At the same time, it forbids long continuity of the same
kind of thought, or repeated production of like effects. It warns
us against the error committed both by Pope in his poems and by Bacon
in his essays--the error, namely, of constantly employing forcible
forms of expression: and it points out that as the easiest posture
by and by becomes fatiguing, and is with pleasure exchanged for one
less easy, so, the most perfectly-constructed sentences will soon
weary, and relief will be given by using those of an inferior kind.
65. Further, we may infer from it not only that we should
avoid generally combining our words in one manner, however good,
or working out our figures and illustrations in one way, however
telling; but that we should avoid anything like uniform adherence,
even to the wider conditions of effect. We should not make every
section of our subject progress in interest; we should not always
rise to a climax. As we saw that, in single sentences, it is but
rarely allowable to fulfill all the conditions to strength; so,
in the larger sections of a composition we must not often conform
entirely to the law indicated.
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