Book 8
6.14
While a temperate and timely use of metaphor is a real adornment to style, on the other hand, its frequent use serves merely to obscure our language and weary our audience, while if we introduce them in one continuous series, our language will become allegorical and enigmatic. There are also certain metaphors which fail from meanness, such as that of which I spoke above See VIII. iii. 48. : There is a rocky wart upon the mountain's brow. or they may even be coarse. For it does not follow that because Cicero was perfectly justified in talking of the sink of the state, In Cat. I. v. 12. when he desired to indicate the foulness of certain men, we can approve the following passage from an ancient orator: You have lanced the boils of the state.
6.15
Indeed Cicero De Or. iii. xli. 164. himself has demonstrated in the most admirable manner how important it is to avoid grossness in metaphor, such as is revealed by the following examples, which he quotes:— The state was gelded by the death of Africanus, or Glaucia, the excrement of the senate-house.
6.16
He also points out that a metaphor must not be too great for its subject or, as is more frequently the case, too little, and that it must not be inappropriate. Anyone who realises that these are faults, will be able to detect instances of them only too frequently. But excess in the use of metaphor is also a fault, more especially if they are of the same species.
