ANALOGY — TEUE AND FALSE 29 



anchor, compass, pole-star, helm, haven ; from life 

 considered as a battle, we read deep meanings in 

 shield, armor, fencing, captain, citadel, panic, onset. 

 Life regarded under the figure of husbandry gives 

 us the expressive symbols of seedtime and harvest, 

 planting and watering, tares and brambles, pruning 

 and training, the chaff and the wheat. We talk in 

 parables when we little suspect it. What various 

 applications we make of such words as dregs, gutter, 

 eclipse, satellite, hunger, thirst, kindle, brazen, echo, 

 and hundreds of others. We speak of the reins of 

 government, the sinews of war, the seeds of rebel- 

 lion, the morning of youth, the evening of age, a 

 flood of emotion, the torch of truth, burning with 

 resentment, the veil of secrecy, the foundations of 

 character, a ripple of laughter, incrusted dogmas, 

 corrosive criticism. We say his spirits drooped, his 

 mind soared, his heart softened, his brow darkened, 

 his reputation was stabbed, he clinched his argu- 

 ment. We say his course was beset with pitfalls, 

 his efforts were crowned with success, his eloquence 

 was a torrent that carried all before it, and so on. 



Burke calls attention to the metaphors that are 

 taken from the sense of taste, as a sour temper, bit- 

 ter curses, bitter fate ; and, on the other hand, a 

 sweet person, a sweet experience, and the like. 

 Other epithets are derived from the sense of touch, 

 as a soft answer, a polished character, a cold recep- 

 tion, a sharp retort, a hard problem ; or from the 

 sense of sight, as brilliant, dazzling, color, light, 

 shade ; others from our sense of hearing, as discord- 



