STUDIES IN THE TECHNIQUE OF PROSE STYLE BY PERCY W. LONG PRIVATELY PRINTED CAMBRIDGE, 1915 To my father-in-law JOHN J. ENNEKING whose theory and practice in painting have partly confirmed and partly suggested the principles of teaching which underlie this book. COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY PERCY W. LONG ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS Method 3 Syllabus 5 Symbols Designating Faults 14 Precepts 15 Models 41 Notes 103 Suggestions ..... 4 ... 106 Sentences 123 Connectives . . . . . . . . . 131 Historical Review 134 331043 PREFATORY NOTE The method of teaching for which this volume serves is an outgrowth of six years of teaching at Harvard University and Radcliffe and Wellesley Colleges. Apart from the influences of Harvard training and student reaction, I am aware of advantages derived from Alexander Bain's English Composition, Lane Cooper's Theories of Style, and Scott and Denney 's New Composi- tion-Rhetoric. It is a pleasure to acknowledge also the helpful interest of my friends and colleagues who have shared the burden of the proofs: Professors C. N. Greenough and J. L. Lowes; Messrs. Gordon, A. D. Sheffield, and H. W. Smith. PERCY W. LONG 23 August 1915 METHOD Experience of some years has shown that a student finds less difficulty, with more enjoyment and more immediate profit, when working from models than in mastering a lecturer's ab- stract requirements and later seeking to embody them. His mind works from example better than from rule, as when he sees a football coach tackle a dummy. Directions would leave him staring and uncertain. Hence, books of specimens. But specimens should first be short, and each should illustrate clearly one point. " Those rules of old, discovered not devised" were discovered in striking passages by famous authors. Such specimens this book offers the student. Here he sees the basis on which each abstraction is founded: the whole operation, not the latter half, passes through his mind; and he works with full understanding. The purpose of the following illustrative models and directions is to place the student in possession one by one of a number of devices of literary technique and enable him to see the means by which writers achieve their effects in exceptionally interesting and beautiful passages. Study and imitation of these should (i) sharpen his observation; (2) refine his taste in style; (3) make flexible his use of language; and (4) develop initiative and ingenuity. Few students conceive of stylistic "pattern" (see XVI, p. 23): after such study, few should lack it. With this basis one would naturally go on to observe more critically the devices encount- ered in reading, and, if gifted, to devise for oneself new patterns. It is essentially a constructive, as opposed to a corrective, method of teaching composition, breaking away from the wide- spread usage of criticizing whatever faults or virtues the student stumbles on. Here he is given a definite task, in which he can hardly fail ; and by mastery step by step of methods of develop- ment, coherence, emphasis, connotation, etc. is led to reasonable taste and skill. (See Leaflet of " Suggestions to Teachers"). Dissatisfaction with prevalent methods is shown by those who seek to teach composition by the cultivation of ideas: only, the ideas chosen are astray from the subject, whereas here the student is thinking intently on what constitutes excellence in writing. This book is also "fool-proof" in a better sense of the word. It is a protest against talking down to the undergraduate, and particularly against addressing instruction that 'he who runs 7 may derive the full benefit. Such pandaring to haste and negli- gence does not develop fibre and turns away those who most deserve attention. To any who may consider the method mechanical, I must point out the passages from Newman and Stevenson (PRECEPTS X, XI), adding that the method applies equally in music and painting. These are finger exercises or, better, the studies of artists not their ultimate efforts, as masters, at self-expression. Ultimate expression should be spontaneous and unconscious of technique, as are walking and penmanship; but in the acquirement of correct method one must think of what he is about here, the technique of style. The following methods of use are suggested in view of the usual diversity of programs : 1 . A graded series of exercises * a According to the immediate needs of the class, b According to a set program in forms of writing. (In either case the types of development and means of coherence should come early. Emphasis goes well with argument; diction and texture with description; move- ment with narration. The later sections are intended for advanced classes or exceptional students. They may also serve when dealing with criticism, in courses of literature as well as of composition). 2. Assignment of specific exercises to students deficient along certain lines. Thus, if a student's themes lack substance, he should work at consistence in words (IIIAi). If they lack purpose, he should take up consecutiveness (IV A i) and purposiveness (V A i a). 3. Study as a text-book, or book of specimens, requiring in themes evidence that the lessons have been mastered. 4. Historical study of English prose style. See p. 135. At the same time with such exercises, there should be some systematic effort to induce the student to increase his vocabulary, and to introduce flexibility into his sentences by imitation of various forms such as those found under SENTENCES, pp. 123-30. *For the method of imitation see MODELS, No. i, footnote. SYLLABUS This partial classification serves for cross reference. Under each heading in the columns Roman numerals (XII) refer to Precepts, bold face (12) refer to Models, italics (12) refer to Suggestions such as concern that heading. The numbers immediately after many headings are additional models illustrating that point. Also, refer- ences to the Syllabus are made from each Precept or Model, to en- able one to find other passages resembling it in some particular feature. Thus, under Precept XII (p. 21) stands the note "Antitheti- cal style (III B)." Under III B is found the subheading "Antithe- sis" with reference to several other examples. PREFATORY REMARKS (SUGGESTION i) PRECEPTS A Meaning of the word style I B Importance of style II-V C Vagueness of general directions VI D Examples in contrast VII, VIII E Methods used by authors IX-XIII, XXXV I STRUCTURE Precepts Model Sugg. /XIV 2 A Securing structure i vyrj i Selection j a Disengaging a subject from allied subjects. 78 Defining it by a statement . . . . xi, xxix, 5. . 4 Suiting it to circumstances To the writer's knowledge .... 2, 70 To the persons addressed 2 5 For usefulness .... 73 For interest .... 6 According to their information. . .35, 36 To the occasion Space 6 Decorum .... 4, 67 Intended effect .... 56 Precepts Model Sugg, b Introduction of details XX, XXII Lines of expansion jr Development by subdivision Classes and sub-classes i Examples Typical . . . . xi, xxvm, XLI, 29, 31, 73 2 Exceptional ... .80 3 Instances .... 48 4 Particulars Details.... 5, 23,33 5 Circumstances .... 66 6 Development by association Comparison Similarity .... xvi, 56, 78 7 Contrast .... 14, 21, 24, 51 8 Alternatives .... 20 Pro and con ... .47, 55, 75 9 Interaction .... 28 Sequence Time .... ix, 46 10 Course of procedure n Cause and effect .... 12, 27 12 Questions anticipated . . (see IV A i c) 13 Development by elucidation .... i, 25 The abstract made concrete, .xxxvn 14 Restricting by provisos xvm, 49 Reasons or proof . . 16, 26, 34, 40, 83 13 15 Limits of inclusion Proportion & According to importance .... 3 " " interest " " intelligibility 35 vs. 36 Digression Parenthesis XXVII Introduction and conclusion Placing the subject in its field .... 30 . Apt story or other analogue .... 56, 78 2. Arrangement 16 a Logical Time i, 78 Place 33 Precepts Model Sugg, Process. . . . n, 23, 28 Causal connection 70, 75, 83 b Psychological For clearness From known to unknown .... 5, 73 From simple to complex .... 13, 78 For interest Climax .... 4, 6 Surprise by apparent change of plan 66 Sense of discovering 43, 65 For conviction 16 B Revealing structure 1 Unity P 1 a Topic statements .... 20 10 Focal headings Key phrases .... 4 Key sentences .... vn, I, 3, 8 17 Associated echoes 18 b Punctuation Paragraph, section, chapter, etc xxix, 5 19 n Sentence and sentence group .... 59 12 Word 1 3 c Marginalia Captions (see the present text) Outlining numbers and letters ....1,5 14 d Change of type or tone . . . . vi, xxx 15 2 Coherence a Words expressing relations Conjunctive expressions . . xi, 4, 6, 10, 26, 49 20 Pronouns Personal. . . .xn, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 51 21 Demonstrative 22 b Repetition Echo.... 4, 18,34,58 23 Synonyms .... 4, 38 Transitional statements ... .4, 30 c Arrangement Continuity of grammatical subject .... xxn 24 or predicate Parallel construction . . . .iv, I, 4, 13, 26, 48, 58,73 25 8 Precepts Model Sugg. Balance . . . . v, xir, 2, 45 26 Inversion (collocatio verborum) ... .4 27 II DICTION A Accuracy XXVI 1 Choice among synonyms XXV 2 Idiom XXIII 16 B Expressiveness 1 Choice among several senses XXIII a Usual .... 6, 7 vs. the primary * .... 23, 41 b Specific 35, 36 vs. the general c Novelty of application 17 2 Use of associated words 18 a Antonyms .... 26 b Synonyms .... 2 3 Connotation a Aesthetic 68, 84 28 vs. the commonplace ix b Popular words .... 23, 56 29 vs. the learned . . . .iv XXIII c Passionate .... xxxi, 79 69 vs. the indifferent. . . . xxxv C Appropriateness 7 1 To the subject a Conformity to the general tone .... 53 b Discord .... 24 2 To the occasion a For decorum in the writer Reputable use (illustrated throughout) b For intelligibility Technicalities . . . . iv Localisms .... (mentioned in 36) Archaisms ... 37 Barbarisms .... 54 * Of several current senses, one represents the conservative historical use of the word, as in fine, nice, surprise. Certain writers, notably Ruskin, are careful to pre- serve historical connotations. Precepts Model Sugg. c For impressi veness Restraint .... xxi vs. hyperbole .... xxn, 14 Colors of good .... 58, 82 ig and evil .... xxxix, 38, 47 30 III TEXTURE * A Consistence : concise XVII 20 or diffuse XXXIV 1 In words XXVIII a Idea words 21 vs. connective .... XIH, 30, 49, 83 b General (class words) .... 17, 48 31 vs. specific words . . . .42, 68 c Abstract .... xn, xvi, xxi, 15, 27, 51, 59, 76 32 22 vs. concrete . 10, 23, 31, 52, 53, 5$, 57, 60, 64,77,79 XXVII 33 2 In sentences XVIII a Complex .... xvi, xxn, 38, 37, 64, 84 vs. simple statement .... x, 6, 74 b Implication f xvi, xxv, 84 34 vs. the patent . . . . ix, x, I, 37, 52, 60, 72 .... c Brief ... .2, 19, 26 35 vs. detailed. . . .9, 60 XXXVII 36 tautological (copia verborum) 37 repetitious . . . .58 38 B Continuity : emphatic 23 or even. . . .xxi, 7, 12, 23, 34 XXIV, XXXVIII i Emphasis by arrangement a Climax ... .4, 25, 66, 74 vs. anticlimax . . . . 1 1 , 44 b Variety in sentence structure Inversion (fore and aft) .... 4, 5 Periodic sentences ... .4, 48, 49, 59 Short sentences .... (see IV c i) *The weave or pattern according to which the words are assembled, distin- guished from structure as the organization of thought. t Writing which discloses, as one reflects, many careful provisos and suggestions; whereas the patent reveals all at a glance. IO Precepts Model Sugg. In succession . . . . vi, xxix, 19, 40, 74 After long sentences .... xxxiv Suspense .... 4 2 Emphasis by interruption a Abruptness .... XL, 15, 62, 73 b Antithesis .... xn, 19, 26, 51 39 c Challenge (rhetorical question) ... .45, 66. 3 Emphasis by repetition a Echo. . . .2, 3, 34, 55, 58 41 b Restatement ... .25, 58 c Explicit reminder .... 58 4 Emphasis by intensification * a Concreteness ....4,6,28,31, 47, 60, 66 .... 42 b Hyperbole . . . .xxxix, 4, 14, 16 43 vs. litotes .... 3 c Irony. . . .55, 66 44 d Emotion .... 5, 60 C Finish: polished ... .4, 25 24 or plain .... 21 1 Allusive. . . .vi, x, 2, 3, 28, 49, 54, 68, 70, 80 vs. the direct . . . . v, 9, 65, 67, 83 2 Ornate xvi, 26, 38, 58, 61, 64, 68, 82 XL 45 vs. the natural. . . .x, 6, 10,31,52, 57 46 3 Figurative vn, xxxn, 45,53, 81 32 47 vs. the literal . . . . i, xxi, 6, 7, 83 D Attitude:f impersonal . . i, vn, xxi, 18, 19,34, 69 or personal . . . . vi, xi, 75 XLI 1 Staid .... 12, 37, 63 (demure), 80 48 vs. vivacious .... 14, 42 49 2 Formal .... 9, 38, 61 vs. informal .... x, 24, 33, 65 50, 51 3 Nonchalant .... xvi, 72 vs. earnest . . . .2, 16, 22, 58 4 Reserved 9 vs. outspoken (candid) . . . v, ix, 50, 65, 67, 74 52 5 Dry 8,20 * Perhaps better treated as a separate main head (Pitch) under Texture, intensifi- cation producing a high key. t Distinguished from Tenor, which represents the general drift of thought, "whereas this concerns manner or pose. II Precepts Model Sugg. vs. congenial (sympathique) .... 6, 52 6 Disengaged .... 26, 54, 81 20 vs. emotional .... 5, 31, 56, 66, 82 E Mode: eccentric XXXV or conventional v, 72 1 " Barbarisms " in style 25 a Latin. . . .37 b German .... 82 c Semitic 53 2 Pseudo-archaic style 26 3 Social aberrations a Vulgarity .... v, 72 b Pedantry. . . .70 XXXIX 54 c Mannerisms . . . . xi, xxn, xxv, 5, 73 27 4 "Solecisms" in style XXIV a Mixed metaphors 28 b Confusion of tenses 28 c Violation of view point 28 d Bathos 28 5 " Improprieties " in style a Mingling triviality with earnest 55, 56 29 b Bombast (5 savors of it) c Confusion of plane of styles 30 Low 57 Mean. . . .58 High. . . .59,64 XXXII, XLII IV MOVEMENT A Sequence XIX 1 Consecutiveness XX a Random association . . . vn, 20, 22, 29, 3 1 , 50 b Logical coherence .... xn, i , XV 58 c Question and answer .... 3, 13, 73 2 Suspense a By curiosity . . . .49, 59, 61, 63 b By anticipation .... 74 3 Reflex movement .... 7, 8, 9, 24, 39 B Rate i Fast (cf. V A i c elan) .... 15 (medium: 57) 12 Precepts Model to slow.. ..xvi, ii, 27,34,37,38,67,80.... 59 2 Varying. . . . 14, 42, 74, 77 60 to even xvi, xxi, i, 7, 12, 53, 58 61 3 Abrupt change 5, 63, 73 to gradual .... 9 62 C Rhythm 1 Style coupe (detached sentences) . . . . vi, XLI, 14, 19, 26, 40, 74, 81 XXIX 63 2 Style periodique .... 28, 43, 59, 62 XXIX 64 3 Long and short ... .22, 25, 36, 60, 77, 83 .... 65 4 Jerky movement .... vn, 55, 78 66 5 Ponderous .... xn, 37, 54, 61, 70 to tripping . . . .49, 52 V TENOR A As expressing the writer i Intellectually a Purposiveness . . . . x, xxi, xxn XIII, XX Order.... i, 8, 58, 59 vs. casualness ... .23, 50 Reflexion .... xvi, 9, 13, 21, 28, 84 21 67 vs. spontaneity . . . . vi, 10, 31, 43, 72, 74 . .XXXI b Acumen Penetration ... .3, 13, 19, 57, 75, 85 68 Observation .... 6, 24, 33, 77 69 c Temperament XXXVIII Nervous .... 2, 40, 49 vs. sluggish .... xxxiv, i Temperateness .... 27, 63 vs. heat (chaleur) .... xxxi, 43 69 coldness . . . . I Deliberateness . . . . v, ix, xn, 12, 13,37,58,68 70 vs. elan . . (dash) . . vi, xxxi, 25, 64, 66, 74 d Mood Sombre . . . . 11, 12, 80 (grave 59, 67, 75) .... to gay.. ..vi, 49, 55 Perplexed 7* to confident .... 2, 15, 83 Fanciful .... 5, 52, 54, 57, 62, 70, 81, 84 13 Precepts Model Sugg. to matter-of-fact . . . . v, ix, 37, 65 72 Cynical .... 20, 42 73 to optimistic .... 23, 52 74 2 Morally XL a Sincerity 17, 22, 65, 67, 71 75 vs. chicane (trickery) .... 14, 15, 45, 82 .... b Ideality. .. .11, 12,22,25, 61,64,85 ?6 vs. laissez-faire (compromise) . . . . v, 72 c Austerity. . . .26, 38, 59, 61, 76 vs. sensuousness ... .23, 62, 68, 71, 84 77 d Integrity .... 13 vs. patchwork . . . . vn 33 B As impressing the reader 1 Intelligibility XXX a In diction : clear 49 ; obscure .... xxv .... b In structure: clear i, 5; obscure 19 c In texture: clear 30, 36; obscure. . . .xvi, 27,35,61 XXXIV 2 Interest a Novelty .43, 73, 77, 79 79 b Oddity. .8,9,14,37,43,45,52,54,70,71,82 80 c Personal v, 15, 16, 27, 51, 62, 65, 72, 74, 78 d Wit.. ..vi, 20, 49, 55,63.. 14 81 e Mystery ... .60, 61, 68, 74 82 b Information. .. .1, xii, i, 21, 24, 32, 50, 69. 83 3 Esteem a Elegance .... xvi, 4, 25, 26, 27, 34, 62, 63, 68,71,77,81 84 b Cogency .... x, 2, 13, 15, 18, 19, 37, 40, 41, 48,58,65,66,75 c Elevation (sublimity) ... .5, 12, 22, 25, j XXXVII ~ 47, 53, 59, 60, 61, 64, 67, 74, 76 { XLII 4 Appeal a Picturesqueness . . . .6, 23, 31, 33, 42, 57, 63,64,68,77,84 b Humor. . . .6, 44, 55, 57, 63, 70 c Grace. . . .46, 49, 68, 71, 81, 84 d Pathos. . . .60, 61, 66, 67, 79, 80 e Cadence .... xxxvn, 61, 62, 64, 68, 84 24 f Naivete. . . .10, 37, 46, 71, 72 SYMBOLS DESIGNATING FAULTS. (References to the SYLLABUS, pp. 513, indicate where the student should seek instruction to remedy his deficiency.} barb, barbarism (word not in good use). cap. capitalize this letter, word, or phrase. coh. coherence lacking. [IB 2]. con. connective missing or inappropriate, [pp. 131-4]. cst. construction incorrect. # delete (strike it out). dif. diffuse (too many words for the thought). [Ill A]. em. emphasis lacking or misplaced. [Ill B]. gr. grammar not correct. imp. impropriety (correct word with inappropriate meaning). ital. italicize this (by underlining once) . 1. c. lower case (remove the capitals). 1f paragraph division needed here. [IB i]. p. punctuation lacking or incorrect. pi. plural needed here. prop, proportion neglected or ill judged. [I A i b]. quots. quotation marks should be supplied. ref . reference (source or authority should be stated) . sent, sentences lack variety or flexibility, [pp. 123-30]. seq. sequence (thoughts or words do not flow easily). [IV A]. sp. spelling incorrect. stet. pay no attention to the correction. str. structure lacking or not clearly marked. [I A i b]. t. tense wrong. tr. transpose (change the order). u. unity violated here. [I A i a]. voc. vocabulary (words not suited to the general tone) . [II C] . X a blunder obvious to the student. PRECEPTS. (Numbers in the text refer to explanatory NOTES, pp. 102-5; those after an author's name refer to the HISTORICAL REVIEW, p. 134; those in footnotes refer to the SYLLABUS,^. 5-13. Thus one may find other extracts from the same author or other examples of the same trait of style.) I. The word [style]... is derived from the instrument stilus (wrongly spelled stylus), of metal, wood or ivory, by means of which, in classic times, letters and words were imprinted upon waxen tablets. By the transition of thought known as metonymy the word has been transferred from the object which makes the impression to the sentences which are impressed by it, and a mechanical observation has become an intellectual conception. To "turn the stylus" was to correct what had been written by the sharp end of the tool, by a judicious application of the blunt end, and this resffi)n3s to that discipline and self-criticism upon which literary excellence depends. The energy of a deliberate writer would make a firm and full impression when he wielded the stylus. A scribe of rapid and fugitive habit would press more irregularly and produce a less consistent text. The varieties of writing induced by these differences of temperament would reveal the nature of the writer, yet they would be attributed, and with justice, to the implement which immediately produced them. Thus it would be natural for any one who examined several tablets of wax to say, "The writers of these inscriptions are revealed by their stylus." GOSSE (49), Encyc. Brit., s. v. style. II. The well-written works are the only ones that will go down to posterity : the amount of knowledge in a book, the peculiarity of the facts, the novelty even of the discoveries, are not sure warrants of immortality. If the works that contain these are I. Abstract (III A), literal (III C) , impersonal (III D), informa- tive (V B). Example of "quaestio finita": see 4. i6 concerned with only minor objects; if they are written without taste, without nobility, without inspiration, they will perish; since the knowledge, facts, and discoveries, being easily detached, are passed on to others, and even gain intrinsically when appro- priated by more gifted hands. BUFFON (translation). III. Nearly always the things a writer says are less striking than the way he puts them; for men in general have much the same (ideas about the matters that form the stock in trade of all. It is the expression, the style, that makes all the difference. In the majority of our plays their tissue is made up of declarations of love, cases of jealousy, estrangements, reconciliations, and the like; this is true above all of Racine's, for his are built upon just such slender framework. Yet how few geniuses have been suc- cessful in reproducing these tints which every writer has tried in vain! True style gives individuality to the commonest things, strength to the feeblest, dignity to the simplest. VOLTAIRE (translation) . IV. [To communicate absolute facts] neither readily admits, nor much needs, any graces in the mode of communication; the matter transcends and oppresses the manner. The matter tells without any manner at all. But he who has to treat a vague question, such as Cicero calls a qucestio infinita, where everything is to be finished out of his own peculiar feelings, or his own way of viewing things (in contradistinction to a qucestio finita, where determinate data from without already furnish the main mate- rials), soon finds that the manner of treating it not only tran- scends the matter, but very often, and in a very great proportion, is the matter. DEQUINCEY (29) j/ II. The style of translated passages, being left without com- ment, offers a field for class discussion. III. Style here seems intended to include point-of-view, accord- ing to which distinctive differences of thought arise. IV. Learned words (II B), parallel construction (IB 2). 17 V. Stylp JQ i^ rlrnnn oiLtjiought&; and let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage, and be as ill received as your person, though ever so well proportioned, would, if dressed in rags, dirt, and tatters. It is not every understanding that can judge of matter; but every ear can and does judge more or less of style; and were I either to speak or write to the public, I should prefer moderate matter, adorned with all the beauties and elegancies of style, to the strongest matter in the world, ill- worded and ill-delivered .... I confess (and I believe most people are of my mind) that if a speaker should ungracefully mutter or stammer out to me the sense of an angel, deformed by barbarisms and solecisms, or larded with vulgarisms, he should never speak to me a second time, if I could help it. CHESTERFIELD (16), Letters to his Son. VI. Everyone knows how futile for any actual result are those elaborate disquisitions on Style which some of the most con- summate masters have amused themselves in compiling, but which serve at best to show how quite hackneyed truisms can be graced by an almost miraculous neatness of phrase. It is in vain to enjoin on us "propriety," "justness of expression," "suitability of our language to the subject we treat," and all the commonplaces which the schools of Addison and of John- son in the last century promulgated as canons of good style. "Proper words in proper places," says Swift, "make the true definition of a style." "Each phrase in its right place," says Voltaire. Well! Swift and Voltaire knew how to do this with supreme skill; but it does not help us, if they cannot teach V. Direct (III C) and outspoken (III D), deliberate and matter- of-fact (V A), interest from self -concern (V B), tendency to compromise (V A). Example of balance (IB 2). The choice of imaginery and turn of thought savor of vulgarity (III E 3). As to the opinion, compare No. XXXIII. VI. Personal (HID) and playful (V A), showing wit (V B) with spontaneity and elan (V A) . Emphasis by short sentences and challenge (III B). Example of style coupe (IV C) and allusive texture (III C). iS their art. How are we to know what is the proper word? How are we to find the right place? And even a greater than Swift or Voltaire is not much more practical as a teacher. "Suit the action to the word, and the word to the action," says Hamlet. "Be not too tame neither. Let your own dis- cretion be your tutor." Can you trust your own discretion? Have undergraduates this discretion? And how could I, in presence of your College authority, suggest that you should have no tutor but your own discretion? All this is as if a music-master were to say to a pupil, Sing always in tune and with the right intonation, and whatever you do, produce your voice in the proper way! Or, to make myself more intelligible to you here, it is as if W. G. Grace were to tell you, Play a "yorker" in the right way, and place the ball in the proper spot with reference to the field ! HARRISON (48), Address at Oxford. VII. For a man to write well, there are required three neces- saries to read the best authors, observe the best speakers, and much exercise of his own style. In style, to consider what ought to be written, and after what manner, he must first think and excogitate his matter, then choose his words, and examine the weight of either. Then take care, in placing and ranking both matter and words, that the composition be comely; and to do this with diligence and often. No matter how slow the style be at first, so it be labored and accurate; seek the best, and be not glad of the forward conceits, or first words, that offer themselves to us; but judge of what we invent, and order what we approve. Repeat often what we have formerly written; which beside that it helps the consequence, and makes the juncture better, it quickens the heat of imagination, that often cools in the time of setting down, and gives it new strength, as if it grew lustier by the going back. As we see in the contention of leaping, they jump farthest that fetch their race largest; or, as in throwing a VII. Acumen with patchwork (V A), rhythm jerky (IV C) and sequence random (IV A), texture personal (III D) and figurative (III C). 19 dart or javelin, we force back our arms to make our loose the stronger. Yet, if we have a fair gale of wind, I forbid not the steering out of our sail, so the favor of the gale deceive us not. For all that we invent doth please us in the conception of birth, else we would never set it down. But the safest is to return to our judgment, and handle over again those things the easiness of which might make them justly suspected. So did the best writers in their beginnings; they imposed upon themselves care and industry; they did nothing rashly; they obtained first to write well, and then custom made it easy and a habit. By little and little their matter showed itself to them more plentifully; their words answered, their composition followed; and all, as in a well-ordered family, presented itself in the place. So that the sum of all is, ready writing makes not good writing, but good writing brings on ready writing. JONSON (7), Timber. VIII. In youth, I wish to see luxuriancy of fancy. Much of it will be diminished by years; much will be corrected by ripening judgment; some of it, by the mere practice of composition, will be worn away. Let there be only sufficient matter, at first, that can bear some pruning and lopping off. At this time of life, let genius be bold and inventive, and pride itself in its efforts, though these should not, as yet, be correct. Luxuriancy can easily be cured; but for barrenness there is no remedy. QUINTILIAN (translation). IX. About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. It was the third. I had never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished, if possible, to imitate it. With this view I took some of the papers, and, making short hints of the sentiment in each sentence, laid them by a few days, and then, without looking at the book, try'd to compleat the IX. Outspoken (III D), deliberate and matter-of-fact (V A). Texture patent (III A). Example of development by sequence of events (I A i b). 20 papers again, by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should come to hand. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I thought I should have acquired before that time if I had gone on making verses; since the continual occasion for words of the same import, but of different length, to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master of it. Therefore I took some of the tales and turned them into verse; and, after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, turned them back again. I also sometimes jumbled my collections of hints into confusion, and after some weeks endeavored to reduce them into the best order, before I began to form the full sentences and compleat the paper. This was to teach me method in the arrangement of thoughts. By comparing my work afterwards with the original, I discovered many faults and amended them; but I sometimes had the pleas- ure of fancying that, in certain particulars of small import, I had been lucky enough to improve the method or the language, and this encouraged me to think I might possibly in time come to be a tolerable English writer. FRANKLIN (17), Autobiography. X. I always kept two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. As I walked, my mind was busy fitting what I saw with appropriate words; when I sat by the roadside, I would either read, or a pencil and a penny version-book would be in my hand, to note down the features of the scene or commemorate some halting stanzas .... Description was the principal field of my exercise .... But I worked in other ways also ; often accompanied my walks with dramatic dialogues, in which I played many parts; X. Natural though allusive (III C), informal (III D) and purposive (V A), gaining esteem through cogency (V B). Tex- ture simple and patent (III A). 21 and often exercised myself in writing down conversations from memory. This was all excellent, no doubt; so were the diaries I some- times tried to keep ... it had one grave defect ; for it set me no- standard of achievement. So that there was perhaps more profit, as there. was certainly more effort, in my secret labors at home. Whenever I read a book or a passage that particularly pleased me, in which a thing was said or an effect rendered with propriety, in which there was either some conspicuous force or some happy distinction in the style, I must sit down at once and set myself to ape that quality. I was unsuccessful, and I knew it; and tried again, and was again unsuccessful and always unsuccessful ; but at least in these vain bouts, I got some practice in rhythm, in harmony, in construction and co-ordination of parts. I have thus played the sedulous ape to Hazlitt, to Lamb, to Wordsworth, to Sir Thomas Browne, to Defoe, to Hawthorne, to Montaigne, to Baudelaire and to Obermann. I remember one of these monkey tricks, which was called The Vanity of Morals . . . the first part was written ... no less than three times : first in the manner of Hazlitt, second in the manner of Ruskin, who had cast on me a passing spell, and third, in a laborious pasticcio 1 of Sir Thomas Browne .... That, like it or not, is the way to learn to write; whether I have profited or not, that is the way. It was so Keats learned, and there never was a finer temperament for literature than Keats's; it was so, if we could trace it out, that all men have learned . . . Perhaps I hear some one cry out. But this is not the way to be original! It is not; nor is there any way but to be born so. . . .There can be nothing more original than Montaigne, neither could any be more unlike Cicero; yet no craftsman can fail to see how much the one must have tried in his time to imitate the other. Burns is the very type of a prime force in letters; he was of all men the most imitative. Shakespeare himself, the imperial, proceeds directly from a school .... Before he can tell what cadences he truly prefers, the student should have tried all that are possible; before he can choose and pre- serve a fitting key of words, he should long have practised the literary scales. STEVENSON (46), A College Magazine, L 22 XL Now I will attempt to show how this process of improve- ment is effected, and what is its limit. I conceive then that these gifted writers act upon the spoken and written language by means of the particular schools which form about them re- spectively. Their style, using the word in a large sense, forcibly arrests the reader, and draws him on to imitate it, by virtue of what is excellent in it, in spite of such defects as, in common with all human works, it may contain. I suppose all of us will recog- nize this fascination. For myself when I was fourteen or fifteen, I imitated Addison; when I was seventeen, I wrote in the style of Johnson ; about the same time I fell in with the twelfth volume of Gibbon, and my ears rang with the cadence of his sentences, .and I dreamed of it for a night or two. Then I began to make an analysis of Thucydides in Gibbon's style. In like manner, most Oxford undergraduates, forty years ago, when they would write poetry, adopted the versification of Pope Darwin, and the Pleasures of Hope, which had been made popular by Heber and Milman. The literary schools, indeed, which I am speaking of, as resulting from the attractions of some original, or at least novel artist, consist for the most part of mannerists, none of whom rise much above mediocrity; but they are not the less serviceable as channels, by means of which the achievements of genius may be incorporated into the language itself, or become the common property of the nation. Henceforth, the most ordinary composer, the very student in the lecture-room, is able to write with a precision, a grace, or a copiousness, as the case may be, unknown before the date of the authors whom he imitates. NEWMAN (34), University Subjects, III, 2. XII. It was apparently his [Addison's] principal endeavor to avoid all harshness and severity of diction ; he is therefore some- times verbose in his transitions and connections, and sometimes XL Qualifications and apposition, as in the third sentence and last two, are almost a mannerism in Newman and Pater. XII. Antithetical style (III B) of abstract texture (III A) with logical sequence (IV A) and heavy rhythm (IV C). It is delib- erate (V A) and highly informative (V B). Coherence (I B 2) by pronoun and balance. 