But since the thoughts conveyed by words and the expression of those
thoughts are for the most part interwoven with one another, we will now
add some considerations which have hitherto been overlooked on the
subject of expression. To say that the choice of appropriate and
striking words has a marvellous power and an enthralling charm for the
reader, that this is the main object of pursuit with all orators and
writers, that it is this, and this alone, which causes the works of
literature to exhibit the glowing perfections of the finest statues,
their grandeur, their beauty, 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 ...