342 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ing numerous others, calls up these with more or less distinctness, and revives 

 the feeling of dull solitude with which they are connected in our experience. 

 "Were all these facts detailed, instead of suggested, the attention would be so 

 frittered away that little impression of dreariness would be produced. Similarly 

 in other cases. "Whatever the nature of the thought to be conveyed, this skill- 

 ful selection of a few particulars which imply the rest is the key to success. In 

 the choice of competent ideas, as in the choice of expressions, the aim must be 

 to convey the greatest quantity of thoughts with the smallest quantity of 

 words. 11 ' 



But Mr. Spencer does not rest content with deducing what may 

 be called the adventitious charms of poetry from this principle ; he 

 even thinks that its distinctive characteristic the restrictions of 

 metre may be explained by the same law. " The pleasure," he says, 

 " which its measured movement gives us is ascribable to the compara- 

 tive ease with which words metrically arranged can be recognized." 2 

 Most people will be startled at the first sight of this bold dictum, but 

 Mr. Spencer is not the man to shrink from the logical consequences 

 of his principles, and they lead to more than this. 



Any one who has attentively read the article, or even the brief 

 resume, of it just given, will have seen that the theory furnishes a 

 canon for determining, with some degree of certainty, which of two 

 styles is the better. To quote again : " The relative goodness of any 

 two modes of expressing an idea may be determined by observing 

 which requires the shortest process of thought for its comprehen- 

 sion." 3 



Clearly, then, there must, in every case, be some form of expres- 

 sion which is absolutely the best; in other w r ords, there is such a 

 thing as an ideal style. Mr. Spencer accepts the conclusion, but at 

 the same time reminds us that style must vary with its subject-matter. 



" The perfect writer will express himself as Junius, when in the 

 Junius frame of mind ; when he feels as Lamb felt, will use a like 

 familiar speech; and will fall into the ruggedness of Carlyle when in 

 a Carlylean mood." 4 



The reservation is a proper one, and with it the argument seems 

 unimpeachable. Yet when Mr. Spencer throws the conclusion into 

 the form of an epigram, and tells us that " to have a specific style is 

 to be poor in speech," 6 he makes the utmost possible demand upon our 

 loyalty to exact reasoning. Like Adeimantus in " The Republic," we 

 are " confounded by this novel kind of draughtsplaying, played with 

 words for counters." 



But if the foregoing theory be carefully reviewed, it will be seen 

 that throughout it the treatment is what may be described as objective 

 rather than subjective. Or, to avoid words in which there is a degree 

 of ambiguity, the definite product language is more or less isolated 



1 " Philosophy of Style," p. 34. 2 Ibid., p. 39. s Ibid., p. 33. 



4 Ibid., p. 48. 5 Ibid., p. 47. 