23 descends too much to the language of conversation; yet if his language had been less idiomatical, it might have lost somewhat of its genuine Anglicism. What he attempted, he performed; he is never feeble, and he did not wish to be energetic; he is never rapid, and he never stagnates. His sentences have neither studied amplitude, nor affected brevity: his periods, though not diligently rounded, are voluble and easy. Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison. JOHNSON (18), Life of Addison, last paragraph. XIII. Many or most writers are elaborate; and those certainly not the least whose style is farthest removed from ornament, being simple and natural, or vehement, or severely business-like and practical. Who so energetic and manly as Demosthenes? yet he is said to have transcribed Thucydides many times over in the formation of his style. Who so gracefully natural as Herodotus? yet his very dialect is not his own, but chosen for the sake of the perfection of his narrative. Who exhibits such happy negligence as our own Addison? yet artistic fastidiousness was so notorious in his instance that the report has got abroad, truly or not, that he was too late in his issue of an important state paper, from his habit of revision and recomposition. Such great authors were working by a model which was before the eyes of their intellect, and they were labouring to say what they had to say, in such a way as would most exactly and suitably express it. It is not wonderful that other authors, whose style is not simple, should be instances of a similar literary diligence. Virgil wished his Aeneid to be burned, elaborate as is its composition, because he felt it needed more labour still, in order to make it perfect. NEWMAN (34), Literature. XIV. Few write in the way in which an architect builds; who, before he sets to work, sketches out his plan, and thinks it over XIII. Example of emphasis by rhetorical questions (III B). Clear in its alternation of idea words and relation words (III A). \) 2 4 down to its smallest details. Nay, most people write only as though they were playing dominoes, and as in this game the pieces are arranged half by design, half by chance, so it is with the sequence and connection of their sentences. They only just have an idea of what the general shape of their work will be, and of the aim they set before themselves. Many are ignorant even of this, and write as the coral-insects build; period joins to period, and Lord knows what the author means. SCHOPENHAUER (translation). XV. The writer must first form an .... order where only primary aspects and fundamental ideas shall enter .... This plan, though not the resultant style, is nevertheless its basis, supporting it, directing it, regulating its movement, subjecting it to law. Without that basis the best of writers will wander; his pen running on unguided will form haphazard, irregular strokes and incongruous figures. However brilliant the colors he employs, whatever the beauties of detail he introduces, since the ensemble jars or else makes no adequate impression, the work will not really be a construction;. . .Here is the reason why those who write as they speak, though they may speak excellently, write badly; that those who abandon themselves to the first flashes of their imagination assume a tone which they cannot sustain; that those who are in fear of losing their isolated and fugitive thoughts and who at separate times write in detached fragments, cannot unite these save by forced transitions; that, in a word, there are so many works made up by assemblage of pieces, and so few cast in a single mould. BUFFON (translation), XVI. Of these we may distinguish two great classes: those arts, like sculpture, painting, acting, which are representative, or, as XVI. Texture abstract with considerable implication (III A) resulting in slower intelligibility (V B) because of ornateness (III C). Movement even and slow (IV B). Purposive (V A) with development by tracing similarity (I A i b), gaining . esteem through elegance (VB). Test the application to each art : only so will the full force be clear. 25 used to be said very clumsily, imitative; and those, like archi- tecture, music, and the dance, which are self-sufficient, and merely presentative^ Each class, in right of this distinction, obeys principles apart; yet both may claim a common ground of existence, and it may be said with sufficient justice that the motive and end of any art whatever is to make a pattern; a pattern, it may be, of colors, of sounds, of changing attitudes, geometrical figures, or imitative lines; but still a pattern. That is the plane on which these sisters meet; it is by this that they are arts; and if it be well they should at times forget this childish origin, addressing their intelligence to virile tasks, and performing unconsciously that necessary function of their life, to make a pattern, it is still imperative that the pattern shall be made. STEVENSON (46), Technical Elements of Style. XVII. Style is simply the order and movement one gives to one's thoughts. If these are connected closely, and rigorously compressed, the style will be firm, nervous [i. e. having sinews], and concise. If they are allowed to follow one another loosely and merely at the lead of the diction, however choice this be, the style will be diffuse, nerveless, and languid. BUFFON (translation). XVIII. It is a good rule for a young writer to avoid more than twenty or thirty words without a full stop, and not to put more than two commas in each sentence, so that its clauses should not exceed three. This, of course, only in practice. There is no positive law. A fine writer can easily place in a sentence one hundred words, and five or six minor clauses with their proper commas and colons. Ruskin was wont to toss off two or three hundred words and five-and-twenty commas without a XVIII. The orator, Edward Everett, used sentences of a length rivalling Ruskin's. Harrison's objection observe is to the loose style (See SENTENCES, p. 123) ; his justification, that be- ginners rarely have thoughts of a complexity demanding long sentences. The " young writer", instead of chopping up his sen- tences, should master clause-reduction. 26 pause. But even in the hand of such a magician this ends in failure, and is really grotesque in effect, for no such sentence can be spoken aloud. A beginner can seldom manage more than twenty -five words in one sentence with perfect ease. Nearly all young writers, just as men did in the early ages of prose composi- tion, drift into ragged, preposterous, inorganic sentences, without beginning, middle, or end, which they ought to break into two or three. HARRISON (48), Address at Oxford. XIX. You cannot make an impression on your reader's mind, or even on his feelings, but by continuity of the thread, by harmonious interdependence of the ideas, by a successive develop- ment, a sustained gradation, a uniform movement, which every interruption enfeebles or destroys. BUFFON (translation). XX. It is for want of plan, for want of sufficient preliminary reflection on his subject, that a man of intelligence finds himself embarrassed with uncertainty at what point to begin writing. Ideas come to him from many directions at a time; and since he has neither compared nor subordinated them, nothing de- termines him to prefer one set to another; hence he remains perplexed. When, however, he has made a plan, when he has collected and put in order all the essential thoughts on his subject, he recognizes without difficulty the instant when he ought to take up his pen; he is aware of the critical point when his mind is ready to bring forth; it is urgent with him to come to the birth; nay, he has now only pleasure in writing: his ideas follow one another easily, and the style is natural and smooth. A certain warmth born of that pleasure diffuses itself throughout, giving life to every phrase; there is a gradual increase of animation; the tone grows elevated; individual objects take on color; and a glow of feeling joins with the light of intellect to increase it and carry it on, making it spread from what one is saying to what one is about to say; and the style becomes interesting and luminous. BUFFON (translation). 2 7 XXI. A skillful literary artist has constructed a tale. If wise, he has not fashioned his thoughts to accommodate his incidents ; but having conceived with deliberate care a certain unique or single effect to be wrought out, he then invents such incidents he then combines such events as may best aid him in establish- ing this preconceived effect. If his very initial sentence tend not to the outbringing of this effect, then he has failed in his first step. In the whole composition there should be no word written, of which the tendency, direct or indirect, is not to the one pre- established design. And by such means, with such care and skill, a picture is at length painted which leaves in the mind of him who contemplates it with a kindred art, a sense of the fullest satisfaction. The idea of the tale has been presented unblem- ished, because undisturbed. POE (36), Review of Hawthorne, XXII. Let him choose a motive, whether of character or passion ; carefully construct his plot so that every incident is an illustra- tion of the motive, and every property employed shall bear to it a near relation of congruity or contrast; avoid a sub-plot, unless, as sometimes in Shakespeare, the sub-plot be a reversion or complement of the main intrigue; suffer not his style to flag below the level of the argument; pitch the key of conversation, not with any thought of how men talk in parlours, but with a single eye to the degree of passion he may be called on to express ; and allow neither himself nor any character in the course of the dialogue to utter one sentence that is not part and parcel of the business of the story or the discussion of the problem involved. . . .As the root of the whole matter, let him bear in mind that his novel is not a transcript of life, to be judged by its exactitude; but a simplification of some side or point of life, to stand or fall by its significant simplicity. STEVENSON (46), Memories and Portraits. XXI. Texture abstract (III A), literal (III C), and impersonal (HID), with even emphasis (III B) and movement (IV B). Pairs slightly overused (See Vices of style, p. 118). XXII. Simplification and coherence through continuity of 28 XXIII. [Browne] though a writer of great genius, first effectually injured the literary taste of the nation by his introduction of learned words, merely because they were learned. It would be difficult to describe Browne adequately; exuberant in concep-_ tion and conceit, dignified, hyperlatinistic, a quiet and sviblime enthusiast; yet a fantast, a humorist, a brain with a twist; egotistic like Montaigne, yet with a feeling heart and an active curiosity, which, however, too often degenerates into a hunting after oddities. In his Hydriotaphia, 1 and, indeed, almost all his works, the entireness of his mental action is very obser- vable; he metamorphoses everything, be it what it may, into the subject under consideration. But Sir Thomas Browne with all his faults had a genuine idiom; and it is the existence of an individual idiom in each, that makes the principal writers before the Restoration the great patterns or integers of English style. In them the precise intended meaning of a word can never be mistaken; whereas in the latter writers, as especially in Pope, the use of words is for the most part purely arbitrary, so that the context will rarely show the true specific sense, but only that something of the sort is designed. A perusal of the authorities cited by Johnson in his dictionary under any leading word, will give you a lively sense of this declension in etymologi- cal truth of expression in the writers after the Restoration, or perhaps, strictly, after the middle of the reign of Charles II. COLERIDGE (25). XXIV. [Authors] sometimes sacrifice the large effect of a diffu- sive light to the small effect of a brilliant point. This is a defect of taste frequently noticeable in two very good writers, De- Quincey and Ruskin, whose command of expression is so varied that it tempts them into fioritura l as flexibility of voice tempts singers to sin against simplicity. At the close of an eloquent passage DeQuincey writes : grammatical subject. Excessive use of alternatives (or, nor). XXIII. Texture abstract and complex (III A). Example of apparently random sequence (IV A) with a purposive drift. Declension is used in a primary sense. 29 "Gravitation, again, that works without holiday forever, and searches every corner of the universe, what intellect can follow it to its fountains? And yet, shyer than gravitation, less to be counted than the fluxions of sun-dials, stealthier than the growth of a forest, are the footsteps of Christianity amongst the political workings of man." The association of holidays and shyness with an idea so ab- stract as that of gravitation, the use of the learned word fluxions to express the movements of the shadows on a dial, and the discordant suggestion of stealthiness applied to vegetable growth and Christianity, are so many offences against simplicity. LEWES (39). XXV. With Flaubert, the search, the unwearied search, was not for the smooth, or winsome, or forcible word, as such, as with false Ciceronians, 1 but quite simply and honestly, for the word's adjustment to its meaning. The first condition of this must be, of course, to know yourself, to have ascertained your own sense exactly. Then, if we suppose an artist, he says to the reader, I want you to see precisely what I see. Into the mind sensitive to "form," a flood of random sounds, colors, incidents, is ever penetrating from the world without, to become, by sympathetic selection, a part of its very structure, and, in turn, the visible vesture and expression of that other world it sees so steadily within, nay, already with a partial conformity thereto, to be refined, enlarged, corrected, at a hundred points; and it is just there, just at those doubtful points that the function of style, as tact or taste, intervenes. PATER (44), Style. XXVI. The largest intellects are far from being the most exact. A mind always intent on correctness is apt to be dissipated in trifles; but in great affluence of thought, as in vast material wealth, there must needs be an occasional neglect of detail. XXV. Mannerism from frequent use of apposition (III E). Smoothness of tone from repetition of letters (notice s and r). Texture ornate (III C) with much implication (III A). 3 And is it not inevitably so? Is it not by risking nothing, by never aiming high, that a writer of low or middling powers keeps generally clear of faults and secure of blame? whereas the loftier walks of literature are by their very loftiness perilous? I am well aware, again, that there is a law by which in all human produc- tions the weak points catch the eye first, by which their faults remain indelibly stamped on the memory, while their beauties quickly fade away. Yet, though I have myself noted not a few faulty passages in Homer and in other authors of the highest rank, and though I am far from being partial to their failings, nevertheless I would call them not so much wilful blunders as oversights which were allowed to pass unregarded through that contempt of little things, that " brave disorder," which is natural to an exalted genius ; and I still think that the greater excellences, though not everywhere equally sustained, ought always to be voted to the first place in literature, if for no other reason, for the mere grandeur of soul they evince. LONGINUS (translation). XXVII. The value of concrete illustration artfully used may be seen illustrated in a passage from Macaulay's invective against Frederick the Great: "On the head of Frederick is all the blood which was shed in a war which raged during many years and in every quarter of the globe, the blood of the column at Fontenoy, the blood of the mountaineers who were slaughtered at Culloden. The evils produced by his wickedness were felt in lands where the name of Prussia was unknown; and in order that he might rob a neighbor whom he had promised to defend, black men fought on the coast of Coromandel, and red men scalped each other by the Great Lakes of North America." Disregarding the justice or injustice of the thought, note the singular force and beauty of this passage, delightful alike to ear and mind; and observe how its very elaborateness has the effect of the finest simplicity, because the successive pictures are constituents of the general thought, and by their vividness render the conclusion more impressive. Let us suppose him to have written with the vague generality of expression much patronized by dignified historians, and told us that "Frederick was the cause of great European conflicts extending over long periods; and in consequence of his political aggression hideous crimes were perpetrated in the most distant parts of the globe." LEWES (39). XXVIII. The ancient rhetoricians did not give much attention to Number of Words as an element of Style. Brevity is indeed commended, but incidentally rather than directly. Quintilian, for example, devotes but a few sentences to faults of this nature. He speaks of tautology, but the word was used by him, as by the ancients generally, to mean the repetition of the same word; which might be the result of carelessness or intended for effect. He names naKpoXoyla and TrXeovaa/jios (using the Greek words) as separate ways of employing more words than are necessary, but draws no clear distinction between them. Quintilian also recog- nizes diffuseness as a means of giving elegance or force on suit- able occasions; but in Longinus this receives more notice. Lon- ginus compares periphrasis, when it is not a lumbering expression of a simple idea, but the forcible utterance of a weighty thought, to the accompanying of a note in music by the notes of the scale that are in harmony with it. As the musical note thus gains in sweetness and force, so the periphrasis is a large and harmonious reproduction of the main idea. We might adapt the comparison to modern music with still more appropriateness, and say that as the musical idea expressed in a melody gains in breadth and impressiveness when it is harmonised, so by a forcible periphrasis does the bare form of a thought gain in richness and power, while still remaining essentially the same. BAIN, Eng. Comp. & Rhet. Pt. I (1890) p. 54. XXIX. With regard to the length and construction of sentences, the French critics make a very just distinction of style, into style periodique and style coupe. The style periodique is where the sen- tences are composed of several members linked together, and hanging upon one another; so that the sense of the whole is not XXIX. Neither style need be personal as above. Note the old- fashioned close punctuation, due to a pedantic editor (Mills). 3 2 brought out till' the close. This is the most pompous, musical, and oratorical manner of composing; as in the following sentence of Sir William Temple: 'If you look about you, and consider the lives of others as well as your own; if you think how few are born with honour, and how many die without name or children; how little beauty we see, and how few friends we hear of; how many diseases, and how much poverty there is in the world; you will fall down upon your knees, and, instead of repining at one affliction, will admire so many blessings which you have received from the hand of God.' (Letter to Lady Essex.) Cicero abounds with sentences constructed after this manner. The style coupe is, where the sense is formed into short inde- pendent propositions, each complete within itself; as in the following of Mr. Pope: 'I confess it was want of consideration that made me an author. I writ, because it amused me. I corrected, because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write. I published, because I was told, I might please such as it was a credit to please.' (Preface to his works.) This is very much the French method of writing; and always suits gay and easy sub- jects. The style periodique, gives an air of gravity and dignity to composition. The style coupe, is more lively and striking. According to the nature of the composition, therefore, and the general character it ought to bear, the one or other may be predominant. But in almost every kind of composition, the great rule is to intermix them. For the ear tires of either of them when too long continued : whereas, by a proper mixture of long and short periods, the ear is gratified, and a certain sprightli- ness is joined with majesty in our style. 'Non semper.' BLAIR, Rhetoric, Lecture XI. XXX. Style has two separate functions first, to brighten the intelligibility of a subject which is obscure to the understanding; secondly, to regenerate the normal power and impressiveness of a subject which has become dormant to the sensibilities .... Decaying lineaments are to be retraced, and faded coloring to be refreshed. DEQUINCEY (29). 33 XXXI. Can they really think that Homer, or Pindar, or Shakes- peare, or Dry den, or Walter Scott, were accustomed to aim at diction for its own sake, instead of being inspired with their subject, and pouring forth beautiful words because they had beautiful thoughts? this is surely too great a paradox to be borne. Rather, it is the fire within the author's breast which overflows in the torrent of his burning, irresistible eloquence; it is the poetry of his inner soul, which relieves itself in the Ode or the Elegy; and his mental attitude and bearing, the beauty of his moral countenance, the force and keenness of his logic, are imaged in the tenderness, or energy, or richness of his language. Nay, according to the well-known line, "facit indignatio versus;" not the words alone, but even the rhythm, the metre, the verse, will be the contemporaneous offspring of the emotion or imagina- tion which possesses him. "Poeta nascitur, non fit," says the proverb ; and this is in numerous instances true of his poems, as well as of himself . They are born, not framed; they are a strain rather than a composition ; and their perfection is the monument, not so much of his skill as of his power. And this is true of prose as well as of verse in its degree: who will not recognize in the vision of Mirza 1 a delicacy and beauty of style which is very difficult to describe, but which is felt to be in exact correspond- ence to the ideas of which it is the expression? NEWMAN (34), University Subjects II, Literature 4. XXXII. As a certain unaffected neatness and propriety and grace of diction may be required of any author who lays claim to be a classic, for the same reason that a certain attention to dress is expected of every gentleman, so to Cicero may be allowed the privilege of the "os magna sonaturum," of which the ancient critic speaks. His copious, majestic, musical flow of language, even if sometimes beyond what the subject-matter demands, is never out of keeping with the occasion or with the speaker. It is the expression of lofty sentiments in lofty sentences, the "mens magna in corpore magno." It is the development of the inner XXXI. Example of spontaneity and heat (V A). XXXII. Examples of figurative texture similes (III C). 34 man. Cicero vividly realised the status of a Roman senator and statesman, and the " pride of place" of Rome, in all the grace and grandeur which attached to her; and he imbibed, and be- came, what he admired. As the exploits of Scipio or Pompey are the expression of this greatness in deed, so the language of Cicero is the expression of it in word. And, as the acts of the Roman ruler or soldier represent to us, in a manner special to themselves, the characteristic magnanimity of the lords of the earth, so do the speeches or treatises of her accomplished orator bring it home to our imaginations as no other writing could do. Neither Livy, nor Tacitus, nor Terence, nor Seneca, nor Pliny, nor Quintilian, is an adequate spokesman for the Imperial City. They write Latin; Cicero writes Roman. NEWMAN (34), University Subjects II, Literature 5. XXXIII. His [Wordsworth's] remark was by far the weighti- est thing we ever heard on the subject of style; and it was this: that it is in the highest degree unphilosophic to call language or diction "the dress of thought." And what was it then that he would substitute? Why this: he would call it "the incarnation of thoughts." DEQUINCEY (29). XXXIV. Redundancy is beneficial when its retarding influence is such as only to detain the mind longer on the thought, and thus to secure the fuller effect of the thought. For rapid reading is often imperfect reading. The mind is satisfied with a glimpse of that which it ought to have steadily contemplated; and any artifice by which the thought can be kept long enough before the mind, may indeed be a redundancy as regards the meaning, but is an economy of power. Thus we see that the phrase or the clause which we might be tempted to lop away because it threw no light upon the proposition, would be retained by a skilful writer because it added power. You may know the character of a redundancy by this one test: does it divert the attention, XXXIII. Compare Chesterfield's view in V. XXXIV. Emphasis of short sentences after long (III B). Most students tend to unnecessary redundancy. 35 or simply retard it? The former is always a loss of power; the latter is sometimes a gain of power. The art of the writer con- sists in rejecting all redundancies that do not conduce to clearness. The shortest sentences are not necessarily the clearest. Con- cision gives energy, but it also adds restraint. The labor of expanding a terse sentence to its full meaning is often greater than the labor of picking out the meaning from a diffuse and loitering passage. Tacitus is more tiresome than Cicero. LEWES (39). XXXV. From the common opinion that the English style attained its greatest perfection in and about Queen Anne's reign I altogether dissent; not only because it is in one species alone in which it can be pretended that the writers of that age excelled their predecessors; but also because the specimens themselves are not equal, upon sound principles of judgment, to much that had been produced before. The classical structure of Hooker the impetuous, thought-agglomerating flood of Taylor to these there is no pretence of a parallel; and for mere ease and grace, is Cowley inferior to Addison, being as he is so much more thoughtful and full of fancy? Cowley, with the omission of a quaintness here and there, is probably the best model of style for modern imitation in general. Taylor's periods have been fre- quently attempted by his admirers; you may, perhaps, just catch the turn of a simile or single image, but to write in the real manner of Jeremy Taylor would require as mighty a mind as his. COLERIDGE (25). XXXVI. Things are external to the man; the style is the man himself. Style, then, can be neither detached, nor transferred, nor altered by time: if it is elevated, noble, sublime, the author will be admired equally in all ages. For it is truth alone that is permanent, that is even eternal. Now a beautiful style is. such in fact only by the infinite number of truths that it presents. All the intellectual graces residing in it, all the interdependences XXXV. Alternation of periodic and loose sentence structure (IVC). 36 of which it is composed, are truths not less useful, and for the human spirit possibly more precious, than those, whatsoever they be, that form the core of the subject. BUFFON (translation). XXXVII. Since the thoughts and reasonings of an author have, as I have said, a personal character, no wonder that his style is not only the image of his subject, but of his mind. That pomp of language, that full and tuneful diction, that felicitousness in the choice and exquisiteness in the collocation of words, which to prosaic writers seem artificial, is nothing else but the mere habit and way of a lofty intellect. Aristotle, in his sketch of the magnanimous man, tells us that his voice is deep, his motions slow, and his stature commanding. In like manner, the elocu- tion of a great intellect is great. His language expresses, not only his great thoughts, but his great self. Certainly he might use fewer words than he uses; but he fertilizes his simplest ideas, and germinates into a multitude of details, and prolongs the march of his sentences, and sweeps round to the full diapason of his harmony, as if Kvdei yaicov, rejoicing in his own vigour and richness of resource. I say, a narrow critic will call it verbiage, when really it is a sort of fulness of heart, parallel to that which makes the merry boy whistle as he walks, or the strong man, like the smith in the novel, nourish his club when there is no one to fight with. NEWMAN (34), University Teaching II, Literature 5. XXXVIII. Nothing is more inimical to this warmth [of sustained appeal] than the desire to be everywhere striking; nothing is more contrary to the light which should be at the centre of a work, and which should be diffused uniformly in any composition, than those sparks which are struck only at the cost of a violent collision between words, and which dazzle us for a moment or two, only to leave us in subsequent darkness. These are thoughts that shine only by contrast, when but one aspect of an object is pre- sented, while the remaining sides are put in shadow; and ordi- XXXVII. Development by making concrete (I A i b), parallel construction (IB 2). Appeal by cadence (V B). 37 narily the aspect chosen is a point or angle whereon the writer exercises his wit with the greater ease in proportion as he departs farther from the important sides on which good common sense is accustomed to view things. BUFFON (translation). XXXIX. In prose the least offensive of the Byzantine writers are absolved from censure by their naked and unpresuming simplicity; but the orators, most eloquent in their own conceit, are the farthest removed from the models whom they affect to emulate. In every page our taste and reason are wounded by the choice of gigantic and obsolete words, a stiff and intricate phraseology, the discord of images, the childish play of false or unreasonable ornament, and the painful attempt to elevate themselves, to astonish the reader, and to involve a trivial mean- ing in the smoke of obscurity and exaggeration. Their prose is soaring to the vicious affectation of poetry : their poetry is sink- ing below the flatness and insipidity of prose. The tragic, epic and lyric muses were silent and inglorious: the bards of Con- stantinople seldom rose above a riddle or epigram, a panegyric or tale. GIBBON (21), XL. After the Revolution, the spirit of the nation became much more commercial than it had been before; a learned body, or clerisy, as such, gradually disappeared, and literature in general began to be addressed to the common miscellaneous public. That public had become accustomed to, and required, a strong stimulus; and to meet the requisitions of the public taste, a style was produced which by combining triteness of thought with singularity and excess of manner of expression, was calculated at once to soothe ignorance and to flatter vanity. The thought was carefully kept down to the immediate apprehension of the XXXIX. Example of emphasis by hyperbole (III B) through words that prejudice unfavorably (II C 2 c). Excessive pairing of adjectives and nouns (See Vices of style, p. 118). XL. Emphasis by a Parthian shot (III B). 