21. PAON 1st, one long syllable and three short: temporibus, ordinary, inven tory, temperament. 22. PON 2d, the second syllable long, and the other three short: rapidity, solemnity, minority, considered, imprudently, extravagant, respectfully, accordingly. 23. PEON 3d, the third syllable long and the other three short: animatus, independent, condescendence, sacerdotal, reimbursement, manufacture. 24. PEON 4th, the last syllable long and the other three short: celeritas. 25. EPITRITUS 1st, the first syllable short and the other three long: voluptates. 26. EPITRITUS 2d, the second syllable short and the other three long: pœnitentes. 27. EPITRITUS 3d, the third syllable short, and the other three long: discordias. 28. EPITRITUS 4th, the last syllable short, and the other three long: fortunatus. 29. A word of five syllables composed of a Pyrrhichius and Dactylus: ministerial. 30. A word of five syllables composed of a Trochæus and Dactylus: singularity. 31. A word of five syllables composed of a Dactylus and Trocheus: precipita tion, examination. 82. A word of five syllables, the second only long: significancy. 33. A word of six syllables composed of two Dactyles: impetuosity. 34. A word of six syllables composed of a Tribrachys and Dactyle: pusillanimity. N. B.-Every word may be considered as a prose foot, because every word is distinguished by a pause; and every foot in verse may be considered as a verse word, composed of syllables pronounced at once without a pause. CHAPTER XIX. COMPARISONS. [HAZLITT has some observations on the subject of poetry that will serve as an introduction to the present chapter.-Ed. 493. Poetry is strictly the language of the imagination; and the imagination is that faculty which represents objects, not as they are in themselves, but as they are moulded by other thoughts and feelings, into an infinite variety of shapes and combinations of power. This language is not the less true to nature because it is false in point of fact; but so much the more true and natural, if it conveys the impression which the object under the influence of passion makes on the mind. Let an object, for instance, be presented to the senses in a state of agitation or fear, and the imagination will distort or magnify the object, and convert it into the likeness of whatever is most proper to encourage the fear. "Our eyes are made the fools of the other faculties." This is the universal law of the imagination. We compare a man of gigantic stature to a tower, not that he is ! any thing like so large, but because the excess of his size beyond what we are accustomed to expect, or the usual size of things of the same class, produces by contrast a greater feeling of magnitude and of ponderous strength than another object of ten times the same dimensions. The intensity of the feeling makes up for the disproportion of the objects. Things are equal to the imagination which have the power of affecting the mind with an equal degree of terror, admiration, delight, or love. Poetry is only the highest eloquence of passion, the most vivid form of expression that can be given to our conception of any thing, whether pleasurable or painful, mean or dignified, delightful or distressing. It is the perfect coincidence of the image and the words with the feeling we have, and of which we cannot get rid in any other way that gives an instant "satisfaction to the thought." This is equally the origin of wit and fancy, of comedy and tragedy, of the sublime and pathetic.-Lect. i.] Comparisons, as observed above (chapter viii.), 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 setting an object 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 comparison are objects of sight; because, in writing or speaking, things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of sight are more distinct and lively than those of any other sense. 494. When a nation emerging out of barbarity begins to think of the fine arts, 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 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 metaphors and similes are admitted into any polite composition. To illustrate this observation, a specimen shall be 493. Hazlitt's remarks on poetry.-Purposes answered by comparisons. By what means they give pleasure.-Objects that cannot be compared together. The chief fund of comparisons. given afterwards 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 armory, whereon hang a thousand shields 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 towards 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. 495. 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 different kinds. The reason 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 inflamed the Lycian crew, They join, they thicken, and the assault renew; Two stubborn swains with blows dispute their bounds; One foot, one inch, of the contended field; 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. A numerous brigade hasten'd; as when bands Or east a rampart. Speaking The next shall be of things contrasted that are of different kinds. Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and mind And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage Take thy correction mildly, kiss the rod, Richard II. Act V. Sc. 1. This comparison has scarce any force; a man and a lion are of different species, and therefore are proper subjects for a simile; but there is no such resemblance between them in general, as to pro 494 The early poems of every nation. 495. What things should not be compared by way of simile and contrast. duce any strong effect by contrasting particular attributes or cir cumstances. 496. A third general observation is, That abstract terms can never be the subject of comparison, otherwise than by being personified. Shakspeare compares adversity to a toad, and slander to the bite of a crocodile; but in such comparisons these abstract terms must be imagined sensible beings. To have a just notion of comparisons, they must be distinguished into two kinds; one common and familiar, as where a man is compared to a lion in courage, or to a horse in speed; the other more distant and refined, where two things that have in themselves no resemblance or opposition, are compared with respect to their effects. There is no resemblance between a flower-pot and a cheerful song; and yet they may be compared with respect to their effects, the emotions they produce being similar. There is as little resemblance between fraternal concord and precious ointment; and yet observe how successfully they are compared with respect to the impressions they make : Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon Aaron's beard, and descended to the skirts of his garment.-Psalm 133. For illustrating this sort of comparison, I add some more examples: Delightful is thy presence, O Fingal! it is like the sun on Cromla, when the hunter mourns his absence for a season, and sees him between the clouds. Did not Ossian hear a voice? or is it the sound of days that are no more? Often, like the evening sun, comes the memory of former times on my soul. His countenance is settled from war; and is calm as the evening beam, that from the cloud of the west looks on Crona's silent vale. Sorrow, like a cloud on the sun, shades the soul of Clessammor. The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul. Pleasant are the words of the song, said Cuchullin, and lovely are the tales of other times. They are like the calm dew of the morning on the hill of roes, when the sun is faint on its side, and the lake is settled and blue in the vale. These quotations are from the poems of Ossian, who abounds with comparisons of this delicate kind, and appears singularly happy in them. 497. I proceed to illustrate by particular instances the different means by which comparisons, whether of the one sort or the other, can afford pleasure; and, in the order above established, I begin with such instances as are agreeable, by suggesting some un usual resemblance or contrast: Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, As You Like It, Act II. Sc. 1. 496. Abstract terms.-Two kinds of comparisons.-How a flower-pot and a cheerful song may be compared. Other examples. Gardiner. Bolingbroke hath seized the wasteful king. And dress'd his land, as we this garden dress, See, how the Morning opes her golden gates, Second Part Henry IV. Act II. Sc. 1. Brutus. O Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb, Julius Cæsar, Act IV. Sc. 3. Thus they their doubtful consultations dark As when from mountain-tops, the dusky clouds Scowls o'er the darken'd landscape, snow and shower; Paradise Lost, Book ii. The last exertion of courage compared to the blaze of a lamp before extinguishing, Tasso Gierusalem, Canto xix. st. xxii. None of the foregoing similes, 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 similes mentioned, particularly in that cited from Milton. 498. 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 similes: As when two scales are charged with doubtful loads, 497. Comparisons afford pleasure by suggestion. |