lantly at a foot-ball match on Carterhaugh, than he would have heard that the boy had attained the highest honors of the first university in Europe." 1 29. A third form of condensation for vigor illustrates the adage, “A good writer is known by what he omits." It is the ellipsis of such elements and relations as the reader may be trusted mentally to supply, and yet of things so important that some vigor of thought is connoted in supplying them. Such are main sentence elements; indirect conjunctional relations; and colorings so essential to the truth that the omission leaves the assertion over-absolute or sweeping. EXAMPLES. -1. Ellipsis of a main sentence element. In the following the verb of the second clause is omitted, being easily supplied from the first: "With Raphael's character Byron's sins of vulgarity and false criticism would have been impossible, just as with Raphael's art Byron's sins of common and bad workmanship - -The following illustrates the strength of the negative no (cf. above, p. 268) to stand alone and dispense with a substantive verb: "Voltaire entered too eagerly into the interests of the world, was by temperament too exclusively sympathetic and receptive and social, to place himself even in imagination thus outside of the common circle. Without capacity for this, no comedy of the first order. Without serious consciousness of contrasts, no humor that endures." 2. Omitted or condensed conjunctional relation. In the following and is used condensively for and yet: "They know that the world is transitory, and they act as if it were eternal; they know eternal life is a truth, and they act as if it were a dream."4 - In the following the omission of and makes a more compact construction: "Let him have never so righteous a cause, A it is but the turn of a hand for God to prove him perverse.” 5 — The adversative, being a very pronounced relation, may sometimes be better omitted. The sentence " You say this; I deny it" is stronger thus condensed than if it were said "but I," or "I, on the other hand." — In the following the structure is made more compact, and an awkward repetition of but avoided, by omitting the correlate to not only (cf. p. 258, above): "But this is an understatement of the case; not only is the 1 LOCKHART, Life of Scott, Vol. x, p. 227. 2 MATTHEW ARNOLD, Essays in Criticism, Second Series, p. 179. 8 MORLEY, Voltaire, p. 141. 4 MOZLEY, Parochial Sermons, viii. Quoted EARLE, English Prose, p. 80. 5 GENUNG, Epic of the Inner Life, p. 45 literary study of the Bible permissible, it is a necessary adjunct to the Λ proper spiritual interpretation.” "1 3. Omission of saving clauses and shadings. This is a characteristic of the aphoristic sentence; cf. p. 276, 10, above, on the Epigram. The sentence "Respect is, incommode yourself," is so condensed as to require much interpretative thought; its editor thus explains it by putting in conditions: "In order to testify our deference towards a person, it is necessary to incommode ourselves, to put ourselves to trouble for him."2-The imperative is a useful means of condensing a condition or accompaniment; as, "Strip Virtue (= if you strip) of the awful authority she derives from the general reverence of mankind, and you rob her of half her majesty.” The following illustrates several forms of condensation : — "A dozen miles to make, Another long breath, and we emerge.' I stood I' the court-yard, roused the sleepy grooms. 'Have out Condensation for Rapidity. By this name rapidity may be designated that quality of style by virtue of which the thought is passed over lightly, with a smooth easy movement, and without attempt at emphasizing salient points. Many of the subordinate portions in any literary work call for merely such light and rapid handling, and the leading means of effecting this is by some form of condensation. 30. Rapidity is gained and vigor of impression lost by using the comprehensive term as equivalent to a number of particulars, the general instead of the specific. This is the opposite of the treatment prescribed in ¶ 28, and employed for an opposite effect. EXAMPLES. "He devours literature, no matter of what kind." If a rapid and casual statement is desired, this comprehensive word is enough; if, however, the fact is important it may be particularized: "Novels or sermons, poems or histories, no matter what, he devours them all." It is the importance or insignificance of an element for the present purpose that determines whether it shall be particularized or lumped together 1 The Bible as Literature, p. 5. 2 PASCAL, Thoughts, p. 208. 8 ABBOTT, How to Write Clearly, p. 39. 4 BROWNING, The Ring and the Book, Bk. vi, ll. 1402-5. in a class term. To raise a minor element into factitious prominence by particularization savors of bombast or pedantry; as if, for instance, instead of writing "in every British colony," one should write: "under Indian palm-groves, amid Australian gum trees, in the shadow of African mimosas, and beneath Canadian pines." Something noteworthy ought to depend on each detail to justify such amplitude. 31. For the sake of the lighter touch and more rapid movement, the impulse is to reduce expression to more attenuated form: as from the clause to the phrase or single word; from assertion to implication; from the additive clause to the restrictive or its equivalent, the participial phrase; from positive statement to apposition or parenthesis. EXAMPLES. 1. Of the word-equivalent for a clause. There are many adjectives in the language which have been coined as express equivalents for clauses; if they do not reproduce the whole thought of the clause they reproduce all that is necessary for a rapid touch. The following, in parallel columns, will illustrate this: "The extent and fertility of the Russian territory are such as to furnish facilities of increase and elements of strength which no nation in the world enjoys." "The style of this book is of such a nature that it cannot be understood." "This is a feature of the enterprise on which much depends." "The extent and fertility of the Russian territory are such as to furnish unparalleled facilities for the increase of her population and power." "The style of this book is unintelligible." "This is a cardinal feature of the enterprise." 