It was the nightingale, and not the lark,

That pierc'd the fearful hollow of thine ear.

Romeo and Juliet, act 3. sc. 7.

Oh, lay by

Those most ungentle looks and angry weapons;
Unless you mean my griefs and killing fears
Should stretch me out at your relentless feet.

And ready now

Fair Penitent, act̃ 3.

To stoop with wearied wing, and willing feet,

On the bare outfidê of this world.

Paradife Loft, b. 3.

5. A quality of the agent given to the inftrument with which it operates.

Why peep your coward fwords half out their fhells?

6. An attribute of the agent given to the subject upon which it operates.

High-climbing hill.

Milton.

7. A quality of one fubject given to another.

Icci, beatis nunc Arabum invides
Gazis.

Horat. Carm. l. 1. ode 29.

When fapless age, and weak unable limbs,
Should bring thy father to his drooping chair.

Shakespear.

By

By art, the pilot through the boiling deep
And howling tempeft, fteers the fearless ship.

Iliad, xxiii. 385.

Then, nothing loath, th' enamour'd fair he led,
And funk transported on the conscious bed.

A ftupid moment motionless fhe ftood.

Odyssey, viii. 337.

Summer, l. 1336.

8. A circumstance connected with a fubject, expreffed as a quality of the fubject.

Breezy fummit.

'Tis ours the chance of fighting fields to try.

Iliad, i. 301.

Oh! had I dy'd before that well-fought wall.

Odyss. v. 395.

From this table it appears, that the expreffing an effect as an attribute of the cause, is not fo agreeable as the oppofite expreffion. The progrefs from caufe to effect is natural and eafy the oppofite progress resembles retrograde motion * and therefore panting height, aftonish'd thought, are strained and uncouth expreffions, which a writer of tafte will avoid.

;

It is not less strained, to apply to a fubject in

* See chap. I.

its present state, an epithet that may belong to it

Another rule regards this figure, That the property of one fubject ought not to be bestowed upon another with which that property is incon

gruous:

How dare thy joints forget

K. Rich.
To pay their awful duty to our prefence?

Richard II. act 3. fc. 6.

The connection between an awful fuperior and his fubmiffive dependent is fo intimate, that an attribute may readily be transferred from the one to the other: but awfulness cannot be fo tranf ferred, because it is inconfiftent with fubmiffion.

SECT. VI.

Metaphor and Allegory.

Metaphor differs from a fimile, in form only, not in fubftance: in a fimile the two fubjects are kept diftinct in the expreffion, as

well

well as in the thought; in a metaphor, the two
fubjects are kept diftinct in thought only, not in
the expreffion. A hero refembles a lion, and
upon that refemblance many fimiles have been
made by Homer and other poets. But instead of
resembling a lion, let us take the aid of the ima-
gination, and feign or figure the hero to be a
lion by this variation the fimile is converted in-
to a metaphor; which is carried on by defcribing
all the qualities of a lion that refemble thofe of
the hero. The fundamental pleafure here, that
of refemblance, belongs to the thought as diftin-
guished from the expreffion. An additional
pleasure arifes from the expreffion: the poet, by
figuring his hero to be a lion, goes on to defcribe
the lion in appearance, but in reality the hero; and
his description is peculiarly beautiful, by expreffing
the virtues and qualities of the hero in new
terms, which, properly fpeaking, belong not to
him, but to the lion. This will better be un-
derstood by examples. A family connected with
a common parent, resembles a tree, the trunk
and branches of which are connected with a com-
mon root: but let us fuppofe, that a family is
figured, not barely to be like a tree, but to be a
tree; and then the fimile will be converted into
a metaphor, in the following manner.

Edward's fev'n fons, whereof thyself art one,
Were fev'n fair branches, fpringing from one root:
Some of these branches by the deft'nies cut:
$

VOL. II,

But

But Thomas, my dear Lord, my life, my Glo'fter,
One flourishing branch of his moft royal root,
Is hack'd down, and his fummer-leaves all faded,
By Envy's hand and Murder's bloody axe.

Richard II. at 1. fc. 3.

Figuring human life to be a voyage at fea:

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 fhallows and in miferies.

On fuch a full fea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it ferves,

Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!

Pr. Henry. I'll make it greater, ere I part from thee i And all the budding honours on thy creft

I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.

First Part Henry IV. act 5. sc. 9.

Figuring a man who hath acquired great reputation and honour to be a tree full of fruit:

Oh, boys, this story

The world may read in me: my body's mark'd
With Roman fwords; and my report was once
First with the best of note. Cymbeline lov'd me;

And