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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/13311-0.txt b/13311-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8e9593b --- /dev/null +++ b/13311-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,864 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13311 *** + +_SOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISH_ + +_TRACT No. XI_ + + + + +THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR + + +By E.B., H.W. Fowler & A. Clutton-Brock + + +MISCELLANEOUS NOTES & CORRESPONDENCE + + +_At the Clarendon Press_ + + +1922 + + + + +THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR + + + +I. NOTES ON THE FUNCTION OF METAPHOR + +The business of the writer is to arouse in the mind of his reader the +fullest possible consciousness of the ideas or emotion that he is +expressing. + +To this end he suggests a comparison between it and something else +which is similar to it in respect of those qualities to which he +desires to draw attention. The reader's mind at once gets to work +unconsciously on this comparison, rejecting the unlike qualities and +recognizing with an enhanced and satisfied consciousness the like +ones. The functions of simile and metaphor are the same in this +respect. + +Both simile and metaphor are best when not too close to the idea they +express, that is, when they have not many qualities in common with it +which are not cogent to the aspect under consideration. + +The test of a well-used metaphor is that it should completely fulfil +this function: there should be no by-products of imagery which +distract from the poet's aim, and vitiate and weaken the desired +consciousness. + +A simile, in general, need not be so close as a metaphor, because the +point of resemblance is indicated, whereas in a metaphor this is left +to the reader to discover. + +When a simile or metaphor is from the material to the immaterial, or +vice versa, the analogy should be more complete than when it is +between two things on the same plane: when they are on different +planes there is less dullness (that is, less failure to produce +consciousness), and the greater mental effort required of the reader +warrants some assistance. + +The degree of effort required in applying any given metaphor should be +in relation to the degree of emotion proper to the passage in which it +is used. Only those metaphors which require little or no mental +exertion should be used in very emotional passages, or the emotional +effect will be much weakened: a far-fetched, abstruse metaphor or +simile implies that the writer is at leisure from his emotion, and +suggests this attitude in the reader.--[E.B.] + + + + +II. SOME NOTES ON METAPHOR IN JOURNALISM + +Live and dead metaphor; some pitfalls; self-consciousness and mixed +metaphor. + +1. Live and Dead Metaphor. + +In all discussion of metaphor it must be borne in mind that some +metaphors are living, i.e. are offered and accepted with a +consciousness of their nature as substitutes for their literal +equivalents, while others are dead, i.e. have been so often used that +speaker and hearer have ceased to be aware that the words are not +literal: but the line of distinction between the live and the dead is +a shifting one, the dead being sometimes liable, under the stimulus of +an affinity or a repulsion, to galvanic stirrings indistinguishable +from life. Thus, in _The men were sifting meal_ we have a literal use +of _sift_; in _Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as +wheat_, 'sift' is a live metaphor; in _the sifting of evidence_, the +metaphor is so familiar that it is about equal chances whether +_sifting_ or _examination_ will be used, and a sieve is not present to +the thought--unless, indeed, some one conjures it up by saying _All +the evidence must first be sifted with acid tests_, or _with the +microscope_; under such a stimulus our metaphor turns out to have been +not dead, but dormant. The other word, _examine_, will do well enough +as an example of the real stone-dead metaphor; the Latin _examino_, +being from _examen_ the tongue of a balance, meant originally to +weigh; but, though weighing is not done with acid tests or microscopes +any more than sifting, _examine_ gives no convulsive twitchings, like +_sift_, at finding itself in their company; _examine_, then, is dead +metaphor, and _sift_ only half dead, or three-quarters. + +2. Some pitfalls. A, Unsustained Metaphor; B, Overdone Metaphor; C, +Spoilt Metaphor; D, Battles of the Dead; E, Mixed Metaphor. + +A. Unsustained Metaphor + +_He was still in the middle of those twenty years of neglect which +only began to lift in 1868_. The plunge into metaphor at _lift_, which +presupposes a mist, is too sudden after the literal _twenty years of +neglect_; years, even gloomy years, do not lift. + +_The means of education at the disposal of the Protestants and +Presbyterians of the North were stunted and sterilized._ 'The means at +disposal' names something too little vegetable or animal to consort +with the metaphorical verbs. Education (personified) may be stunted, +but means may not. + +_The measure of Mr. Asquith's shame does not consist in the mere fact +that he has announced his intention to ..._ Metaphorical measuring, +like literal, requires a more accommodating instrument than a stubborn +fact. + +B. Overdone Metaphor + +The days are perhaps past when a figure was deliberately chosen that +could be worked out with line upon line of relentless detail, and the +following well-known specimen is from Richardson:-- + + _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. + +_It is impossible to crush the Government's aim to restore the means +of living and working freely_. 'Crush' for baffle, 'aim' for purpose, +are both dead metaphors so long as they are kept apart, but the +juxtaposition forces on us the thought that you cannot crush an aim. + +_National military training is the bedrock on which alone we can hope +to carry through the great struggles which the future may have in +store for us_. 'Bedrock' and 'carry through' are both moribund or +dormant, but not stone-dead. + +_The vogue of the motor-car seems destined to help forward the +provision of good road-communication, a feature which is sadly in +arrear_. Good road-communication may be a feature, and it may be in +arrear, and yet a feature cannot be in arrear; things that are equal +to the same thing may be equal to each other in geometry, but language +is not geometry. + +They are cyphers living under the _shadow_ of a great man. + +He stood, his feet _glued_ to the spot, his eyes _riveted_ on the +heavens. + +The Geddes report is to be _emasculated_ a little in the Cabinet, and +then _thrown_ at the heads of the Electorate. + +Viscount Grey's suggestion may, in spite of everything, prove the +_nucleus_ of _solution_. + +The superior stamina of the Oxonian told in no _half-hearted measure_. +[Even careful writers are sometimes unaware of the comical effect of +some chance juxtaposition of words and ideas, whereby a dormant +metaphor is set on its legs. Thus Leslie Stephen in his life of Swift +wrote: _Sir William Temple, though he seems to have been vigorous and +in spite of gout a brisk walker, was approaching his grave_. And again +when he was triumphantly recording the progress of agnosticism he has: +_Even the high-churchmen have thrown the Flood overboard_. [ED.]] + + + +E. Mixed Metaphors + +For the examples given in D, tasteless word-selection is a fitter +description than mixed metaphor, since each of the words that conflict +with others is not intended, as a metaphor at all. 'Mixed metaphor' is +more appropriate when one or both of the terms can only be consciously +metaphorical. Little warning is needed against it; it is so +conspicuous as seldom to get into speech or print undetected. + +_This is not the time to throw up the sponge, when the enemy, already +weakened and divided, are on the run to a new defensive position_. A +mixture of prize-ring and battlefield. + +In the following extract from a speech it is difficult to be sure how +many times metaphors are mixed; readers versed in the mysteries of +oscillation may be able to decide: + + _No society, no community, can place its house in_ _such a + condition that it is always on a rock, oscillating between + solvency and insolvency. What I have to do is to see that + our house is built upon a solid foundation, never allowing + the possibility of the Society's life-blood being sapped. + Just in proportion as you are careful in looking after the + condition of your income, just in proportion as you deal + with them carefully, will the solidarity of the Society's + financial condition remain intact. Immediately you begin to + play fast and loose with your income the first blow at your + financial stability will have been struck._ + +A real poet losing himself in the _meshes_ of a foolish _obsession_. + +Johnson tore the _hearts_ out of books ruthlessly in order to extract +the _honey_ out of them expeditiously. Are we to let the _pendulum_ +swing back to the old _rut_? Those little houses at the top of the +street, _dwarfed_ by the _grandiloquence_ on the opposite side, are +too small, too. + +3. Self-consciousness and Mixed Metaphor. + +The gentlemen of the Press regularly devote a small percentage of +their time to accusing each other of mixing metaphors or announcing +that they are themselves about to do so (What a mixture of metaphors! +If we may mix our metaphors. To change the metaphor), the offence +apparently being not to mix them, but to be unaware that you have done +it. The odd thing is that, whether he is on the offensive or the +defensive, the writer who ventures to talk of mixing metaphors often +shows that he does not know what mixed metaphor is. Two typical +examples of the offensive follow: + +_The _Scotsman_ says: 'The crowded benches of the Ministerialists +contain the germs of disintegration. A more ill-assorted majority +could hardly be conceived, and presently the Opposition must realize +of what small account is the manoeuvring of the Free-Fooders or of any +other section of the party. If the sling be only properly handled, the +new Parliamentary Goliath will be overthrown easily enough. The stone +for the sling must, however, be found on the Ministerial side of the +House, and not on the Opposition side.' Apparently the stone for the +sling will be