ed out in each of these
sentences. 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.

Sec. 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. 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."

Sec. 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. In the choice of