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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The English Works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 06 (of 11) · The Wunder Library — complete classics, free to read, with narration.