PERSPICUITY

PERSPICUITY METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. All that traina the mind to severe thinking, and the heart to right feel­ing, prepares the way for perspienoud utterance.—Dn. Bascom. p ERSPICUITY, from the Latin perspleio, means, ety­mologically, capable of being seen through. Rhe­torically, it is the use of such words, phrases, and sentences, as will convey our ideas to others clearly and readily. It will appear at once that this is the principal quality of expression. Language that is not intelligible, or not easily so, fails, proportionately, of the end for which lan­guage is employed. So far as the attention is absorbed by the medium of communication, so far is it withdrawn from the thought communicated. To be compelled to follow a writer with care, to pause, and to re-read, in order to comprehend his meaning, is to ordinary minds displeas­ing. Discourse,' says Quintilian, ought always to be obvious, so that the sense shall enter the mind as sunlight the eyes, even though they are not directed upwards to the source.' We should take pains not only that the meaning may be understood, but that it must be under­stood. It is equally evident that perspicuity is relative rather than absolute. It is determined, not so much by the nature of subjects treated, as by the power of persons addressed. What is clear to one individual or class, may be obscure to another. The mental capacity of those to be in­structed, pleased, or persuaded, must furnish the guide and law of composition. Upon the immature and illiter‑ as METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 63 ate, many of the choicest sentiments of an Addison or an Irving would be lost. A scientific treatise may be admira­bly clear to scientists, or to those acquainted with the ele­ments of the particular science, but utterly unintelligible, however skilfully presented, to such as have not the requisite attainments. To be intelligible to all would be impossible. Perspicuity demands only that the inherent difficulty of a theme should not be increased by the mode of presenting it, and that time and attention should not be needlessly consumed in overcoming difficulties of ex­pression. We are herewith to consider the chief condi­tions upon which this result depends. Purity.—If a writer or speaker of to-day should say, 'He plunged in for to save her life,' it would be objected at once that 'for' is now never joined to the infinitive with correctness. If it were asked on what authority this assertion is made, the answer would be that such a com­bination does not occur in the writings of those who are reputed good authors in the English language. Were it rejoined that the expression may be found in Shake‑ speare, as— Let your highness Lay a more noble thought upon mine honor Than for to think that I would sink it here, the reply would be that this does not authorize its use at the present time. In writing or speaking we are bound to employ the signs or symbols which are prevalent, just as in buying or selling we must adopt the form of money that is circulating— not that which was current two hun­dred years ago, and which has been withdrawn from cir­culation. If it be asserted that the phrase may be found in some newspaper, or is used in a particular neighbor­hood or by a particular class, it would be replied that a phrase is not made a part of the English language, and therefore generally intelligible, simply by the exam* of. 64	COMPLETE RHETORIC. one person, even though esteemed a good writer, nor by that of a district, trade, or profession. Instead of seeking for illustrative passages in proof or disproof of the point in question, we may appeal to a dictionary, a work com­piled by the method here indicated— by a careful exami­nation of words as used by authors of reputation. From these statements we learn that a form of expres­sion admitted into an English composition should be familiar to the great body of intelligent people in Eng­lish-speaking countries. It should have the sanction (1) of reputable use, as opposed to what is vulgar, partial, or limited; (2) of national use, as opposed to what is for­eign, provincial, or professional; (3) of present use, as opposed to what is ancient or obsolete. If it conforms to these requirements —if it accords with the uniform, or preponderant, practice of recent reputable speakers and writers, it is said to be pure. Purity may hence be de­fined as the use of such words and such constructions as belong to the language employed, in its existing state, without reference to class, occupation, or abode. Purity is violated: By the use of obsolete words —words which, once familiar, have ceased to be current in good prose litera­ture or in common conversation. Language changes per­petually, and words will inevitably go out of fashion. The task of recalling them is committed mainly to poets. Sometimes it is the meaning or function, not the word, that is obsolete, as in Shakespeare's use of by in the sense of about, concerning: Tell me, sirrah, but tell me true, I charge you, By him and by this woman here what know you? By the use of unauthorized neologisms—words which, formed by composition and derivation from native or foreign materials, have not received the sanction of genius, or the consent of the world of letters. So long as METHODS OF EXPRESSION-- PERSPICUITY. 65 English possesses vitality, it will continue to absorb new words, in spite of objection. They should, however, as the condition of legitimacy, denote a conception not ade­quately expressed by some native or naturalized term, and should be at once intelligible to those for whom they are designed. 'Not every person,' says Dryden, 'is fit to innovate.' Let the masters give the law and determine the practice. Others can follow no better counsel than that of Pope: In words as fashions the same rule will hold, Alike fantastic if too new or old; Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. By the use of alienisms—foreign words and con­structions which express no thought nor shade of thought that is not expressed equally well or better by current phraseology. In the seventeenth century the employ­ment of Latin and Greek was profuse. The present fash­ion is French. Most of us can recall the vexation of attempting to read the patchwork performance of some French-loving pedant. For illustration we need only glance into a fashionable periodical, or into a novel of the day. 'Heroes are always marked by an air distingu6; vile men are sure to be bla86s; lady friends never merely dance or dress well, they dance or dress d merveille. . . . All the people belong to the beau monde, as may be seen at a coup d'oeil.' By the use of provincialisms—words and phrases peculiar to a district of country or section of people. Thus, recently a judge in California was puzzled by the phrase of a witness who deposed that he had seen in the plaintiff's field a right smart chance' of hogs. Upon inquiry it was learned that in the vernacular of the place a right smart chance' meant fourteen, and the jury was so charged. A widely extended langua.ge 5 66	COMPLETE RHETORIC. is evident, have a partially divided use, forms gain­ing currency at one point which are unrecognized at another. As nearly as possible, our vocabulary should be of the common stock, intelligible to Englishmen on either side of the Atlantic. (5) By the use of vulgarisms— words and phrases, whether colloquialisms or slang, which are suggestive of what is low and mean. Originating in heedless conver­sation, and there tolerated, they are expelled from digni­fied address as the scum of expression. As a rule, they are ephemeral. Occasionally one is adopted by respecta­ble usage. (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5) are usually called barbarisms. Another and grave offence against purity is the solecism —a violation of the laws of syntax. These laws express the principles by which, according to established usage, words are combined into sentences. The chief of them it is our purpose to point out and illustrate: The subject of a finite verb, when capable of in­flectional change, should be in the nominative case: I have no other saint than thou [art] to pray to.