34Q THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



STYLE. 



By T. H. WEIGHT. 



A RECENT historian of Rome, toward the close of his famous at- 

 tempt to undeceive the world at large with respect to the genius 

 of Cicero, sums up his argument in the following words : " Ciceronian- 

 ism is a problem which, in fact, cannot be properly solved, but can 

 only be resolved into that greater mystery of human nature lan- 

 guage, and the effect of language on the mind." 



These words are suggestive suggestive, too, of a wider question 

 than at first sight appears. That men are influenced by language at 

 least as much as by ideas ; that power of expression is intimately as- 

 sociated with mental grasp generally; even that a fascination is ex- 

 ercised by style to which nothing equivalent is found in the accom- 

 panying thought these are acknowledged truths, readily granted. 

 But it is a most singular thing that they are so readily granted ; it is 

 singular that the question is not oftener asked, " Why is this so? " 



How is it that language, which is but the vehicle of thought, 

 comes to have a force which is not the mere weight of that which it 

 carries ? Even where this is not the case, where there is an equiva- 

 lence of value in both style and ideas, great conceptions being nobly 

 expressed, how is it that the matter and the form seem to have inde- 

 pendent claims upon the attention? In a word, what is that in lan- 

 guage which is not mere expressiveness of the obvious intentions of 

 the writer, but is yet a merit ? 



At first sight there appears to be a simple answer to the question. 

 Any of the numerous treatises on style or rhetoric abound with rules 

 for the embellishment of discourse : the reader learns the importance 

 of a choice of fitting words, of the judicious use of figures of speech, 

 of the effect of melodious sentences and suitable cadences ; he is in- 

 structed in the manipulation of complex constructions, and discovers 

 the force of the gradation, the antithesis and the climax ; in short, he 

 is easily led to the conclusion that, besides expressiveness, language 

 may have the merit of beauty. 



That this distinction is a superficial one has been shown with great 

 ability in an article by Mr. Herbert Spencer, on the " Philosophy 

 of Style." ' He there traces all excellence of composition to two 

 principles Economy of the Attention, and Economy of the Sensibility 

 of the recipient. Assuming that a reader can have at his command 

 only a definite amount of power of attention, it is clear that whatever 

 part of this is employed on the form of a composition must be sub- 

 tracted, and leave so much the less to be occupied in the matter. In 

 its popular aspect this is a truth familiar to all. If any author is said 

 1 Published in separate form, with flexible covers, by D. Appleton & Co. 



