The metophor here is conceived with great propriety of thought, if we confider it only in its primary view; but when we fee it pointing ftill farther, and hinting at the frory of David and Goliah, it receives a very confiderable improvement from the double application. Several examples of impropriety in the ufe of metaphor have been pointed out: we fall now turn to the contemplation of examples of a different kind. O! when the growling winds contend, and all Armstrong. Here the word fluctuates is ufed with admirable efficacy it not only exhibits an image of ftruggling, but alfo echoes to the fenfe.* The metaphor is fimple and confiftent: it depends upon the refemblance between the waves of the fea, and the violent agitation of trees during a storm. I have fometimes confidered the bofom of an old maid as a kind of cell, in which it was intended that the lively bee, Affection, fhould treafure up its collected fweets; but this bee happening to perifh, before it could properly fettle on the flowers that should afford its wealth, the vacant cell may unluckily become the abode of that drone Tudifference, or of the wafp Malignity. Hayley's Essay on Old Maids. The ingenious work from which this paffage is extracted, exhibits many other beautiful inftances of metaphorical language.. Addison, in his excellent critique on Paradife Loft, is taking notice of thofe changes in nature which the author of that truly divine poem defcribes as immediately fucceeding the fall. Among other prodigies, Milton represents the -fun in an eclipfe, and at the fame time a bright cloud in the western regions of the heavens defcending with a band of angels. The critic, to fhew his author's art and judgment in the conduct and difpofition of this fublime fcenery, employs the following metaphor: The whole theatre of nature is darkened, that this glo rious machine may appear in all its luftre and magnificence. * Goldfimith's Effays, vol. ii. effay xvii. Here the figure is beautiful and expreffive. Speaking of the behaviour of Charles I. to his laft Parlia ment; About a month after their meeting, he diffolved them; and as foon as he diffolved them, he repented; but he repented too late of his rafhnels. Well might he repent; for the veffel was now full, and this laft drop made the waters of bitterness overflow. Here we draw the curtain and put an end to our remarks.. Bolingbroke's Remarks on the History of England. Nothing could be more happily conducted. A figure of this kind, judiciously managed, forms a fpirited and dignified conclufion to a fubject. The author retires with a goodgrace, and leaves a ftrong impreffion on the reader's mind, The judicious ufe of metaphor ferves to add light to the expreffion and energy to the fentiment. But on the contrary, when this figure is unfkilfully employed, it tends effectually to cloud the fenfe; and upon fome occafions, may even tend to conceal the author's want of meaning. This may happen, not only where there is in the fame fentence a mixture of difcordant metaphors, but also where the metaphorical ftyle is too long continued, or too far purfued. The reafon is obvious. In common fpeech the words are the immediate figns of the thought. But here the cafe is different,: for when a writer, inftead of adopting fuch metaphors as naturally and opportunely prefent themselves, rummages the univerfe in queft of thefe flowers of oratory, and piles them one above another ; when he cannot fo properly be faid to ufe metaphor, as to fpeak in metaphor, or rather from metaphor he runs into allegory, and thence into ænigma; his words cannot be affirmed to be the immediate figns of his thoughts; they are the figns of the figns of his thoughts.. His compofition may then be termed what Spencer, not unjuftly ftiles his Faery Queen, a perpetual allegory or dark conceit. Writers that fall into this error, are often misled by a defire of flourishing on the feveral attributes of a metaphor which they have pompously ushered into their difcourfe, without taking the trouble to examine whether there be any qualities in the fubject to which thefe attributes can with juftice and perfpicuity be applied. Of exuberance of metaphor 1 fhall produce one example : 说 Men must acquire a very peculiar and ftrong habit of turning their eye inwards, in order to explore the interior regions and receffes of the mind, the hollow caverns of deep thought, the private feats of fancy, and the waftes and wilderneffes, as well as the more fruitful and cultivated tracts of this obfcure climate.. Shaftesbury's Miscellaneous Reflections. Here the author having determined to reprefent the human mind, under the metaphor of a country, revolves in his thoughts the various objects which might be found in a country, but has never dreamt of confidering whether there be any common points of refemblance between these fubjects of his figure. Hence the ftrange parade he makes with regions, recesses, hollow caverns, private seats, wastes, wildernesses, fruitful and cultivated tracts; terms which, though they have an appropriate meaning as applied to a country, have no definite fignification when applied to mind. Some objects may, without impropriety, be alluded to in a eurfo.. ry manner, though they will become ridiculous by being too long tortured in a figure or trope. Thus, notwitstanding. the