E. M. Cope, Commentary on the Rhetoric of Aristotle

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‘Now the poets' similes produce the same effect (give point, vivacity, or liveliness, to the narrative of an epic poem, in which they usually appear): and therefore if the simile be well (selected or executed, or both), it gives an air of liveliness, point, vividness to the composition. For the simile, as has been said before’ (not literally what is said here, but the substance of it, III 4. 1), ‘is a metaphor, differing from it merely by the manner of setting forth (mode of statement): and therefore it is less agreeable because longer (μακροτέρως, λεγομένη or πεποιημένη, lit. written in a longer form, at greater length), and (because) it does not say directly that (of the two things compared) one is the other; and accordingly (as the speaker's tongue does not say this, so) neither does the (hearer's) mind look out for it’—and so loses the opportunity of learning.

μακροτέρως] On this termination of the adv. comparative, see Jelf, Gr. Gr. § 141. 3, Donaldson's Gr. Gr. § 282 b, [Kühner, Gr. Gr. § 158, 2]. Matthiae has omitted it.

The meaning of προθέσει, by which the simile is said here to differ from the metaphor, may be inferred from the previous passage referred to, III 4. 1, but is not there directly expressed. It means the ‘mode of setting forth’, of describing or stating the comparison which both of them make; just as in c. 13. 2, 3 (in Ar.'s division of the speech), and Rhet. ad Alex. 29 (30) §§ 2, 21; 35 (36) § 1, πρόθεσις and προεκτίθεναι are put for ‘the statement of the case’ or exposition of the facts. There are two distinguishable points in which the simile differs from the metaphor; the length, and (consequent) dilution of the force of its impression. The metaphor is concise, generally expressed in a single word, which suggests the comparison, and identifies the two things compared, λέγει ὡς τοῦτο ἐκεῖνο; so that the comparison is forced directly upon the hearer's mind, who thereby learns something: whereas the simile goes into detail, often to a considerable length, so that it loses the pointed brevity of the metaphor; and instead of identifying the two objects compared, like the other, by the introduction of the particle of comparison ὡς, so weakens its force that the hearer is apt to lose the lesson and the pleasure that should be derived from it.