; and so straining the attention to find its meaning, or the
admiration to appreciate its beauty.

"Another class of considerations connects itself with the heightened
and plethoric fulness of the style: its accumulation and contrast of
imagery; its occasional jerking and almost spasmodic violence;--and
above all, the painful subjective excitement, which seems the element
and groundwork even of every description of Nature; often taking the
shape of sarcasm or broad jest, but never subsiding into calm. There is
also a point which I should think worth attending to, were I planning
any similar book: I mean the importance, in a work of imagination, of
not too much disturbing in the reader's mind the balance of the New
and Old. The former addresses itself to his active, the latter to his
passive faculty; and these are mutually dependent, and must coexist in
certain proportion, if you wish to combine his sympathy and progressive
exertion with willingness and ease of attention. This should be taken
into account in forming a style; for of course it cannot be consciously
thought of in composing each sentence.

"But chiefly it seems important in determining the plan of a work. If
the tone of feeling, the line of speculation are out of the common way,
and sure to present some difficulty to the average reader, then it would
probably be desirable to select, for the circumstances, drapery
and accessories of all kinds, those most familiar, or at least most
attractive. A fable of the homeliest purport, and commonest every-day
application, derives an interest and charm from its turning on the
characters and acts of gods and genii, lions and foxes, Arabs and
Affghauns. On the contrary, for philosophic inquiry and truths of awful
preciousness, I would select as my personages and interlocutors beings
with whose language and 'whereabouts' my readers would be familiar. Thus
did Plato in his Dialogues, Christ in his Parables. Therefore it seems
doubtful whether it was judicious to make a German Professor the hero
of _Sartor_. Berkeley began his _Siris_ with tar-water; but what can
English readers be expected to make of _Gukguk_ by way of prelibation to
your nectar and tokay? The circumstances and details do not flash with
living reality on the minds of your readers, but, on the contrary,
themselves require some of that attention and minute speculation, the
whole original stock of which, in the minds of most of them, would not
be too much to