Athens and Rome.

The most injudicious writer could not have been betrayed into a more abfurd inconfiftency of metaphor. The favou rite of the people is firft an idol; and in the very next claufe, he is figured to be a veffel. What connexion is there between worshipping and rowing, and who ever heard before of pulling the oar of an idol ?

Women were formed to temper mankind, not to set an edge upon their minds, and blow up in them thofe paffions which are apt to rife of their own accord. Addison, Spectator.

The act of fetting an edge, and the act of blowing up bear no analogy to each other.

The charm diffolves apace,

And as the morning fteals upon the night,
Melting the darknets, fo their rifing fenfes
Begin to chace the ignorant fumes that mantle
Their clearer reafon.

Shakspeare.

So many ill-concerted ideas are here brought together, that the mind can fee nothing clearly ;-the morning ftealing upon the darkness, and at the fame time melting it; the fenfes of men chafing fumes, and fumes that mantle.

As glorious

As is a winged meffenger from heaven,
Unto the white upturned wondering eyes
Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him,
When he beftrides the lazy-pacing clouds,
And fails upon the bofom of the air.

Shakspeare,

Here the angel is reprefented at one inftant as beftriding the clouds and failing upon the air; and upon the bofom of the This forms a picture too confufed for the imagi

air too.

nation to comprehend.

All then is full, poffeffing and poffeft,

No craving void left aching in the breaft.

Pope.

A void may, in a metaphorical fenfe, be faid to crave; but can a void be faid to ache ?

I bridle in my struggling Mufe with pain,
That longs to launch into a bolder strain.

Addison.

To bridle a Goddefs is no very delicate idea: but why muft the be bridled? because the longs to launch; an a& which was never hindered by a bridle : and whither would fhe launch into a nobler ftrain. In the first line the is a horse, in the fecond a boat; and the care of the poet is to keep his horfe or his boat from finging.*

A good rule has been fuggefted for examining the propri ety of metaphors, when we fufpect them to be of a mixed kind we hould confider what fort of a figure the image they prefent to the mind would exhibit upon canvas. By this method, we fhould become fenfible, whether incongru ous circumstances were mixed, or the object was prefented in one natural and confiftent point of view.

VI. It is unpleasant to find different metaphors joined in the fame period, even where they are preferved diftinct. The rapid transition distracts the mind; and the images are rendered too faint to produce any powerful effect upon the imagination.

It is alfo improper to begin a sentence with a metaphor, and finish it with a fimile, or to begin it with a fimile, and finish it with a metaphor.

The fwell of the fea continúed, long after the ftorm was over; and we have seen thefe parties kick and cuff like drunken men, when they were both of the fame fide.

Bolingbroke's Dissertation on Parties VII. Metaphorical and natural expreffions ought never

to be fo interwoven together that part of the sentence must be underflood figuratively, and part literally. The imagina tion cannot follow with fufficient eafe, changes fo fudden and unprepared. A metaphor begun, and not carried on, has no beauty. Inftances of fuch incorrect compofition are without number. I fhall content myfelf with giving a fingle example.

When thus, as I may fay, before the ufe of the loaditone, or knowledge of the compafs, I was failing in a vast ocean, without other help than the polar ftar of the ancients, and the rules of the French ftage among the moderns.

Dryden, Dedication of Juvenat Here the writer fuddenly fails from the polar-star, and alights upon the French stage.

VIII. Metaphors fhould not be too far purfued. If the refemblance on which the figure is founded, be long dwelt upon, and carried into all its minute circumstances, we form an allegory instead of a metaphor; we fatigue the reader with this play of fancy, and likewife render our difcourfe obfcure. This is called the hunting a metaphor down. Shaftefbury is fometimes guilty of purfuing his metaphors too far. Fond, to an uncommon degree, of every decoration of style, when he has once hit upon a figure that pleases, he always feems unwilling to part with it. Thus, having reprefented foliloquy under the metaphor of a proper method of evacuation for an author, he pursues the figure through feveral pages, under all the forms "f difcharging crudities, throwing off froth and fcum, bodily operation, taking phyfic, curing indigestion, giving vent to choler, bile, flatulences, and tu mours;" till, at laft, the idea becomes perfectly naufeous and difgufting.

IX. There is a double beauty in figures of this kind when they are not only metaphors but allufions. Thus a very original poet, fpeaking of the advantages of exercife in diffipating thofe gloomy vapours which are apt to hang upon fome minds, employs the following image:

Throw but a ftone, the giant dies.

*Shaftesbury's Advice to an Author.

Green.