Given these means, so
laughably inadequate, and given the interest, the intensity,
and the multiplicity of the actual sensation whose effect he
is to render with their aid, the artist has one main and
necessary resource which he must, in every case and upon any
theory, employ. He must, that is, suppress much and omit
more. He must omit what is tedious or irrelevant, and
suppress what is tedious and necessary. But such facts as,
in regard to the main design, subserve a variety of purposes,
he will perforce and eagerly retain. And it is the mark of
the very highest order of creative art to be woven
exclusively of such. There, any fact that is registered is
contrived a double or a treble debt to pay, and is at once an
ornament in its place, and a pillar in the main design.
Nothing would find room in such a picture that did not serve,
at once, to complete the composition, to accentuate the
scheme of colour, to distinguish the planes of distance, and
to strike the note of the selected sentiment; nothing would
be allowed in such a story that did not, at the same time,
expedite the progress of the fable, build up the characters,
and strike home the moral or the philosophical design. But
this is unattainable. As a rule, so far from building the
fabric of our works exclusively with these, we are thrown
into a rapture if we think we can muster a dozen or a score
of them, to be the plums of our confection. And hence, in
order that the canvas may be filled or the story proceed from
point to point, other details must be admitted.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70