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GRAMMAR.
Compression of Simile into Metaphor.--A simile is cumbrous, and better suited for poetry than for prose. Moreover, when a simile has been long in use, there is a tendency to consider the assimilated relations not merely as similar but as identical. The simile modestly asserts that the relation between the ship and the sea is like ploughing. The compressed simile goes further, and asserts that the relation between the ship and the sea is ploughing. It is expressed thus: "The ship ploughs the sea." Thus the relation between the plough and the land is transferred to the ship and the sea. A simile thus compressed is called a Metaphor, i.e. transference. Def. A Metaphor is a transference of the relation between one set of objects to another, for the purpose of brief explanation.
A Shakespearean Grammar. Edwin Abbott Abbott. London and New York. Macmillan and Company. 1870.
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