The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-09-09
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DR.. Blair is getting little out Of fashion IN
modern DAYS. Oar strong Saxon was too roigh
for him, and ne was forever filing IT, He thought
i was bear, and cOmbed and rleelsed Il till 1t
became very unbearable. BIT that lcng-ven-
Grated work Of his on rhetoric contains things
worthy Of being regarded BY many Of the sip
shod writers Of the day. We are thinking at
eresent of his remarks on mixed metaphors. In
productions Of great pretension, we often find
the most incongruOus metaphors joined together
in way that shows the authors did not know
what they were saying. When their metaphors
are examined, they look like the monster Of
which Horace speaks--a human head joined TO
horses neck, covered all over with feathers,
and ending in the tail Of black FISH.
Tristan Shsndy expresses his sense Of the
impOssibility Of making Slawkenbergus "stick
to his metaphor" There are many Slawkea-
| Oergiuses in this respect. Some of them min
gle the literal and the figurative, and join a
piece Of one metaphor to another and inconsis-
tent one in so fantastic a way that the whole
looks like party colored foolscap. The meta
phor undergoes all the transformations of Prote-
us; when you think you have hold Of the brancll-
es of a tree you find yourself elinging lion q
name, and when you look al & FIRE yon find Il Is
all water. Acertain clergyman, whose preach
ing has always produced powerful effect, is
remarkable for mixing metaphors. In a vol
ume Of poems that he published, we remember
to have observed stanza in which an object
underwent three transformations in as manJ
lines.
When We see this confusion, we may be sur
that the author has no accurate conception o
the figures. The metaphorieal language come
from his memory, and not from his Imagination
or his fancy. FIeremembers pretty things ahon
flowers, and birds, and skies, and streams, ant
stars, and jumbles them all together like SO ma
ny mere words. When metaphor 10 forme,
by mans own immagination, ne sees il like
picture on a canvass, and he will never be at
loss to know whether eagle, or rose, or
horse, or a ship, is before him.
We are here reminded of passage from AID
olson which is criticised by Dr. Blair.
81 bride in my struggling muse with pain,
ThatlongS 10 launch into holder strain"
In the first line of this quotation, the muse /
horse, and requires 6Fidiiag; in the next sh
has become a ship and is about to launch. Now
Addison never really imagined himself on III
back Of the muse in the first line, or he had n
idea Of the figure implied in the word IauRel
: The muse would be "sorry iade,' indeed, t
play such fantastic tricks as the language i'm
: plies.
A learned professor in Medical College nc
G far from Louisville, said ia addressing the graz
e uating class, young gentlemen, you are abou
4 to embark on a new field of labor" "They wi
have dry sailing" drily remarked young lad
: in the assembly.
We present one or two other examples
mixed metaphors.
> "This proposition was like &rebrGnd in Il
meeting, and tkrep cold pater on all their pr
|" ceedings"
"He was in ocean of difficulties, aud SUI
rounded BY laOHHfeiRs Of troubles"
"He was beftossn the horns of dilemma, an
could not see has loayOut.''
Though he was comparatively, OF bed
: ease, he was still climbing tAs sleeps Of tane"
"This was the apple Of discord that expands
into such an ocean Of confusion"