BALANCE AND EPIGRAM. 71 obverse iteration; in many instances, accompanied with balance. (Chaps. 12, 13.) • If you wish to enrich a person, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires.' Words are the counters of wise men, and the money of fools.' The laugher will be for those that have most wit, the serious for those that have most reason.' 'Not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more.' 13. The effect of surprise is increased when there is a play upon words amounting to Epigram. Epigram is a figure of speech to be afterwards fully explained. It works by an apparent contradiction, which arouses our attention until we are able to see through it. The balance is frequently made to co-operate with the effect. 'What's everybody's business is nobody's': a seeming contradiction, which, by a little thought, we are able to explain; while the form renders it impressive. 'Justice's justice' is a biting epigram, enhanced by the iteration of the word. 'Diamonds cut diamonds.' 'Set a thief to catch a thief.' 'Little things are great to little men. 'He did not mean to sacrifice himself, in order to save himself' — is an ingenious saying applied to Lord Shelborne by Horace Walpole. There is a contradiction that needs to be resolved in the words 'sacrificed' and 'saved'. Many epigrams turn upon the use of contradictory words in apparent sameness of circumstance. 'Good interest is bad security.' The opposi tion of 'good' and 'bad' makes the epigram. "The right divine of kings to govern wrong'-is a play upon the opposition of 'right' and 'wrong'. 'We agree to differ is a terse combination of balance and epigram. 'Art is long, life is short' (ars longa, vita brevis). Burke's well-known palliation of the old French regime-that under it, 'vice lost half its evil, by losing all its grossuess'—is balance pointed by epigram. 'A new way to pay old debts'; 'the beginning of the end'; 'small Latin and less Greek'. 'When reason is against a man, he will be against reason,' is a balanced epigram turning on the identical proposition. 'He should consider often, who can choose but once,' makes a point of the opposition of 'often' and 'once'. Frequently we are understood least by those that have known us longest.' 'High life below stairs.' 'He can buy, but he cannot gain; he can bribe, but he cannot seduce; he can lie, but he cannot deceive.' Helps quotes from Southey the balanced and sarcastic innuendo, ́ as if a number of worldlings made a world'. When the end in view is a pointed expression of Difference, balance is turned to good account; as in Pope's comparison of Homer and Virgil, and in the analogous contrast of Dryden and Pope by Johnson :- Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist; in the one, we most admire the man; in the other, the work'. Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull ; 14. To the above specified effects of Balance, we must add that it pleases the ear. The sound of a sentence, apart from its meaning, may also be improved by Balance. The mind feels pleasure in the perception of symmetry in any object; and so the ear is pleased by the sound of successive clauses corresponding to each other in form and in length. This effect of Balance is widely felt, and often leads to the adoption of the form when it serves no other purpose. It was remarked under NUMBER OF WORDS (p. 34) that Hebrew parallelism often uses Balance in form along with contrast or similarity in thought; and the pleasing effect of the parallelism is aided by this appeal to the ear. 15. In very brief utterances, an effect is gained by reversing the balanced order. The need for the balance is less, as the expressions are short; and a deviation may be made to advantage. 'Bad in itself, but represented worse'; 'Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise'; The bad affright, afflict the best'; 'Come like shadows, so depart'; 'Praised in extremes, and in extremes decried.' The following would not be improved by pushing the balance farther: Objects shocking in the reality, are in dramatic representation the source of a high species of pleasure'. Other considerations enter into the case, as will be illustrated afterwards. 16. While the advantages of the Balanced Structure, EXAMPLES OF BALANCE. 73 properly employed, are very great, it is one of those devices of Style that require to be used with caution. The chief cautions that need to be observed are two. In the first place, it should be used only when there is a call for it in the nature of the thought; that is, when there is a real correspondence between the meanings of the clauses. The piquancy of its effect and the pleasure it gives to the ear are apt to lead writers to use it when there is no real similarity or contrast to be brought out; and then the effect is to give the sentences an artificial appearance, to weaken their impression, and it may be to obscure the sense. This is often the case with Johnson; with whom the Balanced Structure appears as a mannerism or habit rather than as a means towards the better expression of the thought. (See an instance under Miscellaneous Examples.) In the second place, it must not in any circumstances be used to excess. This is sometimes the case with Macaulay's employment of Balance, even though his sentences in themselves are usually forcible. It is a rule that all strong effects should be used with moderation. MISCELLANEOUS EXAMPLES. A few miscellaneous instances will illustrate the nature and effects of balance more generally, and, at the same time, show how a slight change may often considerably aid the sense by perfecting the balanced structure. 'Superstition is the disease of nations, enthusiasm that of individuals; the former grows inveterate by time, the latter is cured by it.' (Robert Hall.) In the second part, by time' is common to both members, while its emphatic place at the end of the clause suggests a contrast. Say: 'by lapse of time the former grows inveterate, while the latter is cured". 