—Longfellow. Elizabeth publicly threatened that she would have the head of whoever had advised it.—.Hume. Confusion of the oblique case of pronouns and the nomi­native is widely diffused in the popular speech; nor are specimens wanting in the literary language: But none so lovely and so brave As him who wither'd in the grave.—Byrom. Nor thee nor them, thrice noble Tamburlaine. Shall want my heart to be with gladness fill'd. —.Marlowe. If you were here, you would find three or four in the parlour, after dinner, whom, you would say, passed their afternoons very agreeably. —Swift. An appositive, assumptive or predicative, is put in the same case as the substantive to which it refers: METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 67 He was the son of the Rev. Dr. West, perhaps him who pub­lished Pindar at Oxford.—Johnson. It is 1.—Dickens. I am 1.—Shakespeare. Who are thou?— Wyelzff. He enjoys, he sinner, a glimpse of the glorious Martyr's very Body.—Carlyle. The following constructions, viewed in the light of anal­ogy, will be seen therefore to be erroneous: Whom do they say that I am?-11atthew. I would not be thee, uncle.—Shakespeare. Let us make a covenant, land thou.—Genesis. The case of the object is accusative: I design'd thee For Richelieu's murderer.—Bulwer. Him I had known, Had served with, suffered with.—Rogers. This rule is frequently violated, not seldom in the literary, but particularly in the popular, speech: Who have we got here ?—Smollet. Who does it come from ?—Goldsmith. Let they who raise the spell beware the Fiend.—Bulwer. Perhaps every one present, except he, guessed why.—Charles Kingsley. It is a fundamental rule in English that the verb should agree with its subject in number and person: The Lotos blooms below the barren peak.— Tennyson. This 'Romeo and Juliet' was not only produced at Weimar.— Lewes. Dryden's and Rowe's manner are quite out of fashion.—Gold­smith. So mingle banner, wain, and gun.—Scott. The oldest, as well as the newest, wine Begins to stir itself.—Longfellow. Offences often arise from the inversion or intetNe-atio-tx 68	COMPLETE RHETORIC. parts, both of which causes tend to obscure the true sub­ject. Concord is of course more difficult to preserve in long sentences than in short ones: What means these questions?— Young. - There is no more such Clesars.—Shakespeare. Nor wood, nor tree, nor bush, are there.—Seott. Within stands two cloaked figures.—Charles Kingsley. No action or institution can be salutary and stable which are not based on reason and the will of God.—M. Arnold. Neither the difficulty nor the cost are insuperable.— W. R. Greg. The delusiveness of Bolingbroke's repeated observations are transparent enough.—A. W. Ward. A pronoun agrees, in number and person, with that for which it stands: Are you not he That fights the maidens?—Shakespeare. Pope, who couldst make Immortals, art thou dead?— Young. Happy dayl that breaks our chain!—Ibid. Faulty examples are: Nobody knows what it is to lose a friend, till they have lost him. A person of beautiful mind, dwelling on whatever appears to them most desirable. . . will not only pass their time pleasantly, etc.—Ruskin. One of those fanciful, exotic combinations that gives the same impression of brilliancy and richness that one receives from tropical insects and flowers.—Mrs. Stowe. This is one of the most important cases of releasing right of entry for conditions broken which has been settled by arbitration for a considerable period.—Dr. Holmes. In general, a word should have grammatical, as well as logical, connection with the rest of the sentence. Non-rhetorical pleonasms and non-referable participles like the following are therefore wrong: 1 bemoan Lord Carlisle, for whom, although I have never seen METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 69 him, and he may never have heard of me, I have a sort of personal liking for him.—Miss Ilfitford. And the reason seems to be given by some words of our Bible, which, though they may not be the exact rendering of the original in that place, yet in themselves they explain the connection of cul­ture and conduct very well.— M. Arnold. There is a story of a father whom his sons resolved to rob. Having left unguarded the key of his escritoire as if through forget­fulness, the thief rushed toward the gold.—Professor J. P. Nichol. Having perceived the weakness of his poems upon the Franco- German war, they now reappear to us under new titles, and largely pruned or otherwise remodeled.—E. C. Stedman. In the sequence of tenses, the objective relations of time should be preserved: I purpose to write the history of England.—/Ifacaulay. 'Twill be no crime to have been Cato's friend. —Addison. I thought I ne'er should see his face again. —Longfellow. The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mourn­ful meditation on the threshold—Dickens. Specimens of incorrect usage are: I was much tempted' to have broken the rascal's head [tempted to break].—Scott. Dunwoodie! is he then here? I thought to have met him by the side of my brother's bed [thought to meet].—Cooper. I intended to have insisted on this sympathy at greater length. —Ruskin. Friendships which we once hoped and believed would never have grown cold.—.F. W. Farrar. It would doubtless have exhibited itself quietly enough if it were [had been] absolutely undi I uted.—Justin McCarthy. Universal truths or permanent arrangements require the present tense. Hence the following are incorrect: I The state or activity denoted by the principal verb, is here, evidently, logi­cally and chronologically prior to that denoted by the dependent verb. 70	COMPLETE RHETORIC. It is confidently reported that two young gentlemen. . . have made a discovery that there was no God.—Sunft. In the sequence of moods and in the use of com­pound tense-forms, congruity of parts should be observed. Instances of error are: I suppose you would aim at him best of all, if he was [were] out of sight.—Sheridan. I would not have said this for the world, if I was [were] not a little anxious about my own girl. —Butwer. Politics would become one network of complicated restrictions as soon as women shall [should] succeed in getting their voice pre­ponderant in the state.—Spectator, 1869. I never have, and never will, attack a man for speculative opin­ions.—Buckle. Those persons for whom this distinction is too subtle had [might] better confine themselves to plain English)—R. G. White. And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal.—Byron. To be avenged On him who had stole Jove's authentic fire, Too divine to be mistook.