their mellowness, their dignity, their
energy, their power, and all their other graces, and that it is this
which endows the facts with a vocal soul; to say all this would, I fear,
be, to the initiated, an impertinence. Indeed, we may say with strict
truth that beautiful words are the very light of thought.
2
I do not mean to say that imposing language is appropriate to every
occasion. A trifling subject tricked out in grand and stately words
would have the same effect as a huge tragic mask placed on the head of a
little child. Only in poetry and ...
XXXI
... There is a genuine ring in that line of Anacreon's--
"The Thracian filly I no longer heed."
The same merit belongs to that original phrase in Theophrastus; to me,
at least, from the closeness of its analogy, it seems to have a peculiar
expressiveness, though Caecilius censures it, without telling us why.
"Philip," says the historian, "showed a marvellous alacrity in _taking
doses of trouble_."[1] We see from this that the most homely language is
sometimes far more vivid than the most ornamental, being recognised at
once as the language of common life, and gaining immediate currency by
its familiarity. In speaking, then, of Philip as "taking doses of
trouble," Theopompus has laid hold on a phrase which describes with
peculiar vividness one who for the sake of advantage endured what was
base and sordid with patience and cheerfulness.
[Footnote 1: See Note.]
2
The same may be observed of two passages in Herodotus: "Cleomenes having
lost his wits, cut his own flesh into pieces with a short sword, until
by gradually _mincing_ his whole body he destroyed himself";[2] and
"Pythes continued fighting on his ship until he was entirely _hacked to
pieces_."[3] Such terms come home at once to the vulgar reader, but
their own vulgarity is redeemed by their expressiveness.
[Footnote 2: vi. 75.]
[Footnote 3: vii. 181.]
XXXII
Concerning the number of metaphors to be employed together Caecilius
seems to give his vote with those critics who make a law that not more
than two, or at the utmost three, should be combined in the same place.
The use, however, must be determined by the occasion. Those outbursts of
passion which drive onwards like a winter torrent draw with them as an
indispensable accessory whole masses of metaphor. It is thus in that
passage of Demosthenes (who here also is our safest guide):[1]
[Footnote 1: See Note.]
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