of these elements, it is very easy for any one, though unacquainted with Saxon, to observe this precept, if he has but a knowledge of French or of Latin; and there is a remarkable scope for such a choice as I am speaking of, from the multitude of synonymes derived, respectively, from those two sources. The compilers of our Liturgy being anxious to reach the understandings of all classes, at a time when our language was in a less settled state than at present, availed themselves of this circumstance in employing many synonymous, or nearly synonymous, expressions, most of which are of the description just alluded to. Take, as an instance, the Exhortation: " acknowledge" and "confess;" "dis"cloak ;' and "humble" and "lowly;

semble "

"goodness" and mercy; "assemble" and "meet together." And here it may be observed, that (as in this last instance) a word of French origin will very often not have a single word of Saxon derivation corresponding to it, but may find an exact equivalent in a phrase of two or more words; e. g. constitute," "go to make up ;"-" suffice," "be enough for ; "-"substitute," "put in the stead," &c. &c.

It is worthy of notice, that a Style composed chiefly of the words of French origin, while it is less intelligible to the lowest classes, is characteristic of those who in cultivation of taste are below the highest. As in dress, furniture, deportment, &c., so also in language, the dread of vulgarity constantly besetting those who are half-conscious that they are in danger of it, drives them into the extreme of affected finery. So that the precept which has been given with a view to perspicuity, may, to a certain degree, be observed with an advantage in point of elegance also.

In adapting the Style to the comprehension of the illiter

Perspicuity

not inconsistent

with ornament.

ate,* a caution is to be observed against the ambiguity of the word "Plain; " which is opposed sometimes to Obscurity, and sometimes to Ornament. The vulgar require a perspicuous, but by no means a dry and unadorned style; on the contrary, they have a taste rather for the over-florid, tawdry, and bombastic: nor are the ornaments of style by any means necessarily inconsistent with perspicuity; indeed Metaphor, which is among the principal of them, is, in many cases, the clearest mode of expression that can be adopted; it being usually much easier for uncultivated minds to comprehend a similitude or analogy, than an abstract term. And hence the language of savages, as has often been remarked, is highly metaphorical; and such appears to have been the case with all languages in their earlier, and consequently ruder and more savage state; all terms relating to the mind and its operations, being, as appears from the etymology of most of them, originally metaphorical; though by long use they have ceased to be so: e. g. the words "ponder,” “deliberate," "reflect," and many other such, are evidently drawn by analogy from external sensible bodily actions.

$ 3.

Construction of Sentences.

In respect to the Construction of Sentences, it is an obvious caution to abstain from such as are too long; but it is a mistake to suppose that the obscurity of many long sentences depends on their length alone. A well-constructed sentence of very considerable length may be more readily understood than a shorter

* See Elements of Logic. Fallacies, Book III. § 5. p. 109.

one which is more awkwardly framed. If a sentence be so constructed that the meaning of each part can be taken in as we proceed, (though it be evident that the sense is not brought to a close,) its length will be little or no impediment to perspicuity; but if the former part of the sentence convey no distinct meaning till we arrive nearly at the end, (however plain it may then appear,) it will be, on the whole, deficient in perspicuity; for it will need to be read over, or thought over, a second time, in order to be fully comprehended; which is what few readers or hearers are willing to be burdened with. Take as an instance such a sentence as this: "It is not without a degree of patient attention and persevering diligence, greater than the generality are willing to bestow, though not greater than the object deserves, that the habit can be acquired of examining and judging of our own conduct with the same accuracy and impartiality as that of another; this labors under the defect I am speaking of; which may be remedied by some such alteration as the following: “The habit of examining our own conduct as accurately as that of another, and judging of it with the same impartiality, cannot be acquired without a degree of patient attention and persevering diligence, not greater indeed than the object deserves, but greater than the generality are willing to bestow." The two sentences are nearly the same in length, and in the words employed; but the alteration of the arrangement allows the latter to be understood clause by clause, as it proceeds.* The

* Care must be taken, however, in applying this precept, not to let the beginning of a sentence so forestall what follows as to render it apparently feeble and impertinent: e. g. "Solomon, one of the most celebrated of men for wisdom and for prosperity."

66

Why,

who needs" (the hearer will be apt to say to himself,) "to be told that?" and yet it may be important to the purpose in hand to fix the attention on these circumstances: let the description come before the

caution just given is the more necessary to be insisted on, because an author is apt to be misled by reading over a sentence to himself, and being satisfied on finding it perfectly intelligible; forgetting that he himself has the advantage, which a hearer has not, of knowing at the beginning of the sentence what is coming in the close.

Clear ideas do not imply clearness of expression.

And hence

Universally, indeed, an unpractised writer is liable to be misled by his own knowledge of his own meaning, into supposing those expressions clearly intelligible, which are so to himself; but which may not be so to the reader, whose thoughts are not in the same train. it is that some do not write or speak with so much perspicuity on a subject which has long been very familiar to them, as on one, which they understand indeed, but with which they are less intimately acquainted, and in which their knowledge has been more recently acquired. In the former case it is a matter of some difficulty to keep in mind the necessity of carefully and copiously explaining principles which by long habit have come to assume in our minds the appearance of selfevident truths. Utterly incorrect therefore is Blair's notion, that obscurity of Style necessarily springs from indistinctness of Conception. A little conversation on nautical affairs, with sailors, or on agriculture, with farmers, would soon have undeceived him.

$4.

The foregoing rules have all, it is evident, proceeded on the supposition that it is the writer's intention to be understood; and this

name, and the sentence, while it remains equally perspicuous, will be free from the fault complained of.

cannot but be the case in every legitimate exercise of the Rhetorical art; and generally speaking, even where the design is Sophistical. For, as Dr. Campbell has justly remarked, the Sophist may employ for his purpose what are in themselves real and valid arguments; since probabilities may lie on opposite sides, though truth can be but on one; his fallacious artifice consisting only in keeping out of sight the stronger probabilities which may be urged against him, and in attributing an undue weight to those which he has to allege. Or again, he may, either directly or indirectly, assume as selfevident, a premise which there is no sufficient ground for admitting; or he may draw off the attention of the hearers to the proof of some irrelevant point, &c., according to the various modes described in the Treatise on FALLACIES; *but in all this there is no call for any departure from perspicuity of Style, properly so called; not even when he avails himself of an ambiguous term. "For though," as Dr. Campbell 66 says, a Sophism can be mistaken for an Argument only where it is not rightly understood," it is the aim of him who employs it, rather that the matter should be misunderstood than not understood; that his language. should be deceitful, rather than obscure or unintelligible. The hearer must not indeed form a correct, but he must form some, and if possible, a distinct, though erroneous, idea of the arguments employed, in order to be misled by them. The obscurity in short, if it is to be so called, must not be, strictly speaking, obscurity of Style; it must be, not like a mist which dims the appearance of things, but like a colored glass which disguises them.

The nearest approach perhaps to obscurity of style that can serve a sophistical purpose, is, when something is said which

*Logic, B. III.