—Milton. Of the last two examples it may be said that the solecism is a poetic license. A grammatically purer poet than either of the above, however, could write, in the same measure as that of Milton: His countenance meanwhile Was hidden from my view, and he remained Unrecognized; but, stricken by the sight, With slacken'd footsteps I advanced.—Wordsworth. Purity further requires conformity to the English I Farther on ( Words and their Uses), Mr. White maintains the incongruity of this form : 'Another example of the so-called authoritative ?MAW of lan­guage is the use of had in the phrases, I had rather, you had better. . . Noth­ing. . . is more certain than that had expresses perfected and past possession. How. . . can it be used to express future action?' In a later work (Every - Day English), Mr. White ventures the prediction that the verdict of the court which pronounces judgment upon language —‘ a mixed commission of the com­mon and the critical— will be against such uses of words as had rather be and had better go.' METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 71 order, the general principle of which is, that words and clauses nearly related in thought should be placed in close conjunction. Where, as in our language, there are so few inflectional endings to indicate the connection of parts, colloc9,tion is of prime importance. The force of the rule will be best understood by illustrations of its neglect: I can only deal with the complaint in a general way.—Dean Alford. It can only be justified by necessity.—Dr. Bascom. In considering the life of Seneca, we are not only dealing with a life which was rich in memorable incidents. . . but also [with] the life of one who climbed the loftiest peaks of the moral philoso­phy of Paganism.—F. W. Farrar. In all these examples the adverb 'only' is misplaced. Its position is at variance with the thought. Thus the first and second should read, as they mean: can deal with the complaint only in a general way' [in a general way only]; 'It can be justified only by necessity' [by neces­sity only]. Similarly: The distinction is observed in French, but never appears to have been made [appears never to have been made], etc.—Dean Alford. I never remember to have felt an event more deeply than his death [cannot remember to have ever felt].—Rev. Sidney Smith. Again: Mr. Carlyle has taught us that silence is golden in thirty vol­umes.—John Morley. People ceased to wonder by degrees.—Mrs. Oliphant. He resisted every attempt to raise the veil with rather superflu­ous indignation.—Leslie Stephen. The following instances of the 'squinting construc­tion' — the looking both ways—are somewhat more marked: John Keats, the second of four children, like Chaucer and Spen­ser, was a Londoner [was, like Chaucer and Spenser,]—J. Lowell. 72 COMPLETE RHETORIC. There have been three famous talkers in Great Britain, either of whom would illustrate what I say about dogmatists well enough [double error: any one of whom, illustrate well enough].—Dr. Holmes. It must be remembered in criticism that exceptions are always to be made in favor of poetry and certain kinds of fiction — especially the latter, where the first aim is verisimilitude. Thus, aiming at the truth of resem­blance, a writer may, in the dialect of Northampton or Somerset, say, though ungrammatically, he'm (he am), we'm, you'in, I are, he are, etc.; with Fielding, 'I'll pep­per you better than ever you was peppered '; with Sheri­dan, 'So I says'; with Goldsmith, loves to hear him sing.' Propriety.—It is manifestly essential to perspicuity that words be employed in one of their well-understood meanings, and that the aptest be chosen. In the author's practice, however, they may not express the idea intended; they may express it, but not fully; or they may express it and something more. Propriety, as herein conceived, stands opposed to all these faults. Impropriety, there­fore, whether of word or of phrase, will vary from a slight departure from the most appropriate application of a term to its total perversion. 1. Synonymous words— words of similar import, agree­ing in their main idea, but differing in their subordinate and accessory ideas— are especially liable to careless use. How rich is the English language in words generically alike yet specifically different, and how important it is, for beauty and accuracy of expression, to attend to the nicer shades of meaning, may be seen in the following: May, can, might, could. The first denotes liberty and probability; the second, possibility— Thou canal not call him from the Stygian shore, But thou, alas maga live to suffer more.—Pope. METHODS OF EXPRESSION— PERSPICUITY. 73 Permission is granted by may; mere ability or power is expressed by can. The school-boy that puts up his hand and says, 'Please, can I go out ?' means, and should say, 'May I go out ?' The mother that says, in complying with the wish of her child,: You can go,' should say, 'You may go.' Might and could, the preterites, follow the regimen of may and can. Shall, will, should, would. The general rule to be observed in the use of shall and will is, that when mere futurity is to be expressed, without reference to the speak­er's resolve, the appropriate forms are shall in the first person, will in the second and third; but when the idea of volition or compulsion is to be conveyed, the first person requires will, the second and third shall: This child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A lady of my own. The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face.— Wordsworth. Few mistakes will be made, if it be fixed firmly in the mind that I shall," you will," he will,' are the forms of the future simply; and that I will," you shall," he shall,' are the forms of the future as connected with the speak­er's resolve or conviction. The same rules govern the use of the preterites. Ought, should, must. Both the first and the second imply obligation, but ought is the stronger. What we ought to do, we are morally bound to do. We ought to be truthful, we should be respectful to our elders. Must signifies rather the irresistible, the inevitable. Where it involves the idea of obligation, it does not rest in a con‑ 74	COMPLETE RHETORIC. sciousness or recognition of what is obligatory, but looks constrainedly or resolutely to action,— The Bhow Begun laid down her snuff-box and replied, entering into the feeling as well as echoing the words, It. ought to be written in a book,— certainly it ought.'. . . 'It must be written in a book,' said I, encouraged by her manner.—Southey. The following lines from the German may not be, in this connection, without a helpful suggestiveness: Six little words do claim me every day, Shall, must, and can, with will and ought and may. Shall is the law within, inscribed by heaven, The goal to which I by myself am driven. Must is the bound not to be overpast, Where by the world and nature I'm held fast. Can is the measure of my personal dower Of deed and art, science and practised power. Will is my noblest crown, my brightest, best, Freedom's own seal upon my soul imprest ; Ought, the inscription on the seal set fair On Freedom's open door, a bolt 'tis there. And lastly may, 'mong many courses mixed, The vaguely possible by the moment fixed. Shall, must, and can, with will and ought and may, These are the six that claim me every day. Only when God doth teach, do I know what each day, I shall, I must, 1 can, I will, I ought, I may. Centre, middle. The first involves the idea of a circle, the second is of far more general import: the centre of a polygon, the middle of a bar or line: Earth, self-balaned, on her centre hung.