mankind and do more essential service to his country than this whole race of politicians put together." (Swift.) (c). Elegant Style may be regarded as the perfection of style. "An elegant writer," says Blair, "is one who pleases the fancy and the ear, while he informs the understanding; and who gives us his ideas clothed with all the beauty of expression, but not overcharged with any of its misplaced finery." Contrasting Elegance and Strength, Whately says "Elegance requires that all homely and coarse words should be avoided, even at the expense of circumlocution (see 63 c); though they may be the most apt and forcible that language can supply. And Elegance implies a smooth and easy flow of words in respect of the sound of the sentences; though a more harsh and abrupt mode of expression may often be, at least, equally energetic. Accordingly, many are generally acknowledged to be forcible writers, to whom no one would give the credit of elegance; and many others who are allowed to be clegant are yet by no means reckoned among the vigorous and energetic." As models of Elegance we may take the works of Joseph Addison, Alexander Pope, and last, but by no means least, those of Lord Macaulay. Example; "A hundred generations have passed away since the first great national emancipation, of which an account has come down to us. We read in the most ancient of books that a people bowed to the dust under a cruel yoke, scourged to toil by hard taskmasters, not supplied with straw, yet compelled to furnish the daily tale of bricks, became sick of life, and raised such a cry as pierced the heavens. The slaves were wonderfully set free; at the moment of their liberation they raised a song of gratitude and triumph; but in a few hours, they began to regret their slavery, and to reproach the leader who decoyed them away from the savoury fare of the house of bondage to the dreary waste which still separated them from the land of milk and honey. Since that time the history of every great deliverer has been the history of Moses retold. Down to the present time, rejoicings like those on the shore of the Red Sea have ever been speedily followed by murmurings, like those at the Waters of Strife. The most just and salutary revolution must produce much suffering. The most just and salutary revolution cannot produce all the good that had been expected from it by men of uninstructed minds and sanguine tempers. Even the wisest cannot, while it is still recent, weigh quite fairly the evils which it has caused against the evils which it has removed. For the evils which it has caused are felt, and the evils which it has removed are felt no longer." (Macaulay). (d). Florid Style is one in which ornament is everywhere employed. There are two kinds of Floridity;(I). Where the figures spring from a luxuriant imagination and have a solid basis of thought to rest upon. This style has been succesfully employed by several distinguished writers, more especially in poetry. But it is only writers of great genius that can hope to succeed by means of Floridity. Macaulay's Essay on John Milton" is a case in point. Twenty years after he had written this article the great writer himself condemned it as being "overloaded" with gaudy and ungraceful ornament." (II). The luxuriance may be in words alone and not in imagination or ideas. Into this fault the student of English is peculiarly liable to fall if he attempts Floridity. He should therefore avoid this style. "Careful revision," says Mr. Quackenbos, "is the best means of correcting an over-florid style. Unnecessary words must be stricken out, and even whole sentences must sometimes be remodelled. On the ornamental parts, in particular, the file must be freely used. Figures which are not in all rospects chaste and appropriate to the subject must be unceremoniously removed. To write frequently on familiar themes will be found another effective means of correcting excessive floridity. In such exercises, the inappropriateness of too much ornament will be obvious to the writer himself, and the effort made to repress it will have a beneficial effect on all his compositions." 85. In addition to the above styles, classified according to the amount of figurative language in general which each contains, we may distinguish between certain styles in which special figures of speech predominate. Thus we may have styles called Metaphorical, Antithetical, Epigrammatic, Hyperbolic, Climactic, Ironical, Sarcastical, Elliptical, &c. These varieties have been sufficiently explained in Section I. of this book. 86. In reference to the origin of the words used, we may distinguish between. (a). Saxon Style, in which short words, mostly derived from the Anglo-Saxon language, are principally employed. Of this style Tennyson's poems "In Memo riam" afford a good example, containing as they do 36 Anglo-Saxon words out of every forty words written. In the following beautiful stanza every word is of Saxon origin ;— I hold it true whate'er befall; I feel it when I sorrow most; 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all." In the following only the three italicized words are of classic origin; "The Danube to the Severn gave The darkened heart that beats no more; They laid him by the pleasant shore, And hushes half the babbling Wye, Dr. Angus observes that "poetry ought to contain more Anglo-Saxon words in proportion than prose, for the subjects of which it treats are not much influenced by modern discovery, nor is the phraseology which describes it. It must also be kept in mind that, as our language increases in foreign origin every year, a style 3 ths Saxon is much more Saxon now than it would have been a hundred years ago. Hence it is clear that the preference for Saxon words is growing amongst us. Hence also a good practical rule-the study of poetry is a great help to the formation of a Saxon style." For hints on the recognition of words of Saxon origin the student is referred to the Grammar (Rules 649 and 650). (b). Classical Style which abounds with words of Latin or Greek origin. The following passage from Johnson is a good example of a Latinized style; the classical words being printed in italics ; "Of genius, that power that constitutes a poet: that quality without which judgment is cold, and knowledge is inert; that energy which collects, combines, amplifies, and animates; the superiority must, with some hesitation, be allowed to Dryden. It is not to be inferred that of this poetical vigour Pope had only a little, because Dryden had more; for every other writer since Milton must give place to Pope, and even of Dryden it must be said, that if he had brighter paragraphs, he has not better poems." Of this quotation Dr. Angus remarks that it "suggests an important principle when we come to apply the rule of numerical proportion to determine whether a style is Latinized or Saxon. Most of the words that connect together our speech are necessarily Saxon, and these may be very numerous, without affecting the general character of our composition. To make a Saxon style, therefore, we need to draw our verbs and nouns largely from that tongue. Take care of the verbs and nouns; the particles will take care of themselves." On the comparative advantages of a Saxon and of a Latinized style Dr. Angus makes these observations; -Style, it is well known is most vivid, impressive, and picturesque, in proportion as it deals in particulars. The same excellence belongs, it will be seen, to a style that is rich in Anglo-Saxon terms. while Anglo-Saxon gives us words that are most specific and picturesque, words of classic origin have often the advantage of brevity, and, where the ideas are abstract, of clearness. For example, a book hand But |