a germ. But doubtless mixed feelings lead to mixed +metaphors._ In this passage, we are well rid of the germs before we +hear of the sling, and the mixture of metaphors is quite imaginary. + +Since literal benches often contain literal germs, but 'crowded +benches' and 'germs of disintegration' are here separate metaphors for +a numerous party and tendencies to disunion, our critic had ready to +his hand in the first sentence, if he had but known it, something much +more like a mixture of metaphors than what he mistakes for one. + +_'When the Chairman of Committees--a politician of their own +hue--allowed Mr. Maddison to move his amendment in favour of secular +education, a decision which was not quite in accordance with +precedent, the floodgates of sectarian controversy were opened, and +the apple of discord--the endowment of the gospel of +Cowper-Temple--was thrown into the midst of the House of Commons.' +What a mixture of metaphor! One pictures this gospel-apple battling +with the stream released by the opened floodgates._ In point of fact, +the floodgates and the apple are successive metaphors, unmixed; the +mixing of them is done by the critic himself, not by the criticized; +and as to _gospel-apple,_ by which it is hinted that the mixture is +triple, the original writer had merely mentioned in the _gospel_ +phrase the thing compared by the side of what it is compared to, as +when one explains _the Athens of the North_ by adding _Edinburgh._ + +Writers who are on the defensive apologize for _change_ and _mixture_ +of metaphors as though one was as bad as the other; the two sins are +in fact entirely different; a man may change his metaphors as often as +he likes; it is for him to judge whether the result will or will not +be unpleasantly florid; but he should not ask our leave to do it; if +the result is bad, his apology will not mend matters, and if it is not +bad no apology was called for. On the other hand, to mix metaphors, if +the mixture is real, is an offence that should have been not +apologized for, but avoided. Whichever the phrase, the motive is the +same--mortal fear of being accused of mixed metaphor. + +_...showed that Free Trade could provide the jam without recourse +being had to Protective food-taxes: next came a period in which (to +mix our metaphors) the jam was a nice slice of tariff pie for +everybody, but then came the Edinburgh Compromise, by which the jam +for the towns was that there were to be..._ When _jam_ is used in +three successive sentences in its hackneyed sense of consolation, it +need hardly be considered in the middle one of them a live metaphor at +all; however, the as-good-as-dead metaphor of jam _is_ capable of +being stimulated into life if any one is so foolish as to bring into +contact with it another half-dead metaphor of its own (i.e. of the +foodstuff) kind, and it _was_, after all, mixing metaphors to say the +jam was a slice of pie; but then the way of escape was to withdraw +either the jam or the pie, instead of forcing them together down our +throats with a ramrod of apology. + +_Time sifts the richest granary, and posterity is a dainty feeder. But +Lyall's words, at any rate--to mix the metaphor--will escape the blue +pencil even of such drastic editors as they_. Since all three +metaphors are live ones, and _they_ are the sifter and the feeder, the +working of these into grammatical connexion with the blue pencil does +undoubtedly mix metaphors. But then our author gives us to understand +that he knows he is doing it, and surely that is enough. Even so some +liars reckon that a lie is no disgrace provided that they wink at a +bystander as they tell it, even so those who are addicted to the +phrase 'to use a vulgarism' expect to achieve the feat of being at +once vulgar and superior to vulgarity. + +_Certainly we cannot detect the suggested lack of warmth in the speech +as it is printed, for in his speech, as in the Prime Minister's, it +seems to us that (if we may change the metaphor) exactly the right +note was struck_. + +_We may, on the one hand, receive into our gill its precise content of +the complex mixture that fills the puncheon of the whole world's +literature, on the other--to change the metaphor--our few small +strings may thrill in sympathetic harmony to some lyrical zephyrs and +remain practically unresponsive to the deep-sea gale of Aeschylus or +Dante_. + +Why, yes, gentlemen, you may change your metaphors, if it seems good +to you, but you may also be pretty sure that, if you feel the +necessity of proclaiming the change, you had better have abstained +from it. + +_Two of the trump cards played against the Bill are (1) that 'it makes +every woman who pays a tax-collector in her own house', and (2) that +'it will destroy happy domestic relations in hundreds of thousands of +homes'; if we may at once change our metaphor, these are the notes +which are most consistently struck in the stream of letters, now +printed day by day for our edification in the_ Mail. This writer need +not have asked our leave to change from cards to music; he is within +his rights, anyhow, and the odds are, indeed, that if he had not +reminded us of the cards we should have forgotten them in the +intervening lines, but how did a person so sensitive to change of +metaphor fail to reflect that it is ill playing the piano in the +water? 'A stream of letters', it is true, is only a picturesque way of +saying 'many letters', and ordinarily a dead metaphor; but once put +your seemingly dead yet picturesque metaphor close to a piano that is +being played, and its notes wake the dead--at any rate for readers who +have just had the word _metaphor_ called to their memory.--H.W. +FOWLER. + + + + +III. DEAD METAPHORS + +Metaphor becomes a habit with writers who wish to express more emotion +than they feel, and who employ it as an ornament to statements that +should be made plainly or not at all. Used thus, it is a false +emphasis, like architectural ornaments in the wrong place. It demands +of the reader an imaginative effort where there has been no such +effort in the writer, an answering emotion where there is none to be +answered. And the reader gets the habit of refusing such effort and +such emotion; he ceases even to be aware of metaphors that are used +habitually. He may not consciously resent them; but unconsciously his +mind is wearied by them as the eye by advertisements often repeated. +By their sameness they destroy expectation so that, even if the writer +says anything in particular, it seems to be all generalities. + +Here is an instance of habitual metaphor, not manufactured for this +tract, but taken from an article by a well-known writer. He is +speaking of the career of Mr. Lloyd George: + + There was nothing like it in the histories of the ancient + European monarchies, hide-bound by caste and now lying on + the scrap-heaps of Switzerland and Holland. In the more + forward nations, the new republics, men have indeed risen + from humble beginnings to high station, but not generally by + constitutional means and usually only (as now in Russia) by + wading to their places through blood. The dizzy height to + which Lloyd George has attained, not as a British statesman + only but also as a world celebrity, seems to leave the + foreign nations breathless. It is a spectacle that has of + itself some of the thrill and fascination of romance. + +Here are metaphors that might be used, or have been used, so as to +surprise the reader; but in this case they are stock-ornaments to a +passage that needs no ornament. If the metaphors in the first sentence +were alive to us they would be mixed; at least the transition from +monarchies hide-bound by caste to monarchies lying on scrap-heaps +would be too sudden; but we hardly notice it because we hardly notice +the metaphors. And there is an inconsistency in the notion of rising +by wading which, again, we do not notice only because we are so used +to rising and wading as metaphors that both have lost their power as +images. Mr. Lloyd George has waded to such a dizzy height that he +seems to leave foreign nations breathless; and we should be breathless +at the thought of such an impossibility if the metaphors were not +dead. + +It is indeed the mark of a dead metaphor that it escapes absurdity +only by being dead. The term has been used for metaphors that have +lost all metaphorical significance; but these, perhaps, are better +called buried metaphors. I prefer to use the word _dead_ of metaphors +not yet buried but demanding burial. 'Risen from humble beginnings' is +perhaps a buried metaphor; 'wading to their places through blood' is a +dead one. It has been used so often that it jades instead of +horrifying us; it is a corpse that fails to make us think of corpses. +But in the next sentence the writer returns to the metaphor of rising +and elaborates it so that it is no longer buried, though certainly +dead. We are vaguely aware of the sense of this passage, but the +metaphors are a hindrance, not a help, to our understanding of it. + +Writers fall into habitual metaphor when they fear that their thought +will seem too commonplace without ornament; and, because the motive is +unconscious, they choose metaphors familiar to themselves and their +readers. The article from which I have quoted contains many such +metaphors. Mr. Lloyd George is 'like other men only cast in bigger +mould'. He is 'clearly no plaster saint'. 'You cannot think of him in +relation to the knock-out blow except as the man who gives, not +receives, it.' 'He has never lost his head on the dizzy height to +which he has so suddenly attained. He is clearly in no danger of the +intoxicating impulse of the people who find themselves for the first +time on great eminences, to leap over. In a word, he is not spoiled.' +Here the writer, as he would put it, gives himself away. All that +metaphor means only that Mr. George is not spoiled, and the fact that +he is not spoiled would be established better by instances than by +metaphors. + +Then we are told that some of Mr. George's feats 'seem to partake of +the nature of legerdemain'. 'He sways a popular assembly by waves of +almost Hebraic emotion.' 