Generally, you have a sense that this author's
lineage is mysterious after the fashion of Melchisedek's.
Well, to our point--Longinus finds that the conditions of lofty
utterance are five: of which the first is by far the most
important. And this foremost condition is innate: you either have
it or you have not. Here it is:
'Elsewhere,' says Longinus, 'I have written as follows:
_"Sublimity is the echo of a great soul."_ Hence even a bare
idea sometimes, by itself and without a spoken word will
excite admiration, just because of the greatness of soul
implied. Thus the silence of Ajax in the underworld is great
and more sublime than words.'
You remember the passage, how Odysseus meets that great spirit
among the shades and would placate it, would 'make up' their
quarrel on earth now, with carneying words:
'Ajax, son of noble Telamon, wilt thou not then, even in
death forget thine anger against me over that cursed
armour.... Nay, there is none other to blame but Zeus: he
laid thy doom on thee.
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