—Milton. But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts, Benighted walks under the mid-day sun.—Ibid. And having climb'd the steep-up heavenly hill, Resembling strong youth in his middle age.—Shakespeare. Effect, consequence. Both signify that which follows something else. An effect proceeds from an efficient cause; a consequence, from something that stands to it METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 75 simply in the relation of antecedent. The former applies to physical or moral objects; the latter, to moral objects only: Gunpowder is the effect of a mixture of sulphur, charcoal, and nitre.—Sir William Hamilton. A passion for praise produces very good effects.—Addison. Jealousy often draws after it a fatal train of consequences.—Ibid. Modesty, bashfulness, diffidence. The first refers to a trait or habit of mind, and is to be encouraged; the second, to a state of feeling, and is to be corrected; the third is a culpable distrust, which altogether disqualifies a person for his duty. Modesty is to merit what shades are to the figures in a picture; it gives it strength and heightening.—La Bruyère. Mere bashfulness, without merit, is awkwardness.—Addison. Diffidence and presumption both arise from the want of knowing, or rather endeavoring to know, ourselves.—Steele. Custom, habit. Custom is a frequent repetition of the same act; habit, the effect of such repetition. The one supposes an act of the will, the other implies an involun­tary movement: Man bows to custom as he bows to fate.—Crabbe. How use doth breed a habit in a man!—Shakespeare. Invention, discovery. We discover what existed, but was before unknown; we invent what before did not exist. We discover a thing entire; we invent a thing by apply­ing or modelling materials which exist separately: Galileo invented the telescope. Columbus discovered America. Complete, whole, entire, total. "Whole is that from which nothing has been taken; complete is that in which there is no deficiency; entire, that which has not been divided into parts; total refers to all the parts taken col­lectively. A thing is' entire when it wants none of its 76	COMPLETE RHETORIC. parts; it is complete when it wants none of the ordinary appendages belonging to it. A whole orange has had nothing taken from it; a complete orange has grown to its full size; an entire orange is not yet cut. It is pos­sible, therefore, for a thing to be whole, and yet not en­tire; and to be both, and yet not complete. An orange cut into parts is whole while all the parts remain together, but it is not entire. We speak, thus, of a whole house, an entire set, a complete book. Enough, sufficient. Enough relates to the quantity which one wishes to have of anything; sufficient relates to the use that is to be made of it. Hence enough gener­ally imports a greater quantity than sufficient. The cov­etous man never has enough; although he has what is sufficient for nature. Alone, only. Alone (all one, single, by one's self) means not accompanied by another object; only (con­tracted from onely) implies that there is no other object of the same kind. An only child is one that has no brother or sister; a child alone is one left by itself. Equivocal, ambiguous. Equivocal means that which may be equally well understood in two or more senses; ambiguous is applied to an expression which has appar­ently two or more meanings, and it is doubtful which of these is intended. A designedly equivocal expression has one sense open, and meant to be understood in that sense, yet another sense concealed, and understood only by the person using it. An equivocal expression, if deliberately chosen, is used with an intention to deceive; an ambigu­ous one, when thus adopted, with an intention not to give full information. The ambiguity arises from a too general form of expression, which leaves the sense of the author indeterminate. The equivocation misleads us by the use of a term in the sense which we do not suspect. To avow, to acknowledge, to confess. Each of these METHODS OF EXPRESSION - PERSPICUITY. 77 words denotes the making known to others what relates to one's self. To avow supposes the person to glory in it; to acknowledge is to declare one's assent to a thing or recognition of it; to confess is applied chiefly to criminal or highly culpable matters. Scorn or love is avowed; a favor, a mistake, or a fault is acknowledged; a crime is confessed. Observance, observation. The former is the act of ob­serving, in the sense of keeping or holding sacred; the latter, in the sense of examination. The circulation of the blood was discovered by a minute observation of the human body; a person acquires the title of uprightness by a strict observance of truth and justice. 2. One word may be used for another, not of similar but of totally different signification. Lie, lay. These, as well as their preterites, are often confounded. The one is intransitive—to be in a hori­zontal position; the other is transitive. The book lies, not lays, on the table. He lay, not laid, down. Sit, set. These words are grossly misused—liable to be confounded in precisely the same manner as the pre­ceding. An old lady, in describing her disease to an eccentric Boston physician, said, The trouble, Doctor, is that I can neither lay nor set." Then, Madam,' was the reply, would respectfully suggest the propriety of roosting.' Vocation, avocation. The first means calling or pro­fession; the second, calling away front, something that interrupts regular business. Every man should have a fixed pursuit, as the business of his life — his vocation. His avocations will be the occasional calls that sum­mon him to leave his ordinary employment. The former should occupy him principally, the latter incidentally only. Mademoiselle Bernhardt's vocation is acting; her avocations are painting and sculpture. 78	COMPLETE RHETORIC. Apt, liable. Apt respects a fitness to be or to do some­thing from the habit or temper of the mind; liable is applied to those circumstances by which we are affected independently of our choice. Both express conditions— but one, of fitness and readiness; the other, of exposure. Commit to memory a wise sentence or an apt phrase. All persons are liable to make mistaKes. Under certain circumstances, most people are apt to marry; all people are liable to fall in love. Impropriety may arise from the relation of a word or phrase to other parts of the sentence. The expression, when analyzed, is found to contain an inconsistency, or some misapplication of the parts of speech: as in Swift's such occasions as fell into [under] their cognizance, or Goldsmith's rushed and expired in the midst of the flames' [rushed into the flames and expired in their midst], or Johnson's 'The solace arising from this consid­eration seems indeed the weakest of all others' [weakest of all, or weaker than any other]. Such errors, it will be seen, partake of the nature of sOlecisms, or violations of grammatical purity. Another offence against propriety is exaggeration, or the use of language disproportionate to the importance of the ideas to be expressed, as when every fortune is said to be colossal '; every crowd