2. Of implication. In the sentence, “Gladiatorial shows were first discouraged, and finally put down, by the humanizing spirit of Christianity," the italicized part gives both the agent and by implication the means; it is equivalent to "The spirit of Christianity was humanizing, and therefore," etc., or "Christianity, being of a humanizing spirit, discouraged," etc. The ability to put much of the thought in implication, and the skill to know just what, are among the most valuable elements of a writer's outfit. See this further illustrated in the packed epithet, p. 149, above. 3. Of the relative clause. Of the two relative constructions 1 the restrictive is the more rapid; and a slow-moving construction may often be considerably lightened by recasting so as to employ a restrictive instead of 1 For the connotation of the relative, see above, p. 236. :) an additive clause. This is especially desirable when a relative occurs within a relative. For example: "This curious design I bought of a nun in France, who passed years of toil upon the conceit, which is of more value than the material." Notice the greater lightness of, "who passed years of toil upon a conceit that is of more value than the material.". The participial construction,1 for either a relative or conjunctional clause is very convenient for rapid touch; for example: "Well, all this done, (= when all this was done) away we went to the Hague: arriving there = at which place we arrived) just as the Museum closed for that day." 2 4. Of apposition and parenthesis. "We called at the house of a person to whom we had letters of introduction, a musician, and, what is more, a good friend to all young students of music." This appositive construction condenses the material of two sentences into one, equivalent to, "He was a musician,” etc. - If the material of the following parenthesis were appended in a separate sentence, it would be too prominent for its significance, too lengthy for its movement: "We are all (and who would not be?) offended at the treatment we have received."- Sometimes the parenthesis may be used for lightly slipping in a euphemism, e.g. (the enemy may say, and there may be some difficulty in gainsaying him) is mawkish; Rose a doll; Don Guzman a famous 'portrait of a Spaniard' craped and sworded duly; Ayacanora any savage princess." 3 "Frank 32. Ellipsis for rapidity differs from ellipsis for vigor (T 29) in the fact that here the words omitted, instead of exciting notice by their absence, are words of such subordinate importance that they are not missed, while yet the greater lightness produced by their omission is realized; such are relatives, common subjects, and common objects of verbs and prepositions, -this last, technically called "splitting of particles," being open to caution as a suspect. EXAMPLES. 1. Of ellipsis of the relative. This is most natural in parts of the sentence remote from the central structure, as for instance inside of prepositional phrases or subordinated clauses; for example, "We know the instructors were masters of the art they taught."— Note at the end of the following sentence the good effect of omitting the relative: "For, whether in one or other form, . . . there is rest and peacefulness, . 1 For the participial phrase, see above, pp. 227-229. 2 FITZGERALD, Letters and Literary Remains, Vol. i, p. 292. ... 8 SAINTSBURY, Essays in English Literature, Second Series, p. 380. For parenthesis, its uses and cautions, see above, p. 129, 2. more beautiful yet when the rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no more in the resolution we hold."1 we have taken, but in the Hand Λ 2. Of common subjects of verbs. Where the subject would be repeated it may be expressed once for all; as, “And now, in his turn, Lindsay is gone also ; inhabits only the memories of other men, till these shall follow him; and figures in my reminiscences as my grandfather figured in his." 2 3. Of the splitting of particles. "He came to, and was induced to reside in, this city."— "Add to these a concert-master who can conduct such scores from memory, a director who knows them by, and reveres them at, heart, and the crown is complete." — This construction is to be used only with caution, and with no long delay after the particle; it is in fact lacking in cleanness and elegance, and by some purists is altogether condemned, on the ground, as one writer expresses it, that " Elegance prohibits an arrangement that throws the emphasis on, and thus causes a suspension of the sense at, a particle or other unimportant word." VIII. REPETITION. A great deal of the matter in any literary work is, and has to be, repetitious. The same ideas, the same forms of expression, must recur again and again, in order rightly to be impressed or made clear; and the constant problem is how to effect this repetition with skill and grace.* Repetition of Grammatical Elements. -As a matter of phraseology, it is important first to notice certain grammatical elements the repetition of which is essential to clearness. 33. A word essential to the construction of successive members of the sentence should be repeated whenever its omission would cause ambiguity or obscurity. This rule applies to subjects, prepositions, and conjunctions. EXAMPLES.-I. Of repeated subject. In the following example the which-clause intervening makes it necessary to repeat the subject intended: 1 RUSKIN, Modern Painters (revised edition), Vol. i, p. 172. |