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ANALOGY — TETJE AND FALSE 



"T HAVE never seen any thorough examination of 

 -L the grounds of analogy. The works on logic 

 make hut slight reference to them, yet the argument 

 from analogy is one of the most frequent forms of 

 argument, and one of the most convincing. It is 

 so much easier to captivate the fancy with a pretty 

 or striking figure than to move the judgment with 

 sound reasons, — so much easier to be rhetorical 

 than to he logical. 



We say that seeing is believing ; the rhetorician 

 makes us see the thing ; his picture appeals to the 

 mind's visual sense, hence his power over us, though 

 his analogies are more apt to be false than true. 

 We love to see these agreements between thoughts 

 and things, or between the subjective and the ob- 

 jective worlds, and a favorite thought with profound 

 minds in all ages has been the identity or oneness 

 which runs through creation. 



"A vast similitude interlocks all," says Whit- 

 man, " spans all the objects of the universe and com- 

 pactly holds and encloses them." 



Everywhere in Nature Emerson said he saw the 

 figure of a disguised man. The method of the uni- 



