XIII. The second danger of a lofty stile is, that the pen, instead of
taking a flight to the top of Olympus, may wing its course to that of
Parnassus; I mean, that, instead of arriving at the degree of sublimity
which is proper for history, it may soar to that which is adapted to
poetry. Every species of undertaking has its correspondent language; but
I do not assent to the distribution which is commonly made of different
stiles to different undertakings, and which assigns to history the medium
between the sublime and the humble. There is a sublimity requisite for
history, although it is different from that which is required for poetry;
and also from that which is necessary in oratory. Who entertains a doubt
of the stile of Livy, of Sallust, and of Tacitus, being sublime? But they
are all three very different, not only from that of Virgil, of Claudian,
and the other heroic poets, but even very different from each other.
They are much mistaken, who confine sublimity of stile to an indivisible
and fixed point. Elocution has many different graces and ornaments, and
the pen may be elevated by various ways. I do not think it so difficult
to hit upon the sublime which is proper for oratory and poetry, as it
is upon that which is suited to history; because, in the two first, the
frequency of tropes and figures give of themselves a magnificence to the
stile; in the last, all the elevation must consist in the liveliness of
the expressions, the natural energy of the phrases, the depth of the
conceptions, and the keenness of the sentences; nor must they presume
to take the liberties which are practised by the orators and poets;
because hyperbole is apt to disfigure the truth, and because integrity
and judgement suit but ill with the raptures of imagination; and because
also elevations of the pen make it in some measure difficult for ignorant
people to comprehend the relation. That tedious, hyperbolic, and pompous
description, which Claudian gives of the avarice of Rufinus, does not
appear so admirable to me as the short, energic, lively, and natural
phrases, with which Tacitus characterizes in its full extent the misery
and meaness of Galba: _Pecuniæ alienæ non cupidus, suæ parcus, publicæ
avarus._ Nor does the elegant colouring, with which Ovid has painted the
triumphs of vice in the iron age, appear to me equal to the profundity
of that sentence, with which Livy laments the compleat and ultimate
corruption of the Roman people: _Ad hæc tempora perventum est, quibus nec
vitia nostra possumus pati, nec remedia._