Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

THE INFLUENCE OF CASUAL ASSOCIATIONS. 237
can preserve dignity of expression, but can connect with the
perusal of their compositions, the pleasing impressions which
have been produced by those of their predecessors. And hence,
in the higher sorts of poetry, where their object is to kindle, as
much as possible, the enthusiasm of their readers, they not only
avoid, studiously, all expressions which are vulgar, but all such
as are borrowed from fashionable life. This certainly cannot
be done in an equal degree by a poet who writes in the French
language.
Illn English, the poetical diction is so extremely copious, that
it is liable to be abused; as it puts it in the power of authors of
no genius, merely by ringing changes on the poetical vocabulary, to give a certain degree of currency to the most unmeaning compositions. In Pope's Song by a Person of Quality, the
incoherence of ideas is scarcely greater than what is to be found
in some admired passages of our fashionable poetry.
Nor is it merely by a difference of words, that the language
of poetry is distinguished from that of prose. When a poetical
arrangement of words has once been established by authors of
reputation, the most common expressions, by being presented in
this consecrated order, may serve to excite poetical associations.
On the other hand, nothing more completely destroys the
charm of poetry, than a string of words which the custom of
ordinary discourse has arranged in so invariable an order, that
the whole phrase may be anticipated from hearing its commencement. A single word frequently strikes us as flat and
prosaic, in consequence of its familiarity; but two such words,
coupled together in the order of conversation, can scarcely be
introduced into serious poetry without appearing ludicrous.
No poet in our language has shown so strikingly as Milton,
the wonderful elevation which style may derive from an
arrangement of words, which, while it is perfectly intelligible,
departs widely from that to which we are in general accustomed.
Many of his most sublime periods, when the order of the words
is altered, are reduced nearly to the level of prose.
To copy this artifice with success is a much more difficult
attainment than is commonly imagined: and, of consequence,