222 HENRY KIRKE WHTTe's REMAINS. 



effect of the more prominent lights and shades by hrojid 

 dashes of the pencil. When our thesis is well arranged 

 in our mind, and we have predisposed our arguments, 

 reasonings, and illustrations, so as they shall all conduce 

 to the object in view, in regular sequence and gradation, 

 we may sit down and express our ideas in as clear a 

 manner as we can, always using such words as are most 

 suited to our purpose ; and when two modes of expres- 

 sion, equally luminous, present themselves, selecting that 

 which is the most harmonious and elegant. 



It sometimes happens that writers, in aiming at per- 

 spicuity, overreach themselves by employing too many 

 words, and perplex the mind by a multiplicity of illustra- 

 tions. This is a very fatal error. Circumlocution seldom 

 conduces to plainness ; and you may take it as a maxim, 

 that when once an idea is clearly expressed, every ad- 

 ditional stroke will only confuse the mind and diminish 

 the effect. 



When you have once learned to express yourself with 

 clearness and propriety, you will soon arrive at elegance. 

 Everything else, in fact, will follow as of course. But 

 I warn you, not to invert tlie order of things, and be 

 paying your addresses to the Graces, when you ought to 

 be studying perspicuity. Young writers, in general, are 

 too solicitous to round off their periods and regulate the 

 cadences of their style. Hence the feeble pleonasms and 

 idle repetitions which deform their pages. If you would 

 have your compositions vigorous and masculine in their 

 tone, let every word tell ; and when you detect your- 

 self polishing off a sentence with expletives, regard j'-our- 

 self in exactly the same predicament with a poet who 

 should eke out the measure of his verses with *' titura, 

 titum, tee. Sir." 



So much for style 



