In this way the credit of his book will be
maintained throughout the long course of centuries, in spite of the
fact that human interests are always changing.
An author like this, who has a claim to the continuance of his life
even with posterity, can only be a man who, over the wide earth, will
seek his like in vain, and offer a palpable contrast with everyone
else in virtue of his unmistakable distinction. Nay, more: were he,
like the wandering Jew, to live through several generations, he would
still remain in the same superior position. If this were not so, it
would be difficult to see why his thoughts should not perish like
those of other men.
_Metaphors_ and _similes_ are of great value, in so far as they
explain an unknown relation by a known one. Even the more detailed
simile which grows into a parable or an allegory, is nothing more than
the exhibition of some relation in its simplest, most visible and
palpable form. The growth of ideas rests, at bottom, upon similes;
because ideas arise by a process of combining the similarities and
neglecting the differences between things. Further, intelligence, in
the strict sense of the word, ultimately consists in a seizing of
relations; and a clear and pure grasp of relations is all the more
often attained when the comparison is made between cases that lie wide
apart from one another, and between things of quite different nature.
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