38 commonest understanding, and the dress was as anxiously ar- ranged for the purpose of making the thought appear something very profound. The essence of this style consisted in a mock antithesis, that is, an opposition of mere sounds, in a rage for personification, the abstract made animate, far-fetched meta- phors, strange phrases, metrical scraps, in everything, in short, but genuine prose. Style is, of course, nothing else but the art/ of conveying the meaning appropriately and with perspicuity. / COLERIDGE (25^ XLI. Our writers write so well that there is little to choose between them. What they lack is that individuality, that earnestness, most personal yet most unconscious of self, which is the greatest charm of an author. The very form of the composi- tions of the day suggests to us their main deficiency. They are anonymous. So was it not in the literature of those nations which we consider the special standard of classical writing; so is it not with our own Classics. The Epic was sung by the voice of the living, present poet. The drama, in its very idea, is poetry in persons. Historians begin, "Herodotus, of Hali- carnassus, publishes his researches:" or, "Thucydides, the Athenian, has composed an account of the war." Pindar is all through his odes a speaker. Plato, Xenophon, and Cicero throw their philosophical dissertations into the form of a dialogue. Orators and preachers are by their very profession known persons, and the personal is laid down by the Philosopher of antiquity as the source of their greatest persuasiveness. Virgil and Horace are ever bringing into their poetry their own characters and tastes. Dante's poems furnish a series of events for the chronology of his times. Milton is frequent in allusions to his own history and circumstances. Even when Addison writes anonymously, he writes under a professed character, and that in a great measure his own; he writes in the first person. The " I " of the Spectator, and the "we" of the modern Review or Newspaper, are the respective symbols of the two ages in our literature. NEWMAN (34), University Subjects III, iv, 4. XLI. Example of style coupe (IV C). Observe that the passage is impersonal (III D). 39 XLII. What truth, then, was it that was present to those mighty spirits of the past, who, making whatever is greatest in writing their aim, thought it beneath them to be exact in every detail? Among many others especially this, that it was not in nature's plan for us her chosen children to be creatures base and ignoble, no, she brought us into life, and into the whole uni- verse, as into some great field of contest, that we should be at once spectators and ambitious rivals of her mighty deeds, and from the first implanted in our souls an invincible yearning for all that is great, all that is diviner than ourselves. Therefore even the whole world is not wide enough for the soaring range of human thought, but man's mind often overleaps the very bounds of space. When we survey the whole circle of life, and see it abounding everywhere in what is elegant, grand, and beautiful, we learn at once what is the true end of man's being. And this is why nature prompts us to admire, not the clearness and use- fulness of a little stream, but the Nile, the Danube, the Rhine, and far beyond all the Ocean; not to turn our wandering eyes from the heavenly fires, though often darkened, to the little flame kindled by human hands, however pure and steady its light; not to think that tiny lamp more wondrous than the cav- erns of ^Etna, from whose raging depths are hurled up stones and whole masses of rock, and torrents sometimes come pouring from earth's centre of pure and living fire. LONGINUS (translation). XLIII. A capital rule for reaching the sublime in such works of art as are capable of it, is, to present those parts or circum- stances only which make the greatest figure, keeping out of view every thing low and trivial; for the mind, elevated by an im- portant object, cannot, without reluctance, be forced down to bestow any share of its attention upon trifles. Such judicious selection of capital circumstances, is styled grandeur of manner. In none of the fine arts is there so great scope for that rule as in poetry; which, by that means, enjoys a remarkable power of bestowing upon objects and events an air of grandeur: when we XLIII. Comparison with the preceding is advised. 40 are spectators, every minute object presents itself in its order; but, in describing at second-hand, these are laid aside, and the capital objects are brought close together. A judicious taste in thus selecting the most interesting incidents, to give them an united force, accounts for a fact that may appear surprising; which is, that we are more moved by a spirited narrative at second-hand, than by being spectators of the event itself, in all its circumstances. KAMES, Elements of Criticism, IV. XLIV. Gentlemen, it is thus as it seems to me when I read you that you [of the Academy] would speak to me for my instruction: my soul eagerly receiving such oracles of wisdom would fain take flight and mount on a level with you. How vain the effort! Rules, I hear you add, can never take the place of genius. If that be lacking, they are useless. To write well it is at once to think deeply, to feel vividly, and to express clearly; it is to have at once intelligence, sensibility, and taste. Style supposes the united exercise of all the intellectual faculties. Ideas and they alone are its foundation. Well-sounding words are a mere accessory, dependent simply upon the possession of an external sense. BUFFON (translation). MODELS. (The numbers in headings and footnotes refer to the SYLLABUS, where other examples are listed. Numbers in the text refer to explanatory NOTES. Those after authors' names refer to the HISTORICAL REVIEW, where dates are given and usually other excerpts from the same author.) i. Development by division in classes (I A i b i a (i). It is notoriously known, through the universal world, that there be nine l worthy and the best that ever were, that is, to wit, three Paynims, three Jews, and three Christian men. As for the Paynims, they were before the Incarnation of Christ, which were named, the first, Hector of Troy, of whom the history is common, both in ballad and in prose; the second, Alexander the Great; and the third, Julius Caesar, Emperor of Rome, of which the histories be well known and had. And as for the three Jews, which also were before the Incarnation of our Lord, of whom the first was Duke 2 Joshua, which brought the children of Israel into the land of behest ; the second was David, King of Jerusalem ; and the third Judas Maccabeus. Of these three, the Bible rehearse th all their noble histories and acts. And, since the said 3 Incarnation, have been three noble Christian men, stalled and admitted through the universal world, into the number of the nine best and worthy : of whom was first, the noble Arthur, whose noble acts I purpose to write in this present book here following; the second was Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, of whom the history is had in many places, both in French and in English; and the third, and last, was Godfrey of Boulogne, of whose acts i. In structure clear (V B) but too monotonous and obvious (III A). Subjects: Kinds of books (or plays) I like; Types of people at a summer hotel, at church ; Studies which constitute an ideal education. Notice the arrangement by historic order (I A 2), key sentence (IB i a), use of numbers, and coherence by parallel construction (I B 2). See Development, p. 107, and Outlining, p. 113. In writing an original composition with the same method of development, first outline this thoroughly; then make an outline closely parallel; then follow this outline in your theme. Write it below your finished copy. 42 and life I made a book unto the excellent prince and king, of noble memory, King Edward the Fourth. CAXTON (i), Prologue to Malory's Morte D' Arthur. 2. Development by typical examples (I A i b i a (2) a). People continually forget that there is a separate public for every picture, and for every book. Appealed to with reference to any particular work, the public is that class of persons who possess the knowledge which it presupposes, and the faculties to which it is addressed. With reference to a new edition of Newton's Principia, the "public" means little more than the Royal Society. 1 With reference to Wordsworth's poems, it means all who have hearts. With reference to one of Moore's, all who have passions. With reference to the works of Hogarth, it means those who have worldly knowledge to the works of Giotto, those who have religious faith. Each work must be tested exclusively by the fiat of the particular public to which it is addressed. RUSKIN (40), Arrows of the Chase. 3. Development by exceptional examples (I A i b i a (2) 13). With the single exception of Falstaff , all Shakespeare's charac- 2. The two types, pictures and books, might better have come in succession in two paragraphs. Subjects: Definition of a term in a debate; A gentleman; A sport; 'The dictionary.' Cogent (V B) and nervously written (V A), confident (V A) and earnest (HID). Texture allusive (III A) with ill-chosen echo word (III B: public absorbs the emphasis, obscuring what Ruskin wishes to say about the word). Notice that the author's bias limits illustration to books and pictures. Good example of balance (I B 2) and of expressiveness through related words (hearts, passions, knowledge, faith). 3. Stevenson disposes of the examples likely to be cited against him. The parenthesis is apologetic. Subjects: any maxim or proverb; a debate with conscience. Example of brevity (III A) and penetration (V A), with allusive texture (III C). Note the echo (III B : marry, single). Sequence by answering in anticipa- tion (IV A), with limitation to the most important cases (I A ib 2 ). 43 ters are what we call marrying men. Mercutio, as he was own cousin to Benedick and Biron, would have come to the same end in the long run. Even lago had a wife, and, what is far stranger, he was jealous. People like Jacques and the Fool in Lear, al- though we can hardly imagine they would ever marry, kept single out of a cynical humour or for a broken heart, and not, as we do nowadays, from a spirit of incredulity and preference for the single state. For that matter, if you turn to George Sand's French version of As You Like It (and I think I can promise you will like it but little), you will find Jacques marries Celia just as Orlando marries Rosalind. STEVENSON (46), Virginibus Puerisque. 4. Development by instances (I A i b i a (2) 7). Such were ADDISON'S TALENTS FOR CONVERSATION. But his rare gifts were NOT EXHIBITED TO CROWDS OR TO STRANGERS. As soon as he entered a large company, as soon as he saw an unknown face, his lips were sealed, and his manners became constrained. None who met him only in great assemblies would have been able to believe that he was the same man who had often kept a few friends listening and laughing round a table from the time when the play ended till the clock of St. Paul's in Co vent Garden l struck four. Yet even at such a table he was not seen to the best advantage. To enjoy his conversation in the highest perfection, it was necessary to be alone with him, and to hear him, in his own phrase, think aloud. " There is no such 4. Illustration by three types of occurrences. Study the devices for coherence and emphasis. For coherence (I B 2), connec- tives (such, but, yet), pronouns (his, he, him}, echo (table, con- versation), synonyms (talents and rare gifts, strangers and unknown face, advantage and perfection), parallel construction (as soon as, lips sealed and manners constrained), and transitional statements (sentences beginning with such and yet). For emphasis (III B), climax, concreteness in the middle of the paragraph, periodic sentence structure, hyperbole (as soon as, none, necessary), suspense (in the last sentences). Notice the key phrases (I B i) serving as topic statement, and the order of climax (I A 2 b: from not seen, through fairly seen, to best seen). 44 thing," he used to say, "as real conversation, but between two persons." MACAULAY (32), Review of Aiken's Addison. 5. Development by details (I A i b i a (3) a). Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toil worn Crafts- man that with earth-made Implement laboriously conquers the Earth, and makes her man's. Venerable to me is the hard Hand ; crooked, coarse; wherein notwithstanding lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the Sceptre of this Planet. Venerable too is the rugged face, all weather- tanned, besoiled, with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a Man living manlike. O, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must pity as well as love thee ! Hardly-entreated Brother ! For us was thy back so bent, for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed: thou wert our Conscript, on whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred. For in thee too lay a god- created Form, but it was not to be unfolded; encrusted must it stand with the thick adhesions and defacements of Labour: and thy body, like thy soul, was not to know freedom. Yet toil on, toil on: thou art in thy duty, be out of it who may; thou toilest for the altogether indispensable, for daily bread. A second man I honour, and still more highly: Him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not daily bread, but the bread of Life. Is not he too in his duty; endeavouring to- wards inward Harmony; revealing this, by act or by word, through all his outward endeavours, be they high or low? Highest of all, when his outward and his inward endeavour are one, when we can name him Artist; not earthly Craftsman only, but inspired Thinker, who with heaven-made Implement conquers 5. The capitals suggest German influence. Subjects: Types of students, architecture, government. Tenor highly elevated (V B) though sentimental (V A) ; texture emotional (III D) with emphasis also from sentence inversion (III B), movement abrupt (IVB). Notice the coherence by personal pronoun (IB 2); unity shown by numbers (IB i); and arrangement of known before unknown (I A 2 : laborer before artist) . 45 Heaven for us ! If the poor and humble toil that we have Food, must not the high and glorious toil for him in return, that he have Light, have Guidance, Freedom, Immortality? These two, in all their degrees, I honour; all else is chaff and dust, which let the wind blow whither it listeth. CARLYLE (31), Sartor Resartus, III, iv. 6. Development by circumstances (I A i b / a (3) 0). Such being the Maid-servant's life in-doors, she scorns, when abroad, to be anything but a creature of sheer enjoyment. The Maid-servant, the sailor, the school-boy, are the three beings that enjoy a holiday beyond all the rest of the world; and all for the same reason, because their inexperience, peculiarity of life, and habit of being with persons of circumstances or thoughts above them, give them all, in their way, a cast of the romantic. The most active of the money-getters is a vegetable compared with them. The Maid-servant when she first goes to Vauxhall, 1 thinks she is in heaven. A theatre is all pleasure to her, whatever is going forward, whether the play or the music, or the waiting which makes others impatient, or the munching of apples and gingerbread, which she and her party commence almost as soon as they have seated themselves. She prefers tragedy to comedy, because it is grander, and less like what she meets with in general; and because she thinks it more in earnest also, especially in the love-scenes. Her favourite play is " Alexander the Great, or the Rival Queens." 1 Another great delight is going a shopping. She loves to look at the pictures in the windows, and the fine things labelled with those corpulent numerals of "only ys." "only 6s. 6 p." She has also, unless born and bred in London, been to see my Lord Mayor, the fine people coming out of Court, 6. Circumstances given under four types of occasion. Subjects: The debutante; the misanthrope. An example of observation (VA) appealing by picturesqueness and humor (V B). In texture simple (III A), natural and literal (III C), it gains force and emphasis by concreteness (III B). Note the coherence by conjunctions and pronouns (IB 2), the order of climax (I A 2 b), and limitation of topics on the principle of interest (I A i a 2). 46 and the "beasties" in the Tower; and at all events she has been to Astley 's 3 and the Circus, from which she comes away, equally smitten with the rider, and sore with laughing at the clown. But it is difficult to say what pleasure she enjoys most. One of the completest of all is the fair, where she walks through an endless round of noise, and toys and gallant apprentices, and wonders. Here she is invited in by courteous and well-dressed people, as if she were a mistress. Here also is the conjuror's booth, where the operator himself, a most stately and genteel person all in white, calls her Ma'am; and says to John by her side, in spite of his laced hat, "Be good enough, sir, to hand the card to the lady." LEIGH HUNT (28), The Maid-Servant (Indicator}. 7. Development by tracing similarity (I A i b i b (i) a). Certainly a liberal education does manifest itself in a courtesy, propriety, and polish of word and action, which is beautiful in itself, and acceptable to others; but it does much more. It brings the mind into form, for the mind is like the body. Boys outgrow their shape and their strength; their limbs have to be knit together, and their constitution needs tone. Mistaking animal spirits for vigour, and over-confident in their health, ignorant what they can bear and how to manage themselves, they are immoderate and extravagant; and fall into sharp sicknesses. This is an emblem of their minds; at first they have no prin- ciples laid down within them as a foundation for the intellect to build upon; they have no discriminating convictions, and no grasp of consequences. And therefore they talk at random, if they talk much, and cannot help being flippant, or what is emphatically called "young." They are merely dazzled by phenomena, instead of perceiving things as they are. NEWMAN (34), Idea of a University, Preface. 7. Even in movement (IV B) and texture (III B), literal (IV C) , with reflex sequence (IV A). Hyperbole in the wording, with- out saving provisos. The phrases too often are grouped in pairs. See SUGGESTIONS, p. 118. 47 8. Development by contrast (I A i b i b (i) B). (The following is not an example of imitation, but execution of an abstract requirement to secure emphasis by antithesis.) On Speaking and Writing. I have always preferred writing to speaking. The latter I consider instantaneous and hurried, the former careful and pro- longed. Speaking is more or less compulsory, writing is always free of restraint. In speaking, one has scarcely time enough to formulate his ideas; in writing, the author has all the oppor- tunities necessary for a successful description of his thought. The first is a mode of expression devoid of all deep study, the second can never be undertaken without the application of care- ful thought. In short, speaking is an act without pleasure, writing a veritable recreation. STUDENT'S THEME. 8 a . I have found, by trial, Homer a more pleasing task than Virgil, though I say not the translation will be less laborious; for the 'Grecian is more according to my genius than the Latin poet. In the works of the two authors we may read their manners, and natural inclinations, which are wholly different. Virgil was of a quiet, sedate temper; Homer was violent, impet- uous, and full of fire. The chief talent of Virgil was propriety of thoughts, and ornament of words: Homer was rapid in his thoughts, and took all the liberties, both of numbers and of expressions, which his language, and the age in which he lived, allowed him. Homer's invention was more copious, Virgil's more confined ; so that if Homer had not led the way, it was not in Virgil to have begun heroic poetry; for nothing can be more evident, than that the Roman poem is but the second part of the I lias; a continuation of the same story, and the persons already formed. DRYDEN (i2 a ), Preface to the Fables. 8. Reflex sequence (IV A) again, with emphasis by antithesis (III B). The interest arises from oddity (V B). Orderliness (V A) is carried to an extreme. 8^_ Free from the pedantic finesse of the preceding. 48 g. Development by pro and con (I A i b i b (i) 5). Lady Bustle has, indeed, by this incessant application to fruits and flowers, contracted her cares into a narrow space, and set herself free from many perplexities with which other minds are disturbed. She has no curiosity after the events of a war, or the fate of heroes in distress; she can hear without the least emotion the ravage of a fire, or devastations of a storm; her neighbours grow rich or poor, come into the world or go out of it, without regard, while she is pressing the jelly-bag, or airing the store-room; but I cannot perceive that she is more free from disquiet than those whose understandings take a wider range. Her marigolds, when they are almost cured, are often scattered by the wind, the rain sometimes falls upon fruit when it ought to be gathered dry. While her artificial wines are fermenting, her whole life is restlessness and anxiety. Her sweetmeats are not always bright, and the maid sometimes forgets the just pro- portion of salt and pepper, when venison is to be baked. Her conserves mould, her wines sour, and pickles mother; and, like all the rest of mankind, she is every day mortified with the defeat of her schemes and the disappointment of her hopes. JOHNSON (18), Employments of a Housewife, Rambler, No. 51. 10. Development by sequence in time (I A i b i b (2) a). They that desire the delights corporal, and suffer their souls to die for hunger, be like to a man that fled tofore an unicorn that he should not devour him, and in fleeing he fell into a great pit, and as he fell he caught a branch of a tree with his hands and set his feet upon a sliding place, and then saw two mice that one 9. Reflex movement (IV A) again with interest from oddity (V A) . The tenor is reflective (V A) and rate of movement gradual (IV B). In texture, direct (III C), impersonal (III D), and detailed (III A). Coherence again shown by the personal pronoun. 10. Stevenson's "disjointed babbling of the old chronicler" is here exemplified. Clearly impromptu (VA) and appealing by naivete (VB). The texture is natural (III C) and highly con- crete (III A). The student should welcome its 0wd-sentences as akin to his own frailties. 49 white and that other black, which without ceasing gnawed the root of the tree, and had almost gnawed it asunder. And he saw in the bottom of the pit a horrible dragon casting fire, and had his mouth open and desired to devour him. CAXTON (i), Golden Legend, "Barlam the Hermit." ii. Development by course of procedure (I A i b i b (2) /?). A wealthy man, addicted to his pleasure and to his profits , finds religion to be a traffic so entangled, and of so many piddling accounts, that of all mysteries he cannot skill to keep a stock going upon that trade. What should he do? Fain he would have the name to be religious; fain he would bear up with his neighbors in that. What does he, therefore, but resolve to give over toiling, and to find himself out some factor, to whose care and credit he may commit the whole managing of his religious affairs; some divine of note and estimation that must be. To him he adheres, resigns the whole warehouse of his religion, with all the locks and keys, into his custody; and indeed makes the very person of that man his religion; esteems his associating with him a sufficient evidence and commendatory of his own piety. So that a man may say, his religion is now no more within himself, but is become a dividual movable, and goes and comes near him, according as that good man frequents the house. He entertains him, gives him gifts, feasts him, lodges him; his religion comes home at night, prays, is liberally supped, and sumptuously laid to sleep, rises, is saluted, and after the malmsey, or some well-spiced beverage, and better breakfasted than he whose morning appetite would have gladly fed on green figs between Bethany and Jerusalem, his religion walks abroad at eight, and leaves his kind entertainer in the shop, trading all day without his religion. MILTON (10). 1 1 . Grave and of idealistic tenor (V A) , in movement slow (IV B), with emphasis by anticlimax (III B). The arrangement is figuratively made temporal (I A 2) and concrete (III A). The diction is colored (II C) to prejudice a reader unfavorably. Quoted admiringly by Emerson. 50 12. Development by cause and effect (I A i b i b (2) 7). Philosophers, on the other hand, have no such aggressive ten- dencies. With eyes fixed on the noble goal to which per aspera et ardua 1 they tend, they may, now and then, be stirred to momentary wrath by the unnecessary obstacles with which the ignorant or the malicious encumber, if they cannot bar, the difficult path; but why should their souls be deeply vexed? The majesty of Fact is on their side, and the elemental forms of nature are working for them. Not a star comes to the meridian at its calculated time but testifies to the justice of their methods their beliefs are "one with the falling rain and with the grow- ing corn." By doubt they are established, and open inquiry is their bosom friend. Such men have no fear of traditions, how- ever venerable, and no respect for them when they become mis- chievous and obstructive; but they have better than mere antiquarian business in hand, and if dogmas, which ought to be fossil but are not, are not forced upon their notice, they are too happy to treat them as nonexistent. MILL (33), On Liberty, ch. ii. 13. Development by anticipating questions (I A i b i b (2) 6). For another example, let us consider the way in which we infer the truth of an historical event say the siege of Syracuse in the Peloponnesian war. Our experience is that manuscripts exist which are said to be and which call themselves manuscripts of the history of Thucydides; that in other manuscripts, stated to be by later historians, he is described as living during the time of the war; and that books, supposed to date from the revival 12. Example of ideality and sublimity (V B), deliberate and grave in tenor (VA). Movement and texture even (IV B, III B), attitude staid (III D). 13. Each successive statement answers a doubt which will arise in the mind of the critical reader (IV A) . The arrangement is from simple to complex (I A 2 b) , and coherence shown by parallel construction (IB 2). Example of cogency (V B), with reflexion, deliberateness, and penetration (V A). Useful in argumentation to win conviction. of learning, tell us how these manuscripts had been preserved and were then acquired. We find also that men do not, as a rule, forge books and histories without a special motive; we assume that in this respect men in the past were like men in the present ; and we observe that in this case no special motive was present. That is, we add to our experience on the assumption of a uni- formity in the characters of men. CLIFFORD (45), The Ethics of Belief. 14. Development by making an abstraction concrete (II A i b /(!)).- Voltaire is the prince of buffoons. His merriment is without disguise or restraint. He gambols; he grins; he shakes the sides ; he points the finger; he turns up the nose; he shoots out the tongue. The manner of Swift is the very opposite to this. He moves laughter, but never joins in it. He appears in his works such as he appeared in society. All the company are convulsed with merriment, while the Dean, 1 the author of all the mirth, preserves an invincible gravity, and even sourness of aspect, and gives utterance to the most eccentric and ludicrous fancies, with the air of a man reading the commination service. 2 The manner of Addison is as remote from that of Swift as from that of Voltaire. He neither laughs out like the French wit, nor, like the Irish wit, throws a double portion of severity into his countenance while laughing inwardly; but preserves a look peculiarly his own a look of demure serenity, disturbed only by an arch sparkle of the eye, an almost imperceptible elevation of the brow, an almost imperceptible curl of the lip. His tone is never that either of a Jack Pudding 3 or of a cynic. It is that of a gentleman, in whom the quickest sense of the ridiculous is constantly tempered by good nature and good breeding. MACAULAY (32), Review of Miss Aikin's Addison. 14. Differentiation of three types of humor by contrast in physi- cal appearance of the humorist. Subjects: analysis of types of beauty, worth, charm, courage, etc. Vivacious (III D) and of varying movement (IV B) largely style coupe (IV C), gaining emphasis by hyperbole (II C, III B) and interest through oddity (V B). An example of hyperbole. 52 15. Development by proof (I A i b i c (3)). Life is not long enough for a religion of inferences; we shall never have done beginning, if we determine to begin with proof. We shall ever be laying our foundations; we shall turn theology into evidences, and divines into textuaries. We shall never get at our first principles. Resolve to believe nothing, and you must prove your proofs and analyse your elements, sinking farther and farther, and finding 'in the lowest depth a lower deep,' 1 till you come to the broad bosom of scepticism. I would rather be bound to defend the reasonableness of assuming that Christianity is true, than to demonstrate a moral government from the physical world. Life is for action. If we insist on proofs for every thing, we shall never come to action : to act you must assume, and that assumption is faith. NEWMAN (34), Grammar of Ascent. 16. Arrangement for conviction (I A 2 b 3). I hold very strongly that the first step in intellectual training is to impress upon a boy's mind the idea of science, method, order, principle, and system; of rule and exception, of richness and harmony. This is commonly and excellently done by making him begin with Grammar ; nor can too great accuracy, or minute- ness and subtlety of teaching be used towards him, as his faculties expand, with this simple purpose. Hence it is that critical scholarship is so important a discipline for him when he is leaving school for the University. A second science is the Mathematics: this should follow Grammar, still with the same object, viz., to give him a conception of development and arrangement from and around a common centre. Hence it is that Chronology and Geography are so necessary for him, when he reads History, which is otherwise little better than a storybook. Hence, too, 15. Example of cogency with strong personal association (V B). Tenor confident and savoring of chicane (VA). Texture ab- stract (III A), with emphasis by abruptness (III B). Move- ment rapid (IV B). 1 6. In urging the adoption of certain studies, Newman empha- sizes the reasons by placing them first and last. Example of earnest stress (V A) . 53 Metrical Composition, when he reads Poetry; in order to stimu- late his powers into action in every practicable way, and to prevent a merely passive reception of images and ideas which in that case are likely to pass out of the mind as soon as they have entered it. Let him once gain this habit of method, of starting from fixed points, of making his ground good as he goes, of dis- tinguishing what he knows from what he does not know, and I conceive he will be gradually initiated into the largest and truest philosophical views, and will feel nothing but impatience and disgust at the random theories and imposing sophistries and dashing paradoxes, which carry away half -formed and super- ficial intellects. NEWMAN (34), Idea of a University, Preface. 17. Key sentence at the end (IB i a / b). "It is not only the leader of men, statesman, philosopher, or poet, who owes this bounden duty to mankind. Every rustic who delivers in the village alehouse his slow infrequent sentences, may help to kill or keep alive the fatal superstitions which clog his race. Every hard- worked wife of an artisan may transmit to her children beliefs which shall knit society together, or rend it in pieces. No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe." CLIFFORD (45), The Ethics of Belief.'' 