? Would it
have once cheered him under a fit of the spleen? Would it
have induced him to give us one more allegory, one more life
of a poet, one more imitation of Juvenal? I firmly believe
not. I firmly believe that a hundred years ago, when he was
writing our debates for the _Gentleman's Magazine_, he would
very much rather have had twopence to buy a plate of shin of
beef at a cook's shop underground.

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: _Copyright_, 1841

Comparison. Unfamiliar matter may be made plain by showing how it
resembles something already clearly understood by the audience. This
is comparison. It shows how two things are alike. The old geographies
used to state that the earth is an oblate spheroid, then explain that
term by comparison with an orange, pointing out the essential
flattening at the poles. In any use of comparison the resemblance must
be real, not assumed. Many a speaker has been severely criticized for
his facts because he asserted in comparison similarities that did not
exist.

Contrast. When the _differences_ between two things are carefully
enumerated the process is termed contrast. This is often used in
combination with comparison, for no two things are exactly alike. They
may resemble each other in nearly all respects, so comparison is
possible and helpful up to a certain limit. To give an exact idea of
the remainder the differences must be pointed out; that requires
contrast.

In contrast the opposing balance of details does not have to depend
necessarily on a standard familiar to the audience. It may be an
arrangement of opposite aspects of the same thing to bring out more
vividly the understanding. In his _History of the English People_,
Green explains the character of Queen Elizabeth by showing the
contrasted elements she inherited from her mother, Anne Boleyn, and
her father, Henry VIII. Such a method results not only in added
clearness, but also in emphasis. The plan may call for half a
paragraph on one side, the second half on the other; or it may cover
two paragraphs or sections; or it may alternate with every detail--an
affirmative balanced by a negative, followed at once by another pair
of affirmative and negative, or statement and contrast, and so on
until the end. The speaker must consider such possibilities of
contrast, plan for his own, and indicate it in his brief.

Nearly any speech will provide illustrations of the methods of
comparison