A writer of delicacy will avoid drawing his comparisons from any image that is naufeous, ugly, or remarkably disagreeable: for however ftrong the resemblance may be, more will be loft than gained by fuch comparison. Therefore I cannot help condemning, though with fome reluctance, the following fimile, or rather metaphor.

O thou fond many! with what loud applause
Did'st thou beat heav'n with bleffing Bolingbroke
Before he was what thou wou'dft have him be?
And now being trimm'd up in thine own defires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art fo full of him,
That thou provok'ft thyfelf to caft him up.
And fo, thou common dog, didft thou difgorge
Thy glutton bofom of the royal Richard,
And now thou wou'dft eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'ft to find it.

Second Part Henry IV. a&t 1. fc. 6.

The strongest objection that can lie against a comparison, is, that it confifts in words only, not in fenfe. Such falfe coin, or bastard wit, does extremely well in burlefque; but is far below the dignity of the epic, or of any ferious compofition :

The

The noble fifter of Poplicola,

The moon of Rome; chafte as the ificle
That's curdled by the froft from purest snow,
And hangs on Dian's temple.

Coriolanus, at 5. Sc. 3•

There is evidently no refemblance betwixt an ificle and a woman, chafte or unchafte. But chastity is cold in a metaphorical sense, and an ificle is cold in a proper fenfe; and this verbal resemblance, in the hurry and glow of compofing, has been thought a fufficient foundation for the fimile. Such phantom fimiles are mere witticisms, which ought to have no quarter, except where purposely introduced to provoke laughter. Lucian, in his differtation upon hiftory, talking of a certain author, makes the following comparifon, which is verbal merely.

T

This author's defcriptions are fo cold, that they furpafs the Cafpian fnow, and all the ice of the

north.

F2

Virgil

Virgil has not escaped this puerility:

Galathea thymo mihi dulcior Hyblæ.

Bucol. vii. 37

Ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis.

Ibid. 41,

Gallo, cujus amor tantum mihi crescit in horas,
Quantum vere novo viridis fe fubjicit alnus.
Buccol. x. 73.

Nor Taffo, in his Aminta:

Picciola e' l'ape, e fa col picciol morfo
Pur gravi, e pur moleste le ferite;
Ma, qual cofa é più picciola d' amore,
Se in ogni breve fpatio entra, e s' asconde
In ogni breve fpatio? hor, fotto a l'ombra
De le palpebre, hor trà minuti rivi
D'un biondo crine, hor dentro le pozzette,
Che forma un dolce rifo in bella guancia;
E pur fá tanto grandi, e fi mortali,

E cofi immedicabili le piaghe.

Act 2. fc. 1.

Nor Boileau, the chafteft of all writers and that even in his art of poetry:

Ainfi tel autrefois, qu'on vit avec Faret Charbonner de fes vers les murs d'un cabaret, S'en va mal a' propos, d'une voix infolente, Chanter du peuple Hebreu la fuite triomphante, Et pourfuivant Moise au travers des déserts, Court avec Pharaon fe noyer dans les mers.

Chant, 1. 1. 21.

But for their spirits and fouls

This word rebellion had froze them up
As fish are in a pond.

Second Part Henry IV. at 1. fc. 3.

Queen. The pretty vaulting fea refus'd to drown

me;

Knowing, that thou wou'dft have me drown'd on

fhore

With tears as falt as fea, through thy unkindness. Second Part Henry VI. a&t 3. fc.6.

Here there is no manner of refemblance but in the word drown; for there is no real resemblance betwixt being drown'd at fea, and dying of grief at land. But perhaps this fort of tinfel wit, may have a propriety in it, when used to express an affected, not a real, paffion, which was the Queen's cafe,

Pope

Pope has several fimiles of the fame ftamp. I fhall tranfcribe one or two from the Essay on Man, the gravest and most inftructive of all his performances.

And hence one mafter-paffion in the breast,

Like Aaron's ferpent, fwallows

up

the reft.

5

Epift. 2. 1. 131.

And again, talking of this fame ruling or mafter paffion.

Nature its mother, Habit is its nurse;
Wit, fpirit, faculties, but make it worse;
Reason itself but gives it edge and pow'r ;
As heav'n's bleft beam turns vinegar more fowr.
Ibid. 1. 145.

Lord Bolingbroke, fpeaking of hiftorians:

Where their fincerity as to fact is doubtful, we ftrike out truth by the confrontation of different accounts; as we strike out fparks of fire by the collifion of flints and steel.

Let us vary the phrase a very little, and there will not remain a fhadow of refemblance. Thus, for example:

We discover truth by the confrontation of differ

ent