Tost to and fro by the high winds of passionate control, I behold the desired port, the single state, into which I would fain steer; but am kept off by the foaming billows of a brother’s and sister’s envy, and by the raging winds of a supposed invaded authority; while I see in Lovelace, the rocks on one hand, and in Solmes, the sands on the other; and tremble, lest I should split upon the former or strike upon the latter.

The present fashion is rather to develop a metaphor only by way of burlesque.  All that need be asked of those who tend to this form of satire is to remember that, while some metaphors do seem to deserve such treatment, the number of times that the same joke can safely be made, even with variations, is limited; the limit has surely been exceeded, for instance, with ‘the long arm of coincidence’; what proportion may this triplet of quotations bear to the number of times the thing has been done?—­The long arm of coincidence throws the Slifers into Mercedes’s Cornish garden a little too heavily.  The author does not strain the muscles of coincidence’s arm to bring them into relation.  Then the long arm of coincidence rolled up its sleeves and set to work with a rapidity and vigour which defy description.

Modern overdoing, apart from burlesque, is chiefly accidental, and results not from too much care, but from too little. The most irreconcilable of Irish landlords are beginning to recognize that we are on the eve of the dawn of a new day in Ireland.  ‘On the eve of’ is a dead metaphor for ‘about to experience’, and to complete it with ‘the dawn of a day’ is as bad as to say, It cost one pound sterling, ten instead of one pound ten.

C. Spoilt Metaphor

The essential merit of real or live metaphor being to add vividness to what is being conveyed, it need hardly be said that accuracy of detail is even more necessary in metaphorical than in literal expressions; the habit of metaphor, however, and the habit of accuracy do not always go together.

Yet Taurès was the Samson who upheld the pillars of the Bloc.

Yet what more distinguished names does the Anglican Church of the last reign boast than those of F.D.  Maurice, Kingsley, Stanley, Robertson of Brighton, and even, if we will draw our net a little wider, the great Arnold?

He was the very essence of cunning, the incarnation of a book-thief.

Samson’s way with pillars was not to uphold them; we draw nets closer, but cast them wider; and what is the incarnation of a thief? too, too solid flesh indeed!

D. Battles of Dead Metaphors

In The Covenanters took up arms there is no metaphor; in The Covenanters flew to arms there is one only—­flew to for quickly took up; in She flew to arms in defence of her darling there are two, the arms being now metaphorical as well as the flying; moreover, the two metaphors are separate ones; but, being dead, and also not inconsistent with each other, they lie together quietly enough.  But dead metaphors will not lie quietly together if there was repugnance between them in life; e’en in their ashes live their wonted fires, and they get up and fight.