The dignity, grandeur, and energy of a style largely depend on a proper
employment of images, a term which I prefer to that usually given.[1]
The term image in its most general acceptation includes every thought,
howsoever presented, which issues in speech. But the term is now
generally confined to those cases when he who is speaking, by reason of
the rapt and excited state of his feelings, imagines himself to see what
he is talking about, and produces a similar illusion in his hearers.
[Footnote 1: +eidolopoiiai+, "fictions of the imagination," Hickie.]
2
Poets and orators both employ images, but with a very different object,
as you are well aware. The poetical image is designed to astound; the
oratorical image to give perspicuity. Both, however, seek to work on the
emotions.
"Mother, I pray thee, set not thou upon me
Those maids with bloody face and serpent hair:
See, see, they come, they're here, they spring upon me!"[2]