Chapter XXVI

Equally dramatic is the interchange of persons, often making a reader fancy himself to be moving in the midst of the perils described--

"Unwearied, thou wouldst deem, with toil unspent,
They met in war; so furiously they fought."[1]

and that line in Aratus--

"Beware that month to tempt the surging sea."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Il._ xv. 697.]

[Footnote 2: _Phaen._ 287.]

2 In the same way Herodotus: "Passing from the city of Elephantine you will sail upwards until you reach a level plain. You cross this region, and there entering another ship you will sail on for two days, and so reach a great city, whose name is Meroe."[3] Observe how he takes us, as it were, by the hand, and leads us in spirit through these places, making us no longer readers, but spectators. Such a direct personal address always has the effect of placing the reader in the midst of the scene of action.

[Footnote 3: ii. 29.]

3 And by pointing your words to the individual reader, instead of to the readers generally, as in the line

"Thou had'st not known for whom Tydides fought,"[4]

and thus exciting him by an appeal to himself, you will rouse interest, and fix attention, and make him a partaker in the action of the book.

[Footnote 4: _Il._ v. 85.]