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I don't see such a strong difference between metaphor and simile. The main difference is
between implicit identification in metaphor and explicit comparison in simile. The
invisible hand is certainly a metaphor, actually two at once: first, it is a form of
personification, especially so if market forces are the imaginary comparison. Second, it
is a synecdoche, which is substitution of part for whole, whole for part, genus for
species, or species for genus. The "hand" metaphorically represents a person's guiding
intention; in the passages where Smith's phrase appears in TMS and WN, his main discussion
is about unintended consequences.
 
Granted that we should not misquote Smith, is the problem with referring to Smith's idea
with "as" or "as if" that it attenuates the power of the comparison by making it explicit?
 
I'll mention again Emma Rothschild's "The Bloody and Invisible Hand," ch. five of
_Economic Sentiments_ (recently reviewed on EH.NET by Glenn Hueckel). She has an
interesting argument that Smith used it ironically, as a kind of joke. Like Professor
Hueckel, I'm not sure I buy all of the joke argument, but Rothschild's discussion of
intended/unintended consequences is very useful.
 
In fairness to Rothschild, of course, to compare the unintended outcomes of market
interactions with a guiding hand could be used as a model of irony.  From Richard Lanham's
_A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms_ (2nd ed., Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1991):
"Irony: implying a meaning opposite to the literal meaning" (p.92). How much more opposite
could we get? Lanham's book, btw, is an excellent reference source.
 
Paul Turpin 
 
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