stick upon spits, and illuminate the ways with at night. Persons
of condition can thus travel with a pleasant radiance, which they
much admire. Great honour to the Fire-flies! But--!--"



vi. The Effect of Poetry explained.

50. Before inquiring whether the law of effect, thus far traced,
explains the superiority of poetry to prose, it will be needful to
notice some supplementary causes of force in expression, that have
not yet been mentioned. These are not, properly speaking, additional
causes; but rather secondary ones, originating from those already
specified reflex results of them. In the first place, then, we may
remark that mental excitement spontaneously prompts the use of those
forms of speech which have been pointed out as the most effective.
"Out with him!" "Away with him!" are the natural utterances of angry
citizens at a disturbed meeting. A voyager, describing a terrible
storm he had witnessed, would rise to some such climax as--"Crack
went the ropes and down came the mast." Astonishment may be heard
expressed in the phrase --"Never was there such a sight!" All of
which sentences are, it will be observed, constructed after the
direct type. Again, every one knows that excited persons are given
to figures of speech. The vituperation of the vulgar abounds with
them: often, indeed, consists of little else. "Beast," "brute,"
"gallows rogue," "cut-throat villain," these, and other like metaphors
and metaphorical epithets, at once call to mind a street quarrel.
Further, it may be noticed that extreme brevity is another
characteristic of passionate language. The sentences are generally
incomplete; the particles are omitted; and frequently important