effective expression be fulfilled.



v. Suggestion as a Means of Economy.

47. Passing on to a more complex application of the doctrine
with which we set out, it must now be remarked, that not only in
the structure of sentences, and the use of figures of speech, may
economy of the recipient's mental energy be assigned as the cause
of force; but that in the choice and arrangement of the minor
images, out of which some large thought is to be built up, we may
trace the same condition to effect. To select from the sentiment,
scene, or event described those typical elements which carry many
others along with them; and so, by saying a few things but suggesting

many, to abridge the description; is the secret of producing a
vivid impression. An extract from Tennyson's 'Mariana' will well
illustrate this:

"All day within the dreamy house,
The door upon the hinges creaked,
The blue fly sung i' the pane; the mouse
Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked,
Or from the crevice peered about."

48. The several circumstances here specified bring with them
many appropriate associations. Our attention is rarely drawn by
the buzzing of a fly in the window, save when everything is still.
While the inmates are moving about the house, mice usually keep