a sea of faces'; every ser­mon 'grand '; everything handsome or pleasing, ele­gant," splendid," delicious," nice,' or ' charming '; every­thing we dislike, hateful," dreadful," horrible," shock­ing '; while pies are 'loved,' and pickles are just doted on.' It is forgotten that there are three degrees of com­parison. Epithets are heightened into superlatives; su­perlatives stretch themselves into hyperboles; and hyper­boles themselves get out of breath, and die asthmatically of exhaustion.' William Mathews. METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 79 5. Finally, propriety is violated by the use of pronouns which darkly refer to their antecedent, and of word, which either, with sameness of form, have different senses in the same sentence, or are equivocal, thus admitting of being understood in a sense different from that in which the writer applies them. Thus, oldest inmate' may mean either the oldest person among the inmates or the person longest in the establishment. Love of God' meant equally well His love for man or man's love for Him. In the following example from the "Westminster Re­view, the first 'variety' means diversity; the second, kind: 'The wild flowers [in California] are more remark­able for their abundance than for their variety.' Let a sentence from Steele illustrate the fault of obscure pro­nominal reference: They were persons of such moderate intellects, even before they were impaired by their pas­sions, that their irregularities could not furnish sufficient variety of folly.' Some of the improprieties here pointed out are exem­plified in the subjoined citations: I do likewise dissent with the Examiner.—Addison. The esteem which Phillip had conceived of the ambassador.— Hume. These ceremonious rites became familiar.—Robertson. Mars's opinion in their mutual studies began to assume a value in his eyes.—Mrs. H. B. Stowe. I am now grown old in the avocations of the gown.—Bishop Warburton. The king of solitude is also the king of society. The reverse, however, is not so true.— W. R. Alger. Others speak from the throat in a hollow, sepulchral tone, and with an elaboration of syllables and emphasis so mixed together that no ear can eliminate the individual words.—E. S. Gould. I need not here repeat that which I stated verbally on the occa­sion of our interview.—Lord Stanley. 80 COMPLETE RHETORIC. I think it must have been to some such primitive explanation of the whooping-cough that there has grown tip in Austria the unique custom of treating the disease by administering the rod.—Moncure D. Conway.. But as it happened, scarcely had Phmbe's eyes rested again on the judge's countenance than all its ugly sternness vanished.—Haw­thorns. I have but one comfort in thinking of the poor, and that is, that we get somehow adjusted to the condition in which we grow up, and we do not miss the absence of what we have never enjoyed.—Frov,de. It remains to be observed that these remarks are sub­ject to limitation. Some improprieties, though grammati­cally censurable, are rhetorically justifiable, as in satire, burlesque, and wherever the aim is to give a truthful representation of character. • Simplicity.—By this is meant the quality of being easily understood. It may apply either to the terms or to the structure. Words may be simple because they relate to things common and familiar, instead of to things rare and remote. So far as discourse is intended for the popular mind, one of the best principles of selection is to prefer words of Saxon origin, to which belongs the vocabulary of common life —of the street, the market, the farm, and the fireside. This is the greatly preponderant element in the books which are most widely circulated —English Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels. The most influential preachers of the age— Spurgeon and Beecher — express themselves in familiar language, and take their images from familiar sources. Many foreign words, it should be observed, which have come into use among people generally, are equally per­spicuous. Thus, religion, portion, politics, science, mu­sician, brief, press, voice, journey, have been thoroughly naturalized. The diction of a correct writer will vary, of course, with the subject and purpose. Ordinary topics will be most intelligibly treated in the vernacular. If a -METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 81 particular class of minds is addressed, the words level to that class— whether artists, theologians, scientists, me­chanics, miners, or sailors— will, as far as practicable, be chosen. He who mounts into the region of complex feel­ing and thought, requires a complex means of expres­sion —words short and long, humble and majestic, light and ponderous, words of which a large proportion come from the Latin or the Greek. A book,' says Landor, composed of merely Saxon words (if such a thing Could be) would only prove the perverseness of the author. It would be inelegant, inharmonious, and deficient in the power of conveying thoughts and images, of which, in­deed, such a writer could have but extremely few at start­ing. Let the Saxon, however, be always the ground-work.' Again, while intelligibility is promoted by familiar as opposed to unusual words, it is further promoted by specific as opposed to abstract words. The first are com­paratively individual, the second collective. Do not seek to lift up your thoughts by the leverage of grandiose phraseology. The more general a notion is, the less con­ceivable it is, and the greater the need of simple, homely, and concrete symbols. Hence ache is more vivid than pain ; circle, than curve; lily, than flower ; stab, than kill; twinkle, than shine. Thus Milton, instead of using the generic, mountain, says with fine effect: O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp. So Antony is described as saying, not Those honorable men who have killed Cmsar,' but Those honorable men whose daggers have stabbed Canal% Obviously, the application of this principle is modified, when the subject is essentially technical or abstract, as in law, medicine, navigation, logic, metaphysics, etc.; when the abstractions are simple and easy, as width, motion, warmth, sweetness, beauty, virtue, truth, love; (3) when they are repeated in the concrete. 6 82	COMPLETE RHETORIC. General terms, it is evident, are indispensable both to conversation and to print. Without class names—liter­ature or fluid, for example— we should be obliged to enumerate the individuals of every class menticned. If less distinct than particular terms, their compensating ad­vantage is, that they sum up the characteristics of a num­ber of things, and are therefore entitled to preference when brevity is an object. The maxim of composition is, that since we think in particulars, not in generals, the more special the terms are, the brighter the picture, and that concrete forms should therefore be used instead of abstract ones when possible. Simplicity of structure, to which we have adverted already, is such an arrangement of words into sentences, and of sentences into paragraphs, as is easily compre­hensible. It will be more fully considered hereafter. What is here stated—the superiority, in general, of the Saxon element, of simple words and collocations, and of specific expressions—is illustrated in the following extracts: I love God and little children.