Wheeling times and advertiser. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1839-1849, 1846-06-10
A WORD ON SMILES.

The necessity of resortng to the simile in |
all such desperate cases is felt even from ear |
Hest boyhood. Even in schoollays when G. |
vents so fall on. that il is difficult at the mo-
ment to call TO mind anything like them, they
yet must be likened to some thing or other:
aud accordingly we hear how "Thwaitcs has
been punching Virgins head like dnvihinr.'
Like What it were impossible to say; but any
thing is better than nothing. and the sen
tence could not be terminated without com-
parison. II is on this principal found out SO
early in life, and in the consciousness of this
want which accompanies us all through il,
that certain phrases have been invented and
dispersed through the world. as legitimate and
recognised substitutes for this too general and
indefinite simile like anything" 1t was
felt. III the process of time, to be more digni-
fed TO mention more EXPLICITLY some one OBJ
Jet oil comparison, no matter for its absolute
and notorious non-resemblance in the rar,icu-
lar case; and hence, by happy social fiction,
profound as the fictions for which thelaw is
famous, the ingenious expression like bricks"
70 &C into popularity. To hear of ministers
| putting on taxes like bricks, or OF public NEE
ungs issembsing like bricks; OF Snaggs drink
ing pale ale like bricks, aud OF one Braggs
smoking mild Havsnas like bricks: of one tai
king like bricks, aud another boiling like
bricks, In short, OF men universally reading,
writing. toiling and begging like bricks; pay
ing their debts and cheating their creditors
like bncks-soon became quite matter of
coursc. The admiral inventor sc ned 10
be universally applicable, because it nowhere
applied: 1t was even said of persons who had
a passion for erecting new tenements by the
thousand, IN every mebesprnkled suburb OF
London, that they are Building houses like
bricks-the houses being in reality like laths.
A slight variation, equally avoiding the chan
ces OF applicability, was now suggested by a
sense OF universal convenience, aud "likc
blazes' broke frequently on the gratiied ear.
The tide was said to be running up like baz-
es, or teetotalism getting along like blalcs, or
trade being opened like bl0zes. The apostle
ness OF the. simie was every where recognised:
and, Sas in the case of bricks, it saved the trou
Bile OF pariicularizing, and left all TO the ina
gination. Similar advantages were discover
able i'm the use of the term ''wilkin; and lock.
ing like wilkin, riding like wilkin, anl spen-
ding money like wiikin, equally testified 10
the value set upon a stock phrase. ny which
mysterious likeness to something not admi-
thug OF definition was clearly implied. How
much better II II, since SMILES IN converse
ton can no more b. dispensed with than syl
tables. To have in this way Il standard image,
whatever il my b., bricks or wilkin, SCI up
as il were by Proclamation and national con
sent, 10 which oil other images, as soon 5
they arise in the mind must is,inciivey
conform. Better, surely. than To b. batting
about for similitudes, stopping aud sismmer-
ing in the hurry OF discourse to pick cut am
exact objec; of comparisons; and alter all, per-
hars succeeding only in sugges ling that the
lady cried like a mufiin-nln while her lover
went and shot himself like partridge. Bet
ter, again, we say, than to BE- brought TO dad
stand still, with simile sticking in one
throat, For all the world like-like-like"
aud no, nothing in the world can one think
OF like, because one has all the world to seek
comparison in, "where to choose"
Lamar Bidachard's Sketches from Life.