The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

with a metaphorical predicate, capable, for the most part, of being linked to
it by the substantive copula "is."
"Though round his breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on his head."
The good man is a mountain. "If he dare to light on me, I shall brush him
off:" he is an insect. "The state is tossed on the waves of civil strife:" the
state is a ship. "The sunshine of truth will scatter those falsehoods:" truth
is a, sun; falsehood is a cloud. "The diapason closing full in man:" nature
is an instrument of music; man is the completion of nature's music. "From
the egg to the apple, life is insipid:" life is a banquet. Hence all
metaphorical language is but the evolution of the primary idea. It results
from the ideal identification of the subject and predicate throughout, so far
as that identification is primarily involved in the simple proposition.
Hence, after directly connecting the subject in a metaphorical
proposition with its predicate, we can go on to apply to the subject the
qualities of the predicate. The good man is a mountain, and though clouds
are about his breast, eternal sunshine is on his head. The officious
intermeddler is an insect, and if he dare to light on me, I will brush him off.
The state is a ship, and is tossed on the waves of civil strife. Can we say,
This bread is my body, and is given for you; this wine is my blood, and has
been shed for many for the remission of sins? If we cannot, there is no
metaphor.
12. In didactic metaphors, whose object is not so much to ornament
as to make clear and vivify the meaning to the simple learner, predicates
are chosen whose range of qualities is smallest, in fact, if possible, confined
to one quality. The favorite popular metaphors turn very much. upon the
disposition to confine, as nearly as possible, the analogy to a single quality
in a single predicate. A bee and a wasp both sting, yet if we say of a
woman, "She is a bee," the first impression made is that she is industrious;
if we say, "She is a wasp," the hearer supposes we attribute ill-temper to
her. A bee is as provident as an ant, but when we wish to find an image of
providence, we take the ant. A hare is both swift and timid,