'No man has ever had his ear closer to the +ground and listened more attentively to the tramp of the oncoming +multitudes.' He 'held Great Britain's end up' at the International +conference. A 'magnificent tribute was paid to him by Earl Balfour' +but it 'did not put him alone on a pinnacle'. And then we read of the +whirligig of time, of 'clouds of misunderstanding which point to the +coming of a storm'; of how 'foreign nations suddenly became aware that +a new star had swum into the world's ken'; of how 'the situation of +this country is perilous with so much Bolshevik gunpowder moving +about', and how 'it has required a strong heart and a clear head to +keep the nation from falling either into the sloughs of despond or the +fires of revolution'. + +Some of these are metaphors that were excellent in their first use and +original context; but they lose their excellence if repeated in any +context where they have not been discovered by the emotion of the +writer but are used by him to make a commonplace appear passionate. +Then they seem an unfortunate legacy from poetry to prose; and it is a +fact, I think, that our prose now suffers from the richness of our +past poetry. Even the prose writers of the Romantic movement regarded +prose as the poor relation of poetry; they did not see that prose has +its own reasons for existing, its own state of being and its own +beauties. They had the habit of writing about Shakespeare in +Shakespeare's own manner, which, in later plays such as _Antony and +Cleopatra_, is often a fading of one metaphor into another so fast +that the reader's or listener's mind cannot keep pace with it: + + O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, + The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, + That life, a very rebel to my will, + May hang no longer on me: throw my heart + Against the flint and hardness of my fault; + Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder. + And finish all foul thoughts. + +The metaphors here, though instinctive rather than habitual, are +excessive even for the dying speech of Enobarbus. The style is the +worst model for prose, yet it has persisted as a mere habit in the +prose of writers who fear to be prosaic and who are prevented by that +habit from saying even what they have to say. + +The principles of composition, whether verse or prose, are based on +the fact that the unit of language is not the word, or even the +phrase, but the sentence. From this it follows that every word and +every phrase gets its meaning from the sentence in which it occurs; +and so that words and phrases should be used freshly on each occasion +and, as it were, recharged with meaning by the aptness of their use. +Every sentence should, like a piece of music, establish its own +relation between the words that compose it; and in the best sentences, +whether of prose or verse, the words seem new-born; like notes in +music, they seem to be, not mere labels, but facts, because of the +manner in which the writer's thought or emotion has related them to +each other. But habitual metaphor prevents this process of relation; +it is the intrusion of ready-made matter, with its own stale +associations, into matter that should be new-made for its own +particular purpose of expression. Phrases like--The lap of luxury, +Part and parcel, A sea of troubles, Passing through the furnace, +Beyond the pale, The battle of life, The death-warrant of, Parrot +cries, The sex-war, Tottering thrones, A trail of glory, Bull-dog +tenacity, Hats off to, The narrow way, A load of sorrow, A +charnel-house, The proud prerogative, Smiling through your tears, A +straight fight, A profit and loss account, The fires of martyrdom, The +school of life--are all ready-made matter; and, if a writer yields to +the temptation of using them, he impedes his own process of +expression, saying something which is not exactly what he has to say. +He may, of course, attain to a familiar metaphor in his own process of +expression; but if he does, if it is exactly what he has to say, then +it will not seem stale to the reader. Context may give life to a +metaphor that has long seemed dead, as it gives life to the commonest +words. If an image forces itself upon a writer because it and it alone +will express his meaning, then it is his image, no matter how often it +has been used before; and in that case it will arrest the attention of +the reader. But the effect of habitual and dead metaphor is to dull +attention. When a phrase like 'the lap of luxury' catches the eye, the +mind relaxes but is not rested; for we are wearied, without exercise, +by commonplace. + +Further, the use of dead metaphor weakens a writer's sense of the +connexion between mood and manner. All the metaphors which I have +quoted are fit for the expression of some kind of emotion rather than +for plain statement of fact or for lucid argument; yet they are used +commonly in statements of fact and in what passes for argument. Indeed +one of their evils is that they make a writer and his readers believe +that he is exercising his reason when he is only moving from trite +image to image. If eloquence is reason fused with emotion, writing, or +speaking, full of dead metaphors is unreason fused with sham emotion. +I add in illustration a further list of dead metaphors lately noticed: +'Branches of the same deadly Upas Tree. Turning a deaf ear to. The +flower of our manhood. Taking off the gloves. Written in letters of +fire. Stemming the tide. Big with possibilities. The end is in sight. +A place in the sun. A spark of manhood. To dry up the founts of pity. +Hunger stalking through the land. A death grip. Round pegs (or men) in +square holes. The lamp of sacrifice. The silver lining. Troubling the +waters, and poisoning the wells. The promised land. Flowing with milk +and honey. Winning all along the line. Casting in her lot with. The +fruits of victory. Backs to the wall. Bubbling over with confidence. +Bled white. The writing on the wall. The sickle of death. A ring fence +round. The crucible of. Answering the call. Grinding the faces of the +poor. The scroll of fame.'--A. CLUTTON-BROCK. + + + + +IRRELEVANT ALLUSION + +We all know the people--for they are the majority, and probably +include our particular selves--who cannot carry on the ordinary +business of everyday talk without the use of phrases containing a part +that is appropriate, and another that is pointless or worse; the two +parts have associated themselves together in their minds as making up +what somebody has said, and what others as well as they will find +familiar, and they have the sort of pleasure in producing the +combination that a child has in airing a newly acquired word. There +is, indeed, a certain charm in the grown man's boyish ebullience, not +to be restrained by thoughts of relevance from letting the exuberant +phrase jet forth. And for that charm we put up with it when a speaker +draws our attention to the methodical by telling us there is a method +in the madness, though method and not madness is all there is to see, +when another's every winter is the winter of his discontent, when a +third cannot complain of the light without calling it religious as +well as dim, when for a fourth nothing can be rotten outside the State +of Denmark, or when a fifth, asked whether he does not owe you 1s. 6d. +for that cab fare, owns the soft impeachment. + +A slightly fuller examination of a single example may be useful. The +phrase to _leave severely alone_ has two reasonable uses--one in the +original sense of to leave alone as a method of severe treatment, i.e. +to send to Coventry or show contempt for, and the other in contexts +where _severely_ is to be interpreted by contraries--to leave alone by +way not of punishing the object, but of avoiding consequences for the +subject. The straightforward meaning, and the ironical, are both good; +anything between them, in which the real meaning is merely to leave +alone, and _severely_ is no more than an echo, is pointless and vapid +and in print intolerable. Examples follow: (1, straightforward) _You +must show him, by leaving him severely alone, by putting him into a +moral Coventry, your detestation of the crime_; (2, ironical) _Fish of +prey do not appear to relish the sharp spines of the stickleback, and +usually seem to leave them severely alone_; (3, pointless) _Austria +forbids children to_ _smoke in public places; and in German schools +and military colleges there are laws upon the subject; France, Spain, +Greece, and Portugal leave the matter severely alone_. It is obvious +at once how horrible the faded jocularity of No. 3 is in print; and, +though things like it come crowding upon one another in most +conversation, they are not very easy to find in newspapers and books +of any merit; a small gleaning of them follows: + +_The moral_, as Alice would say, _appeared to be that, despite its +difference in degree, an obvious essential in the right kind of +education had been equally lacking to both these girls_ (as Alice, or +indeed as you or I, might say). + +_Resignation_ became a virtue of necessity _for Sweden_ (If you do +what you must with a good grace, you make a virtue of necessity; +without _make_, a virtue of necessity loses its meaning). + +_I strongly advise the single working-man who would become a +successful backyard poultry-keeper_ to ignore the advice of Punch, +_and to secure a useful helpmate_. + +_The beloved lustige Wien_ [merry Vienna] _of his youth had_ suffered +a sea-change. _The green glacis ... was blocked by ranges of grand new +buildings_ (Ariel must chuckle at the odd places in which his +sea-change turns up). + +_Many of the celebrities who in that most frivolous of +watering-places_ do congregate. + +_When about to quote Sir Oliver Lodge's tribute to the late leader, +Mr. Law_ drew, not a dial, _but what was obviously a penny memorandum +book_ from his pocket (You want to mention that Mr. Bonar Law took a +notebook out of his pocket. But pockets are humdrum things. How give a +literary touch? Call it a poke? No, we can better that; who was it +drew what from his poke? Why, Touchstone, a dial, to be sure! and +there you are).--H.W.F. