■*8.4 COM 
meafure.—If he compares this tranflation with the origi¬ 
nal, he will find that the three fil'd ftanzas are rendered 
aim oft word for word, iIddifon. 
He carv’d in ivory fuch a maid, fo fair, 
As nature could not with his art compare. Dryden. 
To compare is in Spenfer ufed after the Latin compare , for 
to get; to procure ; to obtain : 
But, both from back and belly, ftill did fpare, 
To fill his bags, and rielres to cotnpare. Fairy Queen, 
To vie: 
And with her beauty bounty did compare , 
Whether in her fhould have the greater (hare. Spenfer, 
COMPA'RE,/. The Hate of being compared, com¬ 
parative eltimate; companion ; poflibility of entering into 
companion: 
Beyond compare the Son of God was feen 
Molt glorious. Milton • 
Simile; fimilitude; illuftration by comparifon : 
True fwains in love (hall, in the world to come, 
Approve their truths by Troilus ; when their rhymes, 
Full of proteft, and oath, and big compare , 
Want fimilies. Sbakefpeare. 
COMPARISON,/ [ comparaifon , Fr.] The aft of com¬ 
paring.—-Natalis Comes, comparing his parts with thofe 
of a man, reckons his claws among them, which are much 
more like thofe of a lion: fo eafy it is to dnve on the 
comparifon too far to make it good. Grew. —The (late of 
being compared.—Objefts near our view are apt to be 
thought greater than thofe of a larger fize that are more 
remote; and (o it is with pleafure and pain : the prelent 
is apt to carry it, and thofe at a diftance have the difad- 
vantage in the comparifon. Locke —A comparative efti- 
mate; proportion —1( men would live as religion re¬ 
quires, the world would be a mod lovely and defirable 
place, in comparifon of what now it is. Filiation. — A fimile 
in writing or fpeaking; an illuftration by limilitude.— 
As fair and as good a kind of hand-in-hand comparifon, 
had been fomething too fair and too good for any lady. 
Sbakefpeare. —[in grammar.] The formation of an ad¬ 
jective through its various degrees of (ignification; as, 
jlrong , flronger. ftrongef. 
COMPARISON, or Simile, is a figure frequently em¬ 
ployed both by poets and profe-writers, for the ornament 
of language. A metaphor is a comparifon likewife im¬ 
plied, but not exprefled as fuch, as when we fay, “ Achilles 
is a lion,” meaning, that he refembles one in courage or 
ftrength. A companion is, when the refemblance be¬ 
tween two objeCVs is exprefled in form, and generaiiy pur- 
fued more fully than the nature of a metaphor admits; 
as when we fay, “ The aCtions of princes are like thofe 
great livers, the courfe of which every one beholds, but 
their fprings have been feen by few.” This flight inftance 
will fhow, that a happy comparifon is a kind of fparkling 
ornament, which adds not a little luitre and beauty to 
dilcourfe; and hence fuch figures are termed by Cicero, 
erationis lamina. The pleafure derived from companions 
is juft and natural. There are three different fources 
whence it a.rifts. Firft, from the pleafure which nature 
has annexed to that aft of the mind by.which we com¬ 
pare any two objefts together, trace reiemblances among 
thofe that are different, and differences among thofe that 
referable each other; a pleafure, the final caufe of which 
is, to prompt us to remark and obferve, and thereby to 
make us advance in ufeful knowledge. Among natural 
objects theft fimilies moftly abound, as we may inltance by 
comparing the morning dew to pearls, or to a falling tear; 
Thus the dew, which fometimes on the buds 
Was wont to fwell, like round and orient pearls. 
Stood now within the pretty flovv’rets eyes, 
Like tears that did their own dilgrace bewail, Sbakefpeare. 
COM 
Or, to carry the allufion higher, we may inftance the 
following, on the dazzling brightnefc of a lummer cloud : 
As though an angel, in his upward flight, 
Had left his mantle floating in mid-air. 
Plays by an anonymous author. 
Secondly, the pleafure of comparifon arifes from the il¬ 
luftration which the fimile employed gives to the princi¬ 
pal objeft; from the clearer view of it which it prelents; 
or the more ftrong impreflion of it which it damps upon 
the mind, as inftanced in the following : 
She never told her love ; 
But let concealment, like a worm in the bud, 
Feed on her damafk cheek : (lie pin’d in thought; 
And with a green and yellow melancholy. 
She fat like patience on a monument. 
Smiling at grief! Sbakefpeare. 
Thirdly, it arifes from the introduction of a new, and 
commonly a (plendid objeft, affociated to the principal 
one of which we treat; and from the agreeable picture 
which that objeft prelents to the fancy ; new lcenes being 
thereby brought into view, which, without the afiiltance 
of this figure, we could not have enjoyed ; this will be 
obvious from the following pnffage :. 
As when a vulture on Imaus bred, 
Whofe fnowy ridge the roving Tartar bounds, 
Diflodging from a region fcarce of prey 
To gorge the flelh of lambs, or yeanling kids. 
On hills where flocks are fed, flies toward the fprings- 
Of Ganges or Hydafpes, Indian ftreams, 
But in his way lights on the barren plains 
Of Sericana, where Chinefes drive 
With fails and wind their cany waggons light: 
So on this windy fea of land, the fiend 
Walk’d up and down alone,, bent on his prey. Milton. 
All comparifons whatever may be reduced under two 
heads, explaining and embellifbing comparifons. For, when 
a writer likens the objeft of which he treats to any other 
thing, it always is, or at leaft always (hould be, with a 
view either to make us underftamd that objeft more dif- 
tinftly, or to drels it up, and adorn it. All manner of 
fubjefts admit of explaining comparifons. Let an author 
be reafoning ever fo ftriftly, or treating upon the moft 
abftrufe point in. philofophy, he may very properly intro¬ 
duce a comparifon, merely with a view to make his l’ub- 
jeft better underftood. Of. this nature is the following in 
Mr. Harris's Hermes, employed to explain a very abiirafl: 
point, the diftinftion between the powers of fenfe and 
imagination in the human mind : “ As w x would not 
be adequate to the purpofe of fignature, if it had not the 
power to retain as well as to receive the impreliion, the 
fame holds of the foul with refpeft to fenfe and imagina¬ 
tion. Senle is its receptive power; imagination its re¬ 
tentive. Had it fenfe without imagination, it would net 
be as wax, but as water, where, though all impreffions be 
inftantly made, yet as foon as they are made they are 
inllantly loft.” In companions of this nature, the under- 
ftanding is concerned much more than the fancy ; and 
therefore it is fufficient that they be clear, and ufeful; 
that they tend to render our conception of the principal 
objeft more diftinft : and that they do not lead our visvy 
afide, and bewilder it with any falfe light. 
But embelirihing comparifons, introduced not fo much 
with a view to inform and inftruft, as to adorn the fub- 
jeft of which we treat, are thole, indeed, which moft fire?-" 
quently occur, Refemblance is the foundation of com¬ 
panion. Refemblance mull not, however, be taken in. 
too ftrift a fenfe, for aftual fimilitude and likenefs of ap¬ 
pearance. Two objefts may fometimes be very happily 
compared to one another, though they referable each' 
other, ftriftly fpeaking, in nothing; only, becaufe they 
agree in the effefts which they produce upon the mind ; 
becaufe they raife a train of iimilar, or, what may be 
4 - called 
