ABSTRACT
But it is obvious that he is not a weak reed only if “weak reed” is taken literally, for it is, indeed, obvious that no person is literally a reed, weak or otherwise. And it is utterly trivial to say that a metaphorical statement, taken literally, may be false. Taken metaphorically, however, the statement may well be true: he is indeed a weak reed, and it is false to deny that he is. To be sure, metaphorical assertions are eligible for falsehood. But they are, no more than literal assertions, always false.