17. Here the topic sentence is placed for emphasis at the end, as a conclusion based on the examples. The masses, as well as their leaders, should question whatever they believe, for 1 . The country talker in the tavern influences the survival of superstitions 2. The artisan's wife influences the beliefs of her children. The first sentence recalls the paragraph preceding, and prepares by not only for addition along the same line. Notice the empha- sis gained (a) by making the persons extremes unlikely to lead : a village gossip, slow and inapt to talk, or a hired woman; (b) by heightening the consequences kill , fatal, clog, rend it in pieces. Note that Clifford so far offers no proof, but merely asserts. 54 18. Topic statement suggested by associated echoes (I B i a 2) . The disparagers of CULTURE make its MOTIVE CURIOSITY; sometimes, indeed, they make its MOTIVE mere exclusiveness and vanity. The CULTURE which is supposed to plume itself on a smattering of Greek and Latin is a CULTURE which is begotten by nothing so intellectual as CURIOSITY; it is valued either out of sheer vanity and ignorance or else as an engine of social and class distinction, separating its holder, like a badge or title, from other persons who have not got it. No serious man would call this culture, or attach any value to it, as CULTURE, at all. To find the real ground for the very differing estimate which serious people will set upon CULTURE, we must find some MOTIVE for CULTURE in the terms of which may lie a real ambiguity; and such a MOTIVE the word curiosity gives us. ARNOLD (43), Sweetness and Light. 19. Unity shown by paragraphing (IB i b /). Studies serve for pastimes, for ornaments, for abilities; their 18. The words culture (7), motive (4), curiosity (3) transmit the dominant thought more certainly and insistently than an isolated topic sentence. Further scrutiny reveals the subsidiary in- sistence on vanity (2); exclusiveness, plume, distinction, etc.; serious (2). This harping on one string creates an impression of earnestness and the deliberateness that arises from mature reflexion; if continued, it appears pedantical. In beginning, it fixes a topic in the reader's mind ; in closing it leaves a dominant impression. Arnold made this trick of style distinctively his. The whole essay on Sweetness and Light thus gains effectiveness. Notice in the first and last sentences the annoying alliteration (m, n), and in the second the weak verbs. Should the para- graph end with curiosity? In imitating, if you use many words, repeat less often. Allitera- tion, as in culture, curiosity, should not be overdone. 19. The paragraph sign indicates logical major divisions. Cogent (V B) and penetrating (V A) in tenor, it is so brief (III A) as to constitute mere headings for further development. Em- phatic from successive detached short sentences (III B, IV C) and antithesis (III B). Entirely impersonal (III D). Example of the dogmatic. 55 chief use for pastimes is in privateness and retiring; for orna- ments in discourse ; and for ability in judgment ; for expert men can execute, but learned men are more fit to judge and censure. 1[To spend too much time in them is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar; they perfect nature, and are themselves perfected by experience; crafty men contemn them, wise men use them, simple men admire them; for they teach not their use, but that there is a wisdom without them and above them won by observation. 1f Read not to contradict nor to believe, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested : that is, some are to be read only in parts, others to be read but curiously, and some few to be read wholly with diligence and attention. TfReading maketh a full man, conference a ready, and writing an exact man; therefore, if a man write little, he had need of a great memory; if he confer little, he had need of a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning to seem to know that he doth not know. ^[ Histories make wise men; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. BACON (6), Of Studies, 1597 version. 20. Coherence indicated by conjunctions (IB 2 a /). Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind reception it meets with in the world, and that so very few are offended with it. But, if it should happen otherwise, the danger is not great; and I have learned, from long experience, never to apprehend mischief from those understandings I have been able to provoke; for anger and fury, though they add strength to the sinews of the body, yet are found to relax those of the mind, and to render all its efforts feeble and impotent. SWIFT (13), Preface to The Battle of the Books. 20. Example of dry (III D) and cynical (V A) wit (V B). Note the absence of focal topic statement (I B i : it is safe to satirize) and the development by alternatives (I A i b). 56 21. Coherence indicated by the personal pronoun (IB 2 a 2 a). Scott went out with his pencil and note-book, and jotted down whatever struck him most a river rippling over the sands, a ruined tower on a rock above it, a promontory, and a mountain- ash waving its red berries. He went home and wove the whole together into a poetical description. He should have left his pencil and note-book at home, fixed his eye as he walked with a reverent attention on all that surrounded him, and taken all into a heart that could understand and enjoy. Then, after several days had passed by, he should have interrogated his memory as to the scene. He would have discovered that while much of what he had admired was preserved to him, much was also most wisely obliterated ; that which remained the picture surviving in his mind would have presented the ideal and essential truth of the scene, and done so in a large part by discard- ing much which, though in itself striking, was not characteristic. In every scene many of the most brilliant details are but acci- dental; a true eye for Nature does not note them, or at least does not dwell on them. WORDSWORTH (24). 22. Coherence indicated by demonstrative pronouns (I B 2 a 2 b). We view the establishment of the English colonies on princi- ples of liberty as THAT which is to render this kingdom venerable to future ages. In comparison of THIS we regard all the victories and conquests of our warlike ancestors, or of our own times, as barbarous, vulgar distinctions, in which many nations, whom we look upon with little respect or value, have equalled if not ex- ceeded us. THIS is the peculiar and appropriated glory of 21. Clearly divisible in two paragraphs; what Scott did and what he should have done. Their disproportion makes a single paragraph more comely (IB i). Example of plain (III C) re- flective (VA) style, interesting because informative (V B). Development by contrast (I A i b) . 22. Notice the personal pronoun and echo of England. The pairs in sentences two and four are excessive. So too the adj. + noun of the last sentence. Example of earnest (III D) ideality (V A) and elevation (V B). See Vices of Style, p. 118. 57 England. THOSE who have and who hold to THAT foundation of common liberty, whether on this or on your side of the ocean, we consider as the true, and the only true, Englishmen. THOSE who depart from it, whether there or here, are attainted, cor- rupted in blood, and wholly fallen from their original rank and value. They are the real rebels to the fair constitution and just supremacy of England. BURKE (20), Address to the British Colonists in North America. 23. Coherence made clear by the echo (I B 2 b i). The FIRE in the open air is indeed a joy perpetual, and there is no surer way of renewing one's youth than by kindling and tending it, whether it be a rubbish FIRE for potatoes, or an aromatic offering of pine spindles and fir cones, or the scientific structure of the GIPSY to heat a tripod-swung kettle. The GIPSY'S FIRE is a work of art. "Two short STICKS were stuck in the ground, and a third across to them like a triangle. Against this frame a number of the smallest and driest STICK were leaned, so that they made a tiny hut. Outside these there was a second layer of longer STICKS, all standing or rather leaning, against the first. If a STICK is placed across, lying horizontally, supposing it catches FIRE, it just burns through the middle and that is all, the ends go out. If it is stood nearly upright, the flame draws up to it; it is certain to catch, burns longer, and leaves a good ember." So wrote one who knew Richard Jefferies, in Bevis, that epic of boyhood. Having built the FIRE, the next thing is to LIGHT it. An old GIPSY woman can LIGHT a FIRE in a gale, just as a sailor can always LIGHT his pipe, even in the cave of ^Eolus; but the amateur is less dexterous. The smoke of the open-air FIRE is charged with memory. One whiff of it, and for a swift moment we are in sympathy with our remotest ancestors, and all that is elemental and primitive in us is awakened. LUCAS (50) Fires. 23. Notice how renewing one's youth of the first sentences is echoed in the last. Example of appeal through picturesqueness (VB), of casual sequence and tenor (IV A, VA), concrete (III A) and in popular words (II B). Development by details (I A i b). Sensuousness (V A), and optimism (V A). 58 24. Coherence clear from continuity of the grammatical subject (IB 2Cl). There is a chaunt in the recitation both of Coleridge and Words- worth, which acts as a spell upon the hearer, and disarms the judgment. Perhaps they have deceived themselves by making habitual use of this ambiguous accompaniment. Coleridge's manner is more full, animated, and varied; Wordsworth's more equable, sustained, and internal. The one might be termed more dramatic, the other more lyrical. Coleridge has told me that he himself liked to compose in walking over uneven ground, or breaking through the straggling branches of a copse wood; whereas Wordsworth always wrote (if he could) walking up or down a straight gravel walk, or in some spot where the continuity of his verse met with no collateral interruption. HAZLITT (27), My First Acquaintance with Poets. 25. Coherence clear from parallel construction (IB 2 c 2). There are men who, when in difficulties, originate at the moment vast ideas or dazzling projects; who, under the influence of excitement, are able to cast a light, almost as if from inspira- tion, on a subject or course of action which comes before them; who have a sudden presence of mind equal to any emergency, rising with the occasion, and an undaunted magnanimous bearing^ and an energy and keenness which is but made intense by opposi- tion. This is genius, this is heroism; it is the exhibition of a natural gift, which no culture can teach, at which no Institution can aim; here, on the contrary, we are concerned, not with mere nature, but with training and teaching. That perfection of the Intellect, which is the result of Education, and its beau ideal, 24. Note that collateral is out of key (II C). Example of informative (V B) observation (VA). Development by con- trast (I A i b) with reflex movement (IV A). Informal (III D). 25. The unity consists in distinguishing the possible from the impossible in education. Example of elegant and elevated (V B) style showing ideality and elan (V A). Texture polished (III C) with emphasis by climax and restatement (III B), and the rhythm of alternating long and short phrases (IV C). De- velopment by elucidation and contrast (I A i b) . 59 to be imparted to individuals in their respective measures, is the clear, calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things, as far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its place, and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost prophetic from its knowledge of history; it is almost heart-searching from its knowledge of human nature; it has almost supernatural charity from its freedom from littleness and prejudice; it has almost the repose of faith, because nothing can startle it ; it has almost the beauty and harmony of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the eternal order of things and the music of the spheres. NEWMAN (34), University Teaching VI. 26. Coherence by balance (IB 2 c j). Men in Great Place, are thrice Servants: Servants of the Soveraigne or State; Servants of Fame; and Servants of Busi- nesse. So as they have no Freedome; neither in their Persons; nor in their Actions ; nor in their Times. It is a strange desire, to seeke Power, and to lose Libertie; Or to seeke Power over others, and to loose Power over a Mans Selfe. The Rising unto Place is Laborious ; And by Paines Men come to greater Paines ; And it is sometimes base; And by Indignities, Men come to Dignities. The standing is slippery, and the Regresse, is either a downefall, or at least an Eclipse. Nay, retire Men cannot, when they would; neither will they, when it were Reason: But are impatient of privatenesse, even in Age, and Sicknesse, which require the Shadow: Like old Townesmen, that will be still sitting at their Street doore; though thereby they offer Age to Scorne. BACON (6), Of Great Place. 26. Extremely terse (III A), antithetical (III B) style, sustained in its ornateness (III C) by the power of the thought. Austerity of mood (VA), expressed with elegance (V B) in style coupe (IVC). Development by reasons (I A i b: against holding public office), with conjunctions and parallel construction to clarify the coherence (IB 2). Impersonal (III D). Note the expressiveness gained by use of antonyms (II B). 6o 27. Coherence shown by sentence inversion (IB 204). What is important, then, is not that the critic should possess a correct abstract definition of beauty for the intellect, but a certain kind of temperament, the power of being deeply moved by the presence of beautiful objects. He will remember always that beauty exists in many forms. To him all periods, types, schools of taste, are in themselves equal. In all ages there have been some excellent workmen, and some excellent work done. The question he asks is always: In whom did the stir, the genius, the sentiment of the period find itself? where was the receptacle of its refinement, its elevation, its taste? "The ages are all equal," says William Blake, "but genius is always above its age." PATER (44), The Renaissance, Preface. 28. Expressiveness through connotation (II B 3). To those who have looked at Rome with the quickening power of a knowledge which breathes a growing soul into all historic shapes, and traces out the suppressed transition which unites all contrasts, Rome may still be the spiritual center and interpreter of the world. But let them conceive one more historical contrast: the gigantic broken revelations of that Imperial and Papal city thrust abruptly on the notions of a girl who had been brought up in English and Swiss Puritanism, fed on meager Protestant histories and on art chiefly of the hand- screen sort: a girl whose ardent nature turned all her small allowance of knowledge into principles, fusing her actions into their mould, and whose quick emotions gave the most abstract 27. Statement beyond proof (equal) ; but Pater was combatting the other extreme. Certain schools of taste would admit scant virtue in each other (See No. 51). Elegant (V B) and temperate (VA), slow in movement (IV B), abstract in texture (III A) and somewhat obscure (VA). Development by tracing results (I A i b : of this sense of beauty) . 28. Comparison of Rome and Dorothea to reveal interaction (I A i b). Texture complex (III A), allusive (III C) with emphasis from concreteness (III B) . Mood of reflexion (V A) ex- pressed in style periodique (IV C) . The interest is personal (V A) . 6i things the quality of a pleasure or a pain; a girl who had lately become a wife, and from, the enthusiastic acceptance of untried duty found herself plunged in tumultuous preoccupation with her personal lot. The weight of unintelligible Rome might lie easily on bright nymphs to whom it formed a background for the brilliant picnic of Anglo-foreign society; but Dorothea had no such defence against deep impressions. Ruins and basilicas, palaces and collossi, set in the midst of a sordid present, where all that was living and warm-blooded seemed sunk in the deep degeneracy of a superstition divorced from reverence ; the dimmer but yet eager Titanic life gazing and struggling on walls and ceilings; the long vistas of white forms whose marble eyes seemed to hold the monotonous light of an alien world: all this vast wreck of ambitious ideals, sensuous and spiritual, mixed confusedly with the signs of breathing f orgetfulness and degrada- tion, at first jarred her as with an electric shock, and then urged themelves on her with that ache belonging to a glut of confused ideas which check the flow of emotion. Forms both pale and glowing took possession of her young sense, and fixed themselves in her memory even when she was not thinking of them, preparing strange associations which remained through her after-years. Our moods are apt to bring with them images which succeed each other like the magic-lantern pictures of a doze; and in certain states of dull forlornness Dorothea all her life continued to see the vastness of St. Peter's, the huge bronze canopy, the excited intention in the attitudes and garments of the prophets and evangelists in the mosaics above, and the red drapery which was being hung for Christmas spreading itself everywhere like a disease of the retina. GEORGE ELIOT (38), Middlemarch, II, xx. 29. Expressiveness of popular words (II B 3 a). The memorable words of history, and the proverbs of nations, 29. Development by typical examples (I A i b) with sequence from random association (IV A). The expressiveness of popu- lar words is more immediately apparent in a context of learned words, as in No. 32. 62 consist usually of a natural fact, selected as a picture or parable of a moral truth. Thus: A rolling stone gathers no moss; A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush ; A cripple in the right way will beat a racer in the wrong; Make hay while the sun shines; 'Tis hard to carry a full cup even; Vinegar is the son of wine; The last ounce broke the camel's back; Long-lived trees make roots first; and the like. In their primary sense these are trivial facts, but we repeat them for the value of their analogical import; what is true of proverbs is true of all fables, parables, and allegories. EMERSON (35), Language. 30. Diction colored to prejudice adversely (II C 2 c 2). To pass from theological and philosophical truth to the truth of civil business; it will be acknowledged even by those that practice it not, that clear and round dealing is the honor of man's nature, and that mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and silver, which may make the metal work the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked courses are the goings of the serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame as to be found false and perfidious; and therefore Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the reason why the word of the lie should be such a disgrace, and such an odious charge, saith he, "If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is as much as to say that he is brave towards God, and a coward towards man. For a lie faces God, and shrinks from man"; surely the wickedness of falsehood and breach of faith cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal to call the judgments of God upon the generations of men. it being foretold, that, when "Christ cometh," he shall not "find faith upon the earth." BACON (6), Of Truth. 30. Clearness (V A) from alternation of idea words and relation words (III A). Note the transition in the first sentence. The diction is colored to prejudice the reader (II C 3 c). Movement in style coupe. Interest from personal concern (VB). Tenor purposive and deliberate (V A) . 63 31. Conciseness by general words (III A i b). I have passed all my days in London, until I have formed as many and intense local attachments as any of you mountaineers can have done with dead nature. The lighted shops of the Strand and Fleet Street: the innumerable trades, tradesmen and customers; coaches, waggons, playhouses: all the bustle and wickedness round about Covent Garden : l the very women of the Town: the watchmen, drunken scenes, rattles life awake, if you awake, at all hours of the night: the impossibility of being dull in Fleet Street : the crowds, the very dirt and mud, the sun shining upon houses and pavements: the print-shops, the old- book stalls, parsons cheapening 2 books: coffee-houses, steams of soups from kitchens : the pantomimes London itself a panto- mime and a masquerade: all these things work themselves into my mind, and feed me without a power of satiating me. The wonder of these sights impels me into night-walks about her crowded streets, and I often shed tears in the motley Strand from fulness of joy at so much life. LAMB (26), Letter to Wordsworth, Jan. 30, 1801. 32. Conciseness by the abstract (III A i c). Because of this radical correspondence between visible things and human thoughts, savages, who have only what is necessary, converse in figures. As we go back in history, language becomes more picturesque, until its infancy, when it is all poetry; or all spiritual facts are represented by natural symbols. The same symbols are found to make the original elements of all languages. It has moreover been observed, that the idioms of all languages approach each other in passages of the greatest eloquence and power. And as this is the first language, so is it the last. This immediate dependence of language upon nature, this conversion 31. Spontaneous (V A) and natural (III C) with appeal through picturesqueness (VB). Texture concrete (III A) and sequence by random association (IV A) . Development by typical ex- amples (I A i b). Attitude savoring of the sentimental (III D). 32. Expansion by concrete illustration would render the passage clearer and more impressive. 64 of an outward phenomenon into a type of somewhat in human life, never loses its power to affect us. It is this which gives that piquancy to the conversation of a strong-natured farmer or backwoodsman, which all men relish. EMERSON (35), Language. 33. Concreteness (III A i c). The inn was clean and large. The kitchen, with its two box- beds hung with clean check curtains, with its wide stone chimney, its chimney-shelf four yards long and garnished with lanterns and religious statuettes, its array of chests and pair of ticking clocks, was the very model of what a kitchen ought to be; a melodrama kitchen, suitable for bandits or noblemen in disguise. Nor was the scene disgraced by the landlady, a handsome, silent, dark old woman, clothed and hooded in black like a nun. Even the public bedroom had a character of its own, with the long deal tables and benches, where fifty might have dined, set out as for a harvest-home, and the three box-beds along the wall. In one of these, lying on straw and covered with a pair of table- napkins, did I do penance all night long in goose-flesh and chatter- ing teeth, and sigh from time to time as I awakened for my sheepskin sack and the lee of some great wood. STEVENSON (46), Travels with a Donkey. 34. Conciseness by implication (III A 2 b). The aesthetic critic, then, regards all the objects with which he has to do, all works of art, and the fairer forms of nature and human life, as powers or forces producing pleasurable sensations, each of a more or less peculiar or unique kind. This influence he feels, and wishes to explain, analysing it, and reducing it to 33. Observant (V A) with appeal through picturesqueness (V B). Development by fanciful details (I A i b). Informal (III D). 34. Example of slow (IV B) and even (III B) impersonal (III D) elegance (VB). Development by reasons (lAib): why he 'wishes to explain'). Coherence and emphasis by echoing phrases (I B, III B). Notice the objectionable use of pairs and triads. See Vices of Style, p. 118. 65 its elements. To him, the picture, the landscape, the engaging personality in life or in a book, La Gioconda, 1 the hills of Carrara, 2 Pico of Mirandola, 3 are valuable for their virtues, as we say, in speaking of a herb, a wine, a gem; for the property each has of affecting one with a special, a unique, impression of pleasure. Our education becomes complete in proportion as our suscepti- bility to these impressions increases in depth and variety. And the function of the aesthetic critic is to distinguish, analyse, and separate from its adjuncts, the virtue by which a picture, a landscape, a fair personality in life or in a book, produces this special impression of beauty or pleasure, to indicate what the source of that impression is, and under what conditions it is experienced. PATER (44), The Renaissance, Preface. 35. Conciseness through brevity (III A 2 c.) Words out of number, which are now employed only in a figurative sense, did yet originally rest on some fact of the out- ward world, vividly presenting itself to the imagination; which fact the word has incorporated and knit up with itself for ever .... ' to insult ' means properly to leap as on the prostrate body of a foe; 'to affront' to strike him on the face; that 'to succour' means by running to place oneself under one that is falling; 'to relent' (connected with 'lentus') to slacken the swiftness of one's pursuit; 'to reprehend,' to lay hold of one with the inten- tion of forcibly pulling him back; 'to exonerate,' to discharge of a burden, ships being exonerated once; that 'to be examined' means to be weighed. They would be pleased to learn that a man is called 'supercilious,' because haughtiness with contempt for others expresses itself by the raising of the eyebrows or 'supercilium'; that 'subtle' (subtilis for subtexilis) is literally 'fine-spun'; that 'astonished' (attonitus) is properly thunder- struck ; that ' sincere ' is without wax (sine cera) , as the best and finest honey should be; that a 'companion,' probably at least, is 35. Example of many topics not carried into details with re- sulting obscurity (V B). Highly informative (V B). Such pas- sages are to be studied, not read. 66 one with whom we share our bread, a messmate ; that a ' sarcasm ' is properly such a lash inflicted by the ' scourge of the tongue ' as brings away the flesh after it, with much more in the same kind. TRENCH (41), Study of Words (1888), p. 321-2. 36. Details treated spaciously (III A 2 c). One or two examples more of the perishing of the old life in a word, and the birth of a new in its stead, may be added. The old name of Athens, 'AOyvcu, was closely linked with the fact that the goddess Pallas Athene was the guardian deity of the city. The reason of the name, with other facts of the old mythology, faded away from the memory of the peasantry of modern Greece ; but Athens is a name which must still mean something for them. Accordingly it is not 'Afloat now, but 'A.v8rjvai, or the Bloom- ing, on the lips of the peasantry round about; so Mr. Sayce assures us. The same process everywhere meets us. Thus no one who has visited Lucerne can fail to remember the rugged mountain called 'Pilatus' or 'Mont Pilate,' which stands opposite to him; while if he has been among the few who have cared to climb it, he will have been shown by his guide the lake at its summit in which Pontius Pilate in his despair drowned himself, with an assurance that from this suicide of his the mountain obtained its name. Nothing of the kind. 'Mont Pilate' stands for 'Mons PileatusJ 'the capped hill'; the clouds, as one so often sees, gathering round its summit, and forming the shape or appearance of a cap or hat. TRENCH (41), Study of Words (1888), p. 67. 37. Tautology (III A 2 c). What condign graces and thanks ought men to give to the 36. Example of a few headings fully developed with resulting clearness (V B) . Interspersing of short sentences (IV C) . 37. Example of copia verborum, patent despite its complexity (III A) staid (III D), ornate (III C), and Latinized (III E). Deliberate and matter-of-fact (V A), it moves slowly and ponder- ously (IVB&C), yet attracts by its oddity, cogency, and naivete (VB). 6 7 writers of histories, who with their great labours have done so much profit to the human life. They shew, open, manifest and declare to the reader by example of old antiquity, what we should enquire, desire and follow, and also what we should eschew, avoid and utterly fly; for when we (being unexpert of chances) see, behold and read the ancient acts, gests and deeds, how and with what labours, dangers and perils they were gested and done, they right greatly admonished, ensign and teach us how we may lead forth our lives : and farther, he that hath the perfect knowl- edge of others' joy, wealth and high prosperity, and also trouble, sorrow and great adversity, hath the expert doctrine of all perils. And albeit that mortal folk are marvellously separated both by land and water, and right wondrously situate, yet are they and their acts (done peradventure by the space of a thousand year) compact together by the histographier, 1 as it were the deeds of one self city and in one man's life: wherefore I say that history may well be called a divine providence; for as the celestial bodies above complect 2 all and at every time the universal world, the creatures therein contained and all their deeds, semblably so doth history. BERNERS (2), Translation of Froissart, Preface. 38. Diffuseness through repetitiveness (III A 2 c). .... God hath had ever and ever shall have some church visible upon earth. When the people of God worshipped the calfe in the wildernes; when they adored the brasen serpent; when they served the Gods of nations; when they bowed their knees to Baall; when they burnt incense and offered sacrifice unto idoles; true it is, the wrath of God was most fiercelye in- flamed against them, their prophetes justlie condemned them, as an adulterous seede and a wicked generation of miscreantes, which had forsaken the living God, and of him were likewise forsaken, in respect of that singular mercie wherewith he kindlie and lovinglie embrace th his faithful children. Howbeit retein- 38. Austere (V A) and formal (III D) style, with stately move- ment (IVB). Texture ornate (III C). Notice how the words are colored for prejudicial effect (II C 2 c). 68 ing the law of God and the holie seale of his covenant, the sheepe of his visible flocke they continued even in the depth of their disobedience and rebellion. Wherefore not onelie amongst them God alwaies had his church, because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baall; but whose knees were bowed unto Baall, even they were also of the visible church of God.... HOOKER (5), Ecclesiastical Polity, iii. 39. Emphasis by antithesis (III B 2 b). - Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadow ceases to be enjoyed as light. A white canvas cannot produce an effect of sunshine; the painter must darken it in some places before he can make it look luminous in others ; nor can an uninterrupted succession of beauty produce the true effect of beauty; it must be foiled by inferiority before its own power can be developed. Nature has for the most part mingled her inferior and noble elements as she mingles sunshine with shade, giving due use and influence to both, and the painter who chooses to remove the shadow, perishes in the burning desert he has created. The truly high and beautiful art of Angelico l is continually refreshed and strengthened by his frank portraiture of the most ordinary features of his brother monks and of the recorded peculiarities of ungainly sanctity; but the modern German and Raphaelesque schools lose all honor and nobleness in barber-like admiration of handsome faces, and have, in fact, no real faith except in straight noses, and curled hair. Paul Veronese 2 opposes the dwarf to the soldier, and the negress to the queen; Shakespeare places Caliban beside Miranda, and Autolycus beside Perdita; but the vulgar idealist withdraws his beauty to the safety of the saloon, and his innocence to the seclusion of the cloister; he pretends that he does this in delicacy of choice and purity of 39. Allusive texture (III C), and reflex movement (IV A), the development carrying one back again and again to the topic sentence. 6 9 sentiment, while in truth he has neither courage to front the monster, nor wit enough to furnish the knave. RUSKIN (40). 