COMPARISON, in a general sense, the consideration of the relation between two persons or things, when opposed to each other, by which we judge of their agreement or difference. COMPARISON of Ideas, an act of the mind, whereby it compares its ideas one with another, in respect of extent, degree, time, place, or any other circumstances. See IDEA. COMPARISON, in Grammar, the inflection of the comparative degree. See GRAMMAR. COMPARISON, in Rhetoric, is a figure whereby two things are considered with regard to some third, which is common to them both. Instruction is the principal, but not the only end of comparison. It may be employed with success in putting a subject in a strong point of view. A lively idea is formed of a man's courage by likening it to that of a lion; and eloquence is exalted in our imagination by comparing it to a river overflowing its banks, and involving all in its impetuous course. The same effect C O M is produced by contrast: a man in prosperity becomes more sensible of his happiness, by comparing his condition with that of a person in want of bread. Thus comparison is subservient to poetry as well as to philosophy. Comparisons serve two purposes: when addressed to the understanding, their purpose is to instruct; when to the heart, their purpose is to please. Various means contribute to the latter: 1st, The suggesting some unusual resemblance or contrast; 2d, The setting an object in the strongest light; 3d, The associating an object with others that are agreeable; 4th, The elevating an object; and, 5th, The depressing it. And that comparisons may give pleasure by these various means, will be made evident by examples which shall be given, after premising some general observations. Objects of different senses cannot be compared together; for such objects are totally separated from each other, and have no circumstance in common to admit either resemblance or contrast. Objects of hearing may be compared together, as also of taste, of smell, and of touch; but the chief fund of comparison are objects of sight; because in writing or speaking, things can only be compared in idea, and the ideas of sight are more distinct and lively than those of any other sense. When a nation emerging out of barbarity begins to think of the fine arts, the beauties of language cannot long lie concealed; and when discovered, they are generally, by the force of novelty, carried beyond all bounds of moderation. Thus, in the earliest poems of every nation, we find metaphors and similes founded on the slightest and most distant resemblances, which, losing their grace with their novelty, wear gradually out of repute; and now, by the improvement of taste, no metaphor nor simile is admitted into any polite composition but of the most striking kind. To illustrate this observation, a specimen shall be given afterward of such metaphors as we have been describing: with respect to similes take the following specimen: "Behold, thou art fair, my love: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Mount Gilead: thy teeth are like a flock of sheep from the washing, every one bearing twins: thy lips are like a thread of scarlet: thy neck like the tower of David built for an armoury, whereon hang a thousand shields of mighty men: thy two breasts like two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies: thy eyes like the fish-pools in Hesbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose like the tower of Lebanon, looking toward Damascus." Song of Solomon. "Thou art like snow on the heath; thy hair like the mist of Cromla, when it curls on the rocks and shines to the beam of the west: thy breasts are