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE + +We have a constant flow of correspondence, and we are afraid the +writers must think us unpractical, incompetent, or neglectful, because +we give their inquiries no place in our tracts; they may naturally +think that it is our business to pass judgement on any linguistic +question that troubles them; but most of these queries would be +satisfactorily answered by reference to the _O. E. D._, which we do +not undertake to reprint; in other cases, where we are urged to +protest against the common abuse of some word or phrase, we do not +think (as we have before explained) that it is worth while to treat +any such detail without full illustration, and this our correspondents +do not supply. We propose now to demonstrate the situation by dealing +with a small selection of these abused words, which may serve as +examples. + + * * * * * + + + + +IMPLICIT + +The human mind likes a good clear black-and-white contrast; when two +words so definitely promise one of these contrasts as _explicit_ and +_implicit_, and then dash our hopes by figuring in phrases where +contrast ceases to be visible--say in 'explicit support' and 'implicit +obedience', with _absolute_ or _complete_ or _full_ as a substitute +that might replace either or both--, we ask with some indignation +whether after all black is white, and perhaps decide that _implicit_ +is a shifty word with which we will have no further dealings. It is +noteworthy in more than one respect. + +First, it means for the most part the same as _implied_, and, as it is +certainly not so instantly intelligible to the average man, it might +have been expected to be so good as to die. That it has nevertheless +survived by the side of _implied_ is perhaps due to two causes: one is +that _explicit_ and _implicit_ make a neater antithesis than even +_expressed_ and _implied_ (we should write _all the conditions, +whether explicit or implicit_; but _all the implied conditions; +implied_ being much commoner than _implicit_ when the antithesis is +not given in full); and the other is that the adverb, whether of +_implicit_ or of _implied_, is more often wanted than the adjective, +and that _impliedly_ is felt to be a bad form; _implicitly_, preferred +to _impliedly_, helps to keep _implicit_ alive. + +Secondly, there is the historical accident by which _implicit_, with +_faith, obedience, confidence_, and such words, has come to mean +absolute or full, whereas it originally meant undeveloped or potential +or in the germ. The starting-point of this usage is the ecclesiastical +phrase _implicit faith_, i.e. a person's acceptance of any article of +belief not on its own merits, but as a part of, as 'wrapped up in', +his general acceptance of the Church's authority; the steps from this +sense to unquestioning, and thence to complete or absolute or exact, +are easy; but not every one who says that implicit obedience is the +first duty of the soldier realizes that the obedience he is describing +is not properly an exact one, but one that is involved in acceptance +of the soldier's status.--[H.W.F.] + +It seems to us (by virtue of this 'historical accident') that in such +a phrase as the _implied_ or _implicit conditions_ of a contract, +there is a recognized difference of meaning in the two words. +_Implied_ conditions, though unexpressed, need not be hidden, they are +rather such as any one who agreed to the main stipulation would +recognize as involved; and the word _implied_ might even carry the +plea that they were unspecified because openly apparent. On the other +hand _implicit_ conditions are rather such as are unsuspected and in a +manner hidden.--[ED.] + + + + +PRACTICALLY + +A correspondent complains that the adverb 'almost' is being supplanted +by 'practically'. 'The true meaning of "practically" (he writes) is +"in practice" as opposed to "in theory" or "in thought"; for instance, +_Questions which are theoretically interesting to thoughtful people +and practically to every one_, or again, _He loves himself +contemplatively by knowing as he is known and practically by loving as +he is loved._' And he finds fault with the _O.E.D._, whence he takes +his quotations, for not condemning such phrases as these, _The +application was supported by practically all the creditors_, and, _He +has been very ill but is now practically well again_. + +The word is no doubt abused and intrudes everywhere. _The Times_ +writes of a recent gale, _Considerable damage was done by the gale in +practically every parish in Jersey_, and again of a bridge on the +Seine that _The structure has practically been swept away_; but it +seems that in the sense of 'for practical purposes' it can be defended +as a useful word. For instance, a friend, leaving your house at night +to walk home, says, _It is full moon, isn't it?_ and you reply +_Practically_, meaning that it is full enough for his purpose. You +might say _nearabouts_ or _thereabouts_ or _sufficiently_, but you +cannot say _almost_ or _nearly_ without implying that you know the +full moon to be nearly due and not past. In such cases it might be +argued that 'practically' is truly opposed to 'theoretically', but +'actually' is rather its opposite. 'Practically' implies an undefined +margin of error which does not affect the situation. + + + + +LITERALLY + +A correspondent quotes: _For the last three years I literally coined +money_, and, _My hair literally stood on end_. The common misuse of +this word is so absurd that it would not be worth while to protest +against it, if its daily appearance in every newspaper did not show +that it was tolerated by educated people. Mr. Fowler writes: + +'We have come to such a pass with this emphasizer that where the truth +would require us to acknowledge our exaggeration with, "not literally, +of course, but in a manner of speaking", we do not hesitate to insert +the very word that we ought to be at pains to repudiate; such false +coin makes honest traffic in words impossible. _If the Home Rule Bill +is passed, the 300,000 Unionists of the South and West of Ireland will +be_ literally thrown to the wolves. _The strong "tête-de-pont" +fortifications were rushed by our troops, and a battalion crossed the +bridge_ literally on the enemy's shoulders. In both, _practically_ or +_virtually_, opposites of _literally_, would have stood.' + + + + +INFINITELY + +This word, like _infiniment_ in French, is commonly used for +'extremely', and it is pedantic to object to it by insisting always on +its full logical meaning; but it should be avoided where measurable +quantities are spoken of; for instance, one may say _to indoctrinate +the mob with philosophical notions does infinite harm_, but to say +that _England is infinitely more populous than Australia_ is absurd. +That one can rightly call atoms infinitely small means that they are +to our senses immeasurable, and the word, as it here carries wonder, +may, like other conversational expletives, have an emotional force, +and can therefore be sometimes well used even where its exaggeration +is apparent. As when a man heightens some assertion with a 'damnable,' +he intends by the colour of his speech to warn you that his conviction +is profound, and that he is in no mood to listen to reason, so the +exaggeration of 'infinite' may have special value by giving emotional +colour to a sentence. + +On the above principles there will be doubtful cases. For instance, +was Mr. Lloyd George justified the other day in saying, _If you cut +down expenditure to the lowest possible limit, the war debt would +still be so enormous that ... the expenditure for this country is +bound to be infinitely greater than before the war?--The Times_, Oct. +23. + + + + +THE AMERICAN INVITATION + +The English reply to the American Invitation was despatched last +October. The text of it is as follows: + +'To Professor Fred Newton Scott. + +DEAR SIR, + +We thank you heartily for the letter addressed to us by Professors +James Wilson Bright, Albert Stanburrough Cook, Charles Hall Grandgent, +Robert Underwood Johnson, John Livingston Lowes, John Matthews Manly, +Charles Grosvenor Osgood, and yourself. + +We regret that so long a time should have passed before our joint +reply could be despatched: but our intentions have in the meanwhile +been privately made known to you. We now write to give you formal +assurance of the interest and sympathy with which your proposal has +been received, and to thank you for your generous suggestion that we +in the mother country of our language should take the lead in +furthering the project. + +Since then we, both Americans and British, are in complete agreement +as to our aims, we have only to decide on the best means and devise +the best machinery that we can to attain them. + +We feel that this practical question needs very careful consideration +and consultation: and we have therefore appointed a small committee of +five persons on our side to confer and draw up a table of suggestions +which can be submitted to you. We would invite you on your side to +take a similar step: we could then compare our respective proposals +and agree upon a basis on which to work. There are two dangers which +we feel it especially desirable to avoid: one is the establishment of +an authoritative academy, tending inevitably to divorce the literary +from the spoken language; the other is the creation of a body so large +as to be unmanageable. We have also to cope with the difficulty of +co-ordinating the activities of members representing many branches in +widely scattered territories. Our committee for consultation on these +matters consists of Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, A.T.Q. Couch, Henry +Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson: and we shall be glad if you can tell us +that you approve of our preliminary step and will be willing to +consider our suggestions when they are ready. + + (Signed) BALFOUR. + ROBERT BRIDGES. + HENRY NEWBOLT.' + +A first meeting of the consulting committee mentioned in the above +reply was held in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on Nov. 1st ult. + +Present: Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, Sir Henry Newbolt, and J. +Dover Wilson. + +Discussion was confined to practical questions of organization, and +Sir Henry Newbolt undertook to draft a letter in which the sense of + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Articles on Metaphor +by Society for Pure English + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13311 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..06a2e49 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #13311 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13311) diff --git a/old/13311.txt b/old/13311.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a366fbf --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13311.