87.

88.

ling any subject is a tractate, tract, and treatise; what belongs to a house is domestic; what hangs with the point directly downwards is perpendicular; what belongs to the groundwork of a thing is fundamental; the form of a thing in the mind is an idea; what is easy to be carried is portable; what is hard to be done is difficult. The advantage of brevity in all these cases is with the classic word, similarly, essence, impenetrability, immortality, are words briefer and clearer than any corresponding Anglo-Saxon forms; and as abstracts they call attention to the qualities they indicate as completely as do Anglo-Saxon specific names to the individual things they represent. Hence the importance of a mixed style: partly Anglo-Saxon, partly classical. We particularize and define things in Anglo-Saxon; we generalize and define abstractions in words of classic origin. The student will find information on the nature and on the time and manner of the introduction of classic words, in Part II of the Grammar, pages 188-201.

In reference to the number of words used we may distinguish between

(a). The Concise, or Terse, Style.

(b). The Diffuse, or Verbose, Style.

These two styles have already been fully explained. (see 62).

In reference to the order of words we may distinguish between

(a). The Natural, Flowing, or Direct Style.

(b). The Inverted, Involved, or Indirect Style.

These have been sufficiently adverted to in the latter part of Section II.

8. In reference to the kind of sentences used we may

distinguish

(a). The Abrupt Style, made up principally of short

sentences.

(b). The Flowing Style, made up of long sentences.
(c). The Loose Style.

(d). The Balanced Style.

These varieties will be fully explained in Section
IV, under "the Sentence."

90. In reference to Thought, or Meaning, the most important quality of style is Clearness or Perspicuity; which consists in such a use and arrangement of words and clauses as at once distinctly indicates the meaning of the writer or speaker. Clearness in the use of particular words has already been discussed. (see 59). Young writers often fall into the mistake of supposing that whatever is clear must be trifling and unimportant. This mistake may best be exposed by studying some of the more popular works of our great modern scientific authors. It must, however, be admitted that when thought is poor, perspicuity makes the poverty the plainer. Hence, an essential condition of true clearness is that a writer should thoroughly understand and distinctly perceive what it is that he wishes to state, before sitting down to write his composition. Now the peculiar difficulty experienced by the student of a foreign language in expressing himself with clearness in that language is this, the thoughts and ideas that he wishes to express may be clearly and distinctly before his mind in his own language; and this very clearness and distinctness may be the very cause of his making mistakes in idiom, and thus obscuring his meaning in the foreign tongue. How is this difficulty to be overcome? An excellent plan would be for four or five such careful students to

agree to revise their compositions together; each one in turn reading his production to the others, and carefully noting down all such expressions as are not immediately understood by his hearers. Obscurities and ambiguities would thus be detected and could be corrected at leisure by the writer. We have already seen that two other essentials of clearness are

(a). Grammatical accuracy.

(b). Correct order, or collocation, of words.

91. In drawing comparisons, clearness is greatly promoted by observing a resemblance in language and construction; or, in other words, by so describing the things compared that the agreements and differences shall be correspondingly placed, and all unnecessary matter excluded. The following is a good example of such comparison;

"Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist: in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work. Homer hurries us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence." (Pope.)

The following, on the other hand, are weak;

"He embraced the cause of liberty, faintly, and pursued it without resolution; he grew tired of it when he had much to hope, and gave it up when there was no ground for apprehension."

"Force was resisted by force, valour opposed by valour, and art encountered or eluded by similar address."

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The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him."

(Spectator.)

"I have observed of late the style of some great ministers

very much to exceed that of any other productions."
(Swift.)

"There may remain a suspicion that we overrate the
greatness of his (Shakspere's) genius in the same manner
as bodies appear more gigantic on account of their being
disproportioned and mis-shapen." (Hume.) (say
overrate the greatness of bodies that are”).

66

' we

Lord Macaulay's writings abound with fine illustrations of these antithetical-comparisons.

92. Other rules conducive to clearness are the following ;(a). Members of a sentence may be connected either by a conjunction or by a relative pronoun, but not by both. Hence the following are faulty ;

"He was a man of fine abilities, and who lost no opportunity of improving them by study."

"Shakspere was a man of profound genius, and whose bold and striking thoughts must be admired in every age."

(b). The splitting of particles,-that is, the separation
of a preposition from the noun which it governs, is
admissible only when the sentence is very short, and
when the particles themselves are the emphatic words.
Thus ;-

"Whether he be for, or against, us, I cannot tell."
In all other cases, this splitting of particles is to be
avoided; for such constructions,-although they are
not ungrammatical, and although they are sometimes
conducive to exactness of expression,-tend to suspend
the sense and to direct the attention unduly to the
insignificant particles. Thus, the following are
faulty;-

"Though virtue borrows no assistance from, yet it
may often be accompanied by, the advantages of

93.

fortune."

"As the strength of our cause does not depend upon,

so neither is it to be decided by, any critical points of history, chronology, or language."

(c). The indefinite words "it" and "there" should not be used to introduce statements, unless these are of special importance. Thus ;

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(There is) nothing (that) disgusts us sooner than the empty pomp of language."

"(It is) here (that) I live."

Dr. Angus points out three faults to which we are liable when seeking after clearness of style ;—

(a). Some writers think that they are never clear unless
they describe minutely every part of a subject and
indicate every step of an argument. Nothing is left
to the imagination or thought of the reader. Such a
man commits the same mistake as a map-maker who
inserts all the villages and streams of a country
instead of contenting himself with the principal towns
and rivers. The effect is, that the smaller places
cannot be discovered without a glass, while by their
presence on the map what would otherwise be clear is
completely concealed.

(b). No less mischievous is the process of blending with
narrative or argument maxims and sentiments so
common-place and trivial as to be taken for granted
by all readers. Men sometimes think, that in such
cases it is the clearness that readers condemn, when
in truth it is the triteness. The cure is to be sought
not in obscurity of style but in freshness of thought.
(c). Writers confound "literal" and "clear." They
suppose that nothing is clear that is figurative; and,
in seeking to be perspicuous, are only dull and