—Richter. It has not wit enough to keep it sweet. —Johnson on the Rehearsal. It has not sufficient virtue to preserve it from putrefaction. —His labored after-thought. Be polished, but solid. We cannot polish any matter that is not solid. [Abstract, or generic.] We cannot polish bottltry, but we can polish ebony. We cannot polish pumice-stone, but we can polish marble. We cannot polish lead, but we can polish gold. [Concrete, or specificd—Ouida. A violet by the mossy stone Half hidden from the eye ! Fair as a star when only one Is shining in the sky.— Wordsworth. It has been customary of late years for the purveyors of amusing literature to put forth opuscules denominated Christmas books, with the ostensible intention of swelling the tide of exhilaration or other METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 83 expansive emotions incident on the exodus of the old or the inaugu­ration of the new year.—Loadon, Times. We can sing away our cares easier than we can reason them away. The birds are the earliest to sing in the morning ; the birds are more without care than anything else I know of. Sing in the evening. Singing is the last thing that Robins do. When they have done their daily work, when they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last morsel of food, and cleansed their bills on a napkin of a bough, then on a top twig, they sing one song of praise. I know they sleep sweeter for it. They dream music, for sometimes in the night they break in singing, and stop suddenly after the first note, startled by their own voice. Oh that we might sing evening and morning, and let song touch song all the way through.— Beecher. We add two examples in which the Saxon and the Latin elements are most happily combined : Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No! this, my hand will rather The multitudinous sea incarnardine, Making the green one red.—Shakespeare. In August the grass is still verdant on the hills and in the valleys; the foliage of the trees is as dense as ever and as green; the flowers gleam forth in richer abundance along the margins of the river, and by the stone walls, and deep among the woods; the days, too, are as fervid now as they were a month ago; and yet in every breath of wind and in every beam of sunshine we hear the whispered farewell, and behold the parting smile of a dear friend. There is a coolness amid all the heat, a mildness in the blazing noon. Not a breeze can stir but it thrills us with the breath of autu inn. A pen­sive glory is seen in the far, golden beams, among the shadows of the trees. The flowers— even the brightest of them, and they are not the most gorgeous of the year — have this gentle sadness wedded to their pomp, and typify the character of the delicious time each within itself. The brilliant cardinal flower has never seemed gay to me. Still later in the season, Nature's tenderness waxes stronger. It is impossible not to be fond of our mother now ; for she is so fond of us! At other periods she does not make this impression on me, or only at rare intervals; but in those genial days of autumn when she has perfected her harvests and accomplished every new&INaltVxtw, 84	COMPLETE RHETORIC. that was given her to do, then she overflows with a blessed super­fluity of love. She has labor to caress her children now. It is good to be alive and at such times. Thank Heaven for breath,— yes, for mere breath,— when it is made up of a heavenly breeze like this? It comes with a real kiss upon our cheeks; it would linger fondly around us if it might; but, since it must be gone, it embraces us with its whole kindly heart, and passes onward to embrace likewise the next thing that it meets. A blessing is flung abroad and scat­tered far and wide over the earth, to be gathered up by all who choose. I recline upon the still unwithered grass and whisper to myself, '0 perfect day! 0 beautiful world! 0 beneficent God!'— Hawthorne. Conciseness.—This refers to the number of words employed, and is synonymous with brevity of expression. It implies the rejection of whatever is not material to the meaning. One of the finest examples of it is Cmsar's famous message to the Senate, Veni, vidi, vici —I came, I saw, I conquered. All words call for attention, absorb a certain amount of mental power, and therefore, if they add nothing to the sense, they tend only to embarrass­ment and feebleness. Familiar illustrations of the brief, clear, and striking, are found in proverbs, maxims, cur­rent sayings. Passages exhibiting this excellence could be culled copiously from the works of writers foremost in literature. The following are specimens: Virtue is like a rich stone—best plain set.—Bacon. 'Tis better to be lowly born, And range with humble livers in content Than to be perk'd up in glistering grief And wear a golden sorrow.—Shakespeare. Men are but children of a larger growth.—Dryden. Hitch your wagon to a star.—Emerson. Thefts never enrich ; alms never impoverish ; murder will speak out of stone walls.—Ibid. While words should not be unnecessarily multiplied, they should not be too few either for the sense or for the METHODS OF EXPRESSION - PERSPICUITY. 85 rapidity of movement of which the reader or listener is capable. Conciseness when carried to excess becomes the occasion of darkness: By improper ellipsis, or faulty omission. Thus the question put to Simon Peter may mean Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than [thou lovest] these?' or Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these [love me]?' Similarly, One victory by land or sea,' says Southey, 'turns the scale, and the northern powers, who have more reason to hate France than England, will then join us." When a man,' says the Spectator,' considers not only an ample fortune, but even the very necessaries of life, his pretence to food itself, at the mercy of others, he cannot but look upon himself in the state of the dead with his case thus much worse, that the last office is per­formed by his adversaries instead of his friends.' As being should be supplied before at the mercy,' and as should be inserted before in the state.' By an insufficient statement of the thought, as in Emerson's proposition, 'Where snow falls, there is free­dom,' meaning that tropical heat debilitates the energies of men, and so prepares them for political slavery; or Fontenelle's injunction to the tutor of Louis XV, You will strive with all your efforts to make yourself useless,' that is, So advance your ward in knowledge that your ser­vices will no longer be needed by him. It should not be forgotten that matter intended for delivery calls for greater copiousness of treatment than what is to be printed, and read at leisure; that when the subject is difficult to be understood by the persons addressed, or when it is disagreeable and must be circuitously ap­proached, more or less repetition is necessary; that it is often desirable, if not needful, for vividness of impression, to detain the attention on the point or topic in hand by repeating the same sentiment in many different, Intme 86 COMPLETE RHETORIC. expression, each in itself brief, yet collectively affording such expansiveness as will render the matter capable of being thoroughly digested and assimilated. Unity.