How Words Influence the PassionsNOW, as words affect, not by any original power, but by representation,
it might be supposed, that their influence over the passions should
be but light; yet it is quite otherwise; for we find by experience,
that
eloquence and poetry are as capable, nay indeed much more capable,
of making deep and lively impressions than any other arts, and even
than
nature itself in very many cases. And this arises chiefly from these
three causes. First, that we take an extraordinary part in the passions
of others, and that we are easily affected and brought into sympathy
by any tokens which are shown of them; and there are no tokens which
can express all the circumstances of most passions so fully as words;
so that if a person speaks upon any subject, he can not only convey
the subject to you, but likewise the manner in which he is himself
affected
by it. Certain it is, that the influence of most things on our passions
is not so much from the things themselves, as from our opinions concerning
them; and these again depend very much on the opinions of other men,
conveyable for the most part by words only. Secondly, there are many
things of a very affecting nature, which can seldom occur in the reality,
but the words that represent them often do; and thus they have an opportunity
of making a deep impression and taking root in the mind, whilst the
idea of the reality was transient; and to some perhaps never really
occurred
in any shape, to whom it is notwithstanding very affecting, as war,
death, famine, &c. Besides, many ideas have never been at all presented
to the senses of any men but by words, as God, angels, devils, heaven,
and hell, all of which have, however, a great influence over the passions.
Thirdly, by words we have it in our power to make such combinations as
we cannot possibly do otherwise. By this power of combining, we are able,
by the addition of well-chosen circumstances, to give a new life and
force to the simple object. In painting we may represent any fine figure
we please; but we never can give it those enlivening touches which it
may receive from words. To represent an angel in a picture, you can only
draw a beautiful young man winged: but what painting can furnish out
anything so grand as the addition of one word, “the angel of the
Lord”? It is true, I have here no clear idea; but these words affect
the mind more than the sensible image did; which is all I contend for.
A picture of Priam dragged to the altar’s foot, and there murdered,
if it were well executed, would undoubtedly be very moving, but there
are very aggravating circumstances, which it could never represent: It might be expected from the fertility of the subject, that I should consider
poetry, as it regards the sublime and beautiful, more at large; but it must be
observed that in this light it has been often and well handled already. It was
not my design to enter into the criticism of the sublime and beautiful in any
art, but to attempt to lay down such principles as may tend to ascertain, to
distinguish, and to form a sort of standard for them; which purposes I thought
might be best effected by an inquiry into the properties of such things in nature,
as raise love and astonishment in us; and by showing in what manner they operated
to produce these passions. Words were only so far to be considered, as to show
upon what principle they were capable of being the representatives of these natural
things, and by what powers they were able to affect us often as strongly as the
things they represent, and sometimes much more strongly. |
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