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1252 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Three Articles on Metaphor, by Society for Pure English + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tract XI: Three Articles on Metaphor + +Author: Society for Pure English + +Release Date: August 28, 2004 [EBook #13311] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Project Manager, Keith M. Eckrich, +Post-Processor, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed +Proofreaders Team + + + + + +_SOCIETY FOR PURE ENGLISH_ + +_TRACT No. XI_ + + + + +THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR + + +By E.B., H.W. Fowler & A. Clutton-Brock + + +MISCELLANEOUS NOTES & CORRESPONDENCE + + +_At the Clarendon Press_ + + +1922 + + + + +THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR + + + +I. NOTES ON THE FUNCTION OF METAPHOR + +The business of the writer is to arouse in the mind of his reader the +fullest possible consciousness of the ideas or emotion that he is +expressing. + +To this end he suggests a comparison between it and something else +which is similar to it in respect of those qualities to which he +desires to draw attention. The reader's mind at once gets to work +unconsciously on this comparison, rejecting the unlike qualities and +recognizing with an enhanced and satisfied consciousness the like +ones. The functions of simile and metaphor are the same in this +respect. + +Both simile and metaphor are best when not too close to the idea they +express, that is, when they have not many qualities in common with it +which are not cogent to the aspect under consideration. + +The test of a well-used metaphor is that it should completely fulfil +this function: there should be no by-products of imagery which +distract from the poet's aim, and vitiate and weaken the desired +consciousness. + +A simile, in general, need not be so close as a metaphor, because the +point of resemblance is indicated, whereas in a metaphor this is left +to the reader to discover. + +When a simile or metaphor is from the material to the immaterial, or +vice versa, the analogy should be more complete than when it is +between two things on the same plane: when they are on different +planes there is less dullness (that is, less failure to produce +consciousness), and the greater mental effort required of the reader +warrants some assistance. + +The degree of effort required in applying any given metaphor should be +in relation to the degree of emotion proper to the passage in which it +is used. Only those metaphors which require little or no mental +exertion should be used in very emotional passages, or the emotional +effect will be much weakened: a far-fetched, abstruse metaphor or +simile implies that the writer is at leisure from his emotion, and +suggests this attitude in the reader.--[E.B.] + + + + +II. SOME NOTES ON METAPHOR IN JOURNALISM + +Live and dead metaphor; some pitfalls; self-consciousness and mixed +metaphor. + +1. Live and Dead Metaphor. + +In all discussion of metaphor it must be borne in mind that some +metaphors are living, i.e. are offered and accepted with a +consciousness of their nature as substitutes for their literal +equivalents, while others are dead, i.e. have been so often used that +speaker and hearer have ceased to be aware that the words are not +literal: but the line of distinction between the live and the dead is +a shifting one, the dead being sometimes liable, under the stimulus of +an affinity or a repulsion, to galvanic stirrings indistinguishable +from life. Thus, in _The men were sifting meal_ we have a literal use +of _sift_; in _Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as +wheat_, 'sift' is a live metaphor; in _the sifting of evidence_, the +metaphor is so familiar that it is about equal chances whether +_sifting_ or _examination_ will be used, and a sieve is not present to +the thought--unless, indeed, some one conjures it up by saying _All +the evidence must first be sifted with acid tests_, or _with the +microscope_; under such a stimulus our metaphor turns out to have been +not dead, but dormant. The other word, _examine_, will do well enough +as an example of the real stone-dead metaphor; the Latin _examino_, +being from _examen_ the tongue of a balance, meant originally to +weigh; but, though weighing is not done with acid tests or microscopes +any more than sifting, _examine_ gives no convulsive twitchings, like +_sift_, at finding itself in their company; _examine_, then, is dead +metaphor, and _sift_ only half dead, or three-quarters. + +2. Some pitfalls. A, Unsustained Metaphor; B, Overdone Metaphor; C, +Spoilt Metaphor; D, Battles of the Dead; E, Mixed Metaphor. + +A. Unsustained Metaphor + +_He was still in the middle of those twenty years of neglect which +only began to lift in 1868_. The plunge into metaphor at _lift_, which +presupposes a mist, is too sudden after the literal _twenty years of +neglect_; years, even gloomy years, do not lift. + +_The means of education at the disposal of the Protestants and +Presbyterians of the North were stunted and sterilized._ 'The means at +disposal' names something too little vegetable or animal to consort +with the metaphorical verbs. Education (personified) may be stunted, +but means may not. + +_The measure of Mr. Asquith's shame does not consist in the mere fact +that he has announced his intention to ..._ Metaphorical measuring, +like literal, requires a more accommodating instrument than a stubborn +fact. + +B. Overdone Metaphor + +The days are perhaps past when a figure was deliberately chosen that +could be worked out with line upon line of relentless detail, and the +following well-known specimen is from Richardson:-- + + _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. + +_It is impossible to crush the Government's aim to restore the means +of living and working freely_. 'Crush' for baffle, 'aim' for purpose, +are both dead metaphors so long as they are kept apart, but the +juxtaposition forces on us the thought that you cannot crush an aim. + +_National military training is the bedrock on which alone we can hope +to carry through the great struggles which the future may have in +store for us_. 'Bedrock' and 'carry through' are both moribund or +dormant, but not stone-dead. + +_The vogue of the motor-car seems destined to help forward the +provision of good road-communication, a feature which is sadly in +arrear_. Good road-communication may be a feature, and it may be in +arrear, and yet a feature cannot be in arrear; things that are equal +to the same thing may be equal to each other in geometry, but language +is not geometry. + +They are cyphers living under the _shadow_ of a great man. + +He stood, his feet _glued_ to the spot, his eyes _riveted_ on the +heavens. + +The Geddes report is to be _emasculated_ a little in the Cabinet, and +then _thrown_ at the heads of the Electorate. + +Viscount Grey's suggestion may, in spite of everything, prove the +_nucleus_ of _solution_. + +The superior stamina of the Oxonian told in no _half-hearted measure_. +[Even careful writers are sometimes unaware of the comical effect of +some chance juxtaposition of words and ideas, whereby a dormant +metaphor is set on its legs. Thus Leslie Stephen in his life of Swift +wrote: _Sir William Temple, though he seems to have been vigorous and +in spite of gout a brisk walker, was approaching his grave_. And again +when he was triumphantly recording the progress of agnosticism he has: +_Even the high-churchmen have thrown the Flood overboard_. [ED.]] + + + +E. Mixed Metaphors + +For the examples given in D, tasteless word-selection is a fitter +description than mixed metaphor, since each of the words that conflict +with others is not intended, as a metaphor at all. 'Mixed metaphor' is +more appropriate when one or both of the terms can only be consciously +metaphorical. Little warning is needed against it; it is so +conspicuous as seldom to get into speech or print undetected. + +_This is not the time to throw up the sponge, when the enemy, already +weakened and divided, are on the run to a new defensive position_. A +mixture of prize-ring and battlefield. + +In the following extract from a speech it is difficult to be sure how +many times metaphors are mixed; readers versed in the mysteries of +oscillation may be able to decide: + + _No society, no community, can place its house in_ _such a + condition that it is always on a rock, oscillating between + solvency and insolvency. What I have to do is to see that + our house is built upon a solid foundation, never allowing + the possibility of the Society's life-blood being sapped. + Just in proportion as you are careful in looking after the + condition of your income, just in proportion as you deal + with them carefully, will the solidarity of the Society's + financial condition remain intact. Immediately you begin to + play fast and loose with your income the first blow at your + financial stability will have been struck._ + +A real poet losing himself in the _meshes_ of a foolish _obsession_. + +Johnson tore the _hearts_ out of books ruthlessly in order to extract +the _honey_ out of them expeditiously. Are we to let the _pendulum_ +swing back to the old _rut_? Those little houses at the top of the +street, _dwarfed_ by the _grandiloquence_ on the opposite side, are +too small, too. + +3. Self-consciousness and Mixed Metaphor. + +The gentlemen of the Press regularly devote a small percentage of +their time to accusing each other of mixing metaphors or announcing +that they are themselves about to do so (What a mixture of metaphors! +If we may mix our metaphors. To change the metaphor), the offence +apparently being not to mix them, but to be unaware that you have done +it. The odd thing is that, whether he is on the offensive or the +defensive, the writer who ventures to talk of mixing metaphors often +shows that he does not know what mixed metaphor is. Two typical +examples of the offensive follow: + +_The _Scotsman_ says: 'The crowded benches of the Ministerialists +contain the germs of disintegration. A more ill-assorted majority +could hardly be conceived, and presently the Opposition must realize +of what small account is the manoeuvring of the Free-Fooders or of any +other section of the party. If the sling be only properly handled, the +new Parliamentary Goliath will be overthrown easily