The academie of eloquence containing a compleat English rhetorique, exemplified with common-places and formes digested into an easie and methodical way to speak and write fluently according to the mode of the present times : together with letters both amorous and moral upon emergent occasions / by Tho. Blount, Gent.

Comparisons.

THis comfort in danger was but like the ho∣ney that Sampson found in the Lions jaws, or like lightning in a foggy night.

R••solved he was not to touch the forbidden fruit, nor to drink on Circes cup; he would not with the Spider suck poyson out of a fair flower

In the greenest grasse is the greatest Serpent: ••n the clearest water the ugliest Toad; In the most curious Sepulcher are inclosed rotten bones: The O••••••ich carrieth fair feathers, but rank flesh.

As there hath been an unchast Helen in Greece; so there hath been also a chast Penelope; As there hath been a prodigious Pasiphae: so has there been a godly Theocrita.

Hipp••manes ceased to run when she had gotten the Goal: Hercules to labour when he had ob∣tained the victory: Mercury to pipe when he had cast Argus in a slumber: Every action hath his end.

Each book sent into the world, is like a Bark put to sea, and as liable to censures, as the Bark is to ••oul weather. Herbert.

Like the Citie Mindus, whose Gates were so big, that the City might go out of them.

—Which like the flaming two edged waving sword of the Cherub cuts asunder on all sides, what∣soever does oppose it. Cressy.

Li••e the stone that groweth in the River of Curia, which the more it is cut, the more it increaseth.

There is no iron but will be softned with the fire; So no, &c.—

As a fair flower nipt with the morning frost' hanging down his head, as much sorry for his de∣clining glory. —

When the Halcions hatch, the Sea is calm; and the Phoenix never spreads her wings, but when the Sun shines on her nest: So —

Like the Spaniel which gnaws upon the chain that ties him; but sooner marres his teeth, then pro∣cures liberty. —

Consider that the heavenly Sun disdains not to give light and shine upon the smallest worm.

—In this 'tis so evident that I will not light the Sun with a rush candle.

He commends unto us a golden chain of Christi∣an perfections, consisting of these links, Faith, Ver∣tue, Patience, &c.

We can expect but Polyphemus courtesie, to be last devoured.

Romes Capitoll was not built in one day; nor was Zeuxis Helena suddenly limn'd forth with one pensill.

They have long sported in the bloud and trea∣sure of the land, as the Leviathan doth in the Wa∣ters.

His mind was all this while so fixed upon ano∣ther devotion, that he no more marked his friends discourse, then the child that hath leave to play, marks the last part of his lesson, or the diligent Pilot in a tempest attends the unskilful words of a Passenger.

She trembled like the unlickt lamb newly yean'd upon a sheet of s••ow.

My expression is but like a picture drawn with a cole, wanting those lively colours which a more skilfull pen might give it.

It is the Decree of Heaven, That every Compo∣sition

here beneath, as well fram'd by the hand of Art, as fashioned by the help of Nature, should sustain some imperfection; for glasse hath its lead, gold its drosse, corn its chaff. Helen her mole, the moon her spots, and the Sun its shade. Spa. Bawd.

(Like the Sun that illuminates the whole aire, (if no cloud or solid opacous body intervene) S. K.D.

— Did make no more impressions on him, then. an Arrow on a rock of Adamant.

— More impure then the stable of Augaeus. H.C As pensive as the night.

—You, as cruell as the Duke of Muscovia, na∣med Basilides, who commanded from his subjects a tribute of Sweat and of Nightingals in the midst of Winter. H Court.

If thou be as hot as the mount Aetna, feign thy self as cold as the hill Caucasus: carry two faces in one hood.

As ingenious Cicero could pick gold out of En∣nius's dung; so may—

His Fetters (like King Agrippa's golden chain) more became him then his Imperiall D••adem. Ka meka thee▪

As liberall as the Sun which shines on all.

like Aesops Crow prankt up in borrowed feathers.