313 



ANALOGY. 



ANALOGY. 



314 



Thus, two things may stand in a certain relation to each other, in 

 respect of their quantity, magnitude, shape, colour, strength, height, 

 Ac.; in which cases the subject of comparison is common to both, and 

 belongs to them to a greater or less amount. Thus, when we say that 

 one thing is larger, taller, thicker, smaller, darker, more beautiful, more 

 lasting, more desirable, more formidable, more probable, Ac., than 

 another, we mean that each of the pairs in question having in common 

 the quality referred to, the former has it in a greater degree than the 

 latter. These, which might be called ratios of degree, differ altogether 

 from the other class, which includes all those relations arising from the 

 manner in which one term of the ratio has affected the other, or is 

 necessarily connected with it, aud not from any attribute which they 

 l>ossess in common. Thus, we may speak of the relation of God and 

 man, of the relations of men as members of the same political society 

 or of different political societies, of the relation of a bird to its egg, of 

 a tree to its fruit, Ac., in which instances some act done by one to the 

 other party, or by both reciprocally, or some influence which one term 

 has exercised over the other, is signified, and not any quality or attri- 

 bute common to both. In some cases of the latter kind there ar 

 words which express each term of the ratio in reaped of the relation ; 

 and, therefore, they mutually imply each other. Such are, for 

 example, parent and child, debtor and creditor, agent and principal, 

 lessor and lessee, Ac. As in these cases it is impossible to conceive the 

 one without conceiving the other term, the latter might be called ratios 

 "/ triplication, as distinguished from those ratios in which a comparison 

 is made of qualities existing independently in the things compared. 

 For example, there cannot be a husband without a wife, or subjects 

 without a sovereign, nor is there any quality which a husband has, as 

 husband, independent of the wife, or the sovereign as sovereign, inde- 

 pendent of the subject ; but although there cannot be a short man or 

 a tall man without a man of middle size, yet the height of the short 

 or tall man is an absolute quantity, and independent of the comparison. 

 In the cases of a common property, or ratios of degree, there are words 

 which denote the relation of one term to the other, as lowness, height, 

 depth, and consequently imply both terms of the ratio ; but there is no 

 word which expresses the term of the ratio itself, as in the case of ratios of 

 iin/Jt.-ittt'ij.,.' (Locke 'On the Understanding,' ii. 25.) There are some 

 words used to denote the state of one of the terms of a ratio of 

 implication when the relation has been destroyed ; thus, i> /'''< 

 means an unmarried woman who was once a wife ; or/than, a child 

 whose father is dead, Ac. Sometimes the terms denoting a relation 

 are applied by anticipation before the ratio begins to exist ; thus, a 

 person is popularly called an heir in the ancestor's lifetime although 

 nemo at hem vaenlin. 



When two ratios are compared, that is, when it is affirmed that the 

 relation of two things is like the relation of two other things, the two 

 ratios together form an analoyy, aud each pair of the corresponding terms 

 of the two ratios is analogous. Thus, the bark stands in a similar relation 

 to a tree as the skin to an animal ; and consequently the one bears an 

 analogy to the other : so the feathers of a bird are analogous to the 

 hair of a quadruped, the admiral of a fleet is analogous to the general 

 of an army. Of this nature are all fables and parables, in which the 

 circumstances of the person to whom the lesson is addressed are 

 illustrated by a parallel case, that is, by supposing a relation similar to 

 that in which he is placed. Thus the case of a man who affects to 

 despise what is out of his reach is vividly pourtrayed by the fable of 

 the ' Fox and the Grapes ; ' and so in other cases, the parables of Holy 

 Writ are instances of a similar mode of instruction, only the examples 

 are not, as in fables, chosen among irrational animals. The same is 

 the principle of grammatical and etymological analogy; thus, if to 

 conjugated / girt, th'm ijivett, he yiees, to lire would be conjugated 

 / lire, thou lirat, he lire* ; the inflexions of the verbs standing in a like 

 relation to each. So the verb prattle is derived from to prate, as 

 hulJilf. is from to hop ; little is derived from the old word lite, as myehel 

 or myrtle from w </<, Ac. Thus, t!n;/li/ is to tiny, as royal to the 

 French roy, and rrr/al to the Latin rtj:, or rather to the root TO/. The 

 formation and development of language proceed almost exclusively on 

 this principle. 



From what has been said it is evident, 1, tliat in an analogy there 

 must be two ratios, and consequently four terms or objects of com- 

 parison ; and 2, that there is no connection between resemblance and 

 analogy, and that things may be analogous without being similar, and 

 similar without being analogous. 