enough. The stone +for the sling must, however, be found on the Ministerial side of the +House, and not on the Opposition side.' Apparently the stone for the +sling will be a germ. But doubtless mixed feelings lead to mixed +metaphors._ In this passage, we are well rid of the germs before we +hear of the sling, and the mixture of metaphors is quite imaginary. + +Since literal benches often contain literal germs, but 'crowded +benches' and 'germs of disintegration' are here separate metaphors for +a numerous party and tendencies to disunion, our critic had ready to +his hand in the first sentence, if he had but known it, something much +more like a mixture of metaphors than what he mistakes for one. + +_'When the Chairman of Committees--a politician of their own +hue--allowed Mr. Maddison to move his amendment in favour of secular +education, a decision which was not quite in accordance with +precedent, the floodgates of sectarian controversy were opened, and +the apple of discord--the endowment of the gospel of +Cowper-Temple--was thrown into the midst of the House of Commons.' +What a mixture of metaphor! One pictures this gospel-apple battling +with the stream released by the opened floodgates._ In point of fact, +the floodgates and the apple are successive metaphors, unmixed; the +mixing of them is done by the critic himself, not by the criticized; +and as to _gospel-apple,_ by which it is hinted that the mixture is +triple, the original writer had merely mentioned in the _gospel_ +phrase the thing compared by the side of what it is compared to, as +when one explains _the Athens of the North_ by adding _Edinburgh._ + +Writers who are on the defensive apologize for _change_ and _mixture_ +of metaphors as though one was as bad as the other; the two sins are +in fact entirely different; a man may change his metaphors as often as +he likes; it is for him to judge whether the result will or will not +be unpleasantly florid; but he should not ask our leave to do it; if +the result is bad, his apology will not mend matters, and if it is not +bad no apology was called for. On the other hand, to mix metaphors, if +the mixture is real, is an offence that should have been not +apologized for, but avoided. Whichever the phrase, the motive is the +same--mortal fear of being accused of mixed metaphor. + +_...showed that Free Trade could provide the jam without recourse +being had to Protective food-taxes: next came a period in which (to +mix our metaphors) the jam was a nice slice of tariff pie for +everybody, but then came the Edinburgh Compromise, by which the jam +for the towns was that there were to be..._ When _jam_ is used in +three successive sentences in its hackneyed sense of consolation, it +need hardly be considered in the middle one of them a live metaphor at +all; however, the as-good-as-dead metaphor of jam _is_ capable of +being stimulated into life if any one is so foolish as to bring into +contact with it another half-dead metaphor of its own (i.e. of the +foodstuff) kind, and it _was_, after all, mixing metaphors to say the +jam was a slice of pie; but then the way of escape was to withdraw +either the jam or the pie, instead of forcing them together down our +throats with a ramrod of apology. + +_Time sifts the richest granary, and posterity is a dainty feeder. But +Lyall's words, at any rate--to mix the metaphor--will escape the blue +pencil even of such drastic editors as they_. Since all three +metaphors are live ones, and _they_ are the sifter and the feeder, the +working of these into grammatical connexion with the blue pencil does +undoubtedly mix metaphors. But then our author gives us to understand +that he knows he is doing it, and surely that is enough. Even so some +liars reckon that a lie is no disgrace provided that they wink at a +bystander as they tell it, even so those who are addicted to the +phrase 'to use a vulgarism' expect to achieve the feat of being at +once vulgar and superior to vulgarity. + +_Certainly we cannot detect the suggested lack of warmth in the speech +as it is printed, for in his speech, as in the Prime Minister's, it +seems to us that (if we may change the metaphor) exactly the right +note was struck_. + +_We may, on the one hand, receive into our gill its precise content of +the complex mixture that fills the puncheon of the whole world's +literature, on the other--to change the metaphor--our few small +strings may thrill in sympathetic harmony to some lyrical zephyrs and +remain practically unresponsive to the deep-sea gale of Aeschylus or +Dante_. + +Why, yes, gentlemen, you may change your metaphors, if it seems good +to you, but you may also be pretty sure that, if you feel the +necessity of proclaiming the change, you had better have abstained +from it. + +_Two of the trump cards played against the Bill are (1) that 'it makes +every woman who pays a tax-collector in her own house', and (2) that +'it will destroy happy domestic relations in hundreds of thousands of +homes'; if we may at once change our metaphor, these are the notes +which are most consistently struck in the stream of letters, now +printed day by day for our edification in the_ Mail. This writer need +not have asked our leave to change from cards to music; he is within +his rights, anyhow, and the odds are, indeed, that if he had not +reminded us of the cards we should have forgotten them in the +intervening lines, but how did a person so sensitive to change of +metaphor fail to reflect that it is ill playing the piano in the +water? 'A stream of letters', it is true, is only a picturesque way of +saying 'many letters', and ordinarily a dead metaphor; but once put +your seemingly dead yet picturesque metaphor close to a piano that is +being played, and its notes wake the dead--at any rate for readers who +have just had the word _metaphor_ called to their memory.--H.W. +FOWLER. + + + + +III. DEAD METAPHORS + +Metaphor becomes a habit with writers who wish to express more emotion +than they feel, and who employ it as an ornament to statements that +should be made plainly or not at all. Used thus, it is a false +emphasis, like architectural ornaments in the wrong place. It demands +of the reader an imaginative effort where there has been no such +effort in the writer, an answering emotion where there is none to be +answered. And the reader gets the habit of refusing such effort and +such emotion; he ceases even to be aware of metaphors that are used +habitually. He may not consciously resent them; but unconsciously his +mind is wearied by them as the eye by advertisements often repeated. +By their sameness they destroy expectation so that, even if the writer +says anything in particular, it seems to be all generalities. + +Here is an instance of habitual metaphor, not manufactured for this +tract, but taken from an article by a well-known writer. He is +speaking of the career of Mr. Lloyd George: + + There was nothing like it in the histories of the ancient + European monarchies, hide-bound by caste and now lying on + the scrap-heaps of Switzerland and Holland. In the more + forward nations, the new republics, men have indeed risen + from humble beginnings to high station, but not generally by + constitutional means and usually only (as now in Russia) by + wading to their places through blood. The dizzy height to + which Lloyd George has attained, not as a British statesman + only but also as a world celebrity, seems to leave the + foreign nations breathless. It is a spectacle that has of + itself some of the thrill and fascination of romance. + +Here are metaphors that might be used, or have been used, so as to +surprise the reader; but in this case they are stock-ornaments to a +passage that needs no ornament. If the metaphors in the first sentence +were alive to us they would be mixed; at least the transition from +monarchies hide-bound by caste to monarchies lying on scrap-heaps +would be too sudden; but we hardly notice it because we hardly notice +the metaphors. And there is an inconsistency in the notion of rising +by wading which, again, we do not notice only because we are so used +to rising and wading as metaphors that both have lost their power as +images. Mr. Lloyd George has waded to such a dizzy height that he +seems to leave foreign nations breathless; and we should be breathless +at the thought of such an impossibility if the metaphors were not +dead. + +It is indeed the mark of a dead metaphor that it escapes absurdity +only by being dead. The term has been used for metaphors that have +lost all metaphorical significance; but these, perhaps, are better +called buried metaphors. I prefer to use the word _dead_ of metaphors +not yet buried but demanding burial. 'Risen from humble beginnings' is +perhaps a buried metaphor; 'wading to their places through blood' is a +dead one. It has been used so often that it jades instead of +horrifying us; it is a corpse that fails to make us think of corpses. +But in the next sentence the writer returns to the metaphor of rising +and elaborates it so that it is no longer buried, though certainly +dead. We are vaguely aware of the sense of this passage, but the +metaphors are a hindrance, not a help, to our understanding of it. + +Writers fall into habitual metaphor when they fear that their thought +will seem too commonplace without ornament; and, because the motive is +unconscious, they choose metaphors familiar to themselves and their +readers. The article from which I have quoted contains many such +metaphors. Mr. Lloyd George is 'like other men only cast in bigger +mould'. He is 'clearly no plaster saint'. 'You cannot think of him in +relation to the knock-out blow except as the man who gives, not +receives, it.' 'He has never lost his head on the dizzy height to +which he has so suddenly attained. He is clearly in no danger of the +intoxicating impulse of the people who find themselves for the first +time on great eminences, to leap over. In a word, he is not spoiled.' +Here the writer, as he would put it, gives himself away. All that +metaphor means only that Mr. George is not spoiled, and the fact that +he is not spoiled would be established better by instances than by +metaphors. + +Then we are told that some of Mr. George's feats 'seem to partake of +the nature of legerdemain'. 'He sways a popular assembly by waves of +almost Hebraic emotion.' 