40. Emphasis by challenge (III B 2 c). Take the instance of the painter or the sculptor; he has a conception in his mind which he wishes to represent in the medium of his art ; the Madonna and Child, or Innocence, or Fortitude, or some historical character or event. Do you mean to say he does not study his subject? does he not make sketches? does he not even call them "studies"? does he not call his work- room a studio? is he not ever designing, rejecting, adopting, correcting, perfecting? Are not the first attempts of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle extant, in the case of some of their most celebrated compositions? Will any one say that the Apollo Belvidere is not a conception patiently elaborated into its proper perfection? These departments of taste are, according to the received notions of the world, the very province of genius, and yet we call them arts; they are the " Fine Arts." Why may not that be true of literary composition which is true of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music? Why may not language be wrought as well as the clay of the modeller? why may not words be worked up as well as colours? why should not skill in diction be simply subservient and instrumental to the great prototypal ideas which are the contemplation of a Plato or a Virgil? NEWMAN (34), University Subjects II, Literature 6. 41. Emphasis by echo (III B 3 a). As to the range of UNIVERSITY teaching, certainly the very name of UNIVERSITY is inconsistent with restrictions of any kind. Whatever was the original reason of the adoption of that term,, which is unknown, I am only putting on it its popular, its recog- 40. Emphasis also from short sentences in succession (III B),. i. e. style coupe (IV C). Tenor nervous (V A) and cogent (V B). Development by reasons (I A i b). 41. Repetition overdone to gain cogency (V B). Use of primary sense of a word (II B: university). 70 nized sense, when I say that a UNIVERSITY should teach UNIVER- SAL knowledge. That there is a real necessity for this UNIVERSAL teaching in the highest schools of intellect, I will show by-and-by ; here it is sufficient to say that such UNIVERSALITY is considered by writers on the subject to be the very characteristic of a UNI- VERSITY, as contrasted with other seats of learning. Thus Johnson, in his Dictionary, defines it to be "a school, where all arts and faculties are taught;" and Mosheim, 1 writing as an historian, says that, before the rise of the UNIVERSITY of Paris, for instance, at Padua, or Salamanca, or Cologne, "the whole circle of sciences then known was not taught;" but that the school of Paris, " which exceeded all others in various respects, as well as in the number of teachers and students, was the first to embrace all the arts and sciences, and therefore first became a UNIVERSITY." NEWMAN (34), University Teaching I. 42. Emphasis by concrete detail (III B 4 a). Even with the most selfish disposition, the Vanity-fairian, as he witnesses this sordid part of the obsequies of a departed friend, can't but feel some sympathies and regret. My Lord Dives's remains are in the family vault: the statuaries are cut- ting an inscription veraciously commemorating his virtues, and the sorrows of his heir, who is disposing of his goods. What guest at Dives's table can pass the familiar house without a sigh? the familiar house of which the lights used to shine so cheerfully at seven o'clock, of which the hall doors opened so readily, of which the obsequious servants, as you passed up the comfortable stair, sounded your name from landing to landing, until it reached the apartment where jolly old Dives welcomed his friends! What a number of them he had; and what a noble way of entertaining them. How witty people used to be here who were morose when they got out of the door; and how courteous and friendly men who slandered and hated each 42. Example of the vivacious (III D) and picturesque (V B) of cynical mood (VA). Movement varying (IVB). Expressive from its specific 'words (III A). 7 1 other everywhere else! He was pompous, but with such a cook what would one not swallow? he was rather dull, perhaps, but would not such wine make any conversation pleasant? We must get some of his Burgundy at any price, the mourners cry at his club. "I got this box at old Dives's sale," Pincher says, handing it round, "one of Louis XV.'s mistresses pretty thing, is it not? sweet miniature," and they talk of the way in which young Dives is dissipating his fortune. How changed the house is, though! The front is patched over with bills, setting forth the particulars of the furniture in staring capitals. They have hung a shred of carpet out of an up stairs window a half dozen of porters are lounging on the dirty steps the hall swarms with dingy guests of oriental counte- nance, who thrust printed cards into your hand, and offer to bid. Old women and amateurs have invaded the upper apartments, pinching the bed-curtains, poking into the feathers, shampooing the mattresses, and clapping the wardrobe drawers to and fro. Enterprising young housekeepers are measuring the looking- glasses and hangings to see if they will suit the new menage (Snob will brag for years that he has purchased this or that at Dives's sale), and Mr. Hammerdown is sitting on the great mahogany dining- tables, in the dining-room below, waving the ivory hammer, and employing all the artifices of eloquence, enthusiasm, entreaty, reason, despair; shouting to his people; satirizing Mr. Davids for his sluggishness; inspiriting Mrs. Moss into action; imploring, commanding, bellowing, until down comes the hammer like fate, and we pass to the next lot. O Dives, who would ever have thought, as we sat round the broad table sparkling with plate and spotless linen, to have seen such a dish at the head of it as that roaring auctioneer? THACKERAY (37), Vanity Fair, Chap. XVII. 43. Emphasis by hyperbole (III B 4 b). I protest to you, Gentlemen, that if I had to choose between a so-called University, which dispensed with residence and tutorial 43. Spontaneity and heat (V A) expressed in style periodique (IV C), and interesting from novelty and oddity (V B). 72 superintendence, and gave its degrees to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of subjects, and a University which had no professors and examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young men together for three or four years, and then sent them away as the University of Oxford is said to have done some sixty years since, if I were asked which of these two methods was the better discipline of the intellect, mind I do not say which is morally the better, for it is plain that com- pulsory study must be a good and idleness an intolerable mis- chief, but if I must determine which of the two courses was the more successful in training, moulding, enlarging the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the world, men whose names would descend to posterity, I have no hesitation in giving the preference to that University which did nothing over that which exacted of its members an acquaintance with every science under the sun. NEWMAN (34), Idea of a University. 44. Emphasis by irony (III B 4 c). " Indeed, sir," replied my companion, "you are very little acquainted with the English ladies, to think they are old maids against their will. I dare venture to affirm, that you can hardly select one of them all but has had frequent offers of marriage, which either pride or avarice has not made her reject. Instead of thinking it a disgrace, they take every occasion to boast of their former cruelty ; a soldier does not exult more when he counts over the wounds he has received, than a female veteran when she relates the wounds she has formerly given : exhaustless when she begins a narrative of the former death-dealing power of her eyes. She tells of the knight in gold lace, who died with a single frown, and never rose again till he was married to his maid ; of the squire, who being cruelly denied, in a rage flew to the window, and lifting up the sash, threw himself in an agony into his arm chair; of the parson who, crossed in love, resolutely swal- 44. Emphasis also by anticlimax (III B: see the dashes). Appealing by its humor (V B). 73 lowed opium, which banished the stings of despised love by making him sleep. In short, she talks over her former losses with pleasure, and, like some tradesmen, finds some consolation in the many bankruptcies she has suffered. GOLDSMITH (19), Old Maids and Bachelors. 45. Ornateness (III C 2). For as the Bee that gathereth Honny out of the weede, when she espyeth the faire flower flyeth to the sweetest: or as the kynde spanyell though he hunt after Byrdes, yet forsakes them to retryue the Partridge: or as we commonly feede on beefe hungerly at the first, yet seing the Quayle more dayntie, chaunge our dyet : So I, although I loved Philautus for his good properties, yet seing Euphues to excell him, I ought by nature to lyke him better: By so muche the more therefore my change is to be ex- cused, by how much the more my choyce is excellent: and by so much the lesse I am to be condemned, by how much the more Euphues is to be commended. Is not the Dyamonde of more valewe then the Rubie, because he is of more vertue? Is not the Emeraulde preferred before the Saphyre for his wonderfull propertie? Is not Euphues more prayse worthy then Philautus being more wittie? LYLY (3),^ Euphues (Feuillerat) I, 206. 46. Natural (III C 2).- I believe I can tell the particular little chance which filled my head first with such chimes of verse as have never since left ringing there: for I remember when I began to read, and take some pleasure in it, there was wont to lie in my mother's parlour (I know not by what accident, for she herself never in her life 45. Notice the similes, alliteration, balance (IB 2), and rhetorical questions (III B) all without compelling reason from the thought. Example of trumpery (V A) interesting through oddity (VB). 46. Apparent naivete and grace (VB), of casual tenor (V A) and informality (III D). Development by sequence of events (I A i b). Compare Precept XXXV. 74 read any book but of devotion); but there was wont to lie Spenser's works; this I happened to fall upon, and was infinitely delighted with the stories of the knights, and giants, and monsters, and brave houses, which I found everywhere there (though my understanding had little to do with all this), and by degrees, with the tinkling of the rhyme, and dance of the numbers; so that I think I had read him all over before I was twelve years old, and was thus made a poet. COWLEY (12). 47. Figurative texture (III 03). It is true that if philosophers have suffered, their cause has been amply avenged. Extinguished theologians lie about the cradle of every science as the strangled snakes beside that of Hercules; and history records that whenever science and ortho- doxy have been fairly opposed, the latter has been forced to retire from the lists, bleeding and crushed, if not annihilated; scotched, if not slain. But orthodoxy is the Bourbon l of the world of thought. It learns not, neither can it forget; and though at present bewildered and afraid to move, it is as willing as ever to insist that the first chapter of Genesis contains the beginning and the end of sound science, and to visit with such petty thunderbolts as its half -paralyzed hands can hurl, those who refuse to degrade nature to the level of primitive Judaism. HUXLEY (42), Darwin on the Origin of Species. 48. Staid (III D i).- Of all difficulties which impede the progress of thought, and the formation of well-grounded opinions on life and social ar- rangements, the greatest is now the unspeakable ignorance and inattention of mankind in respect to the influences which 47. Elevation (V B) by forcing concrete imagery (III B) and colors of evil (II C 2 c). Development by pro and con (I A i b). 48. Development by citing specific instances (lAib), with coherence shown in parallel construction (I B 2) and emphasis by periodic sentences (IIIB: because). Fairly cogent (VB). Use of general words (III A). 75 form human character. Whatever any portion of the human species now are, or seem to be, such, it is supposed, they have a natural tendency to be: even when the most elementary knowl- edge of the circumstances in which they have been placed clearly points out the causes that made them what they are. Because a cotter deeply in arrears to his landlord is not industrious, there are people who think that the Irish are naturally idle. Because constitutions can be overthrown when the authorities appointed to execute them turn their arms against them, there are people who think the French incapable of free government. Because the Greeks cheated the Turks, and the Turks only plundered the Greeks, there are persons who think that the Turks are naturally more sincere: and because women, as is often said, care nothing about politics except their personalities, it is supposed that the general good is naturally less interesting to women than to men. History, which is now so much better understood than formerly, teaches another lesson: if only by showing the extraordinary susceptibility of human nature to external influences, and the extreme variableness of those of its manifestations which are supposed to be most universal and uniform. But in history, as in traveling, men usually see only what they already have in their own minds ; and few learn much from history who do not bring much with them to its study. MILL (33), The Subjection of Women. 49. Vivacity (III D i). But if fie of such a but ! you be born so near the dull- making cataract of Nilus, 1 that you cannot hear the planet-like 2 music of- poetry ; if you have so earth-creeping a mind that it cannot lift itself up to look to the sky of poetry, or rather, by a 49. Example of grace and wit (V B), gay in tenor (V A) and tripping in movement (IV C). Clearly written and nervous (VA). Development by provisos (I A i b) and coherence by conjunctions (IB 2). Texture allusive (III C), emphasis by periodic sentences (III B). Sequence of suspense by curiosity (IV A) . Notice that the idea words are well separated by re- lation words (III A). 7 6 certain rustical disdain, will become such a mome as to be a Momus 3 of poetry; then, though I will not wish unto you the ass's ears of Midas, 4 nor to be driven by a poet's verses, as Bubonax 5 was, to hang himself; nor to be rimed to death, as is said to be done in Ireland; yet thus much curse I must send you in behalf of all poets: that while you live you live in love, and never get favor for lacking skill of a sonnet, and when you die, your memory die from the earth for want of an epitaph. SIDNEY (4), The Defense of Poesy. 50. Informality (III D 2). .... I am sorry that Coleridge has christened his ' Ancient Marinere ' ' a Poet's Reverie ' ; it is as bad as Bottom the Weaver's declaration that he is not a lion, but only the scenical representa- tion of a lion. What new idea is gained by this title but one subversive of all credit which the tale should force upon us, of its truth? For me, I was never so affected with any human tale. After first reading it, I was totally possessed with it for many days. I dislike all the miraculous part of it, but the feelings of the man under the operation of such scenery dragged me along like Tom Piper's l magic whistle. I totally differ from your idea that the 'Marinere' should have had a character and profession. This is a beauty in 'Gulliver's Travels,' where the mind is kept in a placid state of little wonderments ; but the ' Ancient Marinere ' undergoes such trials as overwhelm and bury all individuality or memory of what he was like the state of a man in a bad dream, one terrible peculiarity of which is, that all consciousness of personality is gone. Your other observation is, I think as well, a little unfounded: the 'Marinere,' from being conversant in supernatural events, has acquired a supernatural and strange cast of phrase, eye, appearance, &c., which frighten the 'wedding- guest.' LAMB (26), Letter to Wordsworth [November, 1800?] 50. Casual (V A) and outspoken (III D) with sequence of ran- dom association (IV A). Interesting information (VB). Ex- ample of penetration (V A) . 77 51. Generalized personality (III D 2). The highest taste is shown in habitual sensibility to the greatest beauties; the most general taste is shown in a perception of the greatest variety of excellence. Many people admire Milton, and as many admire Pope, while there are but few who have any relish for both. Almost all the disputes on this subject arise, not so much from false as from confined taste. We suppose that only one thing can have merit; and that, if we allow it to anything else, we deprive the favourite object of our critical faith of the honours due to it. We are generally right in what we approve ourselves, for liking proceeds from a certain con- formity of objects to the taste; as we are generally wrong in condemning what others admire, for our dislike mostly proceeds from a want of taste for what pleases them. Our being totally senseless to what excites extreme delight in those who have as good a right to judge as we have, in all human probability, implies a defect of faculty in us rather than a limitation in the resources of nature or art. Those who are pleased with the fewest things, know the least; as those who are pleased with everything, know nothing. HAZLITT (27), Of Taste. 52. Outspoken (III D 4). For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly ; to come down off this feather- bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that 51. Use of we to include readers and author, not as in editorial writing to imply staff unity. The latter is formal. Develop- ment by contrast (I A i b) with emphasis by antithesis (III B). Texture abstract (III A). Interest from personal concern (VB). 52. Fanciful (V A) and interesting by oddity (VB). In mood congenial (HID) and optimistic (VA). Texture natural (III C), concrete and patent (III A). Movement tripping (IV C). 78 must be worked for. To hold a pack upon a packsaddle against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry, but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting, who can annoy himself about the future? STEVENSON (46), Travels with a Donkey. 53. Semitic texture (III E i c). How was he honoured in the midst of the people, in his coming out of the sanctuary! He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full; as the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and as the rainbow giving light in the bright clouds : and as the flower of roses in the spring of the year, as lilies by the rivers of waters, and as the frankincense tree in summer ; as fire and incense in the censer, and as a vessel of gold set with precious stones; as a fair olive tree budding forth fruit, and as a cypress which groweth up to the clouds. When he put on the robe of honour, and was clothed with the perfection of glory, when he went up to the holy altar, he made the garment of holiness honourable. He himself stood by the hearth of the altar, compassed with his brethren round about; as a young cedar in Libanus, and as palm trees compassed they him about. WISDOM OF THE SON OF SIRACH (translation). 54. Pedantry (III E 3 b). I did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, 1 and satirically tax with Menippus, 2 lament with Heraclitus, 3 sometimes again I was petulanti splene chachinno* and then again, urere bilisjecur, 5 1 was much moved to see that abuse which I could not mend. In 53. Notice the similes from the heavens, scents, trees and flowers as well as the religious atmosphere (III C). Quoted by Burke as a specimen of magnificence (V B). Texture concrete (III A); movement even (IV B). The word compassed exemplifies har- monious diction (II C). 54. Of ponderous movement (IV C), fanciful (V A) and interest- ing by oddity (V B). Allusive finish (III C), attitude disen- gaged (III D). 79 which passion howsoever I may sympathize with him or them, 'tis for no such respect I shroud myself under his name; but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason and only respect which Hippocrates 6 relates at large in his epistle to Damegetus, wherein he doth express, how coming to visit him one day, he found Democritus 7 in his garden at Abdera, 8 in the suburbs, under a shady bower, with a book on his knees, busy at his study, sometimes writing, sometimes walking. The subject of his book was melancholy and madness ; about him lay the car- cases of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and anato- mised; not that he did contemn God's creatures, as he told Hippocrates, but to find out the seat of this atra bilis? or melan- choly, whence it proceeds, and how it was engendered in men's bodies, to the intent he might better cure it in himself, and by his writings and observation teach others how to prevent and avoid it. Which good intent of his, Hippocrates highly commended: Democritus Junior is therefore bold to imitate, and because he left it imperfect, and it is now lost, quasi succenturiator 10 Democriti, to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this treatise. BURTON (8), Anatomy of Melancholy, from Democritus to the Reader. 55. Jocosity (HIE 5 a). President Hadley's "less obvious, but more fundamental" objection to the suggestion of an additional college at Yale is, we fear, reactionary. "We want," he asserts, "a more intellec- tual atmosphere among the students as an immediate essential for making Yale what it should be." And again: "We are not offered anything" in the new plan "that will give intellectual stimulus." It will strike persons of progressive leanings that President 'Hadley is a bit fond of the word "intellectual." Even a university, of course, will not be injured beyond repair by a modicum of intellectuality. Some of our colleges, perhaps 55. Example of facetious (V A) wit (VB). Texture abstract (III A) with emphasis from echo and irony (III B). Movement jerky (IV C). Development by pro and con (I A i b). 8o might be able to stand more of this element. But upon the attitude of others, we fear, President Hadley's " intellectual stimulus " would have very much the effect of the introduction of a foreign substance in the eye. There is one standpoint from which his policy is defensible. We have too little respect for relics in this country. Progress means with us, not only pro- ceeding, but also obliterating the past as we proceed. For the sake of the museums of the future, any university with an " intellectual atmosphere" ought to be preserved. Of course, if it can be preserved alive, as President Hadley is so hopeful as to think, by all means let this be done. N. Y. Nation, 10 Dec. 1915, p. 678. 56. Humor by discord of subject and tone (III E 5 a). This single stick, which you now behold ingloriously lying in that neglected corner, I once knew in a nourishing state in a forest; it was full of sap, full of leaves, and full of boughs; but now in vain does the busy art of man pretend to vie with nature, by tying that withered bundle of twigs to its sapless trunk; it is now at best but the reverse of what it was, a tree turned upside down, the branches on the earth, and the root in the air ; it is now handled by every dirty wench, condemned to do her drudgery, and, by a capricious kind of fate, destined to make her things clean, and be nasty itself; at length, worn out to the stumps in the service of the maids, it is either thrown out of doors, or con- demned to the last use of kindling a fire. When I beheld this, I sighed, and said within myself : Surely mortal man is a broom- stick! nature sent him into the world strong and lusty, in a thriving condition, wearing his own hair on his head, the proper branches of this reasoning vegetable, until the axe of temperance has lopped off his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk; he then flies to art, and puts on a periwig, valuing himself upon an unnatural bundle of hairs, all covered with powder, that never 56. Example of mock heroic humor (V B) with ironical assump- tion of emotion (III D). Development by tracing similarity (I A i b). Texture concrete (III A). Diction of popular words (II B). 8i grew on his head; but now should this our broomstick pretend to enter the scene, proud of those birchen spoils it never bore, and all covered with dust, though the sweepings of the finest lady's chamber, we should be apt to ridicule and despise its vanity. Partial judges that we are of our own excellences, and other men's defaults! SWIFT (13), Meditation upon a Broomstick. 57. Low style (III E 5 c). Ascending the hill are two couples of a different description, Daniel Tubb and his fair Valentine, walking boldly along like licensed lovers; they have been asked twice in church, and are to be married on Tuesday; and closely following that happy pair, near each other but not together, come Jem Tanner and Mabel Green, the poor culprits of the wheat-hoeing. Ah! the little clerk hath not relented ! The course of true love doth not yet run smooth in that quarter. Jem dodges along, whistling " Cherry- ripe," pretending to walk by himself, and to be thinking of no- body; but every now and then he pauses in his negligent saunter, and turns round outright to steal a glance at Mabel, who, on her part, is making believe to walk with poor Olive Hathaway, the lame mantua-maker, and even affecting to talk and to listen to that gentle, humble creature, as she points to the wild flowers on the common, and the lambs and children disporting amongst the gorse, but whose thought and eyes are evidently fixed on Jem Tanner, as she meets his backward glance with a blushing smile, and half springs forward to meet him: whilst Olive has broken off the conversation as soon as she perceived the pre- occupation of her companion, and begun humming, perhaps un- consciously, two or three lines of Burns, whose "Whistle and I'll come to ye, my lad," and "Gi'e me a glance of thy bonny black e'e," were never better exemplified than in the couple before her. MITFORD (30), Our Village, "Whitsun Eve." 57. Observation (V A) appealing by humor and picturesqueness (V B). Texture concrete (III A) and natural (III C). Moder- ate rate of movement (IV B). Low is not used in the sense of vulgar. See SUGGESTIONS, No. 30. 82 58. Sequence by progressive repetition (IV A i b) . The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. He who works for sweetness and light, works to make reason and the will of God prevail. He who works for machinery, he who works for hatred, works only for confusion. Culture looks beyond machinery, culture hates hatred; culture has one great passion, the passion for sweetness and light. It has one even yet greater! the passion for making them prevail. It is not satisfied till we all come to a perfect man ; it knows that the sweetness and light of few must be imperfect until the raw and unkindled masses of humanity are touched with sweetness and light. If I have not shrunk from saying that we must work for sweetness and light, so neither have I shrunk from saying that we must have a broad basis, must have sweetness and light for as many as possible. Again and again I have insisted how those are the happy moments of humanity, how those are the marking epochs of a people's life, how those are the flowering times for literature and art and all the creative power of genius, when there is a national glow of life and thought, when the whole of society is in the fullest measure permeated by thought, sensible to beauty, intelligent and alive. Only it must be real thought and real beauty; real sweetness and real light. . . . ARNOLD (43), Sweetness and Light. 59. Stateliness (IV Bi). Concerning faith the principall object whereof is that eternall veritie which hath discovered the treasures of hidden wisedome 58. Purposive and deliberate in tenor (V A) with cogent effect (V B). Attitude earnest (III D) and sequence of logical coher- ence (IV A). Movement even (IV B); texture highly ornate (III C) from repetition (III B) and parallel construction (III B, I B 2). Repetitious (III A). Diction of colors of good (II C 2. Example of the mean (medium) style (III E 5). 59. Example of purposive and grave austerity (V A), approach- ing sublimity (VB). Texture abstract (1 1 1 A), sequence of suspense by curiosity (IV A) in style periodique (IV C, III B). Example of the high style (III E 5). Notice that minor punctu- ation is omitted to reserve marks for the major divisions. 83 in Christ; concerning hope the highest object whereof is that everlasting goodnes which in Christ doth quicken the dead; concerning charitie the finall object whereof is that incompre- hensible bewtie which shineth in the countenance of Christ the sonne of the living God; concerning these three virtues, the first of which beginning here with a weake apprehension of things not sene, endeth with the intuitive vision of God in the world to come; the second beginning here with a trembling expectation of things far removed and as yet but onely heard of, endeth with reall and actuall fruition of that which no tongue can expresse; the third beginning here with a weake inclynation of heart towardes him unto whom wee are not able to aproch, endeth with endlesse union, the misterie whereof is higher then the reach of the thoughts of men; concerning that faith hope and charitie without which there can be no salvation ; was there ever any mention made saving only in that lawe which God him selfe hath from heaven revealed. HOOKER (5), Ecclesiastical Polity, I, n. 60. Varying movement (IV b 2). The wild fellow in Petronius, 1 that escaped upon a broken table from the furies of a shipwreck, as he was sunning himself upon the rocky shore, espied a man rolled upon his floating bed of waves, ballasted with sand in the folds of his garment, and carried by his civil enemy, the sea, towards the shore to find a grave. And it cast him into some sad thoughts, that peradventure this man's wife, in some part of the continent, safe and warm, looks next month for the good man's return; or, it may be, his son knows nothing of the tempest; or his father thinks of that affectionate kiss which still is warm upon the good old man's cheek, ever since he took a kind farewell, and he weeps with joy to think how blessed he shall be when his beloved boy returns into the circle of his father's arms. These are the thoughts of 60. Example of sublimity (V B) appealing by its pathos and interesting by its mystery (V B). Texture detailed and patent (III A) with emphasis from concreteness (III A & B). Rhythm of varied short and long phrasing (IV C) . 8 4 mortals; this is the end and sum. of all their designs. A dark night and an ill guide, a boisterous sea and a broken cable, a hard rock and a rough wind, dashed in pieces the fortune of a whole family; and they that shall weep loudest for the accident are not yet entered into the storm, and yet have suffered ship- wreck. Then, looking upon the carcass, he knew it, and found it to be the master of the ship, who, the day before, cast up the accounts of his patrimony and his trade, and named the day when he thought to be at home. See how the man swims, who was so angry two days since! His passions are becalmed with the storm, his accounts cast up, his cares at an end, his voyage done, and his gains are the strange events of death, which, whether they be good or evil, the men that are alive seldom trouble themselves concerning the interest of the dead. JEREMY TAYLOR (n), On Death. 61. Steadiness (IV B 2). Truth indeed came once into the world with her divine master, and was a perfect shape most glorious to look on: but when he ascended, and his apostles after him were laid asleep, then straight arose a wicked race of deceivers, who, as that story goes of the Egyptian Typhon l with his conspirators, how they dealt with the good Osiris, 2 took the virgin Truth, hewed her lovely form into a thousand pieces, and scattered them to the four winds. From that time ever since, the sad friends of Truth, such as durst appear, imitating the careful search that Isis 3 made for the man- gled body of Osiris, went up and down gathering up limb by limb still as they could find them. We have not yet found them all, lords and commons, nor ever shall do, till her master's second coming; he shall bring together every joint and member, and 61. Tenor of deliberateness, ideality, and austerity (V A), rising to the sublime and both appealing by its cadence and interesting by its mystery (VB). Texture allusive (III C) and attitude formal (HID). Movement heavy (IV C) with sequence of suspense by curiosity (IV A). Ornate (III C) and somewhat obscure in texture (V A). 85 shall mould them into an immortal feature of loveliness and perfection. MILTON (10), Areopagitica. 