any diversion of a doubtful nature. Be not swayed by that which you hear urged by gentlemen-be not influenced by ridicule; let your amusements be characterized by the same correctness as your moments of repose. It is an error in woman ever to put it into the power of any one to question the propriety of what she does. At the same time, some peculiarity may now be attributed, some odium on others be implied, by abstaining from waltzing. The refusal should be given, however, firmly, and promptly, with delicacy, and deference to the different opinions of others. We have no right to say that we are better than others, or to attribute to them motives and sentiments which are wrong, because they do not think as we do. A young lady may waltz as innocently as she dances a quadrille; but, if her own innate sense of propriety be once shocked in the performance of the dance, she is culpable if she ever waltzes again. THE WIFE TO HER HUSBAND. LINGER not long! Home is not home without thee, Linger not long! Though crowds should woo thy staying: Bethink thee, can the mirth of friends, though dear, Compensate for the grief thy long delaying Costs the fond heart that sighs to have thee here? Linger not long! Linger not long! How I shall watch thy coming, As evening shadows stretch o'er moor and dell, When the wild bee hath ceased her busy humming, And silence hangs on all things like a spell! Linger not long! How shall I watch for thee, when fears grow stronger, Linger not long! Haste-haste thee home unto thy mountain dwelling, Haste as a skiff, when tempests wild are swelling, Linger not long! THE SANDAL TREE. ОH. many a lesson we may learn, The modest lily of the vale When wounded, in return it throws And perfumes every breeze that blows Would men but learn of that fair tree The gentle law of love, Soon this fair earth of ours would be More like our home above. METAPHOR AND SIMILE. THE simile or comparison may be considered as differing in form only from a metaphor; the resemblance being in that case stated, which in the metaphor is implied. Each may be founded either on resemblance, strictly so called, i. e. direct resemblance between the objects themselves in question (as when we speak of table-land, or compare great waves to mountains), or on analogy, which is the resemblance of ratios-a similarity of the relations they bear to certain other objects; as when we speak of "the light of reason," or of "revelation," or compare a wounded and captive warrior to a stranded ship. The analogical metaphors and comparisons are both the more frequent and the more striking. They are the more frequent, because almost every object has such a multitude of relations of different finds, to many other objects; and they are the more striking, because (as Dr. A. Smith has well remarked) the more remote and unlike in themselves any two objects are, the more is the mind impressed and gratified by the perception of some point in which they agree. With respect to the choice between the metaphorical form and that of comparison, it may be laid down as a general rule, that the former is always to be preferred, whenever it is sufficiently simple and plain to be immediately comprehended; but that which as a metaphor would sound obscure and enigmatical, may be well received if expressed as a comparison. We may say with propriety, that "Cromwell trampled on the laws;" it would sound flat to say that "he treated the laws with the same contempt as a man does anything which he tramples under his feet." On the other hand, it would be harsh to say, "the stranded vessel lay shaken by the waves," meaning the wounded chief tossing on the bed of sickness; it is therefore necessary, in such a case, to state the resemblance. But this is never to be done more fully than is necessary to perspicuity; because all men are more gratified at catching the resemblance for themselves, than at having it pointed out to them. And accordingly the greatest masters of this kind of style, when the case will not admit of pure metaphor, generally prefer a mixture of metaphor and simile; first pointing out the similitude, and afterwards employing metaphorical terms which imply it; or, vice versa, explaining a metaphor by a statement of the comparison. To take examples of both kinds from an author who particularly excels in this point (speaking of a morbid fancy); "Like the bat of Indian brakes, Her pinions fan the wound she makes, She drinks the life-blood from the vein."* The word like makes this a comparison; but the * Rokeb |