'No man has ever had his ear closer to the +ground and listened more attentively to the tramp of the oncoming +multitudes.' He 'held Great Britain's end up' at the International +conference. A 'magnificent tribute was paid to him by Earl Balfour' +but it 'did not put him alone on a pinnacle'. And then we read of the +whirligig of time, of 'clouds of misunderstanding which point to the +coming of a storm'; of how 'foreign nations suddenly became aware that +a new star had swum into the world's ken'; of how 'the situation of +this country is perilous with so much Bolshevik gunpowder moving +about', and how 'it has required a strong heart and a clear head to +keep the nation from falling either into the sloughs of despond or the +fires of revolution'. + +Some of these are metaphors that were excellent in their first use and +original context; but they lose their excellence if repeated in any +context where they have not been discovered by the emotion of the +writer but are used by him to make a commonplace appear passionate. +Then they seem an unfortunate legacy from poetry to prose; and it is a +fact, I think, that our prose now suffers from the richness of our +past poetry. Even the prose writers of the Romantic movement regarded +prose as the poor relation of poetry; they did not see that prose has +its own reasons for existing, its own state of being and its own +beauties. They had the habit of writing about Shakespeare in +Shakespeare's own manner, which, in later plays such as _Antony and +Cleopatra_, is often a fading of one metaphor into another so fast +that the reader's or listener's mind cannot keep pace with it: + + O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, + The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, + That life, a very rebel to my will, + May hang no longer on me: throw my heart + Against the flint and hardness of my fault; + Which, being dried with grief, will break to powder. + And finish all foul thoughts. + +The metaphors here, though instinctive rather than habitual, are +excessive even for the dying speech of Enobarbus. The style is the +worst model for prose, yet it has persisted as a mere habit in the +prose of writers who fear to be prosaic and who are prevented by that +habit from saying even what they have to say. + +The principles of composition, whether verse or prose, are based on +the fact that the unit of language is not the word, or even the +phrase, but the sentence. From this it follows that every word and +every phrase gets its meaning from the sentence in which it occurs; +and so that words and phrases should be used freshly on each occasion +and, as it were, recharged with meaning by the aptness of their use. +Every sentence should, like a piece of music, establish its own +relation between the words that compose it; and in the best sentences, +whether of prose or verse, the words seem new-born; like notes in +music, they seem to be, not mere labels, but facts, because of the +manner in which the writer's thought or emotion has related them to +each other. But habitual metaphor prevents this process of relation; +it is the intrusion of ready-made matter, with its own stale +associations, into matter that should be new-made for its own +particular purpose of expression. Phrases like--The lap of luxury, +Part and parcel, A sea of troubles, Passing through the furnace, +Beyond the pale, The battle of life, The death-warrant of, Parrot +cries, The sex-war, Tottering thrones, A trail of glory, Bull-dog +tenacity, Hats off to, The narrow way, A load of sorrow, A +charnel-house, The proud prerogative, Smiling through your tears, A +straight fight, A profit and loss account, The fires of martyrdom, The +school of life--are all ready-made matter; and, if a writer yields to +the temptation of using them, he impedes his own process of +expression, saying something which is not exactly what he has to say. +He may, of course, attain to a familiar metaphor in his own process of +expression; but if he does, if it is exactly what he has to say, then +it will not seem stale to the reader. Context may give life to a +metaphor that has long seemed dead, as it gives life to the commonest +words. If an image forces itself upon a writer because it and it alone +will express his meaning, then it is his image, no matter how often it +has been used before; and in that case it will arrest the attention of +the reader. But the effect of habitual and dead metaphor is to dull +attention. When a phrase like 'the lap of luxury' catches the eye, the +mind relaxes but is not rested; for we are wearied, without exercise, +by commonplace. + +Further, the use of dead metaphor weakens a writer's sense of the +connexion between mood and manner. All the metaphors which I have +quoted are fit for the expression of some kind of emotion rather than +for plain statement of fact or for lucid argument; yet they are used +commonly in statements of fact and in what passes for argument. Indeed +one of their evils is that they make a writer and his readers believe +that he is exercising his reason when he is only moving from trite +image to image. If eloquence is reason fused with emotion, writing, or +speaking, full of dead metaphors is unreason fused with sham emotion. +I add in illustration a further list of dead metaphors lately noticed: +'Branches of the same deadly Upas Tree. Turning a deaf ear to. The +flower of our manhood. Taking off the gloves. Written in letters of +fire. Stemming the tide. Big with possibilities. The end is in sight. +A place in the sun. A spark of manhood. To dry up the founts of pity. +Hunger stalking through the land. A death grip. Round pegs (or men) in +square holes. The lamp of sacrifice. The silver lining. Troubling the +waters, and poisoning the wells. The promised land. Flowing with milk +and honey. Winning all along the line. Casting in her lot with. The +fruits of victory. Backs to the wall. Bubbling over with confidence. +Bled white. The writing on the wall. The sickle of death. A ring fence +round. The crucible of. Answering the call. Grinding the faces of the +poor. The scroll of fame.'--A. CLUTTON-BROCK. + + + + +IRRELEVANT ALLUSION + +We all know the people--for they are the majority, and probably +include our particular selves--who cannot carry on the ordinary +business of everyday talk without the use of phrases containing a part +that is appropriate, and another that is pointless or worse; the two +parts have associated themselves together in their minds as making up +what somebody has said, and what others as well as they will find +familiar, and they have the sort of pleasure in producing the +combination that a child has in airing a newly acquired word. There +is, indeed, a certain charm in the grown man's boyish ebullience, not +to be restrained by thoughts of relevance from letting the exuberant +phrase jet forth. And for that charm we put up with it when a speaker +draws our attention to the methodical by telling us there is a method +in the madness, though method and not madness is all there is to see, +when another's every winter is the winter of his discontent, when a +third cannot complain of the light without calling it religious as +well as dim, when for a fourth nothing can be rotten outside the State +of Denmark, or when a fifth, asked whether he does not owe you 1s. 6d. +for that cab fare, owns the soft impeachment. + +A slightly fuller examination of a single example may be useful. The +phrase to _leave severely alone_ has two reasonable uses--one in the +original sense of to leave alone as a method of severe treatment, i.e. +to send to Coventry or show contempt for, and the other in contexts +where _severely_ is to be interpreted by contraries--to leave alone by +way not of punishing the object, but of avoiding consequences for the +subject. The straightforward meaning, and the ironical, are both good; +anything between them, in which the real meaning is merely to leave +alone, and _severely_ is no more than an echo, is pointless and vapid +and in print intolerable. Examples follow: (1, straightforward) _You +must show him, by leaving him severely alone, by putting him into a +moral Coventry, your detestation of the crime_; (2, ironical) _Fish of +prey do not appear to relish the sharp spines of the stickleback, and +usually seem to leave them severely alone_; (3, pointless) _Austria +forbids children to_ _smoke in public places; and in German schools +and military colleges there are laws upon the subject; France, Spain, +Greece, and Portugal leave the matter severely alone_. It is obvious +at once how horrible the faded jocularity of No. 3 is in print; and, +though things like it come crowding upon one another in most +conversation, they are not very easy to find in newspapers and books +of any merit; a small gleaning of them follows: + +_The moral_, as Alice would say, _appeared to be that, despite its +difference in degree, an obvious essential in the right kind of +education had been equally lacking to both these girls_ (as Alice, or +indeed as you or I, might say). + +_Resignation_ became a virtue of necessity _for Sweden_ (If you do +what you must with a good grace, you make a virtue of necessity; +without _make_, a virtue of necessity loses its meaning). + +_I strongly advise the single working-man who would become a +successful backyard poultry-keeper_ to ignore the advice of Punch, +_and to secure a useful helpmate_. + +_The beloved lustige Wien_ [merry Vienna] _of his youth had_ suffered +a sea-change. _The green glacis ... was blocked by ranges of grand new +buildings_ (Ariel must chuckle at the odd places in which his +sea-change turns up). + +_Many of the celebrities who in that most frivolous of +watering-places_ do congregate. + +_When about to quote Sir Oliver Lodge's tribute to the late leader, +Mr. Law_ drew, not a dial, _but what was obviously a penny memorandum +book_ from his pocket (You want to mention that Mr. Bonar Law took a +notebook out of his pocket. But pockets are humdrum things. How give a +literary touch? Call it a poke? No, we can better that; who was it +drew what from his poke? Why, Touchstone, a dial, to be sure! and +there you are).