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CHAPTER IV.. Of a Similitude.

The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11) · Thomas Hobbes — chapter 51 of 74 · ~91 words · public domain

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OF A SIMILITUDE.

A similitude differs from a metaphor only by such particles of comparison as these; as; even as; so; even so, &c.

A similitude therefore is a metaphor dilated; and a metaphor is a similitude contracted into one word.

A similitude does well in an oration, so it be not too frequent; for it is poetical.

An example of the similitude, is this of Pericles, that said in his oration, that the Bœotians were like so many oaks in a wood, that did nothing but beat one another.

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