Elements of Criticism: In Two Volumes

Chapter 19. Comparisons

495 u chapter xix u Comparisons Comparisons, as observed above,* serve two purposes: when addressed to the understanding, their purpose is to instruct; when to the heart, their purpose is to please. Various means contribute to the latter; first, the suggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast; second, the settinganobject in the strongest light; third, the associating an object with others that are agreeable; fourth, the elevating an object; and, fifth, the depressing it. And that comparisons may give pleasure by these various means, appears from what is said in the chapter above cited; and will be made still more evident by examples, which shall be given after premising some general observations . Objects of different senses cannot be compared together; for such objects , being entirely separated from each other, have no circumstance in common to admit either resemblance or contrast. Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also of taste, of smell, and of touch: but the chief fund of comparisonare objects of sight;because,inwritingorspeaking , things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of sight are more distinct and lively than those of any other sense. When a nation emerging out of barbarity begins to think of the fine arts,1 the beauties of language cannot long lie concealed; and when discovered , they are generally, by the force of novelty, carried beyond moderation . Thus, in the early poems of every nation, we find metaphors and * Chap. 8. 1. Kames added several additional quotations to the text after the first edition, most conspicuously from James Macpherson’s Fingal. 496 chapter xix similes founded on slight and distant resemblances, which, losing their grace with their novelty, wear gradually out of repute; and now, by the improvement of taste, none but correct metaphorsandsimilesareadmitted into any polite composition. To illustrate this observation, a specimenshall be given afterward of such metaphors as I have been describing: with respect to similes, take the following specimen. Behold, thou art fair, my love: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead: thy teeth are like a flock of sheep from the washing, every one bearing twins: thy lips are like a thread of scarlet: thy neck like the tower of David built for an armoury, whereon hang a thousandshields of mighty men: thy two breasts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies: thy eyes like the fish-pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damascus. Song of Solomon. Thou art like snow on the heath; thy hair like the mist of Cromla, when it curls on the rocks and shines to the beam of the west: thy breasts are like two smooth rocks seen from Branno of the streams; thy arms like two white pillars in the hall of the mighty Fingal. Fingal. It has no good effect to compare things by way of simile that are of the same kind; nor to compare by contrast things of differentkinds.Thereason is given in the chapter quoted above; and the reason shall be illustrated by examples. The first is a comparison built upon a resemblance so obvious as to make little or no impression. This just rebuke inflam’d the Lycian crew, They join, they thicken and th’ assault renew: Unmov’d th’ embody’d Greeks their fury dare, And fix’d support the weight of all the war; Nor could the Greeks repel the Lycian pow’rs, Nor the bold Lycians force the Grecian tow’rs. As on the confines of adjoining grounds, Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their bounds; They tugg, they sweat; but neither gain, nor yield, One foot, one inch, of the contended field: comparisons 497 Thus obstinate to death, they fight, they fall; Nor these can keep, nor those can win the wall. Iliad xii. 505. Another, from Milton, lies open to the same objection. Speaking of the fallen angels searching for mines of gold: A numerous brigade hasten’d: as when bands Of pioneers with spade and pick-ax arm’d, Forerun the royal camp to trench a field Or cast a rampart.2 The next shall be of things contrasted that are of different kinds. Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind Transform’d and weak? Hath Bolingbroke depos’d Thine intellect? Hath he been in thy heart! The lion, thrusteth forth...