Book 8
6.7
On the other hand, when we say that a man is kindled to anger or on fire with greed or that he has fallen into error, we do so to enhance our meaning. For none of these things can be more literally described in its own words than in those which we import from elsewhere. But it is a purely ornamental metaphor when we speak of brilliance of style, splendour of birth, tempestuous public assemblies, thunderbolts of eloquence, to which I may add the phrase employed by Cicero Pro Mil. xiii. 34, 35. in his defence of Milo where he speaks of Clodius as the fountain, and in another place as the fertile field and material of his client's glory.
6.8
It is even possible to express facts of a somewhat unseemly character by a judicious use of metaphor, as in the following passage: Virg. Georg. iii. 1 This do they lest too much indulgence make The field of generation slothful grow And choke its idle furrows. On the whole metaphor is a shorter form of simile, while there is this further difference, that in the latter we compare some object to the thing which we wish to describe, whereas in the former this object is actually substituted for the thing.