1 . With regard to the first of these propositions, it should however 

 be observed, that, although there must be four terms, it is not neces- 

 sary that all the four terms should be different. If there was such a 

 necessity, one of the chief uses of analogy, as an engine of argument 

 and discover}' of truth, would be destroyed. All that is required is, 

 that there should be two distinct ratios : of what terms those ratios 

 may consist is indifferent. Thus in the case of brethren, the parents 

 are \n an analogous situation in respect of each brother : so the 

 grandfather is to the son, as the son is to the grandson. In such cases 

 as these, both the relations are known : frequently, however, the 

 relation in which one thing stands to another being known enables us 

 to discover, with greater or less certainty, the relation which the same 

 thing bears to something else, which is unknown. Thus the moral 

 government of mankind by the Deity, in this world, furnishes a means 

 of conjecturing his religious government, 1 Kith in this world and the 



next, independently of Divine revelation. So the past conduct or 

 performances of a nation, a government, a minister, a general, a lawyer 

 an architect, a painter, a poet, a racehorse, Ac., afford materials for 

 judging what will be their future conduct or performances under 

 similar circumstances. It is to this most important use of analogy 

 that Quintilian refers, when he says that its purpose is to discover 

 what is unknown by what is known, to prove what is uncertain by 

 what is certain. 



2. Resemblance being the similarity of some sensible quality, as 

 form, colour, taste, smell, or sound, it has evidently no connection with 

 analogy ; and if things analogous happen to resemble one another, 

 their resemblance is a mere accident, independent of their analogy. 

 Thus, two brothers may resemble each other ; but they might equally 

 resemble each other without being brothers, and would be equally 

 brothers if they did not resemble each other. The confusion of analogy 

 aud resemblance is however of very frequent occurrence, and numerous 

 examples of it might be cited. When Homer says that Apollo and 

 Minerva sat, like birds, on the branches of a tree near the Sctean gate 

 of Troy, he meant, as birds sit on the branches, so did the god aud 

 goddess : but Pope, and other translators, represent them as under- 

 going a change of form, and assuming the appearance of birds. 



The above example may serve to illustrate an error of frequent 

 occurrence in the use of the argument from analogy. As, in the 

 instance just cited, the similitude is extended beyond its proper 

 limits, and it is supposed that because the two objects are like each 

 other in one respect, they are like in all ; so the analogy between two 

 things is sometimes pressed beyond its just application, and is carried 

 out of the bounds of the relation in virtue of which the comparison 

 was made. Thus the injunction to be " as wise as serpents and harm- 

 less as doves," does not recommend to our imitation either the 

 envenomed ferocity of the one animal, or the helpless timidity of the 

 other. Two false analogies may be mentioned which at one time had 

 a powerful influence on political discussions, nor are even now quite 

 exploded, namely, that the existence of the human race, and the 

 existence of nations, are analogous to the life of a single man. For 

 some purposes these two relations might doubtless be compared ; but 

 when it is argued that a nation will pass through a series of changes 

 corresponding to the childhood, manhood, and old age of a single 

 human being, or that the early state of mankind was like the innocence 

 and simplicity of an infant, the comparison is unwarrantably wrested 

 out of the range of its proper application. The notion of the corruption 

 of a nation by luxury appears to have had a like origin ; for single 

 individuals may be, and often are, depraved by a sudden change from 

 poverty to riches ; but the process by which a nation enriches itself, 

 is a mark of habits very different from vicious indulgence and effemi- 

 nate indolence. 



All analogical comparisons are made by means of abstraction. A 

 certain attribute belonging to each of two objects is considered sepa- 

 rately from all the other attributes which those objects may possess, 

 and a comparison is instituted between them in respect of that common 

 attribute. Thus, the analogy between the skin of an animal and the 

 bark of a tree arises from our leaving out of our consideration all /those 

 circumstances in which they differ, such as their colour, consistency, 

 animation, sensibility, Ac., and paying attention only to the use of 

 each, as the outward covering, in one case, of the body and limbs of the 

 organised being, and in the other as the outward covering of the woody 

 matter of the tree. It is by a like process of abstraction that an 

 extended and vague meaning is given to many general terms, particularly 

 those belonging to the moral sciences ; and in this manner they are 

 applied to objects to which they are only analogous, and which they do 

 not properly designate. Thus a law, in its original and strict sense, is 

 a general command of one rational being to another : but as one of the 

 effects of such a command is to produce a uniformity of conduct in the 

 person or persons to whom the command is addressed, the word has 

 been transferred to inanimate objects in which there is a uniformity of 

 phenomena ; and although there is no command received, no command 

 given, and no intelligence to work upon, we yet speak of the laws which 

 regulate the motion of matter, the succession of the seasons, the diffu- 

 sion of heat and light, and other physical appearances which follow in 

 a constant relation of cause to effect. In this case the proper charac- 

 teristics of a law being neglected, one of its relations is alone considered ; 

 and hence the analogical application just mentioned. When such an 

 application is made, not from a vague or inaccurate use of language, 

 but from a desire to add beauty or energy to the expression by the 

 transfer of words, this transfer and sometimes the transferred word 

 itself, is called a metaphor. Thus, when Shakspere represents Macbeth 

 as saying of Duncan that 



<( His virtues 



Will plead like angclK, trumpet-toiigunl, against 

 The deep damnation of his taking off," 



he means that Duncan's virtues will arrest the public attention as 

 forcibly as the sound of trumpets. The analogy is obtained by 

 referring the two objects compared to the general class of things 

 which instantly attract universal notice. 



The word proportion properly signifies an analogy of quantities or 

 magnitudes, as a proportion of numbers, lines, surfaces, Ac. In popular 

 usage however proportion is commonly made synonymous with ratio, 



