says much more to one man than could be learned by another from a summary of Grecian History, or even from a sight of the Parthenon and the Acropolis. In trying not to be prolix, one should beware of the opposite extreme, should avoid ellipses that it is difficult to bridge, compression that takes the life out of language, laborious conciseness of every kind; but even into these faults a verbose writer often falls. Impatient himself of his slow progress, he tries to get on faster, but only succeeds in omitting, not what his readers may be presumed to know, but what he knows best himself. Misplaced brevity. Brevity is not, however, as some seem to think, the one thing needful in writing. The shortest word, sentence, or paragraph is not necessarily the best one. Economy in syllables is not always true economy. The very author who lays it down as "an axiom that languor is the cause or the effect of most disorders," also says: "It is silly to argue that we gain ground by shortening on all occasions the syllables of a sentence. Half a minute, if indeed so much is requisite, is well spent in clearness, in fulness, and pleasurableness of expression, and in engaging the ear to carry a message to the understanding.” 1 1 Landor: Works, vol. iv. pp. 50, 51. Quintilian has a sentence to the same effect: "Fortasse ubique, in narratione tamen praecipue, media haec tenenda sit via dicendi, quantum opus est, et quantum satis est. Quantum opus est autem non ita solum accipi volo, quantum ad indicandum sufficit, quia non inornata debet esse brevitas, alioqui sit indocta; nam et fallit voluptas et minus longa quae delectant videntur, ut amoenum ac molle iter, etiamsi est spatii amplioris, minus fatigat quam durum aridumque conpendium."— Inst. Orator. iv. ii. xlv. CHAPTER III. ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS. SUCCESS in either spoken or written discourse depends even more upon the order in which words are arranged than upon their choice or their number. In an ideal arrangement, the position of every verbal sign The ideal would exactly correspond to that of the thing arrangement. signified; the order of the language would be the order of the thought, and would distinctly indicate the relative importance of every constituent part of the composition. "If conformity between words and their meaning be agreeable, it must of course be agreeable to find the same order or arrangement in both." Of this ideal arrangement no human language is susceptible; but a writer should aim to come as near the ideal as is permitted by the limitations of the language in which he writes. 1 I. Clearness and Force may often be gained by Antithesis,2 the setting over against 2 each other of Value of contrasted or opposed ideas, expressed in lan- Antithesis. guage that brings out the contrast most forcibly, word corresponding to word, clause to clause, construction to construction.3 The principle is the same with that which makes a white object appear whiter and a black one blacker if the black and the white are placed side by side, particularly if they are similar in size and are looked at from a similar point of view. In both cases, 1 Lord Kames: Elements of Criticism, chap. xviii. sect. ii. 3 See p. 137. the resemblance in some respects between the two things contrasted makes their dissimilarity in other respects more striking. For example: "Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools; "Measures, not men; "When reason is against a man, he will be against reason ; "I do not live to eat, but eat to live;" "Party is the madness of many for the gain of a few;" "A proverb is the wisdom of many and the wit of one.” "Here lies our good Edmund [Burke] whose genius was such, We scarcely can praise it, or blame it too much; Who, born for the universe, narrow'd his mind, And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.” 1 Burke makes frequent and effective use of Antithesis. For example: “A great empire and little minds go ill together. . . . Our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most extensive and the only honorable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race." 2 Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and simple, the other full of perplexed and intricate mazes. This is mild, that harsh. This is found by experience effectual for its purposes; the other is a new project. This is universal; the other calculated for certain Colonies only. This is immediate in its conciliatory operation; the other remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes the dignity of a ruling people, gratuitous, unconditional, and not held out as matter of bargain and sale." 2 "The question with me is, not whether you have a right to render your people miserable; but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a politic act the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession proper, but that which is made from your want of right to keep what you grant ? " 2 1 Goldsmith: Retaliation. The poem is full of antitheses. See also Pope and Dryden. 2 Burke: Works, vol. ii. pp. 49, 77, 82; Speech on Conciliation with America. See also p. 134. Burke's antitheses are peculiarly valuable as examples, because they are real antitheses, corresponding to a real opposition between ideas; and also because they are not so frequent or so protracted as to become monotonous, excellences which cannot be fully appreciated without a thorough study of one of Burke's speeches as a whole. Mock In striking contrast with this great writer's temperate use of Antithesis are the excesses into which Dr. Johnson, Gibbon, Junius, and even Ma- Antithesis. caulay fall. Sometimes such writers throw simple sentences into an antithetical form "by the addition of clauses which add little or nothing to the sense, and which have been compared to the false handles and keyholes with which furniture is decorated, that serve no other purpose than to correspond to the real ones." 1 Antithesis. Sometimes the fault consists in such a frequent use of Antithesis as gives to the composition an Excessive artificial air; the author seems to pay more attention to manner than to matter; "he stimulates till all stimulants lose their power."2 Such excessive use of Antithesis leads to exaggeration. The most striking contrasts are between extremes; but the truth rarely lies at either extreme. 8 Besides employing "unnecessary antithesis to express very simple propositions,' Macaulay has a tendency to make slight sacrifices of truth to antithesis. The chapter on the state of society in 1685 has been convicted of many exaggerated statements by less dazzling antiquarians. In his numerous comparisons between different men, he unquestionably tampers with the realities for the sake of enhancing the effect. He exaggerates the melancholy of 1 Whately: Rhetoric, part iii. chap. ii. sect. xiv. 8 "Edinburgh Review." Dante's character on the one hand, and the cheerfulness of Milton's on the other; he puts too strongly the purely illustrative character of Dante's similes in contradistinction to the purely poetic or ornamental character of Milton's. So he probably overstates the shallowness and flippancy of Montesquieu, to heighten by contrast the solidity and stateliness of Machiavelli." 1 Balanced Balanced sentences-that is, sentences composed of successive clauses which are constructed on sentences. the same plan, and in which corresponding words occupy corresponding places often contain antithetical words or clauses; but even where they do not, their advantages and disadvantages are similar to those of Antithesis. Dr. Johnson's well-known parallel between Dryden and Pope is full of sentences of this character. It ends as follows: "If the flights of Dryden therefore are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If of Dryden's fire the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment, and Pope with perpetual delight.” 2 When not carried to excess, the balanced structure is agreeable to the ear, is a help to the memory, and gives emphasis to each of the balanced expressions: when carried to excess, it makes a writer the slave of sound; it produces upon the reader the monotonous effect without the charm of rhythm; and it leads to a sacrifice of strict truth. "A true poet will never confound verse and prose; whereas it is almost characteristic of indifferent prose writers that they should be constantly slipping into scraps of metre." 3 Even writers of merit are not free from this fault. Readers 1 William Minto: A Manual of English Literature, p. 121. 2 Johnson: Lives of the Poets; Pope. 3 Coleridge: Literary Remains, lect. xiv.; On Style. "Oratio non descendet ad crepitum digitorum."- Quintilian: Inst. Orator. ix. iv. lv. |