Imatges de pàgina
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inftances among logicians, of diftinctions without any folid difference: and hence the frequent instances among poets and orators, of fimiles without any juft resemblance, With regard to the latter, I fhall confine myself to one inftance, which will probably amuse the reader, being a citation not from a poet nor orator, but from a grave author writing an institute of law. "Our ftudent

fhall obferve, that the knowledge of the law is like a deep well, out of which "each man draweth according to the ftrength of his understanding. He that "reacheth deepest, feeth the amiable and

admirable fecrets of the law, wherein I Saffure you the fages of the law in former "times have had the deepest reach. And

as the bucket in the depth is easily drawn "to the uppermost part of the water, (for « nullum elementum in fuo proprio loco eft "grave), but take it from the water it "cannot be drawn up but with a great "difficulty; fo, albeit beginnings of "this study feem difficult, yet when the

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profeffor of the law can dive into the "depth, it is delightful, eafy, and withX X 2

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"out any heavy burden, fo long as he "keep himself in his own properele "ment*." Shakespear with much wit ridicules this difpofition to fimile-making, by putting in the mouth of a weak man a refemblance much of a piece with that now mentioned.

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Fluellen. I think it is in Macedon where Alexan porn: I tell you, Captain, if look in you maps of the orld, I warrant that you fall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the fituafions, look you, is both alike. There is a river în Macedon, there is alfo moreover a river in Monmouth: it is call'd Wye at Monmouth, but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but it is all one, 'tis as like as my fingers to my fingers, and there is falmons in both If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. Alexander, God knows, and you know, in his rages, and his and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations, and alfo being a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, look you, kill his peft friend Clytus.

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Gower. Our King is not like him in that, he ne ver kill'd any of his friends.

Fluellen. It is not well done, mark you now, to take the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. I fpeak but in figures, and comparisons of it: As Alexander kill'd his friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; fo alfo Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his good judgments, turn'd away the fat knight with the great belly-doublet; he was full of jefts, and gypes, and knaveries, and mocks: I have forgot his name.

Gower. Sir John Falstaff.

Fluellen. That is he: I tell you, there is good men porn at Monmouth.

K. Henry V. at 4. fc. 13.

Inftruction, no doubt, is the chief end of comparison, but not the only end. In works addreffed to the imagination, comparifon may be employed with great fuccefs to put a fubject in a ftrong point of view. A lively idea is formed of a man's courage, by likening it to that of a lion; and eloquence is exalted in our imagination, by comparing it to a river overflowing its banks, and involving all in its impetuous courfe. The fame effect is produced by contrast. A man in profperity, becomes more fen

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fible of his happiness, by oppofing his condition to that of a perfon in want of bread. Thus comparison is fubfervient to poetry as well as to philofophy; and with respect to both, the foregoing observation holds equally, that resemblance among objects of the fame kind, and contrast among objects of different kinds, have no effect. Such a comparison neither tends to gratify our curiofity, nor to fet the objects compared in a stronger light. Two apartments in a palace, fimilar in shape, fize, and furniture, make separately as good a figure as when compared; and the fame obfervation applies to two fimilar copartments in a garden. On the other hand, oppofe a regular building to a fall of water, or a good picture to a towering hill, or even a little dog to a large horse, and the contrast will produce no effect. But refemblance, where the objects compared are of different kinds, and contraft where the objects compared are of the fame kind, have each of them remarkably an enlivening effect. The poets, fuch of them as have a just tafte, draw all their fimiles from things that in the main

differ widely from the principal fubject; and they never attempt a contraft but where the things have a common genus and a refemblance in the capital circumstances. Place together a large and a small fized animal of the fame fpecies, the one will appear greater the other lefs, than when viewed feparately. When we oppose beauty to deformity, each makes a greater figure by the comparison.

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Upon a fubject not only in itself curious, but of great importance in all the fine arts, I must be more particular. That refemblance and contrast have an enlivening effect upon objects of fight, is made fufficiently evident; and that they have the fame effect upon objects of the other fenfes, will appear from induction. Nor is this law confined to the external fenfes. Characters contrafted, make a greater figure by the oppofition, Iago, in the tragedy of Othello, fays

He hath a daily beauty in his life,

That makes me ugly.

The character of a fop, and of a rough war

rior,

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