As a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...

, a touchstone is any physical or intellectual measure by which the validity or merit of a concept can be tested. It is similar in use to an acid test, or a litmus test in politics. The word was introduced into literary criticism by

Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold (academic), Tom Arnold, literary professor, and Willi ...

in "Preface to the volume of 1853 poems" (1853) to denote short but distinctive passages, selected from the writings of the greatest poets, which he used to determine the relative value of passages or poems which are compared to them. Arnold proposed this method of evaluation as a corrective for what he called the "fallacious" estimates of poems according to their "historic" importance in the development of literature, or else according to their "personal" appeal to an individual critic.

Origin of the term

A touchstone is a small tablet of dark stone such as

fieldstone Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

, or lydite, used for

assay An assay is an investigative (analytic) procedure in laboratory medicine, mining, pharmacology, environmental biology and molecular biology for qualitatively assessing or quantitatively measuring the presence, amount, or functional activity ...

ing

precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high Value (economics), economic value. Precious metals, particularly the noble metals, are more corrosion resistant and less reactivity (chemistry), chemically reac ...

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which in most cases at least one is a metal, metallic element, although it is also sometimes used for mixtures of elements; herein only metallic alloys are described. Metallic alloys often have prop ...

s. It has a finely grained surface on which soft

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

s leave a visible trace.

In literature

An example in literature is the character of Touchstone in Shakespeare's ''

As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...

'', described as "a

wise fool The wise fool, or the wisdom of the fool, is a form of literary paradox in which, through a narrative, a character recognized as a fool comes to be seen as a bearer of wisdom. A recognizable trope found in stories and artworks from antiquity to ...

who acts as a kind of guide or point of reference throughout the play, putting everyone, including himself, to the comic test". :Dante's "In la sua volontade è nostra pace" ("In his will is our peace"; Paradiso, III.85) A touchstone can be a short passage from recognized masters' works used in assessing the relative merit of poetry and literature. This sense of the term was coined by Matthew Arnold in his essay "The Study of Poetry", where he gives Hamlet's dying words to Horatio as an example of a touchstone.Arnold, Matthew. "The Study of Poetry." Essays: English and American. Ed. Charles W. Eliot. 1909–14. Published April 11, 2001 by Bartleby.co

In German politics

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, various

interest group Advocacy groups, also known as lobby groups, interest groups, special interest groups, pressure groups, or public associations, use various forms of advocacy or lobbying to influence public opinion and ultimately public policy. They play an impor ...

s sometimes send questionnaires to the campaigning political parties before federal parliament elections. These questionnaires, consisting of political survey questions the interest groups are interested in, are often called "electoral touchstones" (''German:'' Wahlprüfsteine). Those answers of a political party which might support or threaten the political goals of an interest group are finally published by the group in order to influence the voting behavior of potential voters being in favor of the political views of the interest group.

Notes

{{reflist Metaphors