--H.W.F. + + + + +CORRESPONDENCE + +We have a constant flow of correspondence, and we are afraid the +writers must think us unpractical, incompetent, or neglectful, because +we give their inquiries no place in our tracts; they may naturally +think that it is our business to pass judgement on any linguistic +question that troubles them; but most of these queries would be +satisfactorily answered by reference to the _O. E. D._, which we do +not undertake to reprint; in other cases, where we are urged to +protest against the common abuse of some word or phrase, we do not +think (as we have before explained) that it is worth while to treat +any such detail without full illustration, and this our correspondents +do not supply. We propose now to demonstrate the situation by dealing +with a small selection of these abused words, which may serve as +examples. + + * * * * * + + + + +IMPLICIT + +The human mind likes a good clear black-and-white contrast; when two +words so definitely promise one of these contrasts as _explicit_ and +_implicit_, and then dash our hopes by figuring in phrases where +contrast ceases to be visible--say in 'explicit support' and 'implicit +obedience', with _absolute_ or _complete_ or _full_ as a substitute +that might replace either or both--, we ask with some indignation +whether after all black is white, and perhaps decide that _implicit_ +is a shifty word with which we will have no further dealings. It is +noteworthy in more than one respect. + +First, it means for the most part the same as _implied_, and, as it is +certainly not so instantly intelligible to the average man, it might +have been expected to be so good as to die. That it has nevertheless +survived by the side of _implied_ is perhaps due to two causes: one is +that _explicit_ and _implicit_ make a neater antithesis than even +_expressed_ and _implied_ (we should write _all the conditions, +whether explicit or implicit_; but _all the implied conditions; +implied_ being much commoner than _implicit_ when the antithesis is +not given in full); and the other is that the adverb, whether of +_implicit_ or of _implied_, is more often wanted than the adjective, +and that _impliedly_ is felt to be a bad form; _implicitly_, preferred +to _impliedly_, helps to keep _implicit_ alive. + +Secondly, there is the historical accident by which _implicit_, with +_faith, obedience, confidence_, and such words, has come to mean +absolute or full, whereas it originally meant undeveloped or potential +or in the germ. The starting-point of this usage is the ecclesiastical +phrase _implicit faith_, i.e. a person's acceptance of any article of +belief not on its own merits, but as a part of, as 'wrapped up in', +his general acceptance of the Church's authority; the steps from this +sense to unquestioning, and thence to complete or absolute or exact, +are easy; but not every one who says that implicit obedience is the +first duty of the soldier realizes that the obedience he is describing +is not properly an exact one, but one that is involved in acceptance +of the soldier's status.--[H.W.F.] + +It seems to us (by virtue of this 'historical accident') that in such +a phrase as the _implied_ or _implicit conditions_ of a contract, +there is a recognized difference of meaning in the two words. +_Implied_ conditions, though unexpressed, need not be hidden, they are +rather such as any one who agreed to the main stipulation would +recognize as involved; and the word _implied_ might even carry the +plea that they were unspecified because openly apparent. On the other +hand _implicit_ conditions are rather such as are unsuspected and in a +manner hidden.--[ED.] + + + + +PRACTICALLY + +A correspondent complains that the adverb 'almost' is being supplanted +by 'practically'. 'The true meaning of "practically" (he writes) is +"in practice" as opposed to "in theory" or "in thought"; for instance, +_Questions which are theoretically interesting to thoughtful people +and practically to every one_, or again, _He loves himself +contemplatively by knowing as he is known and practically by loving as +he is loved._' And he finds fault with the _O.E.D._, whence he takes +his quotations, for not condemning such phrases as these, _The +application was supported by practically all the creditors_, and, _He +has been very ill but is now practically well again_. + +The word is no doubt abused and intrudes everywhere. _The Times_ +writes of a recent gale, _Considerable damage was done by the gale in +practically every parish in Jersey_, and again of a bridge on the +Seine that _The structure has practically been swept away_; but it +seems that in the sense of 'for practical purposes' it can be defended +as a useful word. For instance, a friend, leaving your house at night +to walk home, says, _It is full moon, isn't it?_ and you reply +_Practically_, meaning that it is full enough for his purpose. You +might say _nearabouts_ or _thereabouts_ or _sufficiently_, but you +cannot say _almost_ or _nearly_ without implying that you know the +full moon to be nearly due and not past. In such cases it might be +argued that 'practically' is truly opposed to 'theoretically', but +'actually' is rather its opposite. 'Practically' implies an undefined +margin of error which does not affect the situation. + + + + +LITERALLY + +A correspondent quotes: _For the last three years I literally coined +money_, and, _My hair literally stood on end_. The common misuse of +this word is so absurd that it would not be worth while to protest +against it, if its daily appearance in every newspaper did not show +that it was tolerated by educated people. Mr. Fowler writes: + +'We have come to such a pass with this emphasizer that where the truth +would require us to acknowledge our exaggeration with, "not literally, +of course, but in a manner of speaking", we do not hesitate to insert +the very word that we ought to be at pains to repudiate; such false +coin makes honest traffic in words impossible. _If the Home Rule Bill +is passed, the 300,000 Unionists of the South and West of Ireland will +be_ literally thrown to the wolves. _The strong "tête-de-pont" +fortifications were rushed by our troops, and a battalion crossed the +bridge_ literally on the enemy's shoulders. In both, _practically_ or +_virtually_, opposites of _literally_, would have stood.' + + + + +INFINITELY + +This word, like _infiniment_ in French, is commonly used for +'extremely', and it is pedantic to object to it by insisting always on +its full logical meaning; but it should be avoided where measurable +quantities are spoken of; for instance, one may say _to indoctrinate +the mob with philosophical notions does infinite harm_, but to say +that _England is infinitely more populous than Australia_ is absurd. +That one can rightly call atoms infinitely small means that they are +to our senses immeasurable, and the word, as it here carries wonder, +may, like other conversational expletives, have an emotional force, +and can therefore be sometimes well used even where its exaggeration +is apparent. As when a man heightens some assertion with a 'damnable,' +he intends by the colour of his speech to warn you that his conviction +is profound, and that he is in no mood to listen to reason, so the +exaggeration of 'infinite' may have special value by giving emotional +colour to a sentence. + +On the above principles there will be doubtful cases. For instance, +was Mr. Lloyd George justified the other day in saying, _If you cut +down expenditure to the lowest possible limit, the war debt would +still be so enormous that ... the expenditure for this country is +bound to be infinitely greater than before the war?--The Times_, Oct. +23. + + + + +THE AMERICAN INVITATION + +The English reply to the American Invitation was despatched last +October. The text of it is as follows: + +'To Professor Fred Newton Scott. + +DEAR SIR, + +We thank you heartily for the letter addressed to us by Professors +James Wilson Bright, Albert Stanburrough Cook, Charles Hall Grandgent, +Robert Underwood Johnson, John Livingston Lowes, John Matthews Manly, +Charles Grosvenor Osgood, and yourself. + +We regret that so long a time should have passed before our joint +reply could be despatched: but our intentions have in the meanwhile +been privately made known to you. We now write to give you formal +assurance of the interest and sympathy with which your proposal has +been received, and to thank you for your generous suggestion that we +in the mother country of our language should take the lead in +furthering the project. + +Since then we, both Americans and British, are in complete agreement +as to our aims, we have only to decide on the best means and devise +the best machinery that we can to attain them. + +We feel that this practical question needs very careful consideration +and consultation: and we have therefore appointed a small committee of +five persons on our side to confer and draw up a table of suggestions +which can be submitted to you. We would invite you on your side to +take a similar step: we could then compare our respective proposals +and agree upon a basis on which to work. There are two dangers which +we feel it especially desirable to avoid: one is the establishment of +an authoritative academy, tending inevitably to divorce the literary +from the spoken language; the other is the creation of a body so large +as to be unmanageable. We have also to cope with the difficulty of +co-ordinating the activities of members representing many branches in +widely scattered territories. Our committee for consultation on these +matters consists of Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, A.T.Q. Couch, Henry +Newbolt, and J. Dover Wilson: and we shall be glad if you can tell us +that you approve of our preliminary step and will be willing to +consider our suggestions when they are ready. + + (Signed) BALFOUR. + ROBERT BRIDGES. + HENRY NEWBOLT.' + +A first meeting of the consulting committee mentioned in the above +reply was held in Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on Nov. 1st ult. + +Present: Henry Bradley, Robert Bridges, Sir Henry Newbolt, and J. +Dover Wilson. + +Discussion was confined to practical questions of organization, and +Sir Henry Newbolt undertook to draft a letter in which the sense of + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Articles on Metaphor +by Society for Pure English + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE ARTICLES ON METAPHOR *** + +***** This file should be named 13311.txt or 13311.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/3/1/13311/ + +Produced by David Starner, Project Manager, Keith M. 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