62. Movement varying gradually (IV B 3). Let us consider, too, how differently young and old are affected by the words of some classic author, such as Homer or Horace. Passages, which to a boy are but rhetorical common- places, neither better nor worse than a hundred others which any clever writer might supply, which he gets by heart and thinks very fine, and imitates, as he thinks, successfully, in his own flowing versification, at length comes home to him, when long years have passed, and he has had experience of life, and pierce him, as if he had never before known them, with their sad earnest- ness and vivid exactness. Then he comes to understand how it is that lines, the birth of some chance morning or evening at an Ionian festival, or among the Sabine hills, have lasted generation after generation, for thousands of years, with a power over the mind, and a charm, which the current literature of his own day, with all its obvious advantages, is utterly unable to rival. Per- haps this is the reason of the medieval opinion about Virgil, as if a prophet or magician; his single words and phrases, his pathetic half lines, giving utterance, as the voice of Nature herself, to that pain and weariness, yet hope of better things, which is the experience of her children in every time. NEWMAN (34), Grammar of Assent. 63. Style coupe (IV ci). Sombrius is one of these men of sorrow. He thinks himself obliged in duty to be sad and disconsolate. He looks on a 62. Of penetrating, sensuous tenor (VA), pleasing by its ele- gance and cadence as well as by personal concern (V B). Style periodique (IV C), with emphasis by pauses after phrases (III B). 63. Example of temperate (V A) and elegant wit, appealing by its grace and good humor (VB). Attitude demure (HID). Movement abrupt (IV B) and sequence of suspense by mild curiosity (IV A). 86 sudden fit of laughter as a breach of his baptismal vow. An innocent jest startles him like blasphemy. Tell him of one who is advanced to a title of honour, he lifts up his hands and eyes; describe a public ceremony, he shakes his head; show him a gay equipage, he blesses himself. All the little ornaments of life are pomps and vanities. Mirth is wanton, and wit profane. He is scandalized at youth for being lively, and at childhood for being playful. He sits at a christening, or a marriage-feast as at a funeral; sighs at the conclusion of a merry story, and grows devout when the rest of the company grow pleasant. After all, Sombrius is a religious man, and would have behaved himself very properly had he lived when Christianity was under a general persecution. ADDISON (14), Spectator, No. 494. 64. Style periodique (IV c 2). In the edifice of Man there should be found reverent worship and following, not only of the spirit which rounds the pillars of the forest, and arches the vault of the avenue which gives veining to the leaf and polish to the shell, and grace to every pulse that agitates animal organization but of that also which reproves the pillars of the earth, and builds up her barren preci- pices into the coldness of the clouds, and lifts her shadowy cones of mountain purple into the pale arch of the sky; for these, and other glories more than these, refuse not to connect themselves, in his thoughts, with the work of his own hand; the gray cliff loses not its nobleness when it reminds us of some Cyclopean waste of mural stone; the pinnacles of the rocky promontory arrange themselves, undegraded, into fantastic semblances of fortress towers, and even the awful cone of the far-off mountain has a melancholy mixed with that of its own solitude, which is cast from the images of nameless tumuli on white sea-shores, 64. Example of high style (III E 5). Ideality and elan in tenor (V A) resulting in sublimity, picturesqueness, and beauty of cadence (V B). Texture highly ornate (III C), and complex but concrete .(III A). 87 and of the heaps of reedy clay, into which chambered cities melt in their mortality. RUSKIN (40). 65. Jerky movement (IV 64). As a matter of fact we find ourselves believing, we hardly know how or why. Mr. Balfour gives the name of "authority" to all those influences, born of the intellectual climate, that make hypotheses possible or impossible for us, alive or dead. Here in this room, we all of us believe in molecules and the con- servation of energy, in democracy and necessary progress, in Protestant Christianity and the duty of fighting for "the doctrine of the immortal Munroe," all for no reasons worthy of the name. We see into these matters with no more inner clearness, and probably with much less, than any disbeliever in them might possess. His unconventionality would probably have some grounds to show for its conclusions; but for us, not insight, but the prestige of the opinions, is what makes the spark shoot from them and light up our sleeping magazines of faith. Our reason is quite satisfied, in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every thousand of us, if it can find a few arguments that will do to recite in case our credulity is criticized by some one else. Our faith is faith in some one else's faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case. Our belief in truth itself, for instance, that there is a truth, and that our minds and it are made for each other, what is it but a passionate affirmation of desire, in which our social system backs us up? We want to have a truth; we want to believe that our experiments and studies and dis- cussions must put us in a continually better and better position towards it; and on this line we agree to fight out our thinking lives. But if a pyrrhonistic skeptic asks us how we know all this, can our logic find a reply? No! certainly it cannot. It is just one volition against another, we are willing to go in for life 65. Example of direct (III C) and outspoken (III D) sincerity (VA), matter-of-fact in tenor (V A), interesting through per- sonal concern and gaining esteem by cogency (V B). The pro- noun represents a generalized personality. 88 upon a trust or assumption which he, for his part, does not care to make. JAMES (47), The Will to Believe. 66. Alternation of long and short (IV C 3). Had a stranger, at this time, gone into the province of Oude, 1 ignorant of what had happened since the death of Sujah Dowla, that man, who, with a savage heart, had still great lines of character, and who, with all his ferocity in war, had still, with a cultivating hand, preserved to his country the riches which it derived from benignant skies and a prolific soil if this stranger, ignorant of all that had happened in the short interval, and observing the wide and general devastation, and all the horrors of the scene of plains unclothed and brown of vegetables burned up and extinguished of villages depopulated, and in ruins of temples unroofed and perishing of reservoirs broken down and dry, he would naturally inquire what war has thus laid waste the fertile fields of this once beautiful and opulent country what civil dissensions have happened, thus to tear asunder and separate the happy societies that once possessed those villages what disputed succession, what religious rage has, with unholy violence, demolished those temples, and dis- turbed fervent, but unobtruding piety, in the exercise of its duties? What merciless enemy has thus spread the horrors of fire and sword what severe visitation of Providence has dried up the fountain, and taken from the face of the earth every vestige of verdure? Or, rather, what monsters have stalked over the country, tainting and poisoning, with pestiferous breath, what the voracious appetite could not devour? to such questions, what must be the answer? No wars have ravaged these lands, and depopulated these villages no civil discords have been felt no disputed succession no religious rage no merciless enemy no affliction of Providence, which, while it scourged 66. Example of oratorical climax with further emphasis from concreteness, irony, and challenge (III B). Finish ornate (IIIC) and attitude emotional (HID). Tenor marked by elan, with appeal by pathos and effect of cogency (V B). 8 9 for the moment, cut off the sources of resuscitation no vora- cious and poisoning monsters no, all this has been accomplished by the friendship, generosity and kindness of the English nation. SHERIDAN (22), Speech against Hastings. 67. Reflexion (V A i a 2] . You are, my Lord, 1 but just entering into the world; I am going out of it. I have played long enough to be heartily tired of the drama. Whether I have acted my part in it well or ill, posterity will judge with more candour than I, or than the present age, with our present passions, can possibly pretend to. For my part, I quit it without a sigh, and submit to the sovereign order without murmuring. The nearer we approach to the goal of life, the better we begin to understand the true value of our existence, and the real weight of our opinions. We set out much in love with both; but we leave much behind us as we advance. We first throw away the tales along with the rattles of our nurses; those of the priest keep their hold a little longer; those of our governors the longest of all. But the passions which prop these opinions are withdrawn one after another; and the cool light of reason, at the setting of our life, shows us what a false splendour played upon these objects during our more sanguine seasons. Happy, my Lord, if, instructed by my experience, and even by my errors, you come early to make such an estimate of things, as may give freedom and ease to your life. I am happy that such an estimate promises me comfort at my death. BURKE (20), A Vindication of Natural Society. 68. Penetration (V A i b i). The presence [Mona Lisa] l that thus rose so strangely beside 67. Grave and sincere in tenor (V A) with the interest of personal concern as well as sublimity and pathos (V B). In movement slow (IV B); in texture direct (III C) and outspoken (III D). 68. Deliberateness and sensuousness in tenor (V A), fascinating by its mystery, appealing by its elegant picturesqueness, grace and cadence (V B). Finish highly ornate and allusive (III C). Expressive in its specific words (III A) and aesthetic connota- tion (II B). go the waters, is expressive of what in the ways of a thousand years men had come to desire. Hers is the head upon which "the ends of the world are come," and the eyelids are a little weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. Set it' for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity, and how would they be troubled by this beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies has passed! All the thoughts and experience of the world have etched and moulded there, in that which they have of power to refine and make expressive the outward form, the animalism of Greece, the lust of Rome, the reverie of the middle age with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves, the return of the Pagan world, the sins of the Borgias. She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas, and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for strange webs with Eastern merchants: and, as Leda, was the mother of Helen of Troy, and, as Saint Anne, the mother of Mary; and all this has been to her but as the sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments, and tinged the eyelid and the hands. The fancy of a perpetual life, sweeping together ten thousand experiences, is an old one; and modern thought has conceived the idea of humanity as wrought upon by, and summing up in itself, all modes of thought and life. PATER (44), The Renaissance, " Leonardo da Vinci." 69. Observation (V A i b 2). As there is a moving tone of voice, an impassioned countenance ,. an agitated gesture, which affect independently of the things about which they are exerted, so there are words, and certain dispositions of words, which being peculiarly devoted to passion- ate subjects, and always used by those who are under the in- fluence of any passion, touch and move us more than those which 69. Interest from being informative (VB). Attitude imper- sonal (III D). Excessive use of pairs (see Vices of Style, p. 118). 9 1 far more clearly and distinctly express the subject matter. We yield to sympathy what we refuse to description. The truth is, all verbal description, merely as naked description, though never so exact, conveys so poor and insufficient an idea of the thing described, that it could scarcely have the smallest effect, if the speaker did not call in to his aid those modes of speech that mark a strong and lively feeling in himself. Then, by the contagion of our passions, we catch a fire already kindled in another, which probably might never have been struck out by the object de- scribed. Words, by strongly conveying the passions, by those means which we have already mentioned, fully compensate for their weakness in other respects. It may be observed, that very polished languages, and such as are praised for their superior clearness and perspicuity, are generally deficient in strength. The French language has that perfection and that defect, whereas- the Oriental tongues, and in general the languages of most unpolished people, have a great force and energy of expression; and this is but natural. Uncultivated people are but ordinary observers of things, and not critical in distinguishing them; but,, for that reason, they admire more, and are more affected with what they see, and therefore express themselves in a warmer and more passionate manner. BURKE (20), On the Sublime and the Beautiful. 70. Deliberateness (VAiC3). I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero; others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the library of Alexandria: for my own part, I think there be too many in the world; and could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Vatican, could I, with a few others, recover the perished leaves of Solomon. I would not omit a copy of Enoch's pillars, 1 had they many nearer authors than Josephus, 2 or did not 70. Of fanciful tenor (V A), captivating by its humor and oddity (V B). Texture allusive (III C) and pedantic (III E). Move- ment ponderous (IV C) . It is interesting to compare the ponder- ous and Latinized styles of Browne and Johnson, noting in the latter the clarifying effect of the style of Addison. 92 relish somewhat of the fable. Some men have written more than others have spoken. Pineda 3 quotes more authors, in one work, than are necessary in a whole world. Of those three great inventions in Germany, there are two which are not without their incommodities. 'Tis not a melancholy utinam of my own, but the desires of better heads, that there were a general synod not to unite the incompatible difference of religion, but, for the benefit of learning, to reduce it, as it lay at first, in a few and solid authors; and to condemn to the fire those swarms and millions of rhapsodies, begotten only to distract and abuse the weaker judgments of scholars, and to maintain the trade and mystery of typographers. BROWNE (9), Religio Medici, xxiv. 71. Perplexity (Via 2). Stage plays also carried me away, full of images of my miseries, and of tinder for my flame. Why is it that man desires to be there made sad, beholding grievous and tragical things, which yet himself would by no means suffer? yet he desires as a spectator to feel grief at them, and this very grief is his pleasure. What is this but a miserable madness? for a man is the more affected with these actions, the less free he is from such affections. How- soever, when he suffers in his own person, it uses to be styled misery; when from sympathy with others, then it is pity. But what sort of pity is this for the shams and shadows of the stage? for the auditor is not moved to succour, but only asked to grieve; and he applauds the actor of these fictions the more, the more he grieves. And if those human misfortunes, whether they be his- tories of olden times, or mere fictions, be so acted, that the spec- tator is not moved to grief, he goes away disdainful and censorious ; but if he be moved to grief, he stays intent, and enjoys the tears he sheds. ST. AUGUSTINE, Confessions, III, ii (translation). 71. Of varied appeal from its oddity, grace, elegance, and naivete (VB). Sincere and sensuous in tenor (VA2). Augustine's style is noted in Latin of the later empire for its exquisite polish, balance, and finesse. 93 72. Matter-of-fact-ness (V A i d j). Though Good-humour, Sense and Discretion can seldom fail to make a Man agreeable, it may be no ill Policy sometimes to prepare your self in a particular manner for Conversation, by looking a little farther than your Neighbours into whatever is become a reigning Subject. If our Armies are besieging a Place of Importance abroad, or our House of Commons debating a Bill of Consequence at home, you can hardly fail of being heard with Pleasure, if you have nicely informed your self of the Strength, Situation, and History of the first, or of the Reasons for and against the latter. It will have the same Effect if when any single Person begins to make a Noise in the World, you can learn some of the smallest accidents in his Life or Conversation, which though they are too fine for the Observation of the Vulgar, give more Satisfaction to Men of Sense (as they are the best Openings to a real Character) than the Recital of his most glaring Actions. I know but one ill Consequence to be feared from this Method, namely, that coming full charged into Company, you should resolve to unload whether an handsome Opportunity offers it self or no. STEELE (15), Jack Lizard. 73. Cynicism (V A d 4). Begin with marriage. Many married people would be hap- pier and, perhaps, more useful, if they could separate at will. Therefore (the cry is), let all men and women be always free to live together or apart, when they choose, and as long as they choose, without priests, registrars, law courts, or scandal. Many parents are unworthy to bring up their children. Therefore, 72. Tone of nonchalance (HID) and laissez-faire (VA2), interesting from personal concern and appealing in its naivete (VB). Texture patent (III A) 73. Forcing attention by novelty (V B), abruptness (III B), and mannerism (III E). Development by typical examples (I A i b) in the order of known to unknown (I A 2). Coherence by parallel construction (I B 2), and sequence by question and answer (IV A) . Of crass cynicism examples are too rife. 94 let no parent have any control over his child. Many women would be more at ease and perhaps more able to work in their own way, if they wore men's clothes. And some men, among the old and the delicate, might be more comfortable in skirts. Therefore, abolish the foolish restrictions about Male and Female dress. And this our reformers, it seems, are preparing to do. Many men and more women are, at twenty, better fitted to "come of age" than some men at thirty. Therefore, let every one "come of age " when he or she thinks fit. Many a man who, through hunger, steals a turnip is an angel of light compared with a millionaire who speculates. Therefore, abolish all laws against stealing. Many a foreigner living in England knows far more of politics than most native electors. Therefore, abolish all restrictions applying to "aliens" as such. HARRISON (48), The Future of Woman. 74. Optimism (V A d 4). We cannot describe the natural history of the soul, but we know that it is divine. I cannot tell if these wonderful qualities which house to-day in this mortal frame, shall ever reassemble in equal activity in a similar frame, or whether they have before had a natural history like that of this body you see before you; but this one thing I know, that these qualities did not now begin to exist, cannot be sick with any sickness, nor buried in any grave; but that they circulate through the Universe: before the world was, they were. Nothing can bar them out, or shut them in, they penetrate the ocean and land, space and time, form and essence, and hold the key to universal nature. I draw from this faith courage and hope. All things are known to the soul. It is not to be surprised by any communication. Nothing can be greater than it. Let those fear and those fawn who will. The soul is in her native realm, and it is wider than space, older 74. Tenor of spontaneity and elan (VA), attaining sublimity and fascinating by its mystery as well as personal concern (V B). Texture simple (III A) and outspoken (III D). Movement in style coupe (IV C) but varying (IV B). Emphasis by successive short sentences and climax (III B). 95 than time, wide as hope, rich as love. Pusillanimity and fear she refuses with a beautiful scorn: they are not for her who putteth on her coronation robes, and goes out through universal love to universal power. EMERSON (35), The Method of Nature. 75. Sincerity (V A 2 a). The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs. Habitual want of care about what I believe leads to habitual want of care in others about the truth of what is told to me. Men speak the truth to one another when each reverses the truth in his own mind and in the other's mind ; but how shall my friend reverse the truth in my mind when I myself am careless about it, when I believe things because I want to believe them, and because they are comforting and pleasant? Will he not learn to cry, "Peace," to me, when there is no peace? By such a course I shall surround myself with a thick atmosphere of falsehood and fraud, and in that I must live. It may matter little to me, in my cloud-castle of sweet illusions and darling lies; but it matters much to Man that I have made my neighbors ready to deceive. The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat; he lives in the bosom of his family, and it is no marvel if he should become even as they are. So closely are our duties knit together, that whoso shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. CLIFFORD (45), The Ethics of Belief. 76. Ideality (V A 2 b). They argue against a fair discussion of popular prejudices, because, say they, though they would be found without any 75. Of grave mood and showing penetration (VA), gaining esteem by cogency ( V B) . Development by pro and con (I A i b) . Notice that the personal pronoun is used not individually but universally (III D). 76. Tenor of austerity (V A) attaining elevation (V B). Texture abstract (III A). 9 6 reasonable support, yet the discovery might be productive of the most dangerous consequences. Absurd and blasphemous notion ! as if all happiness was not connected with the practice of virtue, which necessarily depends upon the knowledge of truth; that is, upon the knowledge of those unalterable relations which Provi- dence has ordained that everything should bear to every other. These relations, which are truth itself, the foundation of virtue, and, consequently, the only measures of happiness, should be likewise the only measures by which we should direct our reason- ing. To these we should conform in good earnest; and not think to force nature, and the whole order of her system, by a compliance with our pride and folly, to conform to our artificial regulations. BURKE (20), A Vindication of Natural Society. 77. Sensuousness (V A 2 c) . Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and per- fumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains, is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest, she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of night. Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hillsides, and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night. STEVENSON (46), Travels with a Donkey. 77. An example of picturesqueness and elegance interesting by its novelty (V B). Movement varying (IV B) with alternation of short and long (IV C). Texture concrete (III A). Tenor showing observation (V A) . 97 78. Intelligibility (V B i). It has often been observed that, when the eyes of the infant first open upon the world, the reflected rays of light which strike them from the myriad of surrounding objects present to him no image, but a medley of colours and shadows. They do not form into a whole; they do not rise into foregrounds and melt into distances; they do not divide into groups; they do not coalesce into unities; they do not combine into persons; but each particu- lar hue and tint stands by itself, wedged in amid a thousand others upon the vast and flat mosaic, having no intelligence, and conveying no story, any more than the wrong side of some rich tapestry. The little babe stretches out his arms and fingers, as if to grasp or to fathom the many-coloured vision; and thus he gradually learns the connexion of part with part, separates what moves from what is stationary, watches the coming and going of figures, masters the idea of shape and of perspective, calls in the information conveyed through the other senses to assist him in his mental process, and thus gradually converts a calidoscope into a picture. The first view was the more splendid, the second the more real; the former more poetical, the latter more philosophical. Alas! what are we doing all through life, both as a necessity and as a duty, but unlearning the world's poetry, and attaining to its prose! This is our education, as boys and as men, in the action of life, and in the closet or library: in our affections, in our aims, in our hopes, and in our memories. And in like manner it is the education of our intellect ; I say, that one main portion of intellectual education, of the labours of .both school and university, is to remove the original dimness of the mind's eye; to strengthen and perfect its vision; to enable it to look out into the world right forward, steadily and truly; to give the mind clearness, accuracy, precision; to enable it to use words aright, to understand what it says, to conceive justly what it 78. Interest from personal concern (V B). Development by tracing similarity (I A i b). Rhythm jerky (IV C). Compare SWLFT in No. 56. The similarity of structure and tone is evi- dence of Swift's penetrating analysis of the permanent elements in homiletic style. thinks about, to abstract, compare, analyze, divide, define, and reason, correctly. There is a particular science which takes these matters in hand, and it is called logic; but it is not by logic, certainly not by logic alone, that the faculty I speak of is acquired. The infant does not learn to spell and read the hues upon his retina by any scientific rule ; nor does the student learn accuracy of thought by any manual or treatise. The instruction given him, of whatever kind, if it be really instruction, is mainly, or at least pre-eminently, this, a discipline in accuracy of mind. NEWMAN (34), Elementary Studies. 79. Novelty (V B 2 a). We stopped before the gate of a large building [in Cairo], and, turning, entered a court of no great size, with a range of apartments all round; open doors showed that they were dark and wretched. At them, or before them, stood or sat small groups of female slaves; also from within these chambers, you might catch the moving eyes and white teeth of those who shunned the light. There was a gallery above with other rooms, and slave girls leaning on the rail laughter, all laughter! - their long hair in numerous falling curls, white with fat; their faces, arms, and bosoms shining with grease. Exposure in the market is the moment of their joy. Their cots, their country, the breast that gave them suck, the hand that led their tottering steps not forgotten, but resigned, given up, as things gone forever, left in another world. The toils and terrors of the wide desert, the hard and scanty fare, the swollen foot, the whip, the scalding tear, the curse; all, all are behind: hope meets them again here; and paints some master kind; some mistress gentle; some babe or child to win the heart of; as bond-women they may bear a son, and live and die the contented inmates of some quiet harem. ANONYMOUS (23), quoted by Jeffrey in the Edin. Rev. 79. Interesting by its novelty and appealing by its pathos (VB). Texture concrete (III A). Words that express passion (II B 3). Example of observation and of development by the introduction of specific details. Excessive use of apposition. Emphasis by concreteness. 99 80. Oddity (V B 2 b). But the iniquity of oblivion blindly scattereth her poppy, and deals with the memory of men without distinction of merit to perpetuity. Who can but pity the founder of the pyramids? Herostratus lives that burnt the temple of Diana, 1 he is almost lost that built it. Time hath spared the epitaph of Adrian's 2 horse, confounded that of himself. In vain we compute our felicities by the advantage of our good names, since bad have equal durations, and Thersites is like to live as long as Agamem- non. Who knows whether the best of men be known, or whether there be not more remarkable persons forgot, than any that stand remembered in the known account of time? Without the favour of the everlasting register, the first man had been as unknown as the last, and Methuselah's long life had been his only chronicle. BROWNE (9), Urn Burial. 81. Wit (VB 2 a).- It is indeed much easier to describe what is not humour, than what is; and very difficult to define it otherwise than as Cowley has done wit, by negatives. Were I to give my own notions of it, I would deliver them after Plato's manner, in a kind of allegory, and by supposing Humour to be a person, deduce to him all his qualifications, according to the following genealogy. Truth was the founder of the family, and the father of Good Sense. Good Sense was the father of Wit, who married a lady of a col- lateral line called Mirth, by whom he had issue Humour. Hu- mour therefore being the youngest of this illustrious family, and descended from parents of such different dispositions, is very various and unequal in his temper; sometimes you see him putting on grave locks and a solemn habit, sometimes airy in 80. Of sombre mood (VA), appealing by its pathos (V B). Movement slow (IV A). Texture allusive (III C) and attitude staid (III D). Development by exceptional examples (I A i b). 81. Of fanciful tenor (VA), attaining elegance and appealing by its grace (V B). Texture figurative (III C), attitude dis- engaged (III D). Rhythm, style coupe (IV C). 100 his behaviour and fantastic in his dress ; insomuch that at differ- ent times he appears as serious as a judge, and as jocular as a merry-andrew. But as he has a great deal of the mother in his constitution, whatever mode he is in, he never fails to make his company laugh. ADDISON (14), Spectator, No. 35. 82. Interest from mystery (V B 2 e). 'Thus encircled by the mystery of Existence; under the deep heavenly Firmament; waited on by the four golden Seasons with their vicissitudes of contribution, for even grim Winter brought its skating-matches and shooting-matches, its snow- storms and Christmas-carols, did the child sit and learn. These things were the Alphabet, whereby in after-time he was to syllable and partly read the grand Volume of the World ; what matters it whether such Alphabet be in large gilt letters or in small ungilt ones, so you have an eye to read it? For Gneschen, eager to learn, the very act of looking thereon was a blessedness that gilded all; his existence was a bright, soft element of Joy; out of which, as in Prospero's Island, wonder after wonder bodied itself forth, to teach by charming. CARLYLE (31), Sartor Resartus, II, iL 83. Informative (V B 2 b). It is a great point then to enlarge the range of studies which a University professes, even for the sake of the students; and, though they cannot pursue every subject which is open to them, they will be the gainers by living among those and under those who represent the whole circle. This I conceive to be the ad- vantage of a seat of universal learning, considered as a place of 82. Example of ornateness (III C) with German peculiarities (III E i) in capitals and hyphenations, interesting by its oddity (VB). Attitude emotional (III D), savoring of chicane (VA), Diction impressive by use of colors of good (II C 2 c). 