impropriety of the paffage now quoted from Shaftesbury, there is nothing reprehenfible in the following couplet, which contains a metaphor of the fame nature and origin: Farewel, for clearer ken defign'd, Collins. A CHAP. XVII. OF ALLEGORY. N allegory may be confidered as a continued metaphor. It confifts in reprefenting one fubject by another analogous to it. The fubject thus reprefented is kept out of view; and we are left to difcover it by reflection. This furnishes a very pleafant exercife to our faculties, There cannot be a finer or more correct allegory than the following, in which the Jewish nation is reprefented, under the fymbol of a vineyard: Thou haft brought a vine out of Egypt: thou haft caft out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedft room before it, and didft cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the fhadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars. Why haft thou broken down her hedges, fo that all they which pafs by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth wafte it, and the wild beafts of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of Hofts; look down from heaven, and behold and visit this vine, and the vineyardwhich thy right hand hath planted, and the branch which thou madeft arong for thyself. Psalms. 1Here there is no circumftance that does not frictly agree with a vine; while at the fame time, the whole quadrates happily with the Jewish ftate reprefented by this figure. It. is the principal requifite in the conduct of an allegory, that the figurative and the literal meaning be not inconfiftently. mixed together. If, inftead of defcribing the vine as wafted by the boar out of the wood, and devoured by the wild beaft of the field, the Pfalmift had faid, that it was afflicted by. heathens, or overcome by enemies, this would have ruined. the allegory, and produced the fame confufion which has been remarked in thofe metaphors in which the figurative and literal fenfe are confounded together. Indeed the rules that have been given with respect to metaphors may also be applied to allegories, on account of the affinity they bear to each other. The only material difference between them, befides the one being fhort, and the other prolonged, is that a metaphor always explains itself by the words which are connected with it in their proper and natural meaning. When I fay," Wallace was a thunderbolt of war," "in peace, Fingal was the gale of fpring" the thunderbolt of war, and the gale of fpring are fufficiently interpreted by the mention of Wallace and Fingal, But an allegory may be allowed to ftand more disconnected with the literal meaning; the interpretation is not fo directly pointed out, but left to our own discovery. Allegories were a favorite method of delivering inftruction in ancient times: for, what we call fables or parables are no other than allegories; and thofe fables are to be found among the earliest productions of literature. They reprefent the difpofitions of men by words and actions attributed to beafts and inanimate objects; and what we call the moral, is the fimple meaning of the allegory. An ænigma or riddle is also a figure of this kind. One thing is imaged by another, but purpofely rendered obfcure by being involved in a complication of circumftances. Wherea riddle is not intended, it is always a fault in allegory to be too dark. The meaning fhould be eafrly feen through the figure employed to fhadow it. The proper mixture of light and fhade in fuch compofitions, the exact adjuftment of all the figurative circumstances with the literal fenfe, fo as neither to lay the meaning too open, nor cover it too clofely, has ever been found an affair of great nicety; and in allegorical compofitions of any length, few writers have fucceeded. An allegory is in every refpect fimilar to a hieroglyphical painting, excepting only, that words are ufed inftead of colours. Their effects are precifely the fame a hieroglyphic raises two images in the mind; one feen, which reprefents one not feen. The fame is the cafe with an allegory: the re-. prefentative fubject is defcribed; and the refemblance leads us to apply the defcription to the fubject reprefented. Nothing affords greater pleafure than this figure, when the reprefentative fubject bears a ftrong analogy, in all its circumftances, to that which is reprefented. But the choice is feldom fo fortunate; the analogy being generally fo faint and obfcure, as to puzzle iuftead of pleafing. An allegory is ftill more difficult in painting than in writing the former can fhew no refemblance but what appears to the eye; whereas the latter hath many other refources. In an allegory, as well as in a metaphor, fuch terms ought to be chofen as are literally applicable to the reprefentative fubject nor ought any circumftance to be added that is not proper to that fubject, however justly it may apply to the principal either in a figurative or proper fenfe. Our view, muft never wave between the type and the anti-type. For the farther illuftration of the nature of allegory, F fhall fubjoin a few mifcellaneous examples. My well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill : and he fenced it, and gathered out the ftones thereof, and planted it with the choiceft vine, and built a tower in the |