'The sides of the mountain were covered with trees; the banks of the brook were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks; and every month dropped fruits upon the ground.' Here there are two pairs, each fully balanced in itself. But their effect is weakened by their combination into one sentence; 'every blast' and every month' filling the place where we expect some new portion of the scene to be named. These two clauses might be brought into balance with the first two. 'Trivial circumstances, which show the manners of the age, are often more instructive, as well as entertaining, than the great transactions of wars and negotiations, which are nearly similar in all countries and all periods of the world.' Here we have a contrast greatly improved by balance: 'The trivial circumstances of social life, which show the manners of an age and country, are often more instructive and entertaining than the great transactions of governments, which are nearly the same in all ages and countries'. 'There are two distinct sorts of what we call bashfulness: this, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertness of a coxcomb; that, a consciousness, which the most delicate feelings produce, and the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove.' The second member invites a full balance with the first; instead of which, the writer is content with one of less consequence within the clause itself. Better: the one, the awkwardness of a booby, which a few steps into the world will convert into the pertness of a coxcomb; the other, the selfconsciousness of delicate feeling, which the most extensive knowledge cannot always remove'. The next example is different. 'A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent; a kind eye makes contradiction an assent; an enraged eye makes beauty deformed.' (Addison.) Here the balance, in the form of the sentence, is complete; but the gain is doubtful. In point of fact, it needs an effort to grasp the three separate ideas thus brought into comparison; there is no natural correspondence among the thoughts expressed. The meaning would be clearer without the comparison. It is a case of balance acting as a hindrance rather than a help. Kindness is preserved by a constant reciprocation of benefits or interchange of pleasures; but such benefits only can be bestowed as others are capable to receive, and such pleasures only imparted as others are qualified to enjoy.' (Johnson.) A perfect balance; but here again the question comes up as to what good there is in it beyond pleasing the ear by the sameness of the rhythm. Benefits and pleasures are closely allied; whereas they are here treated in such a way as to suggest some important distinction. In such a form as the following, the dignified rhythm is lost, but the meaning intended is better conveyed: Kindness is preserved by a constant interchange of benefits and pleasures; but for this end only such favours must be bestowed as others are able to appreciate'. DISTRIBUTION OF EMPHASIS. 17. Under ORDER OF WORDS, it is pointed out that the emphatic positions of a sentence are (1) the end, and (2) the beginning. The proper arrangement of a sentence is determined accordingly. In order to make out the emphatic portions of a sentence, we must first scan its meaning and purpose. 18. The subject and the predicate of a sentence, being equally essential, have the same intrinsic importance; but occasions arise for giving a greater attention to one or the other. Thus, when a subject has already been the ground of several affirmations, and is renewed for the sake of one more, the stress lies exclusively on the predicate; and the position of emphasis is awarded accordingly. BEGINNING OF THE SENTENCE EMPHATIC. 75 In like manner, if the predicate has been made familiar, while the subject is novel, the stress of attention falls on the subject. Moreover, a difference in respect of simplicity or intelligibility would have to be considered; the place of greatest emphasis being given to whichever part needs the most attention. 19. The Principal SUBJECT of a sentence should have a certain degree of prominence; that is, it should not be displaced by accessory or subordinate circumstances. It should, therefore, be either at the beginning, or at the end. I. The Beginning:-Learning taketh away the wildness, barbarism, and fierceness of men's minds '. 'The judgments which we pass internally upon the rectitude or pravity of actions are immediate and involuntary.' Although the height of emphasis is reached at the close of the sentence, many circumstances concur in placing the subject first and the predicate last. In imparting information, as in science, this always appears the most natural order; so that to depart from it is accounted an inversion, and needs to be specially justified. The rule of giving the main subject the preference in position to its accessories has few exceptions. This sentence occurs in Goldsmith. 'Nature, with most beneficent intention, conciliates and forms the mind of man to his condition.' Here the principal subject (as the context shows) is not nature, but the mind of man'; accordingly, the preferable arrangement is :-The mind of man is, by Nature's beneficent intention, conciliated and formed to its condi tion'. To quote another example:-'Homer's beautiful description of the heavens, as they appear in a calm evening by the light of the moon and stars, concludes with this circumstance-" and the heart of the shepherd is glad". Madame Dacier, from the turn she gives to the passage in her version, seems to think, and Pope, in order to make out his couplet, insinuates, that the gladness of the shepherd is owing to his sense of the utility of those luminaries.' Now, in the second sentence, the prominence is given, not to the main theme of the sentence, which is 'the gladness of the shepherd,' but to Madame Dacier and Pope. The desirable order would be The gladness of the shepherd seems to be attributed by Madame Dacier, from the turn she gives to the passage, and by Pope, in order perhaps to make out his couplet, to the sense of the utility of these luminaries'. |