What we should strive for above all is the mighty effect of simple and
bare loftiness of thought. Masters of this style have not been few,
and they seem to slip into it with a sudden and easy upward sweep that
can be compared to nothing so truly as to the upward flight of an eagle.
They mount because their spirits are lofty. No one who has not a lofty
thought has any occasion to write the lofty style; and such a person
will usually succeed best by paying very little attention to the manner
when he actually comes to write of high ideas. Still, the lofty style
should be studied and mastered like any other.
It is to be noted that all these styles are applicable chiefly if not
altogether to description. Narration may become intense at times,
but its intensity demands no especial alteration of style. Dialogue,
too, may be lofty, but only in dramas of passion, and very few people
are called upon to write these. But it is often necessary to indicate
a loftier, a more serious atmosphere, and this is effected by
description of surrounding details in an elevated manner.
One of the most natural, simple, and graceful of lofty descriptions may
be found in Ruskin's "King of the Golden River," Chapter III,
where he pictures the mountain scenery:
It was, indeed, a morning that might have made any one happy, even with
no Golden River to seek for.
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