MIXED METAPHORS.

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tions what is viewed through a fog' (2). (Whately.) The harmony of each figure applied to the subject, is a feature in such finished writers as Gray and Campbell. Compare, for example, the figures in the two stanzas of the Elegy' beginning

But knowledge to their eyes her ample page

or the six lines beginning

Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne-

or the lines

Even from the tomb the voice of natures cries,
Even in our ashes live their wonted fires.

When words do not readily suggest their metaphorical basis, the incongruity is not felt. In the line of YoungHer voice is but the shadow of a sound,

the mixture is not objectionable.

So

A touch of shame upon her cheek.

In these instances, the metaphorical usage is so habitual as to prevent the original meaning from asserting itself. Somewhat similar is the case with the lines in Tennyson, describing death as

The shadow cloaked from head to foot,
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.

Here term shadow is employed to designate a being conceived as unsubstantial, yet dark; and, with this application, there is nothing inharmonious in ascribing to the shadow' the personal attributes of being cloaked and keeping keys.

There are, however, many words that have ceased to be metaphors, but still so far suggest their original meaning as to give the sense of harmony when the figure is attended to. Thus, to say the impression was conveyed' is not in keeping, although quite intelligible. Upon the style it is that these perplexities depend for their illumination.'

Fetter' properly means a chain or bond for the feet. It is often used for bonds in general; but has not so lost its primary signification that we may speak, without inconsistency, of beneficial legislation that has struck the fetters from the hands of industry'.

So in this instance: The decline of the material comforts of the working classes had been incessant, and had

now reached an alarming height.' 'Decline' is often used with little feeling of its metaphorical nature; but its conjunction with 'height' is realized as a discord.

The metaphorical word 'point' cannot always be used in harmony with its original sense. One of its meanings is the same as subject-matter, or subject of discourse; and we must often use such combinations as 'embracing, enlarging upon, contesting, opening up, a point'-expressions highly incongruous with the literal meaning. But the phrase point of view' retains enough of its literal meaning to render the following incongruous: Nothing could be more one-sided than the point of view adopted by the writers'; a more extended point of view'. So, to approach from a standpoint' does not give the sense of harmony that is felt in the expression, to view from a standpoint'.

The mixture of the metaphorical and the plain or literal is also objectionable. Dryden, speaking of the aids he had in his translations, says, 'I was sailing in a vast ocean without other help than the pole-star of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage among the moderns'.

4. A Metaphor must not be strained.

By this is meant pursuing the figure into irrelevant details.

Young, speaking of old age, says

It should

Walk thoughtful on the silent, solemn shore

Of that vast ocean it must sail so soon:

And put good works on board: and wait the wind
That shortly blows us into worlds unknown.

In the two last lines, the feelings suggested are out of keeping with what goes before. At first, an emotion of deep solemnity is awakened; then the figure changes to the prosaic and calculating operations of a sea-faring enterprise.* Take now the famous passage

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune⚫
Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

"Lord Shaftesbury is sometimes guilty of pursuing his metaphors too far: fond to an uncommon degree of every decoration of style, when he has once started a figure which pleases him, he always seems unwilling to discontinue the chase. Thus having represented soliloquy under the metaphor of a proper method of evacuation for an author, he pursues the figure through several pages, under all the forms of discharging crudities, throwing off froth and scum, bodily operation, taking physic, curing indigestion, giving vent to choler, bile, flatulencies and tumours, till at last the idea becomes nauseous and disgusting." (Irving.)

STRAINING OF METAPHORS.

169

Here we have both impropriety and straining. The tides rise and fall twice every twenty-five hours; it is, therefore, a contradiction to speak of a man's experiencing only one high tide in his life. Used for a lucky or favourable conjuncture, the figure is wholly inappropriate. Then as to the bearing on the voyage of life: to miss a tide is merely half a day's delay in starting; while it can have nothing to do with sailing in shallows, a mishap that would simply imply the want of a good chart or other equipment of navigation. Lastly, the union of 'shallows' and 'miseries' is an example of mixing the metaphorical and the literal.

