The simile comes before the qualified image, the
adjectives before the substantives, the predicate and copula before
the subject, and their respective complements before them. That the
passage is open to the charge of being bombastic proves nothing;
or rather, proves our case. For what is bombast but a force of
expression too great for the magnitude of the ideas embodied? All
that may rightly be inferred is, that only in very rare cases,
and then only to produce a climax, should all the conditions of
effective expression be fulfilled.
v. Suggestion as a Means of Economy.
47. Passing on to a more complex application of the doctrine
with which we set out, it must now be remarked, that not only in
the structure of sentences, and the use of figures of speech, may
economy of the recipient's mental energy be assigned as the cause
of force; but that in the choice and arrangement of the minor
images, out of which some large thought is to be built up, we may
trace the same condition to effect. To select from the sentiment,
scene, or event described those typical elements which carry many
others along with them; and so, by saying a few things but suggesting
many, to abridge the description; is the secret of producing a
vivid impression.
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