1pFFjZK

152 THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
crippled by the abridgment. So conversely
if
you lengthen
into wo-Trepel j>e$o?, the meaning is still the same, but if does
not strike the ear in
the same manner, because by lingering
over the final syllables you at once dissipate and relax the
abrupt grandeur of the passage.
XL
There is another method very efficient in exalting a style.
As the different members of the body, none of which, if severed
from its
connection, has any intrinsic excellence, unite
by their mutual combination to form a complete and perfect
organism, so also the elements of a fine passage, by whose separation
from one another its
high quality is simultaneously dissipated
and evaporates, when joined in one organic whole, and
still further compacted by the bond of harmony, by the mere
rounding of the 5
period gain power of tone. In fact, a clause
may be said to derive its sublimity from the joint contributions
of a number of particulars. And further (as we have shown
at large elsewhere), many writers in prose and verse, though
their natural powers were not high, were perhaps even low,
and though the terms they employed were usually common
and popular and conveying no impression of refinement, _by
the mere harmony of their composition have attained dignity
and elevation, and avoided the appearance of meanness.
Such among many others are Philistus, Aristophanes occasionally,
Euripides almost always. Thus when Heracles
says, after the murder of his children,
" I'm full of woes, I have no room for more," *
the words are quite common, but they are made sublime .by.
being cast in a fine mould. By changing their position you
will see that the poetical quality of Euripides depends more on
*H.F. 1245.