it would be quite unsuitable for an orator to illustrate something quite plain by such obscure allusions.As when Apollo wintry Lycia leaves,
And Xanthus' streams, or visits Delos' isle,
His mother's home,Aen. iv. 143.
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[73]
In employing this form of ornament we must be
especially careful that the subject chosen for our
simile is neither obscure nor unfamiliar: for anything that is selected for the purpose of illuminating
[p. 253]
something else must itself be clearer than that which
it is designed to illustrate. Therefore while we may
permit poets to employ such similes as:—
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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