Languages & literature > Abridgement of lectures on rhetoric

METAPHOR.
Mine only will reroain entire ;
No drofs was there, to perilh in the fire.
Metaphors, borrowed from any of the fciences, efpe-
daily from particular profefllons, are almoft always
faulty by their obfeurity.
In die fourth place we mufl never jumble metaphori¬
cal and plain language together ; never conftruft a pe¬
riod fo, that part of it muft be underftood metaphorical¬
ly, part literally ; which always produces confufion.
The works of Oflian afford an inftance of the fault, we
are now cenfuring, “ Trothal went forth with the
“ flream of his people, but they met a rock; for Fingal
“ Hood unmoved ; broken they rolled back from his
“ fide. Nor did they roll in fafety ; the fpear of the
“ king puifued their flight.’ ’ The metaphor at the be¬
ginning is beautiful; die “ flream,” the “ unmoved
“ rock,” the “ waves rolling back broken,” are expreffi-
ons in the proper and confident language of figure ;
but in the end, when wre are told, “ they did not roll
“ in fafety, becaufe the fpear of the king purfu-
“ ed their flight,” the literal meaning is injudi-
cioufly mixed with the metaphor; diey are at the fame
moment prefented to us, as waves that roll, and as men,
that may be purfued and 'wounded by a fpear.
In the fifth place take care not to make two differ*
eat metaphors meet on the fame obje<£h This, which
is called mixed metaphor, is one of die groffeft abulls-