_The means of education at the disposal of the Protestants and
Presbyterians of the North were stunted and sterilized._ 'The means at
disposal' names something too little vegetable or animal to consort
with the metaphorical verbs. Education (personified) may be stunted,
but means may not.
_The measure of Mr. Asquith's shame does not consist in the mere fact
that he has announced his intention to ..._ Metaphorical measuring,
like literal, requires a more accommodating instrument than a stubborn
fact.
B. Overdone Metaphor
The days are perhaps past when a figure was deliberately chosen that
could be worked out with line upon line of relentless detail, and the
following well-known specimen is from Richardson:--
_Tost to and fro by the high winds of passionate control, I
behold the desired port, the single state, into which I
would fain steer; but am kept off by the foaming billows of
a brother's and sister's envy, and by the raging winds of a
supposed invaded authority; while I see in Lovelace, the
rocks on one hand, and in Solmes, the sands on the other;
and tremble, lest I should split upon the former or strike
upon the latter_.
The present fashion is rather to develop a metaphor only by way of
burlesque. All that need be asked of those who tend to this form of
satire is to remember that, while some metaphors do seem to deserve
such treatment, the number of times that the same joke can safely be
made, even with variations, is limited; the limit has surely been
exceeded, for instance, with 'the long arm of coincidence'; what
proportion may this triplet of quotations bear to the number of times
the thing has been done?--_The long arm of coincidence throws the
Slifers into Mercedes's Cornish garden a little too heavily.
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