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352 THEORIES OF STYLE IN LITERATURE
current of thought,
the image the greater the obstacle,
so that the laws of Simplicity
and Economy are violated by it,
and in such a case the more beautiful
while each clause
really requires for its interpretation a proposition that is
however kept suspended
till the close, is a defect."
The weariness produced by such writing as this is very
great, and yet the recasting of the passage is easy. Thus :
1 i
It is a defect when a sentence is constructed with many
loosely and not obviously dependent clauses, each of which
requires for its interpretation a proposition that is kept
suspended till the close; and this defect is
exaggerated when
each clause contains an important meaning, or a concrete
image which, like a boulder in a shallow stream, disturbs the
equable current of thought :
the more beautiful the image, the
greater its violation of the laws of Simplicity and Economy."
In this second form the sentence has no long suspension of
the main idea, no diversions of the current. The proposition
is stated and illustrated directly, and the mind of the reader
follows that of the writer. How injurious
it is to keep the
key in your pocket until all the locks in succession have been
displayed may be seen in such a sentence as this :
" Phantoms of lost power, sudden intuitions, and shadowy
restorations of forgotten feelings, sometimes dim and perplexing,
sometimes by bright but furtive glimpses, sometimes
by a full and steady revelation, overcharged with light
throw us back in a moment upon scenes and remembrances
that we have left full thirty years
behind us."
Had De Quincey liberated our minds from suspense by
which first arose in his own
first presenting the thought
mind, namely, that we are thrown back upon scenes and
remembrances by phantoms of lost power, &c. the beauty
of his language in its pregnant suggestiveness would have
been felt at once. Instead of that, he makes us accompany