discussion, Cicero said that allusions to "the Syrtis of his patrimony" and "the Charybdis of his possessions" involved similes that were "too far-fetched"; and he advised the orator to, instead, just speak of "the rock" and "the gulf" (respectively) -- on the grounds that, "The eyes of the mind are more easily directed to those objects which we have seen, than to those which we have only heard."

The concept of "the mind's