METAMORPHOSIS 



METAPHYSICS 



n|xn> which CliilxTti v\a- engaged from 1423 to 

 14.VJ. i" con-ideied a marvellous work of art. 

 Another door in tlii" building, b\ A. I'i-ano, com- 

 ph't.-d in U:ttl, after iM-ing in progress I",, r twenty 

 -. is also an admirable |iio.liii>iinii. I'. Vischer's 

 brine of St Sehald at MuVUlbWK is a beautiful 

 monument which, though (|iiii<> ditleicnt in form 

 from tin- objects named :ili\e. n-cinbles tlit'in in 

 Uie design being an intiniat romliiiiiition of Niiuill 

 works in sculpture ami an-hitectuial ornament. 

 A fountain in tin- Maximilian strasse, Augsbmg, 

 execute! by II. (icrlmnl in I.V.l.'l, has l-cen niucii 

 ailmireil. t-'or want of space < ran only name 

 two more hronzisU B. Morel, who did the great 

 camlelabrum in Seville Cathedral, ami I,, Deiiiini, 

 who in the 17th century executed many clever 

 works in Italy. 



There is perhaps no class of metal object* in 

 which artistic skill is more marvellously displayed 

 than in some of the rich suits of armour mode in 

 tin- end of the 1.1th. lmt chielly in the 16th century. 

 These are for tin- nm-t part of iron or steel, with 

 ornament in repousse or engraved ; sometime- with 

 lioth combined, and occasionally with daiMMMing 

 in gold anil silver. Among tnose who practised 

 tin- armourer's art in Italy the most famous names 

 are Michelangelo, Filippo Xegrolo, Koinero, and 

 (Mime members of the IV-cinini family. In (iermany 

 Kollman of Augsburg, and in France Antoine 

 laid stood hiiili. Some of the finest suits of 

 armour made at this peii.nl are in the Museum of 

 Anus at Dresden, and in the Louvre and Musee 

 d'Artillerie, Paris. 



Wrought iron work, rude but effective, appears on 

 the wooden doors of some Romanesque churches of 

 the I '2th century. I n the 13th and 14th centuries 

 tin- work in this metal Iwcame more refined, ami 

 among admirable examples of the latter period may 

 lie mentioned the screens round the tombs of the 

 S-.ila family at Verona, and a screen in the church 

 "I Santa Croce, Florence, Screens, grilles, and 

 other object* with open wrought-iron ornament, 

 beautifully designed, and ranging over a period 

 from the 13th to the 16th century, but especially 

 tli",.. made during tin- loth and 16th, are found 

 in many churches in (ierinany, Spain, France, and 

 England. In the latter countrv the early grille 

 over Queen Eleanor's tomb. Westminster, nnd 

 the later screen to Kdwaid IV. 's at Windsor are 

 fine examples ; so also are the still later ( 18th 

 century) railing panels made for Hampton Court 

 Palace by Huntington Shaw. The canopy of a 

 draw-well at Antwerp by jm-ntin Matsy* is one of 

 tin- IM-M works of it- kind in hammered iron. 

 Many of thi! ehilxnately chiselled iron looks and 

 hinges made at Niiicmlierg anil Augsburg in the 

 Kith nnd llith centime- are wonderfully beautiful. 

 The National Museum at Munich i especially rich 

 in specimen* of these. 



Sat DiijI.y-Wjr.U, Mttal-tmrk (1862) ; the South Ken- 

 ington Muwum [Descriptive] Catalogue of Bronze*, by 

 .urn. r,.| ,f ii>M ,! HUartmUk'i Work, by J. H. 

 Pollen; Hefner-AlU-wck. Vrrwrfrie ( 1870 ) ; K8clicl..rff, 

 AV.tldunpn De*tttAer IxJimiedetorrke MS;.SI. <Kurm 

 4t Kiekant it Lolmd' : K. |-|..n. II. '. //,,. R rf henhf* 

 nrm Vie rt nr *>* (Ku on (1883) j O. W. Yapp, Metal- 

 rt(ohkny modern). 



MrlnmorphoslH. a tenn applied in ancient 

 nr. tholo^y lo the fiei|iii-nt 1 1 aiisformatioii of human 

 U'ingii into beasU, stonw, trees, and even into lire, 

 watT, or tlm like, which are em-tit ial part* of 

 popular folklon- everywhere. Them; metamorphoses 

 UTordi-d a -ubji-ct to Greek poet* and writers of the 

 Ale xand rim- |>eriod. an. I to Ovid among tin- Itomans. 