—By this is meant such a distribution of mate‑ rials as shall keep the dominant idea of the sentence prominently before the mind, with minor parts so ar­ranged as to indicate at once their dependence and con­nection. Hence the loose collocation of numerous details; the crowrling together of too many thoughts, or of thoughts disconnected and incongruous; the introduction of long or abrupt parenthetical clauses, especially of parentheses within parentheses—should be avoided: For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gen­tiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. . . . beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.—Ephesians. In this and similar cases, the remedy is to cut up the long and crowded sentences into shorter and more congruous ones. The simple structure is, on the whole, more favor­able to perspicuity than the periodic. A too frequent or too prolonged suspension of the sense becomes painful. Mere length, however, is not of so great moment as the METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 87 character of the construction. The prime object is so to arrange the different parts that the meaning of each may be understood in the order in which it is presented, not left to be comprehended at the end, in itself and its con­nections, by re-reading and reflection. The following, from Cowley's Essay on Cromwell, is of unusual length, yet unity is preserved throughout: What can be more extraordinary than that a person of mean birth, no fortune, no eminent qualities of body, which have some­times — or of mind, which have often — raised men to the highest dignities, should have the courage to attempt, and the happiness to succeed in so improbable a design, as the destruction of one of the most ancient and most solidly-founded monarchies upon the earth? that he should have the power or boldness to put his prince and master to an open and infamous death ; to banish that numerous and strongly allied family ; to do all this under the name and wages of a parliament ; to trample upon them, too, as he pleased, and spurn them out of doors when he grew weary of them; to raise up a new and unheard-of monster out of their ashes; to stifle that in the very infancy, and set up himself above all things that ever were called sovereign in England; to oppress all his enemies by arms, and all. his friends afterwards by artifice; to serve all parties patiently for awhile, and to command them victoriously at last; to overrun each corner of the three nations, and overcome with equal facility both the riches of the south and the poverty of the north; to be feared and courted by all foreign princes, and adopted a brother to the gods of the earth; to call together parliaments with a word of his pen, and scatter them again with the breath of his mouth; to be humbly and daily petitioned, that he would please to be hired, at the rate of two millions a year, to be the master of those who had hired him before to be their servant ; to have the estates and lives of three kingdoms as much at his disposal as was the little inheritance of his father, and to be as noble and liberal in the spending of them ; and lastly, for there is no end of all the particulars of his glory, to bequeath all this with one word to his posterity; to die with peace at home and triumph abroad; "0 be buried among kings, and with more than regal solemnity ; and to leave a name behind him not to be extin­guished but with the whole world; which, as it is now too little for his praises, so might have been, too, for his conquests, it theltke.rtc.. 88	COMPLETE RHETORIC. line of his human life could have been stretched out to the extent of his immortal designs? We have already noticed how important is the function of connective and reference forms in promoting unity and clearness. A close reasoner and a good writer in gene­ral,' says Coleridge, 'may be known by his pertinent use of connectives.' Imagery.—Figures of speech should, for the purpose of clearness, be derived from such objects and truths as are familiar to the minds addressed, and should be so pre­sented as to be easily intelligible. A chief instrument of perspicuity is comparison, implied or explicit. The known is made to shed light upon the unknown. Things remote receive lustre from things allied. A similitude or an analogy is more readily comprehensible than an abstract term. The Bible abounds in abstract similes. Antithesis sharpens the outline of objects, material or mental, which are contrasted as well as compared. Of the value of com­parison, illustrated elsewhere in its several forms, the following is an admirable example : Last autumn, in some of the pastures, fire ran along the wall, and left the ground black with its ephemeral charcoal, where now the little wind-flower lifts its delicate form and bends its slender neck, and blushes with its own beauty, gathered from the black ground out of which it grew; or some trillium opens its painted cup, and in due time will show its fruit, a beautiful berry there. So out of human soil, blackened by another fire which has swept over it, in due time flowers will come in the form of spiritual beauty not yet seen, and other fruit will grow there whose seed is in itself, and which had not ripened but out of that black ground. Thus the lilies of peace cover the terrible fields of Waterloo, and out of the graves of our dear ones there spring up such flowers of spiritual loveliness as you and I else had never known. It is not from the tall crowded warehouse of prosperity that men first or clearest see the eternal stars of heaven. It is from the humble spots where we have laid our dear ones that we find our best observatory, which gives us glimpses into the far-off world of never-ending time.— Theodore Parker. METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 89 Finally, it cannot be too deeply impressed upon the youthful writer, (I) That the foundation of clear expression is clear thinking. Thoughts that circulate under the name of deep thinking are often but half-formed thoughts. Words, words, nothing but words,' is Carlyle's criti­cism on some of the nebulous poetry of Robert Brown­ing. Fontenelle's rule in composition was, 'I always try first to understand myself.' That the most laborious and original thinkers have been the most faithful critics of diction and construction. Rousseau, who had much difficulty in finding words, wrote his Emile nine times. John Foster, some of whose essays are marvellously rich, often discussed arrangement in his correspondence with literary friends. That we are not sure of understanding ourselves per­fectly, unless we have done what we can to make ourselves readily understood. 'In order to write clearly,' says La Bruyere, every writer should put himself in the place of his readers; should examine his own work as something which is new to him, which he reads for the first time, in which he has no peculiar interest, and which the author has submitted to his criticism.' (4) That a negligent or slovenly habit of utterance begets an indolent habit of thought. EXERCISES. Criticise and amend: Who can he take after ?—Sheridan. How agrees the devil and thee?—Shakespeare. I did think to have beaten thee.—Ibid. Who you saw sitting by me.—lbid. This hour I throw ye off.—Congreve. Earth up hath swallowed all my hopes but she.—Shakespe,o.Te. 90	COMPLETE RHETORIC. I can only regard them as Scotticisms.—Dean Alford. A decided weak point is detected.—Ibid. The vice of covetousness is what enters deepest into the soul of any other.—Guardian. The great masters of critical learning differ among one an‑ other.