—­Holland:  Katrina.

+140.  Union of Image and Impression.+—­Because we have discussed image making and impression giving separately, it must not be judged that they necessarily occur separately.  They are in fact always united.  No image, however clear, can fail to make some impression, and no description, however strong the impression it gives, fails to create some image.  It is rather the placing of the emphasis that counts.  Some descriptions have for their purpose the giving of an image, and the impression is of little moment.  Other descriptions aim at producing impressions, and the images are of less importance.  In the description of the Battery (page 254) the images are clear enough, but they are subordinate to the impression.  This subordination may even go farther.  Often the impression is made prominent and we are led by suggestion to form images which fit it, while in reality few definite images have been set.  Notice in the following selection that the impression of desolation is given without attempting to picture exactly what was seen:—­

The country at the foot of Vesuvius is the most fertile and best cultivated of the kingdom, most favored by Heaven in all Europe.  The celebrated Lacrymae Christi vine flourishes beside land totally devastated by lava, as if nature here made a last effort, and resolved to perish in her richest array.  As you ascend, you turn to gaze on Naples, and on the fair laud around it—­the sea sparkles in the sun as if strewn with jewels; but all the splendors of creation are extinguished by degrees, as you enter the region of ashes and smoke, that announces your approach to the volcano.  The iron waves of other years have traced their large black furrows in the soil.  At a certain height birds are no longer seen; further on, plants become very scarce; then even insects find no nourishment.  At last all life disappears.  You enter the realm of death and the slain earth’s dust alone sleeps beneath your unassured feet.

—­Madame De Stael:  Corinne:  Italy.

EXERCISES

Discuss the following selections with reference to the impression given by each:—­

The third of the flower vines is Wood-Magic.  It bears neither flowers nor fruit.  Its leaves are hardly to be distinguished from the leaves of the other vines.  Perhaps they are a little rounder than the Snowberry’s, a little more pointed than the Partridge-berry’s; sometimes you might mistake them for the one, sometimes for the other.  No marks of warning have been written upon them.  If you find them, it is your fortune; if you taste them, it is your fate.  For as you browse your way through the forest, nipping here and there a rosy leaf of young wintergreen, a fragrant emerald tip of balsam fir, a twig of spicy birch, if by chance you pluck the leaves of Wood-Magic and eat them, you will not know what you have done, but the enchantment