You can prove nothing by analogy. The analogy is either range-finding
or fumble. Written down as a lurch toward proof, or at worst elaborated in that
aim, it leads mainly to useless argument, BUT a man whose wit teems with
analogies will often 'twig' that something is wrong long before he knows why.
Aristotle had something of this sort in mind when he wrote 'apt use of metaphor
indicating a swift perception of relations'.
A dozen rough analogies may flash before the quick mind, as so many rough
tests which eliminate grossly unfit matter or structure.
-Ezra Pound (from ABC of Reading, 1934)
posted by Brad Larcen 3/09/2002[edit]
