An extract from Tennyson's 'Mariana' will well
illustrate this:
"All day within the dreamy house,
The door upon the hinges creaked,
The blue fly sung i' the pane; the mouse
Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked,
Or from the crevice peered about."
48. The several circumstances here specified bring with them
many appropriate associations. Our attention is rarely drawn by
the buzzing of a fly in the window, save when everything is still.
While the inmates are moving about the house, mice usually keep
silence; and it is only when extreme quietness reigns that they peep
from their retreats. Hence each of the facts mentioned, presupposing
numerous others, calls up these with more or less distinctness; and
revives the feeling of dull solitude with which they are connected
in our experience. Were all these facts detailed instead of suggested,
the attention would be so frittered away that little impression of
dreariness would be produced. Similarly in other cases. Whatever
the nature of the thought to be conveyed, this skilful selection
of a few particulars which imply the rest, is the key to success.
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