Equally dramatic is the interchange of persons, often making a reader
fancy himself to be moving in the midst of the perils described--
"Unwearied, thou wouldst deem, with toil unspent,
They met in war; so furiously they fought."[1]
and that line in Aratus--
"Beware that month to tempt the surging sea."[2]
[Footnote 1: _Il._ xv. 697.]
[Footnote 2: _Phaen._ 287.]
2
In the same way Herodotus: "Passing from the city of Elephantine you
will sail upwards until you reach a level plain. You cross this region,
and there entering another ship you will sail on for two days, and so
reach a great city, whose name is Meroe."[3] Observe how he takes us, as
it were, by the hand, and leads us in spirit through these places,
making us no longer readers, but spectators. Such a direct personal
address always has the effect of placing the reader in the midst of the
scene of action.
[Footnote 3: ii. 29.]
3
And by pointing your words to the individual reader, instead of to the
readers generally, as in the line
"Thou had'st not known for whom Tydides fought,"[4]
and thus exciting him by an appeal to himself, you will rouse interest,
and fix attention, and make him a partaker in the action of the book.
[Footnote 4: _Il._ v. 85.]