An example of a simile drawing on a scientific phenomenon:
"Concerning some of the writers of the sixteenth century, it has been discovered that, though they talked of the importance of seeing things with one's own eyes, they still could not observe a tree or a scene in nature without noticing just those things which the classical writers had taught them to look for. When Machiavelli pretended to be drawing his conclusions from contemporary political events, he would still produce maxims drawn from one ancient thinker or another – he may have thought that he was making inferences from the data in front of him, but in reality he was selecting the data which illustrated the maxims previously existing in his mind. Similarly, the historical student, confronted with a mass of documentary material, has a kind of magnet in his mind which unless he is very careful will draw out of that material just the things which confirm the shape of the story as he assumed it to be before his researches began."
Herbert Butterfield (1957) The Origins of Modern Science 1300-1800 (New Edition: Revised and enlarged). G. Bell and Sons Ltd., London.
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