—Speetator. A petty constable will neither act cheerfully or wisely.—S2inft. The loveliest pair That ever since in love's embraces met.—Milton. We need not, nor do not, confine the purposes of God.— Bentley. I can never think so very mean of him.—Ibid. I shall endeavor to live hereafter suitable to a man in my station.—Addison. I am equally an enemy to a female dunce or a female ped­ant.—Goldsmith. Dr. Johnson, with whom I am sorry to differ in opinion, has treated it as a work of merit.—Seott. This effect, we may safely say, no one beforehand could have promised upon.—Hume. But the temper, as well as knowledge, of a modern historian, require a more sober and temperate language.—Gibbon. 'Tis observable that every one of the letters bear date after his banishment.—Bentley. I am persuaded that neither death nor life. . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God.—St. Paul. I have furnished the house exactly according to your fancy, or, if you please, my own; for I have long since learned to like noth­ing but what you do.—Dryden. If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother bath aught against thee.—Matthew. For my part, I cannot think that Shelley's poetry, except by snatches and fragments, has the value of • the good work of Wordsworth or Byron.—Matthew Arnold. 25. Nor is it easy to conceive that, in substituting the manners of Persia to those of Rome, he was actuated by vanity.—Gibbon. METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 91 A loose sentence is one in which there is a single point, at least, before the close, where a thought is completed ; but what follows is not, by itself, complete)—Prof. Kellogg. Those with wholi we can apparently become well acquainted in a few moments, are generally the most difficult to rightly know and understand.—Hawthorne. The first we call by an unwriteable name, and which we can­not more nearly describe than by saying that it is the sound which drops out of the half-open mouth, with the lowest degree of effort, at utterance.2—.&of. Earle. It is the complex dependences, the involved relations, the assertion sliding on from point to point, that embarrass the mind, tripping it in the meshes of grammar.—Dr. Bascom. Whosoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.—Shakespeare. I expected to have found Petersburg a wonderful city.— Bulwer. Let him know that I shall be over in spring, and that by all means he sells the horses.—Swift. As soon as they were established in their new residence, and her father had entered on the routine of his avocations, she arranged the little household as exactly as if her husband had been there.— Dickens. Does it, in your eyes, deteriorate from Milton's peculiar great­ness that he could not have given us the conception of Falstaff ?— F. W. Farrar. Shakespeare, the mutual ancestor of Englishmen and Ameri­cans.—Miss Milford. You will be pleased, madam, to remember, the lad was sent with a verbal message to the doctor.—Fielding. And this prevents their attending enough to what is in the Bible, and makes them battle for what is not in the Bible, but they have put it there.—Matthew Arnold. 38. I must not omit one [name], which would alone have been sufficient to have shown that there is no necessary connection be­tween skepticism and the philosophy of the human mind; I mean Bishop Butler.—Sidney I Text-Book on Rhetoric. Philology of the English Tongue. 92 COMPLETE RHETORIC. A young hunter fell in love with a beautiful girl whom he sought for his wife, and being the pride of his tribe, both for swift­ness in the race and for courage in war, his suit was accepted by her father.—Hepworth Dixon. Being the only child of a man well to do, nobody would have been surprised had Agnes Stanfield been sent to a boarding-school.— Mr& Oliphant. 41. I really believe that, except to doctors and clergymen, and the very few intimate friends who have seen me frequently, even my state of extremity has been doubted.—Miss Illitford. a. To the Italian (even to one who carries a stiletto) the English practice of boxing is a sheer brutality ; while to an Englishman (himself perhaps not a Joseph) the eavaliere servente is looked upon with reprobation tempered by scorn.—George Calvert.' Scarcely had Bentley thus established his fame in this de­partment of letters than he as suddenly broke forth in a still higher.—Quarterly Review. But as it happened, scarcely had Phcebe's eyes rested again on the judge's countenance than all its ugly sternness vanished. —Hawthorne. 45. I know no course of reading so likely on the one hand to allay the prejudices and animosities of two eager politicians, and, on the other, to rouse the careless and desponding to a generous concern and an animating hope for the public good, than the historical writings in question.—Jeffrey. 40. Culture points out that the harmonious perfection of genera­tions of Puritans and Nonconformists have been, in consequence, sacrificed.—Matthew Arnold. I have no feeling connected with my general recollection of them, but those to which the combination of good sense, wit, and genius naturally give rise.—Sidney Smith. But I think that experience, both in nature and in society, are against that ditch-water philosophy.—Charles Kingsley. 49. Unconscious pioneers of all the wealth, and commerce, and beauty, and science, which has in later centuries made that lovely isle the richest gem of all the tropic seas.—.Mid. 1 Essays Asthetical. METHODS OF EXPRESSION — PERSPICUITY. 93 The fire which glows in Macaulay's history, the intense patri­otic feeling, the love of certain moral qualities, is not altogether of the highest kind.—Leslie Stephen. Who are the Ministers of the Crown are the accidents of his­tory.—Disraeli. The very two individuals whom he thought were far away.— Ibid. Those too, no matter who spoke, or whom was addressed, looked at each other.—Dickens. That night every man of the boat's crew, save Amyas, were down with raging fever.—Charles Kingsley. God forbid that John Hawkins' wife should refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner, and he a gentleman born. —Ibid. It is true that when perspective was first discovered, everybody amused themselves with it.—Ruskin. He turned to her father as he spoke with the instinct of good breeding.—Mrs. Oliphant. The language of Algernon Sidney differs not at all from that which every well-educated gentleman would wish to write. . . . Neither one nor the other differ half as much from the general lan­guage of cultivated society as the language of Mr. Wordsworth's homeliest composition differs from that of a common peasant.— Coleridge. The position of the notes, up or down on the scale, indicate various degrees of shrillness or gravity in the sounds.—Professor Nichol.' The time supposed to elapse should neither be so long or short as to offend a sense of propriety.—Dr. E. 0. Haven.' It should in justice be remarked, however, that neither Dryden nor Locke, in their use of the term wit, seem to have had in mind what we now understand by it.—Dr. Joseph Haven.3 It is this unexpected union and quick recoil of ideas that please the mind.—Dr. Bascom. It is the vividness of the ideas presented which arouse emo­tion, and thus carry over conviction into persuasion.—Ibid. 64. But neither of these ideas are in any way connected with eternal beauty.—Ruskin. I English Composition. 2 RitetOrk. 3 Mental Philosophy.