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2. METAPHOR.

Metaphor is an implied comparison. A metaphor may be regarded as an abridged simile.

Difference. The chief difference between metaphor and simile lies in the form of statement. In the simile the comparison is made by the use of like, as, etc. In the metaphor these terms of comparison are omitted. Thus, when we say, "The stars are like candles lighting up the night," we express the thought in the form of a simile, but when we say, “The stars are night's candles," we express the thought by means of a metaphor or implied comparison; and we may make the metaphor still stronger by assuming the comparison, as is done by Shakespeare when he uses the beautiful metaphor, "Night's candles are burnt out," meaning that dawn has come and the stars have disappeared.

Metaphor is,

Language is replete with metaphors. indeed, the most common of figures, and so frequently is it used that in many cases we fail to recognize it as a figure. Many metaphors after long-continued use seem to lose their figurative character. These are known as "faded metaphors," and so great is their number that Richter, the German poet, has been led to call language "a dictionary of faded metaphors."

Value of Metaphor.-1. Metaphor Aids the Memory by Multiplying Meanings without Multiplying Words.-Thus, by the use of metaphor the same words may have a number of different applications. The word "pointed," for instance, means having a point, but we apply the term metaphorically to "a pointed remark," "a pointed illustration," "a pointed argument,” etc.

2. Metaphor Aids the Understanding.-It does this by illustrating the abstract and the intangible by means of the concrete and the tangible. One of the most important helps in illustrating abstract truths is the metaphor. Thus, we speak of "a flight of the imagination," "a ray of hope," "the grasping of an idea," "the recollection (recalling) of a fact." The terms "perception" (a seeing through), “imagining" (the forming of an image), and others of the same nature are faded metaphors.

3. Metaphor Impresses the Feelings.-On this point Blair, in one of his lectures, says: "Of all the figures of speech, none approaches so near to painting as metaphor. It gives light and strength to description, and makes intellectual ideas in some degree visible, by giving them color, substance, and sensible qualities." It is this power of the metaphor that makes poetry pleasing.

A metaphor not only creates an agreeable surprise, but it also incites the mind to trace out the implied resemblance. Thus, when we say of a man who is sturdy and unyielding, "He is not a willow, but an oak," the mind begins at once to trace out the dissimilarity to the yielding willow and the resemblance to the sturdy oak.

4. Metaphor Secures both Brevity and Smoothness.—This will be readily perceived by the comparison of a few metaphors with similes expressing substantially the same meaning. Take, for example, the following:

Simile." A fatal habit settles upon one like a vampire, and sucks his blood."

Metaphor.-"A fatal habit is a vampire that sucks one's

blood."

Simile.-"As in passing through a prism beams of white light are decomposed into the colors of the rainbow, so in tra

versing the soul of the poet the colorless rays of truth are transformed into bright-tinted poetry."

Metaphor.-"The white light of truth, in traversing the many-sided, transparent soul of the poet, is refracted into irisLued poetry."-Herbert Spencer.

The simile usually gives clearness to an illustration where the metaphor gives force.

The simile may usually be condensed to a metaphor, and the metaphor may be expanded into a simile.

SUGGESTIONS.

The suggestions heretofore given with regard to the use of the Simile apply also to some extent to the use of the Metaphor.

There are additional suggestions which apply particularly to the use of the Metaphor. The following are the most important:

1. Metaphorical and Plain Language should not be Used in the Same Sentence.-That is, when a metaphor is introduced into a sentence, all other parts of the sentence should be made to conform to the metaphor.

The suggestion is violated in each of the following sentences: "Boyle was the father of chemistry, and brother to the earl of Cork." "When entering the twilight of dotage, reader, I mean to have a printing-press in my own study."-De Quincey.

To thee the world its present homage pays;

The harvest (met.) early, but mature (met.) the praise (lit.).”—Pope.

"I was sailing in a vast ocean (met.), without other help than the pole-star (met.) of the ancients, and the rules of the French stage (lit.) among the moderns."

Note. The following are given as correct examples of metaphor:

(6 'Antony is but a limb of Cæsar."

"In peace thou art the gale of spring; in war, the mountain of storm."-Ossian.

"You make him but the spigot of a cask,

Round which you, teachers, wait with silver cups

To bear away the wine that leaves it dry."

2. Mixed Metaphors should be Avoided.-A mixed metaphor is one in which two different figures in the same sentence are used to represent the same object.

The following sentence contains a mixed metaphor:

"The chariot of the day peers over the mountain-tops."

Here the sun is first represented as a chariot, and later as a person peering over the mountain-tops; but certainly a chariot cannot peer.

Note the mixed metaphors in the following:

"The world should throw open all its avenues to the passport of a woman's bleeding heart."-Hawthorne.

"I bridle in my struggling muse in vain,

That longs to launch into a bolder strain."-Addison.

"The fire of jealousy will soon root out all happiness from the domestic circle."

3. Metaphors should be Appropriate to the Subject.

Thus, to pray that "the Almighty shall be a rock to the mariners at sea "is to use a metaphor wholly inappropriate, as in effect it expresses the contrary of what the speaker would probably wish. A rock at sea is a source of danger to mariners, whereas the petitioner desires their safety.

4. An Excess of Metaphors should be Avoided.-Too many metaphors should not occur in succession. When metaphors follow one another too closely, the mind is likely to be distracted by the rapid change. The too frequent use of metaphor also has much the same effect as overdressing the person. It serves to attract at

tention, but since it violates good taste it offends rather than pleases. The same remark applies to the crowding of different metaphors on the same subject. It is better to use. metaphors at judicious intervals and on suitable subjects.

5. Metaphors should not be Carried too Far.-Carrying out the metaphor so that all the minor and irrelevant details are dwelt upon is called straining the metaphor.

The following will serve as a sample of this fault, which is one that is likely to weary the reader:

"Since the vessel of thy unbounded ambition hath been wrecked in the gulf of thy self-love, it would be proper that thou shouldst take in the sails of thy temerity, and cast the anchor of repentance in the port of sincerity and justice, which is the port of safety; lest the tempest of our vengeance make thee perish in the sea of the punishment thou deservest."

Metaphor on the Adjective.-Sometimes the comparison is indicated by the adjective, as in the following: marble-hearted fiend, a sharp boy, an acute thinker, rosytinted morning, stormy passions, a harsh temper.

Metaphor on the Verb.-Sometimes the comparison is indicated by the verb. In this case the object is not mentioned, but the verb is of such a nature as to express an action that cannot be mistaken. Thus, "His diction flowed on smoothly, but now and then it broke into ripples as it met the pebbles in its way." Here we cannot fail to understand the comparison between the author's diction and a stream.

EXERCISE.

a. Point out the metaphors in the following.

b. Rewrite each metaphor in the form of a simile.

1. Candor is a delicate flower.

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