7960] 
In another paflage, he dilates this 
fimple comparifon, atter his manner, to a 
minute picture of a fall of {now. 
As ona winter’s day the frequent flakes 
Fall thick; when Jove, his weapons to cifplay, 
Sends ficw on mortals: lulling every gale 
He pours inceffant, till each mountain’s head, 
High cliff, and graffy mead, and all the wealth 
Of human toil, lies hid beneath the wafte ; 
Nor lefs on hoary Ocean’s bays and fhores 
The flicht defcends, but here the rolling wave 
Beats back encroachment ; all befides is whelm’d 
Decp by the fhower of Jove: thus frequent 
flew 
The ftones from either hoft. Tes si 278. 
T he intrinfic beauty and accuracy of this 
winter landfcape is fuch, that we fhould 
not cenfure its digreffive nature and lax 
application, were it not both deficient 
in the leading point of refemblance, and 
difcordant in its general effeéts on the 
mind, with the feene in which it is in- 
troduced. ‘he only refemblance is this ; 
€ the ftones fell as thick as {now:’’ but 
the fubftance falling, and the effects pro- 
duced by the fall, are:as diffimilar as can 
well be conceived. And in’ the whole 
‘feenery of the fimile, there is an air of 
ftillne's and tranquillity, which forms an 
abfolute contraft to the noife and tumult 
of the real aétion. 
With fuperior judgment Virgil has 
made a Aail-florm the objeét of fimilitude 
to a flight of darts and the rage of battle, 
in the two following paffages : 
Sternituromne folum telis ; tum ‘cuta cavzeque 
Pant fonitum Aétu galez 3; pugne afpera furgit : 
Quantus ab occafu veniens puyialibus hedis 
Werberat imber humum ; quam multa grandine 
nimbi 
In vada precipitant, 
Autiris 
Torquet aquofan hyemem, & celo cava nubila 
-rumpit. EN. 1x. 666. 
Heaps of {pent arrows fall, and ftrew tho ground; 
And helms, and thields, and rattling arms re- 
found. 
The combat thickens, like the ftorm that flies 
From weftward, when, the ihowery Kids arife : 
Or patt’ring hail comes pouring on the main, 
When Jupiter defeends in harden’d rain ; 
Or bellowing clouds burft with a ftormy found, 
And with an armed winrer firew the ground, 
: DRYDEN. 
cum Jupiter horridus 

Furit Aineas, tectufque tenet fe. 
Ac velut, effufa fi quando grandine nimbi 
Precipitant, omnis campis diffugit arator, 
Omnis & agrico!a, & tuta latet «ce viator, 
Aut amnis ripis, aut alti fornice faxi, 
Dum plyit; im texris us poflint, fole xeductoy 
Similes of Homer, Virgil, and Milton. 
former ones. 
Exercere diem: fic obrutu: undique telis, 
ZEneas, nubem belli, dum detonat, omne 
Suftinet. ALN, X. 802. 


~ ee ome 
The Trojan. chief 
On his Vulcanian orb fuftain’d the «ar. 
As when thick hail comes rattling in the wind, 
The ploughman, paffen er, and i ab’ringhind, 
For ihelter to the ncighb’ring co ert fly, 
Or hous’d, or fafe in hollow caverns lie: 
Bu, that o’erblown, when heav’n above thena 
fmiles, 
Return to travel, and renew their toils: 
fiineas, thus o’erwhelm’d, on every fide, 
The form of darts, undaunted, did abide. 
DEYDEN, 
In the former of thefe fimiles we have 
“not only the multitude of darts, but their 
clatierimg againft the armou-, and the 
force ox their fall, paralle'ed in the hajl- 
ftorm. The latter is extended in Homer’s 
manner ; but the picture exhibited fuf- 
ficiently harmonizes with the primary 
fcene. Wirg:l again juft touches on the 
fame imavs where he compares the 
blows given by Hntellus to Dares, in the 
boxing-match, to hail rattling on the 
roofs. 
Homer has one fimile, in which the 
brightne/s, as well as the fhick-falling. of 
fnow, feems to be intended as a part of 
the refemblance : : 
As when from heav’n the frequent fnows de- 
fcend, 
Drivin by the fweepy tempef of the north ; 
So thick, the helms bright-gleaming, bofty 
thields, 
Breaft-plates of proof, and afhen fpears, were 
borne 
From out the thips, Te sie 2i5 7 
There are two other fimiles in this 
poet in which {now is introduced more 
happily, perhaps, than in any of his 
7 Gne is the celebrated com- 
parifon illuftrative of the eloquence of 
Ulyffes, whofe words, he fays, were 
slike wintry fnows.” 
fuggeft themfelyes to our imagination, 
and render the. application equally in- 
genious and ftmking. The other ins 
ftance is ftill more beautiful. He ts de- 
fcribing the lamentation of Penelope for 
Ulyfies : 
As {now, by Zephyr fhed on mountain tops, 
Beneath the breath of Eurus melts away, 
And, as it flows, the rapid rivers {well ; 
So down her beauteous cheeks diftill’d the tears. 
: Op. xix. 206. 
‘Mift, an appearance fo frequent in 
| thefe 
chee 
- 
Here both the . 
fofinels and copioulne/s of flakes of fnow 

