is saved; the picture is instantly realized, and its full effect
produced.

38. Of the position of the Simile, it needs only to remark,
that what has been said respecting the order of the adjective
and substantive, predicate and subject, principal and subordinate
propositions, &c., is applicable here. As whatever qualifies should
precede whatever is qualified, force will generally be gained by
placing the simile before the object to which it is applied. That
this arrangement is the best, may be seen in the following passage
from the 'Lady of the Lake';

"As wreath of snow, on mountain breast,
Slides from the rock that gave it rest,
Poor Ellen glided from her stay,
And at the monarch's feet she lay."

Inverting these couplets will be found to diminish the effect
considerably. There are cases, however, even where the simile is
a simple one, in which it may with advantage be placed last, as in
these lines from Alexander Smith's 'Life Drama':

"I see the future stretch
All dark and barren as a rainy sea."

The reason for this seems to be, that so abstract an idea as that
attaching to the word "future," does not present itself to the
mind in any definite form, and hence the subsequent arrival at the
simile entails no reconstruction of the thought.