83. Development by offering reasons (I A i b). Texture direct and literal (III C). Tenor confident (VA). Rhythm of short and long phrasing alternated (IV C) . Idea words clearly separated (III A). education. An assemblage of learned men, zealous for their own sciences, and rivals of each other, are brought, by familiar intercourse and for the sake of intellectual peace, to adjust to- gether the claims and relations of their respective subjects of investigation. They learn to respect, to consult, to aid each other. Thus is created a pure and clear atmosphere of thought, which the student also breathes, though in his own case he only pursues a few sciences out of the multitude. He profits by an intellectual tradition, which is independent of particular teachers, which guides him in his choice of subjects, and duly interprets for him those which he chooses. He apprehends the great out- lines of knowledge, the principles on which it rests, the scale of its parts, its lights and its shades, its great points and its little, as he otherwise cannot apprehend them. Hence it is that his education is called "Liberal." A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitable- ness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom; or what in a former Discourse I have ventured to call a philosophical habit. NEWMAN (34), University Teaching, V. 84. Elegance (V B 3 a). The fame he conceived for himself at this time was, as the reader will have anticipated, of the intellectual order, that of a poet perhaps. And as, in that gray monastic tranquillity of the villa, inward voices from the reality of unseen things had come abundantly; so here, with the sounds and aspects of the shore , and amid the urbanities, the graceful follies, of a bathing-place , it was the reality, the tyrannous reality of things visible that was borne in upon him. The real world around a present humanity not less comely, it might seem, than that of the old heroic days endowing everything it touched upon, however remotely, down to its little passing tricks of fashion even, with a kind of fleeting beauty, exercised over him just then a great fascination. PATER (44), Marius the Epicurean. 84. Picturesqueness and grace with beauty of cadence (V B). Fanciful mood showing reflexion (V A) . Texture complex, with much implication (III A) . Diction of aesthetic connotation (II B) . 102 8s. Elevation (sublimity) (VB3c). The benevolent regards and purposes of men in masses seldom can be supposed to extend beyond their own generation. They may look to posterity as an audience, may hope for its attention, and labor for its praise; they may trust to its recognition of unacknowledged merit, and demand its justice for contemporary wrong. But all this is mere selfishness, and does not involve the slightest regard to, or consideration of, the interest of those by whose numbers we would fain swell the circle of our flatterers, and by whose authority we would gladly support our presently disputed claims. The idea of self-denial for the sake of posterity, of practising present economy for the sake of debtors yet unborn, of planting forests that our descendants may live under their shade, or of raising cities for future nations to inhabit, never, I suppose, efficiently takes place among publicly recognized motives of exertion. Yet these are not the less our duties; nor is our part fitly sustained upon the earth, unless the range of our intended and deliberate usefulness include not only the compan- ions, but the successors, of our pilgrimage. God has lent us the earth for our life; it is a great entail. It belongs as much to those who are to come after us, and whose names are already written in the book of creation as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do or neglect, to involve them in unneces- sary penalties, or deprive them of benefits which it was in our power to bequeath. And this the more, because it is one of the appointed conditions of the labor of men that, in proportion to the time between the seed-sowing and the harvest, is the fulness of the fruit; and that generally, therefore, the farther off we place our aim, and the less we desire to be ourselves the witnesses of what we have labored for, the more wide and rich will be the measure of our success. Men cannot benefit those that are with them as they can benefit those who come after them; and of all the pulpits from which human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave. RUSKIN (40), The Lamp of Memory, ix. 85. Tenor revealing ideality and penetration (V A). 103 NOTES. (No attempt is here made to explain matters of ready reference: (i) words, phrases, and proper names accessible in the ordinary student dictionaries; (2) quotations, classical mythology, and allusions to history such as most students have at least encoun- tered; (3) simple phrases in languages usually required in or before the first year of college.) X. i. Compilation. XXIII. i. "Urn Burial." XXIV. i. Musical flourish or embellishment, as a trill. XXV. i. An imitator of Cicero's style. XXXI. i. By Addison in Spectator, No. 159. 1. i. Then a sacred number: nine orders of angels, circles in Hell, etc. 2. = dux, military leader. 3. Not then confined to legal phrasing. 2. i. The oldest scientific society in Great Britain, from about 1645. The Principia explained Newton's theory of gravi- tation. 4. i. A square in London, formerly a convent, now a fruit and flower market. In Addison's day many coffee houses there drew companies of literary men. 6. i. Vauxhall Gardens in London on the south bank of the Thames, a popular pleasure resort (c. 1661-1859). 2. By Nathaniel Lee (1677-8). Roxana, Alexander's con- cubine, jealous of his wife Statira, daughter of the Persian king Darius, slew her by stabbing. 3. A circus held in the later i8th and early igth centuries, near Vauxhall Gardens, by Philip Astley (d. 1814). 12. i. The usual motto is per aspera ad astra, through difficul- ties to the stars. 14. i. Swift was dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, from 1713. 2. The opening invokes on impenitents the wrath of God. 3. A buffoon who entertains by feats of swallowing, like the French Jean Potage and the German Hans Wurst. 15. i. From Milton's Paradise Lost, iv, 73:- " Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell; And in the lowest deep a lower deep, Still threat ning to devour me, opens wide." 104 3i. i. See 4. i. Fleet Street and the Strand form a continuous business street, near and parallel to the Thames. A map and views of London will enliven passages of literary allu- sion to this centre of most English literature. 2. Buying, usually with some bargaining. 34. i. A painting, usually called the Mona Lisa. For a de- scription of it, see 68. 2. A town of northwestern Italy, between Pisa and Genoa, famous for quarries of fine, snow-white marble. Carrara marble was used by Augustus in rebuilding Rome, by Michelangelo and modern sculptors for their best statues. 3. A brilliant and gay young Italian nobleman, whose de- votion to classical learning and philosophic defense of the church lend him a unique attraction among Florentine writers of the Renaissance. 37. i. Historian. 2. To enclose (something) as if woven in a meshwork. Obs. 39. i. Florentine painter (1387-1455), a Dominican friar, noted for the delicate purity of his frescoes of saints and angels. 2. Venetian painter (1530-1538), noted for his sumptuous grouping and opalescent coloring. 41. i. German theologian (1694-1755). 47. i. The royal family of France, noted for its persistent clinging to absolute power. 49. i. The falls of the Nile were the greatest then known. 2. The 'music of the spheres,' or planets, made by their movements according to Platonic theory. 3. In Greek mythology, the spirit of fault finding, a child of Night. 4. A mythical king of Phrygia, whose ears were changed by Apollo to those of an ass because he awarded the prize for music to Pan (rustic god of herdsmen) instead of to Apollo. 5. Regarded as an error for Bupalus (confused with Hippo- nax) , a Greek poet said to have hung himself because Hippo- nax so bitterly satirized his poetry. 54. i. Greek attic prose satirist and humorist of the second century A.D., perhaps the most entertaining of Greek writers, as Ovid is of Latin. 2. Greek cynical writer of the third century B.C. who treated serious subjects with raillery. 3. Greek philosopher of Ephesus about 500 B.C., called 105 "the weeping philosopher" because of his lonely life and contempt for mankind. 4. Laughing with a petulant spleen (from Persius). 5. Indignation chafes the liver. From Horace's Satires I, ix, 66: "male salens ridens dissimulare: meum jecur urere bilis." 6. Greek philosopher of about 400 B.C., called the " father of medicine." 7. The " laughing philosopher" (cf. 3); in fact, greatest of the Greek physicists, noted for his atomic theory. His period was c. 465-^ 380 B.C. 8. A town in Thrace, the alleged birthplace of Democritus. 9. Black bile. Melancholy was supposedly caused by an excess of black bile. So yellow bile was thought to make one choleric; blood, sanguine; phlegm, phlegmatic. 54. 10. One who fills up a gap. The verb succenturio meant 'to adopt (one) into a century,' i.e. company of soldiers. 60. i. Author of a satrical story, the "Satirae," of the period of Nero. The supposed author is the Petronius in " Quo Vadis." 61. i. The wicked brother of Osiris, who cut him into fourteen pieces and scattered them all over Egypt. The story is from Plutarch. 2. The mythological deified king who civilized Egypt. Originally the local god of Busiris. 3. Wife of Osiris, originally a local goddess near Busiris. 66. i. Oudh is a province in the center of northern India. The time referred to is about 1785. 1. The tone is counterfeited by Burke, and the Lord is a hoax. He is mimicking the style of Bolinbroke in a satirical essay which purports to be a posthumous work of Bolinbroke. Burke was then (1756) aged twenty-seven. 68. i. A celebrated portrait by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), a Milanese artist and mechanician of remarkable versatility. It is now in the Louvre. 70. i. According to Jewish tradition, Noah preserved in the ark a book of visions and prophesies by Enoch, father of Me- thusaleh. 2. Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian (A.D. 37?-Q5?). 3. Spanish Jesuit (1557-1637), author of Monarchia Eccles- iastica, in which he quotes above one thousand authors. 80. i. At Ephesus, Asia Minor. 2. The Roman emperor, Hadrian. SUGGESTIONS TO STUDENTS j. Good style is found in a combination of virtues. Faultless mediocrity belongs with the souls of persons neither bad nor good in Limbo. "Let us not speak of them," said Virgil to Dante; " glance and pass on." Nor is any one virtue indispensable: absence of coherence often helps emphasis. Gain the power to write with each; then, having skill, suit the occasion. 2. Structure (I). By structure is meant orderliness. Take up one part of a subject at a time; finish with it before passing to the next. Many speakers confuse their stories, or their explanations, by interrupting with " Oh, I forgot to say that . . . . " The writer no less owes it as a courtesy to plan his compositions so that the reader may easily understand and remember them. Nevertheless, students are tempted to write, while fancy dictates, hoping that Providence will infuse a methodical structure. Providence does so in the case of experienced writers, because they have practised planning until the habit has become instinc- tive. With students, direct intervention usually comes in the form of blue pencilling. After correctness, structure is usually considered the most important element in composition. j. Method of planning (I A). A mature mind holds in solu- tion large masses of related facts, much as a student's mind just before an examination. Under such conditions a plan is likely to arise spontaneously. Otherwise consider the follow- ing process : 1. Think of and state in a sentence the most interesting or important thing you have to say about the subject. 2. Disregarding everything else, decide on the most appro- priate way to enlarge on this: by giving example, proof, compari- sons, etc. (See the outlines in 7 and 14) . 3. Make orderly heads and subheads of this nature. 4. Develop these subheads by the same process until you have an ample body of material. 5. Having thus a logically complete scheme of paragraphs and their contents, decide which parts to compress, and which to treat at length, for the sake of (a) clearness, (b) interest. 6. Plan paragraphs of somew T hat equal dimensions ordinarily, now treating a subhead fully in one, then in another compressing several headings you wish to pass over lightly. See MODELS, No. 21. 4. Topics phrased as statements (lAiai). A sentence circumscribes a subject so that there is no escape. " Baseball " branches into an infinity of history, rules, particular scenes, ethics, and what not. Tie it down to " The National League has the better players this year " or " The game I saw yesterday brought out several sensational plays ": unity then is assured. Read J. H: Newman's " Elementary Studies," Composition. 5. Addressing a definite audience (I A i a 2). To write aim- lessly one's random thoughts may serve the purpose of self- expression (for those who write from a need for self-expression) ; it does not serve for communication except (as in lyric poetry) when the spirit cry encounters a kindred soul. Ordinary mortals write to convey information or an impression to such persons as need it or have interest. Any audience held clearly in mind your teacher, classmates, the photograph on your desk will give a direction and purposive character to what you say. 6. Suiting a subject to space requirements (I A i a 2 c (i)). Opera glasses can be looked through both ways, according to which objects expand or shrink. They preserve, nevertheless, unity and proportion. So with subjects, expansion along normal lines of development or compression to main headings will make, of almost any, a book or a paragraph. The exercises of precis (summary) and of expansion from a single sentence should be used to induce a sense of such organization. 7. Development (I A i b i). Most topics may be expanded in a variety of ways, by subdivisions or by citing examples, by offering reasons or drawing comparisons. Usually, too, a writer employs some combination of these methods. . But in learning it is best to master one at a time. Though the resulting exercise be unnaturally logical, human nature will save most initiates from continued scholasticism. io8 In constructing such exercises, an outline serves to guide the thought. It should be written first, but appended as in the fol- lowing example. (See Outlines, p. 113.) In the chapters that follow, I purpose first to examine as carefully as may be the outward and visible body of style. It is made up of what I may call four elements, the prime element Words, composed in Sentences, composed in Paragraphs, com- posed in Whole Compositions. Each of these elements I shall examine in detail, inquiring first how far it is affected by the paramount authority of good use, and then how within the limits of good use it may be made, by means of the principles of com- position or otherwise, to assume various forms and to perform various offices. Then, when we have studied the visible body of style, its material elements, as carefully as we can, I shall turn to the three qualities, Clearness, Force, and Elegance, and try to determine what it is in the elements by which each of them may be secured or lost. WENDELL: English Composition, pp. 39-40. I purpose to subdivide the present study of style as follows: I The outward and visible body, treated A In four elements ; namely, 1 Words 2 Sentences 3 Paragraphs 4 Whole Compositions B In two particulars; namely, 1 How far each is affected by good use 2 How in good use each may be varied, as regards a Forms b Functions II The qualities, treated A As three, namely, 1 Clearness 2 Force 3 Elegance B In one particular; namely, i . By what in the elements each may be secured or lost. 8. Proportion (I A 2 a 2 a) . At the first line one sees the subject through a telescope, and space looms large; as it develops one 109 seems to hold a microscope under which its branches become enormous tentacles to clutch the pages. The consequent tendency to a diffuse beginning and compact close is best antici- pated by planning. But equal treatment of all parts would seem to lack adaptation. It is best to suppress or glide over the unimportant or uninteresting subheads, and best to expand for clearness, emphasis, or pleasure. Proportion will be satisfied if the writer indicates, not too obviously, where and why he condenses. There is also the proportion of details, making the size of paragraphs not eccentrically uneven and their contents not bulked inconveniently at either end. The application of the latter caveat will appear from a sentence in which the second chief member becomes corpulent. He is supposed to have fallen, by his father's death, into the hands of his uncle, a vintner, near Charing Cross, who sent him for some time to Dr. Busby, at Westminster; but, not intending to give him any education beyond that of the school, took him, when he was well advanced in literature, to his own house, where the earl of Dorset, celebrated for patronage of genius, found him by chance, as Burnet relates, reading Horace, and was so well pleased with his proficiency that he undertook the care and cost of his academical edu- cation. JOHNSON (18), "Life of Prior." g. Unity (I A i b 2). The ideal may be expressed as one book, one subject; one chapter, one phase of it; one paragraph, one topic; one sentence, one thought. This ensures clearness. But sticking to one virtue sometimes prevents others, as frugality beggars generosity. Many a fine parenthesis is worth the interruption and confusion. Fortunately, unity is not neces- sarily simple and patent : compound and complex sentences form a subtler unity by associations of addition, contrast, cause and effect, etc. So, groups of words Damon and Pythias, flesh and blood, sinews of war are units, much as are words formed from separate elements collar button, necklace. The essential is that everything included in one group shall bear a clear relation to the main thought. Otherwise it violates unity, even though ex- ceptional circumstances justify the violation. 10. Topic statement (I B i a). This is a group of words ex- pressing briefly the dominant idea of a. paragraph or larger unit. no Textbooks often use a caption, as here. A single sentence is the least artificial form, but less obtrusiveness may be secured by distribution in two sentences or by the echo. As to position: in exposition it comes best at the beginning for clearness; in argument, at the end for persuasiveness and memory; sometimes, in the middle for distribution of emphasis. The topic sentences of a series of paragraphs should crudely form a paragraph of themselves, of which the topic statement would be the subject of the series: this would correspond to the all-inclusive heading of an outline. ri. Paragraph limits (I B i b /). Just as there are compound and complex sentences, so paragraphs are often compound or complex, the former when two subjects are associated for comparison, the latter when related by cause and effect or by provisos. The unity of the paragraph is their association. A single type of development rarely occurs, being monotonous, except for cogency in argument or impressiveness in description. Routine even of two of three types suggests the mechanical, as in the excerpt from Caxton. This is because natural sequence, like a leashed dog, constantly tugs at logical coherence. One does well to keep, though on an erratic path, within the field. 12. Limits of the sentences. Between the units of sentence and paragraph lurks a division, particularly in writers of long paragraphs, which corresponds to a movement of thought, often of two or three, rarely of many sentences. The following passages are properly indivisible: a dash would improve the first, a colon the second, a colon and semicolon the third not for emphasis, but as revealing unity. Who did it? Plainly not any man, but all men: it was the prevalence and inundation of an idea. EMERSON, The Method of Nature. (Compare Newman's practice in XIII) Religion is yet to be settled on its fast foundations in the breast of man; and politics, and philosophy, and letters, and art. As yet we have nothing but tendency and inclina- tion. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. Great as the variety of these large divisions of learning may appear, they are all held in union by two capital princi- Ill pies of connexion. First, they are all quarried out of one and the same great subject of man's moral, social, and feeling nature. And secondly, they are all under the control (more or less strict) of the same power of moral reason." NEW- MAN, University Teaching VII 9. At times such passages are written in style coupG (IV C i) and therefore should not be unified into sentences. Some writers resort to further separation of sentences, as by dashes or rows of asterisks (* * *). The following units are excerpts from para- graphs which have a larger unity. The sins of our trade belong to no class, to no individual. One plucks, one distributes, one eats. Everybody partakes, everybody confesses, with cap and knee volunteers his confession, yet none feels himself accountable. He did not create the abuse; he cannot alter it. What is he? an ob- scure private person who must get his bread. That is the vice, that no one feels himself called to act for man, but only as a fraction of man. EMERSON, Man the Reformer. So it happens with our philosophy. Translate, collate, distil all the systems, it steads you nothing; for truth will not be compelled, in any mechanical manner. But the first observation you make, in the sincere act of your nature, though on the veriest trifle, may open a new view of nature and of man, that, like a menstruum, shall dissolve all theories in it; shall take up Greece, Rome, Stoicism, Eclecti- cism, and what not, as mere data and food for analysis, and dispose of your world-containing system, as a very little unit. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. Mere length, however, is no logical criterion of sentence divi- sion. Good writers sometimes run above three hundred words (See XVIII). The next sentence would be more consistent if punctuated as in the brackets. For instance, let a person, whose experience has hitherto been confined to the more calm and unpretending scenery of these islands, whether here or in England, go for the first time into parts where physical nature puts on her wilder and more awful forms, whether at home or abroad, as into 112 mountainous districts; or let one, who has ever lived in a quiet village, go for the first time to a great metropolis, then I suppose he will have a sensation which perhaps he never had before. [ : ] He has a feeling not in addition or in- crease of former feelings, but of something different in its nature. [ ; ] He will perhaps be borne forward, and find for a time that he has lost his bearings. [; ] He has made a certain progress, and he has a consciousness of mental enlargement ; he does not stand where he did, he has a new centre, and a range of thoughts to which he was before a stranger. NEWMAN, University Teaching VI. 73. Limits of a word (IB i b j). German thoroughness usually makes these obvious by using hyphens, which in English are a feature of Carlylese. Punctuation, however, removes some of the native obscurity, as in the following cases. 1. Groups containing adjectives: 'The sleepy, irate father.' 'The sportive young man.' sleepy ) f , , 'The pale gray dawn.' irate j 1{ Here young man (youth) and pale gray are thought of as single words. The comma serves as a bracket. Similarly in groups of three or more adjectives the comma before and is logical, unless the last adjectives form a pair ' hapless, black and blue penitent.' This is distinct from ' brave, ambitious, and super- stitious Macbeth ' : the former is one and a pair ; the latter three of a kind. 2. Relative clauses: 'The girl who chews gum.' 'Lucy, who chews gum.' Girl is a genus; adding who chews gum makes it a species. But Lucy, being one person, cannot be more specific, though we might speak of ' those Lucies who chew gum.' Practically these are single words, like ' Big-chief -with-the-little-feather-in-his-hat.' A good test is to repeat the main word, asking: What girl? which chief? If the clause answers the question it forms part of one word and therefore cannot be separated. ' This is the thing which he told me to give you.' Or, try substituting a parenthetical sentence : ' Lucy she chews gum ' : if you can, you have more than one word. 3. Prolonged subjects: ' The conspiracy of editors seeking to evade the censorship constitutes a national peril.' Usage formerly prescribed a comma after very long subjects, as here after censorship, to indicate their unity. The comma is useful where a clash of verbs may confuse: " Words that most men know, serve best." . . . " Whatever is, is right." 14. Outlines (IB i C 2). Nothing proves unity better than to analyze your statements, reducing them to a single statement. Read Newman's " Elementary Studies," Composition. I I believe that outlines should be made in sentences, because A Doing this forces a student to think, definitely, because i He must state propositions instead of alluding to topics ; and B It teaches the relations of ideas, because 1 These sentences must be connected by conjunctions, and 2 Use of an inappropriate conjunction at once reveals deficiency of logical coherence. Statements in the major headings will suffice all but the most fastidious. See 7. One method is to jot down headings as they occur; group them, providing major heads, and then fill in with other subheadings. A more logical, and ultimately easier, way is to frame a statement and choose a type of development, repeating the process for each subheading that arises. Topic statement for g. _ KW* See Structure, -with the result that \ { in that To make a logical outline only after writing is rarely feasible: a student's natural course of thought normally lacks involved structure. One more type of outline is subjoined. "I. It is a mistake not to let us take our notebooks from the laboratory in Chemistry A, for A Although it is said that the work done by this method is more satisfactory, H4 A' Yet this is not so, for 1. The one laboratory period per week is largely taken up by the written work, and 2. The writing is hastily done and cannot be revised, and B Although it is said that this method guarantees honest work, B' Yet this is a poor and mistaken policy, for 1. College men are mature enough to be trusted, and 2. It is the acknowledged policy of Harvard to trust the students as much as possible." STUDENT'S THEME. 15. Typographical aids to style (I B i d). Students sometimes resort to the paltry use of "(?)" indicating irony and to underlin- ing (italics) for emphasis. Neither is commendable. Maturer frailties are the use of "[sic]" indicating doubt or protest, and quo- tation marks to imply that a word or phrasing is beneath the user's dignity. For such as for other unimportant parenthetical details resort is better had to footnotes, which add for the critical what the cursory reader is glad to escape. Few students use them enough: it is, however, a pedantry if footnotes outbulk the text. So, too, moderation must rule in changes of type. If bold face type or CAPITALS or italics are constantly repeated they lose the effect of strangeness and make each page bizarre. Their chief service is in textbooks and compendiums to draw the eye to topic phrases or statements. Newspaper headlines show how they may be used with or without taste. 16. Idiom (II A 2). Urging an American to write English with British idiom is nearly hopeless. The traditional individual feeling for what is uniquely appropriate in English (Sprachge- fuhf) has been replaced by a colorless scholarly diction. An American idiom, very likely, is developing from our popular speech, but has not risen to the sanction of conservative good use. Not that America suffers alone: witness The King's English a valuable guide to taste in phrasing. See also XXVII, XLI, 69. 17. Words newly applied (II B i c). Pope hits at triteness of rhymes in the following : "5 " Where'er you find 'the cooling western breeze,' In the next line it ' whispers through the trees ' : If crystal streams 'with pleasing murmurs creep,' The reader's threaten'd (not in vain) with 'sleep':" Similar dullness infects our prose phrasing witness the lists of stereotyped trite phrases. To escape the taint, mere avoid- ance of what is notorious does not suffice: one must employ lurking metaphors as in associating lurking (which one usually couples with assassins or mischief makers, and sometimes with smiles or doubts) with a word it seldom accompanies. 18. Cooperation of words (II B 2). Many words work well as team mates with others of closely similar or violently different meaning. Thus, glory, honor, renown when used together pro- duce a stronger impression of the general conception underlying them. So, too, if renown and ignominy are paired, the distinction produces a more vivid conception of each. Tautology (III A) works on the former principle, antithesis (III B) on the latter. 19. Colors of good and evil (II C 2 02]. The phrase is used, much as in Bacon, for a method of prejudicing the reader, by using for an idea words of markedly pleasant or markedly un- pleasant associations on the printed page. A rose called by the name of cabbage rose does not smell as sweet. It is one thing to speak of the " old scold who cowhided a lad for hooking an apple," and quite another to picture the " indignant elderly gentleman who trounced well an idle urchin for stealing from his orchard." Such colors, if crudely laid on, reveal too clearly the point of view. 20. Compression (III A). Observe a child's story, how he strings out every detail, and repeats it, including much that you would leave to be read between the lines. Your story, to the child, is probably marred by gaps requiring explanation. Ac- cordingly, in writing to a more mature or more highly educated audience, compress. If the subject, however, is more your specialty than theirs, expand, remembering that the specialist in Greek coins or municipal government very likely is more ignorant than yourself regarding Laplace or the skin tackle. Young writers may learn something of the secrets of Econ- omy by careful revision of their own compositions, and by careful dissection of passages selected from good and bad u6 writers. They have simply to strike out every word, every clause, and every sentence, the removal of which will not carry away any of the constituent elements of the thought. Having done this, let them compare the revised with the unre vised passages, and see where the excision has improved, and where it has injured the effect. LEWES. To teach compactness, usually the instructor must bluepencil diffuse passages. Several hints, taken from Bain, should help: i. Words involving a figure serve as shortcuts. " Govern- ments are not made, but grow ". . . . " Brevity is the soul of wit." " A hand-to-mouth liar." 2 Abstract nouns sum up a phrase. " The passionate con- fidence of interested falsehood "= ' the warm and eager display of assurance by people who are lying to their own advantage.' Even so the phrase is fairly condensed. 3. Adjectives used as nouns. " None but the brave deserve the fair." 4. Adjectives that imply action or suggest a picture, especially participial adjectives. " The growing labours of the lengthened way." 5. Participial phrases, or participles, for clauses. " United we stand, divided we fall." 6. Compounds formed by prefix or suffix. " Rearranging an ill-constructed theme." 21. Idea words vs. relation words (III A i a). Study of any page shows that the ideas are conveyed by the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs words we use in telegrams, the others serving chiefly to show how these ideas are connected (prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliaries). A texture which alter- nates these classes somewhat regularly is likely to be clear and graceful; whereas over use of idea words results in obscure con- ciseness. On the other hand poverty in conjunctions (which results in and- sentences) and in verbs (which results in over- working to have and to be) should be overcome at once. It pays occasionally to write an exercise without using and, or one without using any form of to have or to be. 22. Concrete and abstract (III A i c). As here used, concrete includes only those words and phrases which awaken a definite sensuous image (man, blue, bray), all other concept words being classed as abstract (humanity, color, hearing, intellectual, animad- vert). The former class produces a texture necessarily more emphatic and impressive; the latter, a texture of more precision, and, since its ideas are the more inclusive, of more conciseness. Description and narrative resort to the concrete; exposition , especially philosophic exposition, and argument deal with the abstract, but require the concrete, as in examples and instances, for impressiveness. Words of emotional value (glory, shame, pride, love), though they suggest no specific image, have an effectiveness allied to the concrete. Exercises in using each class predominatingly will teach one how to vivify or subdue the sensational elements of style. 