344 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on the numerous and tolerably obvious reservations which make it im- 

 possible to convert the pi-oposition in other words, to infer unusual 

 power from singularity ; the broad fact remains that where there is 

 that marked originality called genius, it is an originality not of thought, 

 emotion, or pursuits, but of the man. 



The application of this to literary style is easy, and will be found 

 to lead to some interesting results. 



In its powers of direct expression, language is tolerably efficient, 

 and were there nothing but facts, considered objectively, to be con- 

 veyed, even a simpler vehicle would suffice. Swift, in one of the most 

 humorous passages of " Gulliver's Travels," describes a set of philoso- 

 phers, who, disdaining language as the ordinary means of expressing 

 their thoughts, preferred to carry with them a pack of the things 

 most commonly referred to in every-day parlance, by the dexterous 

 manipulation of which they contrived to carry on long conversations. 

 Now this represents, with the necessary freedom of caricature, a real 

 truth with regard to a certain class of discourse. In any written com- 

 position, the less the author's personality is involved in the matter 

 treated, the simpler the language which suffices. The extreme form 

 of this truth is found in the case of algebra, where the discourse is, 

 so to speak, perfectly dispassionate, and the symbolism perfectly ade- 

 quate. Similarly, the language emjdoyed in mathematical proof is 

 found adequate in proportion as the statements are purely objective. 

 As we ascend in the scale of literary composition the authox*'s person- 

 ality creeps in, and brings with it a corresponding complexity of lan- 

 guage, not merely the complexity of structure of sentences, but of 

 choice of words, use of figures of speech, and all the refinements of 

 elaborate writing. It is true that much more than this has to be 

 taken into consideration ; the subjects themselves are infinitely more 

 complex as the scale is ascended, the distinctions are more delicate, 

 the contrasts present more sides to view, the gradations are subtilei*. 

 But is not this a corollary from the main principle ? Is it not because 

 we are then dealing either with facts of our own or the general con- 

 sciousness ; with ideas, emotions, desires, and so forth ; or at any rate 

 with external facts looked at from the point of view of an interested 

 and questioning observer, that there is this increase in complexity, or, 

 in other words, decrease in adequacy of language? 



But this idea admits of yet further development. The facts per- 

 fectly expressed in algebraical symbols receive a nearly perfect ex- 

 pression in mathematical language. The terminology of science is 

 found very tolerably sufficient, if strictly adhered to, and mostly where 

 expository and descriptive. In history and biography what we may 

 call the subjective element is strong, and there we find all the refine- 

 ments of composition. These express, not only facts and aspects of 

 facts, not only are there delicate implications of expression, embodied 

 in all the recognized figures of rhetoric, the trope, the simile, and the 



