CONCERNING PROVERBS.

Regarding the proverbial figures mentioned before.

Now we shall indicate CERTAIN SOURCES, FROM WHICH THE KIND OF FIGURES MAY BE DRAWN.

FROM THE THING ITSELF.

For they are sometimes taken from the thing itself, whenever we call a wicked man a wickedness: a dishonorable person, a disgrace: a pestilent person, a pest: a glutton, an abyss: a dark person, darkness: a contaminated person, a stain. Such things can also be expressed through comparison, as more wicked than wickedness, more base than vice itself, blinder than blindness, more talkative than talkativeness.

From similar things.

Closest to this are those things that are drawn from similar objects: such as, sweeter than honey, whiter than snow.

From dissimilar things.

What has an oil-flask to do with a headband? What is common to a dolphin and an ox?

From living creatures.

More talkative than a woman, more lecherous than a sparrow, than a goat