Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/549

Rh The two similitudes to which I object in this description are, first, the iris or rainbow, which is represented as sitting amidst the infernal surges like Hope upon a deathbed. Let us consider this resemblance. There is certainly no fault to be found with it on the score of its morality; it is calculated to be solemn and impressive. But it appears to me to be incongruous and out of place. There is no analogy or similitude between the scene here presented to our imagination and the picture of hope upon a deathbed. The agitation of these distracted waters is the agitation of overpowering life, and not the trouble of death either still or convulsed. Hope upon a deathbed is no doubt a radiant crown, whether it encircles the dying brows of him whose last hour has struck, or the foreheads of his weeping friends; but that is a peaceful though a mournful scene, it is a picture bearing no resemblance to this frenzied flood; or if it be not a peaceful scene, if the passions of anguish, like those tumultuous waters, boil up around this bed