"They return back again to the same city from whence they come forth; or "I went home full of a great many serious reflection. The superfluous words marked in italics are quite obvious, and lend nothing to the sense.

The Ellipsis, or the omission of words really belonging to the sentence, but which the mind readily supplies, and which are then said to be understood.

It is obvious that these errors in Grammar are of chief importance, in their rhetorical use, as marring the excellence of style. They must, of course, be constantly guarded against, because they conflict seriously with the qualities of a good style, now about to be laid down.

Thus, though they are violations of Grammar only, they become corrupters of Rhetoric, and show us how important Grammar is to Rhetoric; Rhetoric being, as has been already suggested, dependent on Grammar in its relation to Style.

To sum up all in a word, then, Rhetoric must presuppose perfect grammatical correctness and propriety, or its own correctness and propriety are invaded, and its own success, as means to an end, sadly endangered.

We pass now to the consideration of the qualities of a good style, and to the proper cautions against the corresponding evils; by means of which we may frame our discourse upon just rules, and guard against error.

CHAPTER XIII.

QUALITIES OF STYLE.

THE distinct qualities, which must always be possessed by a good style, may all be included under the three heads of Perspicuity, Energy, and Ele

gance.

(89.) Perspicuity.

This word meant, originally, capable of being seen through, from the Latin perspicio.

By Perspicuity, in Rhetoric, is meant then such a use of words, phrases, and sentences, as will convey our ideas to others clearly and intelligibly. It will immediately appear that this is the principal quality of Style-for which reason it has been first stated; for, unless we make ourselves distinctly understood, all our energy is useless, and the general appropriateness of our language, and the adaptation of manner, to the occasion and to the persons addressed, will be unavailing. To be understood is our first aim.

And yet, although perspicuity is thus of pri

mary importance, it will be readily perceived that it is entirely relative. That which is perfectly intelligible to some is jargon to others.

Persons of quick apprehension catch the meaning of the speaker, while it is yet enigmatical to others; scientific men apprehend in a few technical terms what would require pages of explanation to make perspicuous to the unlearned. And besides thus consulting the character of the audience or the readers; reference must be also made to the circumstances which surround them; to the attention they can be prevailed upon to bestow on the subject-matter presented; and to the manner and duration of that attention. Here nice judgment and tact are necessary.

As in general, however, any rhetorical effort is presented not to single individuals, but to numbers, who include all varieties of mind and all degrees of attention, this quality of style becomes the more important, and must therefore be subjected to some general rules, which will in some degree suit all discourses. And first, it will be observed, from what has been already said, that perspicuity has very much to do with Grammar, and that here "Rhetoric holds of Grammar."

Thus the language used must be correct, or, to analyze it grammatically, the words must be pure, that is, good modern English, as opposed to the obsolete and the new-coined. They must be proper, or so

selected as to convey the exact ideas designed, and the words and sentences must be precise, or convey no more than the exact design of the writer.

Now, these two requisites of purity and propriety, as applied to words and phrases, are sometimes mistaken for each other, or indiscriminately allied: but, as we shall see, they are quite distinct. Purity is entirely a grammatical requisite, Propriety partakes both of Grammar and Rhetoric, while that subdivision of perspicuity which has to do with Rhetoric most strictly, is precision.

By precision, we mean the lopping off beforehand —that is, before we use the sentence of all superfluous words and phrases, so that the thought be expressed exactly in the number and with the arrangement of words which convey it exactly, and which convey no more and no less than it.

Before proceeding to a consideration of these divisions in the order, a few general remarks as to want of perspicuity, may not be out of place.

Opposed to perspicuity, in its rhetorical sense, is too great brevity, which renders the subject unintelligible to the intellectually weaker part of the audience; leaving chasms unbridged, across which they have not the power to spring, and presenting thus a string of disconnected, isolated thoughts, which depend really upon the linking process for their relative value. This linking process, which may be made for them

selves by the stronger minds in the audience, the speaker should make for the less intelligent himself.

To avoid this error, many writers violate the laws of perspicuity by falling into the opposite fault, that of prolixity, which so clouds the subject with words as to obscure it by its garb of language. Here, as in most matters of learning, the middle course is the safest; for prolixity not only injures the sense to the attentive hearer, but it wearies most persons so that they become inattentive, and forget the former part of the argument or statement before the whole is presented.

Again: perspicuity is offended by a bad arrangement of the discourse, leading us to connect thoughts not designed to be so connected; and by the use of technical terms unintelligible to the popular mind.

Of course, what has been said has entire reference to the honest purpose of a well-informed writer or speaker, whose only aim is to make himself understood.

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From the earliest times of its existence, Rhetoric has been made to suffer by those whose purposes were not honest, and who used it as a cloak for falsehood, and as an instrument of self-interest, with which to entangle and deceive honest but not gifted seekers for truth.

Thus, an audience is imposed upon by one kind of empiric, through a want of perspicuity growing out of