23. Emphasis (III B). The fault of hyperbole attaches to a style that is continually emphatic. Reserve the high lights for your centers of interest : elsewhere a uniform tone of sensation as in Owen Johnson presently jades and nauseates. Ma- caulay goes too far; Carlyle at times seems hysterical. Where emphasis must be as in convincing and in forcing memory the most obvious rule " Begin and end with words that deserve distinction " (Wendell) the fore-and-aft sentence structure is least obtrusive. 24. Finish (III C). A plain style is best suited to plain people and plain occasions. One should first show convincing mastery of this. Later, a writer whose thoughts will sustain ornament should use it, and few will suffer from the grace of an occasional metaphor or antithesis, or an apt quotation. But richness of ornament with poverty of thought is tawdry. 25. Barbarisms in style (III E i). Contact with other lan- guages has grafted into English certain foreign idioms, as the use of one corresponding to French on dit and clauses that begin with having from the Latin ablative absolute. Students occa- sionally assume a light, chatty tone from French or an involved periodic texture from German. Similarly authors in the seven- teenth century, from esteem for Latin, ran to long Ciceronian periods, as Fuller and Taylor, or to Caesarian conciseness and precision, as Sir Thomas Browne. Johnson's Latinism appears in vocabulary and balance. The early eighteenth century shows French influence in its fastidious clearness, simplicity, and social n8 grace, especially in Addison. The involved structure of Coleridge and the distorted sentences and capitals of Carlyle are marks of Germanized English. Again, in Pater is seen the ornateness and preciosity which are sometimes called Alexandrine traits apparent in the decline of Greek and Roman literature. An example of Latinism in sentence structure follows: Though for no other cause, yet for this; that posteritie may know we have not loosely through silence permitted things to passe away as in a dreame, there shall be for mens information extant thus much concerning the present state of the Church of God established amongst us, and their carefull endeavour which woulde have upheld the same. HOOKER (5), Ecclesiastical Polity, Preface. 26. Pseudo-archaic style. The texture of early writers charms by its oddity as does their naivete. Imitations, such as Black- more's " Lorna Doone " and Maurice Hewlitt's " Richard Yea and Nay," are current, as are stray archaisms in students' themes. Where ornateness of this sort imparts an appropriate atmosphere it is an ideal which such writers as Chatterton, Thomson, Spenser, and Virgil failed to realize to the point of effective illusion. The insuperable difficulty of being exact historically moreover distracts the writer's thought from more serious concerns. 27. Vices of style (III E 3 c). The beginner, instinctively seeking for noticeable effects, often adopts unconsciously one or more of the following peculiarities of texture. Any of these may serve a purpose: it is meaningless repetition of them that annoys. i. ADJECTIVE & NOUN: each noun is equipped with an adjec- tive regardless of any special appropriateness. " The last rays of the glowing west shot through the high-arched window and fell across the massive oak table with its enormous platter of roasted meat and scattered goblets; even across the drooping figure in the high carved chair. His heavy silver necklace of hand-wrought links caught one faint beam and sent back one bright spark into the shadowy room." It is not merely a school boy's nourish: e. g. " The same unaffected modesty, and natural freedom, and easie vigour, and chearful passions, and innocent mirth, which appear'd in all his [Cowley's] Manners." Sprat. As Voltaire remarked, the adjective is the enemy of the sub- H9 stantive. United, each neutralizes the effect of the other (For an exception, see 77). Verb and adverb are so linked less often. 2. PAIRS: two nouns, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs some- times linked by a conjunction appear in wedded discord. " Masses of long brown hair fell over his forehead concealing his dark, lustrous eyes. One saw a large straight nose and a strong firm-set mouth, while his chin was covered with a thick brown beard." One more variety suggests their range: " As with feigned enjoyment but inward misgivings we entered, a banging and slamming of doors greeted us. A gust of dank, musty atmosphere opposed and passed us, clammy and shivering. Penetrating our ears came shriekings and moanings which be- longed more to imprisoned spirits than to harmless winds." 3. TRIADS : here the parts of speech are marshalled in groups of three. " The book is a wonderfully strong, vivid, and realistic story of life among the tenements. It shows the struggling, narrow, and sordid life of that lower class. Honest men, inno- cent young girls, and coarse, drunken women live side by side in this world of poverty, dissoluteness, and crime. Young lives are stifled, smothered, and burned out in the white heat of depravity; they are kindling in this furnace of iniquity; they are licked up by the greedy flames of poverty; they are martyrs in this Hell on earth." 4. ALLITERATION: " alliteration's aptful art " inaptfully ap- plied. " The great, golden sun was slowly sinking and would soon lie on the silent sea.". . . ." For thus failing to fulfill the prescription for Freshmen I feel justified in shifting the blame." . . . . " The sweet themes of the pieces went straight to the heart, leaving there a strange feeling of sad happiness.". .. .Meter occasionally adds to the emphasis: " I tossed it onto my desk in disgust and returned to the depth of despair.". . . .Peril lurks also in the closing syllable: "The following definition, then, I think may serve as a fitting conclusion, and will obviate the situation with no further explanations." Read Stevenson's " Technical Elements of Style," Contents of the phrase. 5. THE: incessant repetition of the definite article. "The intense heat of the pelting sun, the smoke from the burning of the brushes, the dry air of the desert, and the pain of breathing the thick dust into the lungs, these were the pernicious conditions which were driving us to insanity." I2O 6. PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES: students who have outgrown successive relative clauses House-that-jack-built sentences still fall into a diminuendo movement with prepositions. " The young man was seated at the piano in the corner of the cheery living room of his bungalow in the Catskills.". . . ." We were coming down the little slope in front of our house at the usual reduced rate of speed before making the turn from the road into our drive at the right.". . . .Even without a diminuendo move- ment this vice annoys: " The little boat bobbed softly up and down on the bright water; there was no sound except the soft slap slap of the baby waves against the worn white paint of the bow. A tiny, fresh breeze was blowing from the ocean; but on the harbor there was merely a stirring of the cool air which served to mitigate the warm rays of the sun. The white sail of the boat stood out in sharp relief against the warm blue of the water." 7. 'To BE' AND ' TO HAVE ': overworking the copula, com- pound tenses, or the passive voice. Sometime write a theme excluding all forms of these verbs. It proves an easy task; and the theme will surprise you with its vigor and firmness. 28. Solecisms of style (III E 4). Like the faulty constructions of a school boy's grammar are certain confusions due to preoccu- pation with details, whereby the bearing of parts through inat- tention becomes inappropriate. So in mixed metaphors: the writer, seized by a new figure, lets go the first and finds himself a prey to both ; as in Addison's ill famed couplet : - " I bridle in my struggling muse with pain That longs to launch into a bolder strain." Horse, boat, and music are hard to reconcile. . . .Confusion of tenses arises chiefly from an excitable use of the historical present from which the writer presently lapses into normal preterites. Confusion of preterite and pluperfect is grammatical rather than rhetorical .... Violation of view point in description and narra- tive goes beyond the crass inclusion of vistas the spectator could not see and verbatim reports no memory could transmit : it may run through the fibre of a sketch or story, involving as it does precision of character drawing .... Bathos, Pope's coinage to express unintended anticlimax in a failure to rise to pathos, occurs rarely except in emotional style. Then, it results from introduction of some image or thought of commonplace or non- 121 passionate nature. Harvard men note as an instance the college song: " For God, for country, and for Yale." 29. Jocoseness a vice (III E 5 a). The objection to jocoseness is not to the humor or wit, but that it is not suited to the occasion. The amusing is never good in the serious style, since it never bears on more than one side of any object, and that not the side to be considered : it turns in nearly every case on false analogies or on ambiguity; the result being that most professional wits have minds as untrustworthy as they are superficial. VOLTAIRE (translation). jo. Planes of style (III E 5) . In a democracy the old division of style according to social status, which consecrated the heroic style to gods, heroes, or royalty and the pastoral to country folk or make-believe country folk, has lost force; but there is an intellectual aristocracy of subject and mood: this should rele- gate each piece of writing to a more or less fixed plane to soar above which is bombast, to sink below it a species of bathos. The routine of life and commonplace sentiments seem consonant with a plain, direct, and natural style; exposition and argument of aesthetic or philosophic character require more dignity and admit of some ornamentation; the conveyance of penetrating truth or expression of exalted or intense feeling almost instinc- tively takes on a cadence and ornateness which without such occasion would be frigid. ji. Sequence (IV A). Each ensuing thought should seem born, not made. Therefore the best writing proceeds spontane- ously. " Nur ein Hauch sei dein Gedicht," said Goethe. It is best to write from a well matured plan without hesitation, leaving finesse for revision of the rough draft. Of the two general types: i) answering the questions likely to be prompted by a reader's curiosity; 2) proceeding by logical routine, the former makes for vivacity, interest, and emphasis; the latter, for clearness and logical coherence. It is the difference between teaching the student and teaching the study. j2. Reflex movement (IV A 3). The tendency of thought to pass on, one idea lapsing as another comes in view, is opposed to reconsideration (to reflexion). For this reason repetition in 122 echoes, transitional statements, and summaries subject important points to frequent and easy recall. Within narrower bounds the same purpose is effected by parallel construction and balance; by the suspense of the periodic sentence, and by such minor devices as the Euphuistic transverse alliteration or Raleigh's distortion of parallel construction (familiar in Shakespeare's line, "The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's eye, tongue, sword"). 1 2 3213 Continued impeding of the natural onward sweep of thought is found vexatious and artificial; never to impede it is to forfeit all hope of retention. jj. Patchwork (VA2d). At a time when literary property had less value than today, it was none the less intellectually discreditable to be the " pickpurse of another's wit." Com- parison of the following passage with that from Jonson (VII) will suggest the fact that his book called " Timber " is largely a " thing of threads and patches." I enjoin, that such as are beginning the practice of com- position, write slowly and with anxious deliberation. Their great object at first should be, to write as well as possible; practice will enable them to write speedily. By degrees, matter will offer itself still more readily; words will be at hand; composition will flow; every thing, as in the arrange- ment of a well-ordered family, will present itself in its proper place. The sum of the whole is this; by hasty composition we shall never acquire the art of composing well ; by writing well, we shall come to write speedily. QUINTILIAN, as quoted by Blair, Lect. XIX. The practice now r is to acknowledge borrowing by quotation marks, footnotes, and explicit reference to each source. And such borrowing must not be too extensive lest readers mistake the writer for a mere annotator of other people's thought. SENTENCES. As the word is the basic unit of language, so is the sentence of style. Thought naturally proceeds, as in speech, by means of sentences of a single clause or of a main clause followed in after- thought by a qualification. Such sentences, transferred to- writing, and connected by and, but, or their like, become a series of loosely knit units which Stevenson characterized as " the babbling of the old chronicler." Examples no better than students' work of today abound in early literature. When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him,, but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth, and let his travel appear rather in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers,, than forward to tell stories; and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country. BACON (6), Of Travel. Bacon here uses the school-boy conjunctions; the objection is somewhat lessened when definite connectives establish clear relations of thought. Fundamentally, however, such a style is choppy and ill suited to sustained flights. It does relieve a texture of pregnant implication. Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to business that can be: it is like that which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of crudities, and secret seeds of diseases: therefore measure not dispatch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the business: and, as in races, it is not the large stride, or high lift, that niakes the speed; so in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking of it too much at once, procureth dispatch. BACON (6), Of Dispatch. In opposition to this loose style is the periodic, or, as Aristotle calls it, the introverted (Xeis KaTeaTpa^evrj) by which the quali- fication is introduced first and the main statement reserved as a climax. Such a style in speech is stilted; in writing, used mod- 124 erately, it serves for emphasis and to check the onward flow of natural sequence: it forces attention and deliberation. To feel the full value of these lives, as occasions of hope and provocation, you must come to know, that each admirable genius is but a successful diver in that sea whose floor of pearls is all your own. EMERSON (35), Literary Ethics. Sentences of a single clause admit of little complication beyond inversion: In expository writing the first aim is clearness. 3 ~2 1 Different arrangements will serve varied purposes, either of emphasis, or to bring words near others in neighbor sentences. Great diversity sets in, however, with the employment of two clauses, so that students should readily learn to avoid the tame- ness and poverty of monotonous sentence structure. Consider the subjoined diagram: when while after and before if I came in unless nevertheless but therefore Tom went out because t Or, transfer the first list to the place of the second. Any of these simple types may be indefinitely enlarged by complicating either the subject or the predicate, enhancing it by (i) words or phrases in apposition, (2) relative clauses, (3) prepositional phrases, (4) participial clauses. Any of these amplifications may appear singly or in series, and methods of inversion will multiply varieties. If finally the sentence be made to consist of three or more main members, apparently endless diversification ensues. Without scientific classification, the ensuing sentences, if studied and imitated, should at once greatly enlarge one's ability to shape ideas. Meantime, care to vary in length, beginning now with a conjunction, now with a subordinate phrase or clause, now with the subject, will at once relieve obtrusive monotony. Hence it is that it is almost Hereby we learn that it is a definition of a gentleman to almost a proof of dullness to say he is one who never inflicts find that a writer is one who pain. NEWMAN. rarely varies his sentences. Imitation. Notice that in such imitation the idea words (cf. p. 116) should be varied while the relation words may remain similar or 125 identical. One should altogether change the subject and thought, but retain as nearly as possible the structure. i. Short sentences: A Balance Eyes is he to the blind, feet is he to the lame. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. Accuracy alone is not a thing to be sought, but accuracy and dash. PALMER. Please himself with complaisance who will, for me, things must take my scale, not I theirs. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. B List English study has four aims : the mastery of our language as a science, as a history, as a joy, and as a tool. PALMER, Self-Cultivation in English. Let enjoyment go, let history go, let science go, and still English remains English as a tool. PALMER. c Inversion Because the scholar, by every thought he thinks, extends his dominion into the general mind of men, he is not one, but many. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. 'Iliads without a Homer,' some one has called, with a little exaggeration, the beautiful but anonymous ballad poetry of Spain. TRENCH, Study of Words (1888) p. 47. Peers of Great Britain become as penitent as the sover- eign of Prussia. BURKE, A Letter to Wm. Elliot Esq. So mutually dependent are we that on our swift and full communication with one another is staked the success of almost every scheme we form. PALMER. D Parallel A sentence must be compelled to say a single thing; a paragraph, a single thing; an essay, a single thing. PALMER. 126 E Apposition What is all history but the work of ideas, a record of the incomputable energy which his infinite aspirations infuse into man? EMERSON, The Method of Nature. 2. Medium length: A Transitional After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affections, and support of the judgment), followeth the last fruit, which is like the pomegranate, full of many kernels; I mean aid, and bearing a part in all actions and occasions. BACON, Of Friendship. B Concluding For this reason, because more than health, wealth, and beauty, literary style may be called the man, good judges have found in it the final test of culture, and have said that he and he alone is a well-educated person who uses his language with power and beauty. PALMER. c Periodic " Freedom of thought, being intimately connected with the happiness and dignity of man in every stage of his being, is of so much more importance than the preserva- tion of any constitution, that to infringe the former under pretence of supporting the latter is to sacrifice the means to the end." HALL. D Apposition Neither years nor books have yet availed to extirpate a prejudice then rooted in me, that a scholar is the favorite of Heaven and earth, the excellency of his country, the happiest of men. EMERSON, Literary Ethics. He is unwise, however busy, who does not have his loved authors, veritable friends with whom he takes refuge in the intervals of work, and by whose intimacy he enlarges, refines, sweetens, and emboldens his own limited existence. PALMER. 127 The opposite of this, the disposition to set correctness above expressiveness, produces that peculiarly vulgar diction known as "school-ma'am English," in which for the sake of a dull accord with usage all the picturesque, imaginative, and forceful employment of words is sacri- ficed. PALMER. What we should seek is to contribute to each of the little companies with which our life is bound up a gently en- larging influence, such impulses as will not startle or create detachment, but which may save from, humdrum, routine, and dreary usualness. PALMER. E Balance The world generally gives its admiration, not to the man who does what nobody else even attempts to do, but to the man who does best what multitudes do well. MACAULAY, on Aikin's Addison. No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic; and, certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honorable war is the true exercise. BACON, Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates. She seems to have written about the Elizabethan age because she had read much about it; she seems, on the other hand, to have read a little about the age of Addison because she had determined to write about it. MACAU- LAY, on Aikin's Addison. Is a man boastful and knowing, and his own master? we turn from him without hope : but let him be filled with awe and dread before the Vast and the Divine, which uses him glad to be used, and our eye is rivetted to the chain of events. EMERSON, The Method of Nature. Persistence, care, discriminating observation, ingenuity, refusal to lose heart, traits which in every other occu- pation tend toward excellence, tend toward it here with special security. PALMER. You " cannot bathe twice in the same river," said Heracli- tus, for it is renewed every moment; and I add, a man 128 never sees the same object twice: with his own enlarge- ment the object acquires new aspects. EMERSON, The Method of Nature. Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out: for as for the first wrong, it doth but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong putteth the law out of office. BACON, Of Revenge. F List Here is the brevity, the good taste, the light touch, the neat epigram, the avoidance of whatever might stir pas- sion, controversy, or laborious thought, which characterize the conversation of a well-bred man. PALMER. It is doubtful if Homer knew writing, certain that he knew profoundly every quality of the tongue, veracity, vividness, shortness of sentence, simplicity of thought, obligation to insure swift apprehension. PALMER. It is good in discourse, and speech of conversation to vary, and intermingle speech of the present occasion with argu- ments, tales with reasons, asking of questions with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest; for it is a dull thing to tire, and as we say now, to jade anything too far. BACON, Of Discourse. G Miscellaneous There is, however, no funeral so sad to follow as the funeral of our own youth, which we have been pampering with fond desires, ambitious hopes, and all the bright berries that hang in poisonous clusters over the path of life. LANDOR, Bossuet and Fontanges. The very formation of the outward product extends, sharpens, enriches the mind which produces, so that [?] he who gives forth little, after a time is likely enough to discover that he has little to give forth. PALMER. A contemporary of Newton and Leibnitz, sharing, there- fore, in the intellectual activity of that remarkable age which witnessed the birth of modern physical science, I2Q Benoit de Maillet spent a long life as a consular agent of the French government in various Mediterranean ports. HUXLEY, Darwin on the Origin of Species. First, I consider whether what I am about to say is true; then whether I can say it with brevity, in such a manner as that others shall see it as clearly as I do in the light of truth; for, if they survey it as an ingenuity, my desire is ungratified, my duty unfulfilled. LANDOR, Epictetus and Seneca. We may largely choose the influences to which we submit; we may exercise a selective attention among these in- fluences; we may enjoy, oppose, modify, or diligently ingraft what is conveyed to us, and for doing any one of these things rationally we must be guided by some clear aim. PALMER. Longer sentences On the ceiling at which you are looking, there is no gilding and little painting a mere trellis of vines bearing grapes, and the heads, shoulders, and arms, rising from the cornice only, of boys and girls climbing up to steal them, and scrambling for them: nothing over-head; no giants tumbling down, no Jupiter thundering, no Mars and Venus caught at Mid-day, no river gods pouring out their urns upon us; for, as I think nothing so insipid as a flat ceiling, I think nothing so absurd as a storied one. LANDOR, Lucullus and Caesar. As for nobility in particular persons, it is a reverend thing to see an ancient castle or building not in decay, or to see a fair timber-tree sound and perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble family, which hath stood against the waves and weathers of time! for new nobility is but the act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of time. BACON, Of Nobility. " While from the depths of ocean the wail of innocent victims, the cries of children and mothers cast away by an atrocious crime, fill the whole thinking world with sorrow and wrath, France, whose indomitable heroism had broken the effort of barbarism; France, who bears with un- equalled glory the heaviest weight of war; France, who pours forth her blood not for her own liberty alone, but for the liberty of others and for honor France gives fraternal greeting, as to a presage of triumphant right, to the flight of Roman eagles; she feels, from end to end of the earth, the heart-beat of quivering peoples, some to whom the favorable instant is now offered, some unquiet and others bruised the kindling of revolt of the universal conscience against the foolish pride of a caste of prey." DESCHANEL (translation: Nation, June 17, 1915, C. No. 2607, p. 676). See also MODELS, nos. 16, 64, 66. CONNECTIVE EXPRESSIONS. In developing a topic according to some fixed method, one or another of the following groups of connectives will come in play to express clearly the relations of the component ideas. The list is offered as a guide to the right connectives, with some synonyms for variation. Practice in the use of conjunctions goes a long way toward ensuring a clear understanding of the relations of ideas. Logical arrangement and coherence usually follow. ADDITIONAL ITEMS: and also again moreover besides then too further furthermore yet another yet again add to this once more CAUSAL RELATION: 1 Introducing a reason, - for since because 2 Drawing a conclusion, - a (similarity) thus accordingly so b (spatial) hence therefore wherefore c (post hoc) whence consequently it follows that then d (illative) for this reason because of this as a result ergo COMPARISON: 1 Similarity, so too likewise similarly in like manner here again such 2 Contrast, conversely . contrariwise on the other hand 132 CONDITIONS: 1 Favorable, a (assured) provided (supposing) that in this case (event) this (that) being so under these (such) cir- cumstances b (doubtful) if unless 2 Adverse, a (inadequate) though although despite in spite of notwithstanding even though be that as it may b (insuperable) were it not that but for otherwise else only CONVICTION : I Affirmative, possibly perhaps probably no doubt doubtless undoubtedly surely certainly Concessive, granted it is true to be sure in fact of course indeed Controversial, but yet however at the same time still nevertheless notwithstanding none the less to (on) the contrary Insistent, after all at all events even so for all that at least LISTS: Series, first, secondly, etc. namely as follows Instances, in particular for example for instance to illustrate Pairs, the one. . .the other the former . . . the latter 133 this(these). .that (those) here . . . there 4 Related groups (usually pairs), either ... or neither. . .nor whether. . .or whereas. . .yet though. . .yet wherever . . . there as. . .so since. . .then the more. . .the more not only . . . but also RELATIVE VALUES: primarily, secondarily, etc. chiefly above all especially even more all the more how much more SEQUENCE IN TIME: 1 Anterior, before previously ere this earlier heretofore formerly erstwhile 2 Contemporary, when while in the mean time as meanwhile 3 Posterior, after later subsequently hereupon thereafter thereupon whereupon then upon this shortly hereafter whereafter 4 Retrospective, by that time already at last at length 5 Prospective, henceforth thenceforth ever always TRANSITION: 1 Introducing a topic, as for with respect (regard) to concerning in re now 2 Repeating, in other words that is I repeat 134 this is as much as to say as I have said 3 Parenthetical, a (before) in passing incidentally a propos by the way farther on we shall see later b (after) to return to resume to continue 4 Retrospective, hitherto up to this point so far 5 Changing tone, a (earnestness) jesting aside in all seriousness b (candor) frankly for my part you see c (coming to terms) in point of fact as a matter of fact to come to the point on the whole 6 Summarizing, in short in a word in brief in general to sum up to recapitulate 7 Terminating, to conclude lastly finally in conclusion HISTORICAL REVIEW. (The list number appears also in both Precepts and Models immediately after the author's name. Although primarily this facilitates consecutive reading in the same author, it also permits an historical survey of English style sufficiently detailed to make out the characteristics of the centuries and to offer material for exercises in the modernization of early passages.) Foreign authors Wisdom of the Son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 53. LONGINUS, XXVI, XLII. QUINTILIAN, VIII. ST. AUGUSTINE, 71. 135 BUFFON, II, XV, XVII, XIX, XX, XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIV. VOLTAIRE, III. SCHOPENHAUER, XIV. English rhetoricians KAMES, Henry Home, Lord (1696-1782) XLIII. BLAIR, Hugh (1718-1800) XXIX. BAIN, Alexander (1818-1903) XXVIII. Periodical N.Y. Nation, 55. Student's theme, 8. English authors XV Century. 1 CAXTON, William (i422?-i49i) I, 10. XVI Century. 2 BERNERS, John Bourchier, Lord (1478-1533) 37. 3 LYLY, John (1554-1606) 45. 4 SIDNEY, Philip (1554-1 586)749. 5 HOOKER, Richard (1553-1600) 38, 59. XVII Century. 6 BACON, Francis (1561-1626) 19, 26, 30. 7 JONSON, Ben (1573-1637) VII. 8 BURTON, Robert (1577-1640) 54. 9 BROWNE, Thomas (1605-1682) 70, 80. 10 MILTON, John (1608-1674) n, 61. 11 TAYLOR, Jeremy (1613-1667) 60. 12 COWLEY, Abraham (1618-1667) 46. i2 a DRYDEN, John (1631?-! 700) 8 a . XVIII Century. 13 SWIFT, Jonathan (1667-1745) 20, 56. 14 ADDISON, Joseph (1672-1719) 63, 81. 15 STEELE, Richard (1672-1729) 72. 1 6 CHESTERFIELD, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of (1694- 1773) V. 136 iy FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790) IX. 18 JOHNSON, Samuel (1709-1784) XII, 9. 19 GOLDSMITH, Oliver (1728-1774) 44. 20 BURKE, Edmund (1729-1797) 22, 67, 69, 76. 21 GIBBON, Edward (1737-1794) XXXIX. 22 SHERIDAN, Richard Brinsley Butler (1751-1816) 66. 23 Anonymous (quoted by Jeffrey) 79. XIX Century. 24 WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850) 21. 25 COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834) XXIII, XXXV, XL. 26 LAMB, Charles (1775-1834) 31, 50. 27 HAZLITT, William (1778-1830) 24, 51. 28 HUNT, James Henry Leigh (1784-1859) 6. 29 DEQUINCEY, Thomas (1785-1859) IV, XXX, XXXIII. 30 MITFORD, Mary Russell (1786-1855) 57. 31 CARLYLE, Thomas (1795-1881) 5, 82. 32 MACAULAY, Thomas Babington (1800-1859) 4, 14. 33 MILL, John Stuart (1806-1873) 12, 48. 34 NEWMAN, John Henry (1801-1890) XI, XIII, XXXI, XXXII, XXXVII, XLI, 7, 15, 16, 25, 40, 41, 43, 62, 78, 83. 35 EMERSON, Ralph Waldo (1803-1882) 29, 32, 74. 36 POE, Edgar Allan (1809-1849) XXI. 37 THACKERAY, William Makepeace (1811-1863) 42. 38 ELIOT, George (1819-1880) 28. 39 LEWES, George Henry (1817-1878) XXIV, XXVII, XXXIV. 40 RUSKIN, John (1819-1900) 2, 39, 64, 85. 41 TRENCH, Richard Chenevix (1807-1886) 35, 36. 42 HUXLEY, Thomas Henry (1825-1895) 47. 43 ARNOLD, Matthew (1822-1888) 18, 58. 44 PATER, Walter Horatio (1839-1894) XXV, 27, 34, 68, 84. 45 CLIFFORD, William Kingdon (1845-1879) 13, 17, 75. 46 STEVENSON, Robert Louis Balfour (1850-1894) X, XVI XXII, 3, 33, 52, 77. 47 JAMES, William (1842-1910) 65. 48 HARRISON, Frederick, VI, XVIII, 73- 49 GOSSE, Edmund William, I. 50 LUCAS, E. 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