 See i;>:\-r K\iii.t,s an.l K'Pl.KI/ntK. In Zoology 

 Ih-- term Metamorphosis is apiilieil to such marki-d 

 ehangm as those from caterpillar to iiwct, or from 

 tadpole to frog, where the young form or larva 



is strikingly different from the adult. S.-e the 

 articles on Amphibia, Caterpillar, Crustacea, Echin- 

 odcrmala. Frog, Insects, v^c. ; and for .Metamor- 

 phosis in Hutaiiy. -re MiiitriioLtMir, FLOWER. In 

 Ceology the term inetnmunihixiii is applied to the 

 alteration nndeigone by rocks under heat, pressure, 

 and other influence-, so thai ih> \ a>-ume a n\stal- 

 line or semi crv-Uiliine structure. See CiEoLoGV, 

 Vol. V. p. 151.' 



Metaphor (Or. mrtuphora, 'a transference'), 

 a liguie of speech by mean- of which one thing is 

 put for another which it only resembles. '1 hns, the 

 Psalmist speak- of Hod's law as being 'a light to 

 his feet and a lamp to his path.' The metaphor 

 is therefore a kind of comparison implied but not 

 formally expressed, in which the speaker or writer, 

 ca-ting aside the circumlocution of the ordinary 

 similitude, seeks to attain his end at once, l-y 

 Uildly identifying his illustration with the tiling 

 illustrated. It is thus of necessity, when well 

 conceived and expressed, graphic nnd striking in 

 the highest degree, and has been a favourite figure 

 with poets and orators, and the makers of provcih.-, 

 in all ages. Even in ordinary language tne mean- 

 ings of words are in great part metaphors" ; &a when 

 we speak of an timti 'intellect, or a lailil\ iromontory. 

 The metaphor is false if the simile involved cannot 

 be intelligibly evolved from it ; and, to avoid what 

 are often called mired metaphors, it is well that 

 the implicit simile should ! conceived objectively, 

 a- in a picture. Such cases of confusion as Cromwell's 

 '(lod has kindled a seed in this nation 'are obvious 

 enough, but most often the HI, .ml metaphor is 

 wrapped up in a cloud of rhetoric, as in De (Juin. 

 sentence : 'The very recognition of these or any of 

 them by the jurisprudence of a nation is a mortal 

 vninid to the very keystone upon which the whole 

 vast arch of morality reposes.' Ruskin in his/'nr- 

 trn'ta, describing Rogers s cold reception of him as a 

 boy, says: 'The cultivation of tirniiinatititf genius 

 was never held by Mr Room to be an industry 

 altogether delectable to genius r'n its zenith.' 



Metaphysical Ports, a term first applied by 

 Dr Johnson in his life of Cow ley to the group of 

 which ]>onne is the most outstanding example. 

 They were men of learning, and to show tncii 

 learning was their whole endeavour; they neither 

 copied nature nor life, hence their thoughts are 

 often new but seldom natural ; the most hetero- 

 geneous ideas are yol.i-d by violence together, nature 

 and art being ransacked for ' illustration*, com- 

 parisons, and allusions : they failed, as might have 

 been expected, in moving tiie affections or attain- 

 ing the sublime, but what they wanted they en- 

 deavoured to supply bv hyperbole their amplifica- 

 tions had no limits, they left not only reason but 



fancy behind them, and pioiim-ed combinations oJ 



confused magnificence that not only could not be 

 credited but could not !< imagined. Yet, if they 

 fiecjuently threw away their wit upon false conceits, 

 they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected 

 truth : if their conceits were farfetched, they were 

 oiien worth the carriage. Such is Johnson's ex- 

 planation of the phrase and its meaning, and it 

 must !>< admitted that the name is to a certain 

 extent appropriate enough, for the philosophising 

 and analytic spirit peivades the works of the whole 

 M'hool, anil intellect rather than emotion is ever 

 the stuff out of which their phantasies are framed. 

 Their constant weakness is the tendency towards 

 conceit* and similes that are merely fantastic and 

 ingenious, 'Which mars a modern reader's pleasure' 

 in almost every i>oem of Donne and Cowley. 



Metaphysics, a word first applied to a certain 

 group of the philosophical dissertations of Aristotle, 

 containing what Aristotle d|.v.) called 'first philo- 

 sophy,' and Plato 'dialectics.' The phrase meta 



