ILLUSTRATIONS FROM POPE AND SHELLEY. 51 line is the only part that could possibly be omitted; and the omission would produce obscurity. The three examples make plain the nature of the dependence; master and servant exemplify compulsory relationships, while 'friend' comprehends various forms of voluntary dependence. The participial form is turned to good account in the first line. The figure of epigram is happily used in the last line, both brevity and force being gained by it. Take another instance, where the theme is the beneficial operation of self-love. How shall he keep what, sleeping or awake, All join to guard what each desires to gain. There is nothing very notable in the first two lines. The clause sleeping or awake' expresses the thought intended with brevity; but, as is not unusual in Pope's condensed forms, it is ungrammatical, since it really applies to 'he,' not to a weaker,' as the construction would suggest. There was not much need for the double expression of the idea in the second line: one word would have sufficiently brought out the meaning of both 'surprising' and 'taking'. On the other hand, the last two lines are compact and forcible. There are no unnecessary words, and those employed are well chosen; the abstract nouns, 'safety' and 'liberty,' are used to condense what would have otherwise taken distinct clauses to express; and in both lines there is an epigrammatic point in their form, which also becomes a means of brevity. As an illustrative contrast, we can compare the diffuseness of Chaucer's House of Fame with the condensation of Pope's treatment in his Temple of Fame. Shelley has been already quoted in illustration of diffuseness for the expression of intense feeling; and with him such cases are abundant. Take the following as a longer passage : The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness, Which wraps me, like an atmosphere of light, The idea of intense delight is all that is expressed in the words; yet the intensity is such that this profusion of utterance for it is both natural and pleasing. Or: I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt? Not only is this the utterance of strong feeling; the reiteration, appropriate on that ground, is also made the means of giving varied poetic embellishment to each utterance: 'yon all-beholding Sun,' the Sea, in storm or calm, Heaven's ever-changing shadow, spread below,' its deaf waves'. Once more : Who shall save? The boat fled on,—the boiling torrent drove,— The crags closed round with black and jagged arms, And faster still, beyond all human speed, Suspended on the sweep of the smooth wave, The little boat was driven. In Keats we have striking instances of diffuseness employed for purely poetic purposes. This is notably the case in 'The Eve of St. Agnes'. In Our early prose writers-Hooker, Barrow, Tillotson, Lockeare often diffuse and paraphrastic, without redeeming arts. Cowley and Addison, we find a diffuse style coupled with elegance, and at worst, only a needless fulness of relevant particulars. An extract to be quoted afterwards from Cowley (SENTENCE, Period) may be viewed as a fine example of elegant diffuseness. Paley is, generally speaking, a terse and compact writer, yet he frequently falls into one or other of the forms of needless diffuseness. This is no doubt from aiming at the expository virtues of clearness and emphasis. The following sentences will serve as illustrations. In the conduct of life, the great matter is, to know beforehand, what will please us, and what pleasures will hold out. So far as we know this, our choice will be justified by the event.' These sentences are as terse as need be; to compress them farther would be hypercritical. We merely select illustrative points. Strictly speaking, the futures are unnecessary; the universality of the present being equal to the occasion-what pleases us,' and 'which pleasures hold out'. 'And this knowledge is more scarce and difficult than at first sight it may seem to be; for sometimes pleasures which are wonderfully alluring and flattering in the prospect, turn out in the possession extremely insipid, or do not hold out as we expected.' 6 ་ The couple scarce' and 'difficult' is not exactly tautological, yet one of the words might cover all the ground; what is difficult may be presumed to be scarce or uncommon. For it may seem to be, we could substitute appears'. After alluring,' we might dis pense with flattering'. The phrase in the prospect' exemplifies our condensing phrases. The adverb 'extremely' before 'insipid' might be dispensed with; insipid' is itself a very expressive word (negatives are generally emphatic). A better order of the clause would be-turn out insipid in the possession'. The concluding EXEMPLARY PASSAGE FROM PALEY. 53 phrase or do not hold out as we expected'-might also be dismissed; the author's intention evidently is, to make his conclusion tally with his first sentence, where he puts the question under two forms-what pleases, and what pleasure holds out. 'At other times, pleasures start up which never entered into our calculation, and which we might have missed by not foreseeing; whence we have reason to believe, that we actually do miss of many pleasures from the same cause.' There is a slight excess of wordiness here likewise; or at all events, the meaning can be given shorter :-'pleasures start up that we did not count on, and consequently might have missed'. The phrase 'by not foreseeing' is pleonastic. The second member may likewise be shortened: 'and, in point of fact, we do miss pleasures in this way'. If it be true that pleasures start up that we never took into account, it follows directly, and need not be stated in round-about phrase, that we miss pleasures we could have had. 