13
Take a rare word or metaphor or any of the others and substitute the ordinary word; the truth of our contention will then be obvious.For instance, Aeschylus and Euripides wrote the same iambic line with the change of one word only, a rare word in place of one made ordinary by custom, yet the one line seems beautiful and the other trivial. Aeschylus in the Philoctetes wrote, The ulcer eats the flesh of this my foot, and Euripides instead of eats put feasts upon. Or take I that am small, of no account nor goodly; suppose one were to read the line substituting the ordinary words, I that am little and weak and ugly. Or compare He set a stool unseemly and a table small. with He set a shabby stool and a little table, or the sea-shore is roaring with the sea-shore is shrieking.Similarly we might use ordinary words instead of those which Keats chose so carefully and speak of wonderful windows abutting on to a dangerous sea-shore in a dreary, mysterious country.
14
AriphradesUnknown. again made fun of the tragedians because they employ phrases which no one would use in conversation, like δωμάτων ἄπο instead of ἀπὸ δωμάτων and their σέθεν and ἐγὼ δέ νιν and Ἀχιλλέως πέρι for περὶ Ἀχιλλέως, and so on.
15
All that sort of thing, not being in the ordinary form, gives distinction to the diction, which was what he failed to understand.
16
It is a great thing to make a proper use of each of the elements mentioned, and of double words and rare words too, but by far the greatest thing is the use of metaphor.
17
That alone cannot be learnt; it is the token of genius. For the right use of metaphor means an eye for resemblances.i.e., the power of detecting identity in difference which distinguishes also both the philosopher and the scientist.
18
Of the various kinds of words the double forms are most suited for dithyrambs, rare words for heroic verse and metaphors for iambics.
