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Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Section 1
Explanation and Analysis—The Spirit of Liberty:
Burke frequently makes reference to scientific phenomena throughout Reflections on the Revolution in France, no doubt an attempt to exhibit his learnedness to readers. In an early instance of this, he employs an elaborate extended metaphor to describe the chemical properties of the "spirit of liberty":
When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air is plainly broke loose: but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface.
In his attempt to describe the characteristics of liberty's "spirit," Burke uses scientific terminology: "effervescence," for instance, is a phenomenon wherein gas bubbles escape from a liquid solution, causing foam to form or fizzing to occur in the process. Burke asserts through this metaphor that liberty, or freedom, is a "strong principle" that may obscure the other qualities of a political movement. One must wait until the initial cries of liberty have dissipated, like bubbles in a liquid, to observe the real character and impact of a revolution.
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Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Occult Revolutionaries:
Throughout Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke includes occultism as a motif, capitalizing on the anti-atheist sentiments of his audience to discredit the revolutionaries and their ideas. In the following passage, for instance, wherein Burke attempts to refute the sermon of one Doctor Richard Price, both allusion and metaphor feature as a means of tying occultism to the arguments of Burke's opponent:
On the forenoon of the 4th of November last, Doctor Richard Price, a non-conforming minister of eminence, preached at the dissenting meeting-house of the Old Jewry, to his club or society, a very extraordinary miscellaneous sermon, in which there are some good moral and religious sentiments, and not ill expressed, mixed up in a sort of porridge of various political opinions and reflections: but the revolution in France is the grand ingredient in the cauldron.
Here, Burke uses metaphor to equate "the revolution in France" with an ingredient in the revolutionaries' "cauldron" of political ideas. This figurative language undoubtedly brings witchcraft to mind, along with its unsavory heathen associations. Burke may have used this particular metaphor as a means of vaguely alluding to the witches from Act 4, Scene 1 of Macbeth: "Round about the cauldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw." Burke includes this metaphor and allusion to associate Price with a lifestyle many readers at the time would have considered unsavory, if not outright evil.
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Explanation and Analysis—Species and Polemics:
In the following passage, Burke uses a metaphor to discuss the varying kinds of polemicists and "preachers" inundating the revolutionary sphere:
I doubt whether religion would reap all the benefits which the calculating divine computes from this ‘great company of great preachers.’ It would certainly be a valuable addition of nondescripts to the ample collection of known classes, genera and species, which at present beautify the hortus siccus of dissent.
Burke equates these various revolutionary preachers to new and diverse taxa, or species, notably using the Latin phrase hortus siccus to describe the diversity of dissent. Hortus siccus translates directly to mean "dry garden" and is used to refer to a dried collection of various leaves and plants, preserved as a herbarium for scientific study. The use of this particular phrase to characterize the various "species" of revolutionaries betrays Burke's attitude towards their rhetoric. He views this revolutionary polemic as mere intellectual theory: something to study, certainly—useful as an intellectual exercise, perhaps—but ultimately dried out, disconnected from the still-living world from which it sprang.
This metaphor is intended to minimize the revolutionaries: note that Burke describes these preachers as "nondescripts," casting them as nothing to be taken all that seriously.
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Section 3
Explanation and Analysis—The Oracle:
In the following passage, Burke uses a metaphor to describe the Declaration of Right and the Act of Settlement, both acts that the revolutionaries refer to as English inspirations for French revolutionary sentiments:
Both these acts, in which are heard the unerring, unambiguous oracles of Revolution policy, instead of countenancing the delusive, gypsey predictions of a ‘right to choose our governors,’ prove to a demonstration how totally adverse the wisdom of the nation was from turning a case of necessity into a rule of law.
Burke uses metaphor here to describe both the Declaration of Right and the Act of Settlement as the "oracles" of Revolution policy. This statement implies that not only did these acts predict revolutionary ideology, but that they are the authoritative voice referred back to by Burke's contemporaries as evidence to support the validity of their revolutionary cause. Burke later goes on to counter this claim, asserting that these "oracles" were singular instances of necessity rather than an upending of the entire system.
Burke deliberately uses the language of mysticism in this passage to undermine his opponents, implying that they are heathens and atheists who would rather listen to "oracles" than the Christian God. In this way, he is calling out the historical ignorance of his opponents.
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Explanation and Analysis—Doctors:
In the above passage, Burke uses a metaphor to equate his opponents to doctors, with the object of their surgery and study being the "rights of men":
Do these new doctors of the rights of men presume to assert, that King James the Second, who came to the crown as next of blood, according to the rules of a then unqualified succession, was not to all intents and purposes a lawful king of England . . . ?
In this excerpt, the term "doctor" functions as a derogatory title. According to Burke's characterization, the revolutionaries believe themselves to be experts, entitled to dissect and comment on politics and human rights. Burke clearly disagrees; the word "doctor" here is laden with verbal irony, implying that Burke views his opponents' rhetoric as damaging rather than healing.
Generally, the title of "doctor" implies intelligence and training—and, above all, the ability to cure. According to Burke's characterization, the revolutionaries believe themselves able to "cure" political ailments. Taking the title to be applied ironically, it becomes evident that Burke considers the revolutionaries to be the real political ailment.
Notably, this metaphor functions as an example of an important motif utilized by Burke throughout the text: equation of the "political body" (or government) with the physical body.
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Explanation and Analysis—Inheritance and Disease:
Throughout Reflections, heredity emerges as a recurring motif, used to describe not only the familial monarchical succession but also the state and health of the country. Burke will often utilize biological and political concepts interchangeably, as in the following metaphor, in which he equates political irregularity with disease:
No experience has taught us, that in any other course or method than that of an hereditary
crown, our liberties can be regularly perpetuated and preserved sacred as our hereditary right. An irregular, convulsive movement may be necessary to throw off an irregular, convulsive disease. But the course of succession is the healthy habit of the British constitution.
In this passage, Burke reveals that he considers the British monarchy equivalent to a "healthy" body: one that, over time, naturally experiences "irregular, convulsive" diseases that must be treated as such. Discarding the entire body for the sake of the disease, in his mind, is a gross misstep.
It seems only natural for Burke to equate politics and biology throughout his work, considering the hereditary nature of succession under the British monarchy. Monarchical politics are, quite literally, a biological matter, with heredity being the natural meeting point of the two spheres. Burke simply takes this meeting point and expands upon it, extending biological metaphors to apply to all manner of political situations.
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