The use of mean words has also a strong tendency to degrade a lofty
passage. Thus in that description of the storm in Herodotus the matter
is admirable, but some of the words admitted are beneath the dignity of
the subject; such, perhaps, as "the seas having _seethed_" because the
ill-sounding phrase "having seethed" detracts much from its
impressiveness: or when he says "the wind wore away," and "those who
clung round the wreck met with an unwelcome end."[1] "Wore away" is
ignoble and vulgar, and "unwelcome" inadequate to the extent of the
disaster.
[Footnote 1: Hdt. vii. 188, 191, 13.]
2
Similarly Theopompus, after giving a fine picture of the Persian king's
descent against Egypt, has exposed the whole to censure by certain
paltry expressions. "There was no city, no people of Asia, which did not
send an embassy to the king; no product of the earth, no work of art,
whether beautiful or precious, which was not among the gifts brought to
him. Many and costly were the hangings and robes, some purple, some
embroidered, some white; many the tents, of cloth of gold, furnished
with all things useful; many the tapestries and couches of great price.
Moreover, there was gold and silver plate richly wrought, goblets and
bowls, some of which might be seen studded with gems, and others besides
worked in relief with great skill and at vast expense. Besides these
there were suits of armour in number past computation, partly Greek,
partly foreign, endless trains of baggage animals and fat cattle for
slaughter, many bushels of spices, many panniers and sacks and sheets of
writing-paper; and all other necessaries in the same proportion. And
there was salt meat of all kinds of beasts in immense quantity, heaped
together to such a height as to show at a distance like mounds and hills
thrown up one against another."
3
He runs off from the grander parts of his subject to the meaner, and
sinks where he ought to rise. Still worse, by his mixing up _panniers_
and _spices_ and _bags_ with his wonderful recital of that vast and busy
scene one would imagine that he was describing a kitchen. Let us suppose
that in that show of magnificence some one had taken a set of wretched
baskets and bags and placed them in the midst, among vessels of gold,
jewelled bowls, silver plate, and tents and goblets of gold; how
incongruous would have seemed the effect! Now just in the same way these
petty words, introduced out of season, stand out like deformities and
blots on the diction.
4
These details might have been given in one or two broad strokes, as when
he speaks of mounds being heaped together. So in dealing with the other
preparations he might have told us of "waggons and camels and a long
train of baggage animals loaded with all kinds of supplies for the
luxury and enjoyment of the table," or have mentioned "piles of grain of
every species, and of all the choicest delicacies required by the art of
the cook or the taste of the epicure," or (if he must needs be so very
precise) he might have spoken of "whatever dainties are supplied by
those who lay or those who dress the banquet."
5
In our sublimer efforts we should never stoop to what is sordid and
despicable, unless very hard pressed by some urgent necessity. If we
would write becomingly, our utterance should be worthy of our theme. We
should take a lesson from nature, who when she planned the human frame
did not set our grosser parts, or the ducts for purging the body, in our
face, but as far as she could concealed them, "diverting," as Xenophon
says, "those canals as far as possible from our senses,"[2] and thus
shunning in any part to mar the beauty of the whole creature.
[Footnote 2: _Mem._ i. 4. 6.]
6
However, it is not incumbent on us to specify and enumerate whatever
diminishes a style. We have now pointed out the various means of giving
it nobility and loftiness. It is clear, then, that whatever is contrary
to these will generally degrade and deform it.