in his essays--the error, namely, of constantly employing forcible
forms of expression: and it points out that as the easiest posture
by and by becomes fatiguing, and is with pleasure exchanged for one
less easy, so, the most perfectly-constructed sentences will soon
weary, and relief will be given by using those of an inferior kind.

65. Further, we may infer from it not only that we should
avoid generally combining our words in one manner, however good,
or working out our figures and illustrations in one way, however
telling; but that we should avoid anything like uniform adherence,
even to the wider conditions of effect. We should not make every
section of our subject progress in interest; we should not always
rise to a climax. As we saw that, in single sentences, it is but
rarely allowable to fulfill all the conditions to strength; so,
in the larger sections of a composition we must not often conform
entirely to the law indicated. We must subordinate the component
effect to the total effect.

66. In deciding how practically to carry out the principles of
artistic composition, we may derive help by bearing in mind a fact
already pointed out--the fitness of certain verbal arrangements for
certain kinds of thought. That constant variety in the mode of
presenting ideas which the theory demands, will in a great degree
result from a skilful adaptation of the form to the matter. We saw
how the direct or inverted sentence is spontaneously used by excited
people; and how their language is also characterized by figures
of speech and by extreme brevity. Hence these may with advantage
predominate in emotional passages; and may increase as the emotion
rises. On the other hand, for complex ideas, the indirect sentence
seems the best vehicle. In conversation, the excitement produced by