DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48956#0290
iSi BEAUTY OF LANGUAGE. Ch. XVIII.
In theie deep solitudes and awful cells ,
[x Where heav’nly-pensive |j Contemplation dwells,
And ever-muling||Melancholy reigns.
The point of the greatessi delicacy regards the
a£live verb and the passive substantive placed in
their natural order. On the one hand, it will be
observed, that these words lignify things which are
not separable in idea. Killing cannot be conceived
without a being that is put to death, nor painting
without a surface upon which the colors are
spread, On the other hand, an adlion and the
thing on which it is exerted, are not, like subjecfl
and quality, united in one individual objedl: the
adlive subllantive is perfedtly dislinT from that
which is passive; and they are connected by one
clrcumstance only, that the affiion of the sormer
is exerted upon the latter. This makes it pos-
sible to take the adlion to pieces, and to consider
it first with relation to the agent, and next with
relation to the patient. But after all, so intimate-
ly connected are the parts of the thought, that it
requires an esfort to make a reparation even for a
moment: the subtilizing to such a degree is not
agreeable, especially in works of imagination. I he
best poets , however,, taking advantage of this sub-
tilty, scruple not to separate by a pause an active
verb from the thing upon which it is exerted.
Such pauses in a long work may be indulged; but
taken singly, they certainly are not agreeable; and
I appeal to the following examples:
In theie deep solitudes and awful cells ,
[x Where heav’nly-pensive |j Contemplation dwells,
And ever-muling||Melancholy reigns.
The point of the greatessi delicacy regards the
a£live verb and the passive substantive placed in
their natural order. On the one hand, it will be
observed, that these words lignify things which are
not separable in idea. Killing cannot be conceived
without a being that is put to death, nor painting
without a surface upon which the colors are
spread, On the other hand, an adlion and the
thing on which it is exerted, are not, like subjecfl
and quality, united in one individual objedl: the
adlive subllantive is perfedtly dislinT from that
which is passive; and they are connected by one
clrcumstance only, that the affiion of the sormer
is exerted upon the latter. This makes it pos-
sible to take the adlion to pieces, and to consider
it first with relation to the agent, and next with
relation to the patient. But after all, so intimate-
ly connected are the parts of the thought, that it
requires an esfort to make a reparation even for a
moment: the subtilizing to such a degree is not
agreeable, especially in works of imagination. I he
best poets , however,, taking advantage of this sub-
tilty, scruple not to separate by a pause an active
verb from the thing upon which it is exerted.
Such pauses in a long work may be indulged; but
taken singly, they certainly are not agreeable; and
I appeal to the following examples: