An unmanly depression of spirits in time of danger is not an agreeable sight; and yet a fine description or representation of it will be relished:

K. Richard. What must the king do now? must be submit?
The king shall do it; must he be deposed?

The king shall be contented; must he lose
The name of king? i' God's name let it go:
I'll give my jewels for a set of beads;
My gorgeous palace for a hermitage;
My gay apparel, for an almsman's gown;
My figured goblets, for a dish of wood;
My sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;
My subjects, for a pair of carved saints;
And my large kingdom for a little grave;
A little, little grave;- -an obscure grave.
Or, I'll be buried in the king's highway;
Some way of common tread, where subjects' feet
May hourly trample on their sovereign's head;
For on my heart they tread now, whilst I live;
And buried once, why not upon my head?

Richard II. Act III. Sc. 6.

Objects that strike terror in a spectator, have in poetry and painting a fine effect. The picture by raising a slight emotion of terror, agitates the mind; and in that condition every beauty makes a deep impression. May not contrast heighten the pleasure, by opposing our present security to the danger of encountering the object represented?

-The other shape,

if shape it might be call'd, that shape had none
Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb;
Or substance might be call'd that shadow seem'd,
For each seem'd either; black it stood as night,
Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell,
And shook a dreadful dart.

Paradise Lost, b. ii. 1. 666.

-Now storming fury rose,

And clamor such as heard in heaven till now
Was never; arms on armor clashing bray'd
Horrible discord, and the madding wheels
Of brazen chariots raged; dire was the noise
Of conflict; overhead the dismal hiss
Of fiery darts in flaming volleys flew,
And flying vaulted either host with fire.
So under fiery cope together rush'd
Both battles main, with ruinous assault
And inextinguishable rage; all heaven
Resounded; and had earth been then, all earth
Had to her centre shook.

Ghost.

Paradise Lost, b. vi. 1. 207.

-But that I am forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,

Thy knotty and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on end,

Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood.

Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 8.

561. An ugly objec represented in colors or words. Example.-Terrible objects.

Gratiano. Poor Desdemona! I'm glad thy father's dead;
Thy match was mortal to him; and pure grief
Shore his old thread in twain. Did he live now,
This sight would make him do a desperate turn:
Yea, curse his better angel from his side,
And fall to reprobation.

Othello, Act V. Sc. 8.

562. Objects of horror must be expected from the foregoing theory; for no description, however lively, is sufficient to over balance the disgust raised even by the idea of such objects. Every thing horrible ought therefore to be avoided in a description. Nor is this a severe law: the poet will avoid such scenes for his own sake, as well as for that of his reader; and to vary his descriptions, nature affords plenty of objects that disgust us in some degree without raising horror. I am obliged therefore to condemn the picture of Sin in the second book of Paradise Lost, though a masterly performance: the original would be a horrid spectacle; and the horror is not much softened in the copy:

Pensive here I sat

Alone; but long I sat not, till my womb,
Pregnant by thee, and now excessive grown,
Prodigious motion felt and rueful throes.
At last this odious offspring whom thou seest,
Thine own begotten, breaking violent way,
Tore through my entrails, that with fear and pain
Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew
Transform'd; but he my inbred enemy
Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart,
Made to destroy; I fled, and cried out Death;
Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sigh'd
From all her caves, and back resounded Death.
I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems,
Inflamed with lust than rage), and swifter far,
Me overtook, his mother all dismay'd,

And in embraces forcible and foul
Ingend'ring with me, of that rape begot
These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry
Surround me, as thou saw'st, hourly conceived
And hourly born, with sorrow infinite
To me; for when they list, into the womb
That bred them they return, and howl and gnaw
My bowels, their repast; then bursting forth,
Afresh with conscious terrors vex me round,
That rest or intermission none I find.

Before mine eyes in opposition sits

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on,
And me his parent would full soon devour
For want of other prey, but that he knows,
His end with mine involved; and knows that I
Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane,
Whenever that shall be.

Book ii. 1. 777.

Iago's character in the tragedy of Othello, is insufferably monstrous and satanical not even Shakspeare's masterly hand can make the picture agreeable.

Though the objects introduced in the following scene is not

562. Objects of horror. Examples.

altogether so horrible as Sin is in Milton's description; yet with every person of delicacy, disgust will be the prevailing emotion:

-Strophades Graio stant nomine dicta
Insulæ Ionio in magno: quas dira Celano,
Harpyiæque colunt aliæ: Phineia postquam
Clausa domus, mensasque metu liquere priores.
Tristius haud illis monstrum, nec sævior ulla
Pestis et ira Deûm Stygiis sese extulit undis.
Virginei volucrum vultus, fœdissima ventris
Proluvies, uncæque manus, et pallida semper
Ora fame, &c.

See also Eneid, lib. iii. 613.

Eneid, lib. iii. 210.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF STYLE.

[From the Westminster Review (1852), somewhat abridged and modifled} 563. DR. LATHAM, condemning the incessant drill in English Grammar, rightly observes that "gross vulgarity is a fault to be prevented; but the proper preventive is to be got from habit, not from rules." So it must be acknowledged that excellence in composition is more dependent upon practice and natural talent, than upon a mere acquaintance with rhetorical rules. He who daily reads and hears, with close attention, well-framed sentences, will naturally more or less be prompted to frame well his own sentences. Some practical advantage, however, cannot fail to be derived from a familiarity with the principles of style, and from an habitual endeavor to conform to them in one's own practice.

66

66

The maxims contained in works on rhetoric and composition, are not so well apprehended nor so much respected, as they would be if they had been arranged under some one grand principle from which they may fairly be deduced. We are told, for example, that brevity is the soul of wit"-that every needless part of a sentence interrupts the description and clogs the image" that “long sentences fatigue the reader's attention"-that "to give the utmost force to a period, it ought, if possible, to be closed with the word that makes the greatest figure"-that "parentheses should be avoided”– that "Saxon words should be used in preference to those of Latin origin." We have certain styles condemned as verbose or involved. Admitting these maxims to be just, they lose much of their intrinsic force and influence from their isolated position, and from the want of scientific deduction from some fundamental principle.

563. Dr. Latham's observation.-Excellence in composition dependent on what?-Fault in works on rhetoric.

FIRST DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT.

CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL ENERGIES.

564. In seeking for the law which underlies these common maxims of rhetoric, we may see shadowed forth in many of them the importance of economizing the reader's or hearer's attention. To present ideas in such a form that they may be apprehended with the least possible effort, is the aim of most of the rules above quoted. When we condemn writing that is wordy, or confused, or intricate; when we praise one style as easy, and condemn another as fatiguing, we consciously or unconsciously assume this as the proper aim or standard in writing or speaking. Regarding language as an apparatus of symbols for the conveyance of thought, it is proper to say, as with reference to any mechanical apparatus, that the more simple and the better arranged its parts, the greater will be the effect produced. In either case, whatever force is absorbed by the machine is deducted from the result. A reader or listener has at each moment but a limited amount of mental power available. To recognize and interpret the symbols presented to him requires part of this power: to arrange and combine the im ages suggested requires another part; and only that part which remains can be used for the realization of the thought conveyed. Hence the more time and attention it requires to receive and understand each sentence, the less time and attention can be given to the contained idea, and the less vividly will that idea be conceived.

That language is in some measure a hindrance to thought while one of the most valuable instruments of thought, is apparent when we notice the comparatively greater force with which some thoughts are conveyed by simple signs and gestures. To say "Leave the room" is less expressive than to point to the door. Placing a finger upon the lips is more forcible than whispering, "Do not speak." A beck of the hand is better than "Come here." No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by translation into words.

565. Again, it may be remarked that when oral language is employed, the strongest effects are produced by interjections, which condense entire sentences into syllables; and, in other cases, where custom allows us to express thoughts by single words, as in Beware, Fudge, much force would be lost by expanding them into specific

564. The law which underlies the prominent maxims of rhetoric-The aim of most of those maxims.--The demands upon the mental power of the reader or listener.-Language, In some measure, a hindrance to thought.

verbal propositions. Hence, carrying out the metaphor that language is the vehicle of thought, there seems reason to think that in all cases the friction and inertia of the vehicle deduct from its efficiency; and that in composition the chief, if not the sole thing to be done, is to reduce this friction and inertia to the smallest possible amount. Let us then inquire whether economy of the hearer's or reader's attention is not the secret of effort, alike in the choice and collocation of words; in the best arrangement of clauses in a sentence; in the proper order of its principal and subordinate propositions; in the judicious use of simile, metaphor, and other figures of speech; and in even the rhythmical sequence of syllables.

I. THE CHOICE OF WORDS.

566. (1) The superior forcibleness of Saxon English, or rather non-Latin English, first claims our attention. The several special reasons assignable for this may all be reduced to the general reason— economy. The most important of them is early association. A child's vocabulary is almost wholly Saxon. He says, I have, not I possess; I wish, not I desire: he does not reflect, he thinks; he does not beg for amusement, but for play; he calls things nice or nasty, not pleasant or disagreeable. The synonyms which he learns in after years never become so closely, so organically connected with the ideas signified, as do these original words used in childhood; and hence the association remains less powerful. But in what does a powerful association between a word and an idea differ from a weak one? Simply in the greater rapidity and ease of comprehension, until, from its having been a conscious effort to realize their meanings, their meanings ultimately come without any effort at all; and if we consider that the same process must have gone on with the words of our mother tongue from childhood upward, we shall clearly see that the earliest-learnt and oftenest-used words, will, other things being equal, call up images with less loss of time and energy than their later-learned synonyms.

567. (2) The comparative brevity of Saxon English is another feature that brings it under the same generalization. If it be an advantage to express an idea in the smallest number of words, then will it be an advantage to express it in the smallest number of syllables. If circuitous phrases and needless expletives distract the attention and diminish the strength of the impression produced, then do surplus articulations do so. A certain effort, though commonly an inappreciable one, must be required to recognize every vowel and

565. Interjections. Single words.-The chief thing to be done in composition.-In what respects economy of attention is to be practised.

566. Superior forci bleness of Saxon English.-First reason.--In what a powerful associa Hon between a word and its idea differs from a weak one.