'I say, to know beforehand, for, after the experiment (is tried), it is commonly impracticable to retreat or change; besides that shifting and changing is apt to generate a habit of restlessness, which is destructive of the happiness of every condition.' The verb 'is tried' is useless; 'retreat or change' is an admissible tautology, as the fact is deserving of emphasis. The word 'shifting' (coupled with 'changing') is unnecessary; if two words are to be used, they should repeat the two already given, 'retreating and changing,' instead of dropping one and giving an exact synonym of the other. There is no objection to 'is apt to generate'; nevertheless, a single word, 'generates' or 'causes,' would answer the purpose. The concluding clause-which is destructive'-has no superfluous words. If we were to study the utmost pitch of condensation, we might exchange it for an adjective containing the substantial meaning, although not quite so explicit. Say-shifting and changing causes a pernicious habit of restlessness'. 'By the reason of the original diversity of taste, capacity, and constitution, observable in the human species, and the still greater variety which habit and fashion have introduced in these particulars, it is impossible to propose any plan of happiness which will succeed with all, or any method of life which is universally eligible or practicable.' With a sentence of this length, it is desirable to prune away superfluous words, in order to make the main proposition more salient. No charge can be laid against it on the point of lucidity in the arrangement, or complete perspicuity in the language. But the whole might be considerably abridged. Thus:-'By reason of men's original diversity of constitution, and the still greater diversity introduced by their education [one word for 'habit and fashion'], it is impossible to propose any plan of happiness, or any method of life, universally eligible or practicable'. All that can be said is, that there remains a presumption in favour of those conditions of life in which men appear most cheerful and contented.' A well-expressed sentence. The coupling of 'cheerful' and 'contented' scarcely amounts to tautology; either word by itself would hardly give the desirable fulness of meaning. We might reduce the circumlocution of the first half thus:-'We may, however, pronounce in favour of any conditions of life wherein men are, in appearance [this is a desirable expansion of appear'], cheerful and contented. The reason of the suggested expansion is found in the sentence following. 'For though the apparent happiness of mankind be not always a true measure of their real happiness, it is the best measure we have.' The whole stress of this sentence turns on the word 'apparent,' made use of in the previous sentence. The sentence is sufficiently effective for its purpose; and the only variation that would illustrate brevity would be to convert the relative clause we have' into some equivalent adjective prefixed to measure'. We might say 'the best available measure,' or shorter still, 'the only measure'. It is desirable to end a sentence with an important noun preceded by all essential qualifications, and not with a dangling relative clause.* *The ancient rhetoricians did not give much attention to Number of Words as an element of Style. Brevity is indeed commended, but incidentally rather than directly. Quintilian, for example, devotes but a few sentences to faults of this nature. He speaks of tautology, but the word was used by him, as by the ancients generally, to mean the repetition of the same word; which might be the result of carelessness or intended for effect. He names μakрoλoуía and #deovaσμós (using the Greek words) as separate ways of employing more words than are necessary, but draws no clear distinction between them. Quintilian also recognises diffuseness as a means of giving elegance or force on suitable occasions; but in Longinus this receives more notice. Longinus compares periphrasis, when it is not a lumbering expression of a simple idea, but the forcible utterance of a weighty thought, to the accompanying of a note in music by the notes of the scale that are in harmony with it. As the musical note thus gains in sweetness and force, so the periphrasis is a large and harmonious reproduction of the main idea. We might adapt the comparison to modern music with still more appropriateness, and say that as the inusical idea expressed in a melody gains in breadth and impressiveness when it is harmonised, so by a forcible periphrasis does the bare form of a thought gain in richness and power, while still remaining essentially the same. THE SENTENCE. 1. The rules of Syntax apply to the Concord, the Government, and the Order of words in Sentences. Under the head of Order, it is laid down that qualifying words should be placed near the words they qualify, a rule having expressly in view perspicuity or clearness. A sentence in any way ungrammatical incurs the risk of being obscure, if not a perversion of the meaning; more especially in cases where the rules of syntax are violated, where the pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions are not correctly introduced, and where the different parts of the verb are misapplied. In the present work, under ORDER OF WORDS, and again under NUMBER OF WORDS, principles were brought forward having reference to the structure of the Sentence. We have now to complete the consideration of the various Rhetorical devices for rendering sentences as perfect as they can be made by the help of arrangement alone. THE PERIOD AND THE LOOSE SENTENCE. 2. In a Period, the meaning is suspended until the close. Sentences where this is not the case are termed loose. The advantages of the Period, as well as the ways of forming it, will be made apparent by the examples. The first sentence of Paradise Lost, if stopped at Heavenly muse,' would be a period; short of that point no complete meaning is given. Continued as it is to in prose or rhyme,' in line 16, it is loose; there being several places where the reader might pause without incompleteness. The following is another example:another example: Shaftesbury's strength lay in reasoning and sentiment, more than in description; however much his descriptions have been admired'. In this sentence we might stop (1) at ing,' (2) at sentiment,' (3) at description,' where, at all events, we should expect a final conclusion; to our surprise, reason |