The last exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing-Tasso Gierusal., canto 19. st. 22. None of the foregoing similies, as they appear to me, tend to illustrate the principal subject: and therefore the pleasure they afford, must arise from suggesting resemblances that are not obvious: I mean the chief pleasure; for undoubtedly a beautiful subject introduced to form the simile affords a separate pleasure, which is felt in the similies mentioned, particularly in that cited from Milton. The next effect of a comparison, in the order mentioned, is to place an object in a strong point of view; which effect is remarkable in the following simile: As when two scales are charg'd with doubtful loads, ILIAD.-BOOK XII. 521. Lucetta. I do not seek to quench your love's hot fire, But qualify the fire's extreme rage, Lest it should burn above the bounds of reason. Julia. The more thou damm'st it up, the more it burns: The current, that with gentle murmur glides, Thou know'st, being stopp'd, impatiently doth rage; But when his fair course is not hindered, He makes sweet music with th' enamell'd stones, Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh in his pilgrimage; And so by many winding nooks he strays, I'll be as patient as a gentle stream, And make a pastime of each weary step, Till the last step have brought me to my love; And there I'll rest, as, after much turmoil, A blessed soul doth in Elysium. Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.-ACT II. Sc. 10. But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, And, with a green and yellow melancholy, Smiling at Grief. TWELFTH NIGHT.-ACT II. Sc. 4. York. Then, as I said, the Duke, great Bolingbroke, Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed, Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know, With slow but stately pace, kept on his course: While all tongues cried, God save thee, Bolingbroke! Duchess. Alas! poor Richard, where rides he the while? York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men, After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage, Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd RICHARD II. ACT V. Sc. 3. Northumberland. How doth my son and brother? So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd; SECOND PART HENRY IV.—Act I. Sc. 3. Why, then I do but dream on sov'reignty, And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, And so I chide the means that keep me from it, Flatt'ring my mind with things impossible. THIRD PART HENRY VI.-ACT III. Sc. 3. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, MACBETH.-ACT V. Sc. 5. O thou Goddess, Thou divine Nature! how thyself thou blazon'st Not wagging his sweet head; and yet as rough CYMBELINE. ACT IV. Sc. 4. Why did not I pass away in secret, like the flower of the rock that lifts its fair head unseen, and strows its withered leaves on the blast? FINGAL. There is a joy in grief when peace dwells with the sorrowful. But they are wasted with mourning, O daughter of Toscar, and their days are few. They fall away like the flower on which the sun looks in his strength, after the mildew has passed over it, and its head is heavy with the drops of night. FINGAL. The sight obtained of the city of Jerusalem by the Christian army, compared to that of land discovered after a long voyage-Tasso's Gierusal., canto 3. st. 4. The fury of Rinaldo subsiding when not opposed, to that of wind or water, when it has a free passageCanto 20. st. 58. As words convey but a faint and obscure notion of great numbers, a poet, to give a lively notion of the object he describes with regard to number, does well to compare it to what is familiar and commonly known. Thus Homer* compares the Grecian army in point of number to a swarm of bees; in another passaget he compares it to that profusion of leaves and flowers which appear in the spring, or of insects in a summer's evening and Milton, As when the potent rod Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, Wav'd round the coast, up-call'd a pitchy cloud *Book 2. 1. 111. † Book 2. I. 551. Such comparisons have, by some writers, been condemned for the lowness of the images introduced; but surely without reason, for, with regard to numbers, they put the principal subject in a strong light. The foregoing comparisons operate by resemblance; others have the same effect by contrast. York. I am the last of noble Edward's sons, Of whom thy father, Prince of Wales, was first: RICHARD II.-ACT II. Sc. 3. Milton has a peculiar talent in embellishing the principal subject by associating it with others that are agreeable; which is the third end of a comparison. Similies of this kind have, beside, a separate effect; they diversify the narration by new images that are not strictly necessary to the comparison; they are short episodes, which, without drawing us from the principal subject, afford great delight by their beauty and variety: He scarce had ceas'd, when the superior fiend Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, MILTON.-Book I. Thus far these, beyond All her original brightness, nor appear'd As when a vulture on Imaus bred, MILTON.-BOOK I. Whose snowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, To gorge the flesh of lambs, or yeanling kids, On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the springs But in his way lights on the barren plains Of Sericana, where Chineses drive With sails and winds their cany wagons light: Walk'd up and down alone, bent on his prey. Yet higher than their tops MILTON.-BOOK I. The verd❜rous wall of paradise up-sprung: When God had shower'd the earth; so lovely seem'd Meets his approach, and to the heart inspires Vernal delight and joy, able to drive All sadness but despair: now gentle gales Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Of Araby the Blest; with such delay Well-pleas'd they slack their course, and many a league With regard to similies of this kind, it will readily occur to the reader, that when a resembling subject is once properly introduced in a simile, the mind is transitorily amused with the new object, and is not dis P |