CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



confusion, or overloading the structure is likely 

 to be simple. The difficulty of attaining simplicity 

 of structure arises from the nature of the subject 

 the stream of composition can consist of only one 

 thread, whereas it may be desirable to nan-ate a 

 complex tissue of events, or to represent a number 

 of things all happening at once, as in historica 

 composition. In such cases, the skill and art 01 

 the writer are shewn by his being able to embody 

 his matter in a series of clauses and sentences 

 where the particulars are arranged without per- 

 plexity. Short sentences are necessarily simple 

 long sentences may be either simple or not. Some 

 writers, such as Addison, Bolingbroke, Johnson 

 Hall, who use long sentences, construct them 

 nevertheless with great simplicity of arrangement 

 others, of whom Milton is the most remarkable 

 example, delight in a highly involved and complex 

 kind of composition. 



Clearness. 



This attribute is opposed to indistinctness, 

 faintness of meaning, vagueness, ambiguity, un- 

 certainty. It implies that the forms and images 

 presented to the view shall be sharp, clear, and 

 unmistakable. It is a merit that cannot belong 

 to the style, if not first possessed by the thought ; 

 but it is possible that the clear thoughts of one 

 man may not be clearly conveyed to another man. 

 As already observed on simplicity, clearness 

 depends partly on the terms, and partly on the 

 structure. Not only must terms be used that 

 express well-ascertained and certain ideas, but 

 they must be so joined that the result shall 

 indicate only one meaning. Since words have 

 often more than one sense, it belongs to the com- 

 position to join them together, so that every 

 interpretation shall be excluded except the one 

 intended. To effect this, in treating difficult 

 subjects, is nearly the hardest task that occurs in 

 composition. In poetry, Homer and Dante are 

 remarkable for the surpassing clearness of their 

 images. In prose exposition, Hobbes is a pre- 

 eminent example. 



Strength. 



Strength, vigour, and force are attributes of 

 style, as well as of every other form of human 

 activity. 



The quality of strength must mainly depend 

 upon making choice of such terms as by their 

 sounds, or by the images associated with them, 

 echo the powerful objects and actions of nature 

 or of human life. The effect of employing, as 

 illustrations, the mighty agencies of the thunder, 

 of the ocean, the cataract, the wild beast, and 

 the like, is known to every one. 



Strength is likewise produced by the use of 

 language strongly suggestive of the circumstance 

 and detail of actions and events, in place of their 

 weak generalities. Thus, when we speak of kill- 

 ing or taking away life, the effect is very feeble ; 

 but when the specific act of violence is alluded to, 

 as : * The men whose daggers stabbed Caesar I ' a 

 far stronger impression is conveyed. 



Apart from the choice of terms, the quality of 

 strength is brought out by peculiarities of struc- 

 ture and arrangement. The placing of the forc- 

 ible word of a sentence in the position of natural 

 emphasis adds to the effect as ' Great is Diana 

 of the Ephesians.' The figure of interrogation 



738 



has also a striking effect ' Breathes there a 

 man?' and so forth. 



In general, brevity is a feature of strength ; it 

 is hardly possible, by a diffuse verbosity, to give 

 an energetic impression, whatever other beauties 

 may be embodied upon that kind of style. 



Milton is perhaps the greatest example of the 

 quality of strength that the English language 

 presents ; for although Shakspeare produces 

 strokes that could hardly be surpassed, it is a 

 sustained peculiarity in the writings of the author 

 of Paradise Lost. English literature abounds with 

 energetic compositions : the well-known names 

 of Barrow, Bacon, Dryden, Pope, will present 

 themselves to most readers. 



Liveliness, vivacity, animation, express a mode 

 of strength or energy, and depend in the very 

 same manner upon the choice and arrangement 

 of terms. 



The most difficult variety of style under this 

 head is what is called Soaring or taking a flight, 

 which must be carefully managed, so as to avoid 

 a break, a fall, or, technically a bathos. Our 

 greatest poets and prose writers have furnished 

 successful instances of this quality : it is also a 

 frequent accompaniment of the higher kinds of 

 oratory. 



Feeling. 



This term is used here in a restricted sense, to 

 express the quality of touching the warm feelings, 

 affections, and tenderness of humanity. It in- 

 volves the use of phrases to suggest genial and 

 homefelt attachments and associations family, 

 country, friends, and all the force of sentiment 

 that is wound up in the sociability of our nature. 

 There are a certain number of the relationships 

 of life founded upon natural tenderness, and the 

 terms expressing them naturally come to excite a 

 certain glow of this feeling when they are properly 

 used. Child, parent, fatherland, native country, 

 are all terms suggesting tender emotion ; and 

 there are an infinity of occurrences in life that 

 involve this class of phrases ; and according as 

 they are employed with skill and keeping, in any 

 kind of composition or address, the style is said 

 to possess feeling. 



It necessarily happens that the native terms of 

 the English language, which were formed and 

 fashioned by the native English heart, are more 

 impressive than the phraseology of foreign natures 

 and remote climates, such as the Latin, Greek, 

 and French portion of our language. But the 

 ultivation of our schools and colleges has made 

 foreign idioms, and the associations and history 

 of ancient and distant nations, as full of tender- 

 ness and warmth to the educated classes as any of 

 our native compositions. The effect of this, how- 

 ever, is to constitute two different kinds of style : 

 the homely and the popular on the one hand, and 

 :he learned and classic on the other. The wide 

 nterval that may separate these two styles can 

 >e judged of by comparing the Pilgrim, 's Progress 

 with the Paradise Lest. 



Expressiveness. 



This is a quality of style resulting from the 

 )ower of words to echo by their sound and 

 nechanical effect the meaning or sentiment that 

 hey are intended to convey. The suiting of the 

 ound to the sense gives additional weight to the 