In the following instance from Pope, the first application of the figure is appropriate, but the fitness is wanting in the last two lines.

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

To a 'monster' we should certainly not be tempted to act in this manner; to express this aspect of vice we should require some other comparison, such as the siren. The figure of the 'monster' is unfitting after the second line. So, in this other example from the same poet. Having spoken of man as 'a wild where weeds and flowers promiscuous shoot,' he proceeds—

Together let us beat this ample field,

Try what the open, what the covert yield!
The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise.

The Metaphor, in its simplest and most characteristic form, begins and ends with a single word or phrase, as in many of the instances above quoted. In many cases, however, as has been seen, the idea is developed or expanded into circumstantial details. It is only in such instances that the fault of straining the metaphor can be committed. It is, however, in the Simile that the expansion of a figure into numerous circumstances most naturally occurs, and, consequently, where the special rules and precautions for maintaining consistency are most applicable.

SIMILE.

1. The Simile consists in the formal or avowed comparison of one thing to another.

'As the stars, so shall thy seed be;' 'he stood like a giant.'

What is only implied in the Metaphor, is distinctly expressed in the Simile. In general, this is done by means of a word of comparison, such as 'so,' 'as,' 'like,' 'resembles'. But such formal words are not necessary to the nature of the Simile; all that is essential is that both sides of the comparison be distinctly expressed. Hence, the following from Childe Harold is not a metaphor but a

Simile.

He who ascends to mountain-tops shall find

The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind

Must look down on the hate of those below.

Whately observes that the Metaphor is to be preferred to the Simile when the comparison is sufficiently easy to be understood. We should not express the comparison more than is necessary, because people like to find out the resemblance for themselves.

2. It is the nature of the Simile either to become complicated in statement, or to be prolonged into a succession of particulars. Hence, as already remarked, more consideration is necessary in order not to violate the laws of Figures of Resemblance generally.

The laws of Figures of Resemblance in general have been already fully exemplified. Many of the instances were of the nature of the Simile, although not specially viewed in that character. What we have more particularly to examine in Similes, as such, is the construction of the language, whether in one complicated comparison, or in a succession of different points of resemblance. In the briefer forms of the figure, such criticism is dispensed with; in noticing those, only the general principles of all Figures of Resemblance need to be brought to bear.

The protracted Simile was fully developed in Homer, and has ever since entered into literary composition— poetry and prose. In imitation of Homer, Virgil continued

the art. The greatest poets of modern times have been composers of siniles; among these, Dante, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton are conspicuous.

The following are examples under the different heads. (1) To the Understanding.

Bentham says:-'As in a fleet, the pace of the slowest vessel, so in a class, the pace of the dullest scholar, is necessarily the pace of the whole'. A very apt Simile, but for the circumstance that teachers are often compelled to leave the dullest pupils behind. This is not a case of structural complexity.

'The advance of the public mind resembles the rising of the tide. Each successive wave rushes forward, breaks, and rolls back; but the great flood is steadily coming up.' This is a relevant employment of the tide; all the particulars are apposite to the subject.

The illusion that great men and great events came oftener in early times than now, is partly due to historical perspective. As, in a range of equidistant columns, the farthest off look the closest; so, the conspicuous objects of the past seem more thickly clustered the more remote they are. The comparison here is close throughout the details.

Again 'Good nature is the most precious gift of Heaven, spreading itself like oil over the troubled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable in the roughest weather. (Washington Irving.) In the points specified, the resemblance fully holds.

For illustrating the effects of iteration in spoken or written address, Whately gives the following: If a material is too stubborn to be speedily cleft, we may patiently continue our efforts for a long time, in order to accomplish it; but this is to be done, not by making the successive blows fall more slowly, which would only enfeeble them, but by often repeated blows'.

(2) To the Feelings.

For intensifying or heightening an emotional effect, as Strength, Pathos, Humour, the simile is all the more powerful that it can be expanded by accumulation of details; while the metaphor must work by one stroke.

The brevity of the metaphor is seen in 'life's fitful fever'; the accuniulated power of the simile is illustrated thusLife is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.