herefore the laws which
regulate the one must be like the laws which regulate the other. From
the duality of creation, there cannot be identity between the physical
and moral laws; but from the unity of the Creator there must be
similarity.

Nor is it only between the two great departments of the divine
government generically distinguished, that analogies may spring: within
either department, analogies innumerable may be found between one
species and another, and even between individuals of the same species.
Between two parts of the material world, or two portions of human
history, or two processes of mental effort, analogies may be traced, as
well as between the evolutions of matter and the laws of mind.

It is not strictly correct to speak of the similitudes which we have
been accustomed to admire in literature, as "creations of genius;" the
utmost that is competent to genius is to observe and exhibit the
similitudes as they lie in nature. An observing eye, a suggestive mind,
and a loving heart constitute all the necessary apparatus; with these
faculties in exercise, let any one stalk abroad upon the earth among his
fellows, and analogies will spring spontaneously around him, as
manifold and as beautiful as the flowers that by daylight look up from
the earth, or the stars that in the evening reciprocate from heaven the
gentle salutation.

Analogy occupies the whole interval between absolute identity on the one
hand, and complete dissimilarity on the other. You would not say there
is an analogy between two coins of the same metal, struck successively
from the same die; for all practical purposes they are identical.
Although the two objects are thoroughly distinct, as all their sensible
qualities are the same, we are accustomed to speak of them not as
similar but the same. In order that a comparison may be effective either
for ornament or for use, there must be, between the two acts or objects,
a similarity in some points, and a dissimilarity in others. The
comparison for moral or aesthetic purposes is like an algebraic equation
in mathematical science; if the two sides are in all their features the
same, or in all their features different, you may manipulate the signs
till the sun go down, but you will obtain no useful result: it is only
when they are in some of their terms the same and in some different,
that you can bring fruit from their union.

We stand here on the brink of a great deep. For wise ends the syste