Me miserable! which way shall I fly
Infinite wrath, and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is Hell: myself am Hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threat'ning to devour me opens wide,

To which the Hell I suffer seems a Heaven.

Swift Camilla scours the plain,

Milton.

Flies o'er th' unbending corn, and skims along the main.-Pope. Longinus quotes from some comic poet the following ludicrous instance of a diminishing hyperbole : “He possessed a field, of smaller extent than a Lacedemonian letter."*

I. A hyperbole should never be introduced in the description of any thing ordinary or familiar. In such a case, it is altogether unnatural.

I saw him beat the surges under him,

And ride upon their backs: he trode the water;
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted

The surge most swoln that met him: his bold head
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd
Himself with his good arms, in lusty strokes

To th' shore, that o'er his wave-born basis bow'd,
As stooping to receive him.

Shakspeare.

II. A hyperbole cannot be introduced with propriety, until the mind of the reader is duly prepared. A figure of this kind, placed at the beginning of a work, is improper.

How far a hyperbole may be carried, and what is the proper measure and boundary of it, cannot be ascer

*

Longinus de Sublimitate, § xxxviii. p. 132. edit. Weiske.

̓Αγρὸν ἔσχ ̓ ἐλάττω γῆν ἔχοντ ̓ ἄρ ̓ ἐπιστολῆς

Λακωνικής.

tained by any precise rule. Good sense and a cultivated taste must determine the point beyond which it will become extravagant. Longinus compares a hyperbole carried too far, to a bow-string which relaxes by overstraining, and produces an effect opposite to what is intended.

In single opposition hand to hand,
He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower.
Three times they breath’d, and three times did they drink,
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
Who then affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the bollow bank,
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants. --Shakspeare.
England ne'er had a king until bis time :
Virtue he had, deserving to command ;
His brandish'd sword did blind men with its beams ;
His arms spread wider than a dragon's wings;
His sparkling eyes, replete with awful fire,
More dazzled, and drove back his enemies,
Than mid-day sun fierce bent against their faces. --Shakspeare.

I found her on the floor
In all the storm of grief, yet beautiful ;
Pouring forth tears at such a lavish rate,
That were the world on fire, they might have drown'd

The wrath of Heaven, and quench'd the mighty ruin.-Lee. With regard to the latter of these instances, the person herself who was under the distracting agitations of grief might be permitted to hyperbolize in this manner; but the person describing her cannot be allowed an equal liberty. The one is supposed to utter the sentiments of passion ; the other speaks only the language of description, which, according to the dictates of nature, is always in a lower tone. This is a distinction which, however obvious, has not been observed by many writers.

III. A hyperbole, after it is introduced with every advantage, ought to be comprehended in as few words as possible. As it cannot be relished but in the confusion and swelling of the mind, a leisurely view dissolves the charm, and discovers the figure to be either extravagant or ridiculous.

CHAP. XV.

OF COMPARISON.

The situation in which man is placed, requires some acquaintance with the nature, power, and qualities, of those objects by which he is surrounded. For acquiring a branch of knowledge so essential to our happiness and preservation, motives of interest and of reason are not alone sufficient; and nature has providentially superadded curiosity, a vigorous principle which is never

This principle strongly attaches us to those objects which have the recommendation of novelty : it incites us to compare things together, for the purpose of discovering their differences and resemblances.

Resemblance between objects of the same kind, and dissimilitude between those of different kinds, are too

at rest.

a

obvious and familiar to gratify our curiosity in any degree: its gratification lies in discovering differences where resemblance prevails, and resemblances where difference prevails. Thus a difference in individuals of the same kind of plants or animals is deemed a discovery, while the many particulars in which they agree, are neglected; and in different kinds any resemblance is eagerly remarked, without attending to the many particulars in which they differ.

Objects of different senses cannot often be properly compared together; for they are totally separated from each other, and have no circumstance in common to admit either resemblance or contrast. Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also those of taste, of smell, and of touch : but objects of sight are the principal source of comparison ; because in speaking or writing, things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of sight are more distinct and lively than those of any

It must however be observed that two objects are sometimes happily compared together, though, strictly speaking, they resemble each other in nothing. Though they are dissimilar, they yet agree in the effects which they produce upon the mind : they raise a train of similar or concordant ideas; so that the remembrance of the one serves to strengthen the impression made by the other.

other sense.

a

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

This seems happy and delicate ; yet surely no kind of music bears any immediate resemblance to a feeling of

the mind. . Had it been compared to the voice of the nightingale, or the murmur of the stream, as it would have been by some ordinary poet, the likeness would have been more distinct ; Vut, by founding his simile upon the effect which Carryl's music produced, the poet, while he conveys a very tender image, gives us, at the same time, a much stronger impression of the nature and strain of that music. The following similes are of the same description.

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 the beard, even Aaron's beard ; that went down to the skirts of his garments.—Psalms.

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

Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul.- Ossian.

When a nation emerging from barbarism begins to cultivate the fine arts, the beauties of language cannot long lie concealed; but when discovered, they are generally, by the love of novelty, carried beyond all bounds of moderation. Thus, in the first poetical efforts of every nation, we find metaphors and similes founded on the slightest and most distant resemblances. These, losing their grace with their novelty, wear gradually out of repute ; and at length, on the improvement of taste, no metaphor or simile, except it be of a striking kind, is admitted into any polite composition. It is scarcely possible to discover the resemblances upon which the following comparisons are founded.

Behold, thou art fair, my love ; behold, thou art fair ; thou hast doves' eyes within thy locks : thy hair is as a flock of goats that ap

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