Chapter XXIX: Section IV: Of Suppositions and Comparisons

The two shoals to be avoided in this form of language are directly opposed to each other; the one is triviality, the other bombast.

The object of supposition, which is already antiquated, and sometimes too simple, is to increase the force of reasoning, and to carry conviction to the mind of the person who listens to you; comparison tends to make an image, or to place before us the object described. When both these qualities are regulated by reason, use, and taste, it is very well; but how seldom is this the case!

They are not so used, if, in the course of a discussion, you suppose a respectable person to supply the place of a madman, an ill-bred person, or a robber; or, if you suppose him to be in a situation disgraceful or even ridiculous. As, for example; _If you had been this bad person_; or, _Suppose, that you had committed this base act_; or, _that you should be laughed at_, &c.

They are also misplaced, whenever, being satisfied with avoiding disagreeable comparisons, we endeavor to mark out some one as contemptible, by comparing his exterior with that of some other person in the company. When we say; _This unfortunate man is of your size, sir; he has your traits, your physiognomy_, &c.

They are also misplaced, if used in the presence of people of a profession upon which the injurious comparisons fall, as when we say; _As quackish as a doctor_; _greedy as an attorney_; _loquacious as a lawyer_, &c.

Finally, politeness and taste cannot at all exist in comparisons, if they are common or trivial, as when we say, _black as the chimney-back_, _high as one's hand_, &c.; or, if they are in a turgid and pretending style, such as, _learned as the Muses_, _fresh as the meadows_, &c.