NUMBER OF WORDS.

1. On the principle of attaining ends at the smallest cost, it is a virtue of language to be brief.

If a thought can be properly expressed in five words, there is a waste of strength in employing ten.

2. As, however, there are also important effects brought about by Diffuseness, we must enquire minutely into the proper occasions of Brevity.

For example, of synonymous words, the rule of Brevity would be always to choose the shortest. Yet we often find that a long word answers our purpose better than a short. Long words can impart a certain emphasis and dignity, as may be seen in comparing such expressions as 'Telamonian Ajax' and 'Tom Tit'. So it is also with phrases and clauses.

3. Rhetoricians have specified three distinct forms of Diffuseness-TAUTOLOGY, REDUNDANCY, and CIR

CUMLOCUTION.

Under these heads, we may carry out the exemplification of all the modes of Diffuseness.

4. TAUTOLOGY means employing, in the same grammatical situation, two or more words or phrases for one and the same meaning.

Swift says 'In the Attic Commonwealth, it was the privilege and birthright of every citizen and poet, to rail aloud and in public'. There are here three couples of terms where single words would suffice for the sense: it was the privilege of every citizen to rail in public'.

This is the simplest of all forms of diffuse expression, and is of very wide prevalence. The synonymous words are in the same grammatical position in the sentence-subjects, verbs, objects, adverbs, &c.

Farther examples:-'The inaudible and noiseless foot of time'; 'bounty and beneficence'; 'beg and petition';

'pure and simple'; 'free, gratis, for nothing'; 'a figure, type, symbol, or prefiguration'; plain and evident'; 'joy and delight'; 'happiness and felicity'; 'equally as much'. In a Queen's speech we find this: In again recurring to you for advice and assistance'. · The difference appears to be radical and fundamental.' 'By this means their houses continue and last very long with little labour and small reparations.' They hold opinion that oxen will abide and suffer much more labour, pain, and hardness than horses will. And they think that oxen be not in danger and subject unto so many diseases, and that they be kept and maintained with much less cost and charge.' The learned man doth ever intermix the correction and amendment of his mind with the use and employment thereof.' 'The one provokes and incites the most languid appetite, and the other turns and palls that which is the sharpest and keenest.'"The furnace is kindling," cried Mahomet exultingly, "as he saw the glitter of arms and the flash of weapons.'

In such cases as these, there is practically no difference between the two words or phrases in each couple; though their meanings, in general, may not be altogether coincident, they really cover but the same ground when thus used in the same context.

In the following, from the Scotch Metrical Version of the 100th Psalm, we have three words used, though the whole meaning is given by the first: Praise, laud, and bless his name always'. In the corresponding line of the prose form- Be thankful unto him, and bless his name there is a discernible difference of meaning.

In many of our older writers, Tautology, in common with the other forms of diffuseness, may be found in the greatest abundance.

Thus in Hooker :-"An admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind the very standing, rising, and falling, the very stops and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions:-yea, so to imitate them, that we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other. In harmony the very image and character even of virtue and vice is perceived. which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony; than some, nothing more strong and potent for good.'

For

For the habitual practice of Tautology, as well as Redundancy and Circumlocution, we may refer more particularly to Tillotson. Take the following passage :- It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other. Therefore, if any man think it convenient to seem good, let him be so indeed, and then his goodness will appear to everybody's satisfaction; so that, upon all accounts, sincerity is true wisdom. Particularly as to the affairs of this world, integrity hath many advantages over all the fine and artificial ways of dissimulation and deceit; it is much the plainer and easier, much the safer and more secure way of dealing in the world; it has less of trouble anddifficulty, of entanglement and perplexity, of danger and

NEEDLESS SHADES OF MEANING.

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hazard in it; it is the shortest and nearest way to our end, carrying us thither in a straight line, and will hold out and last longest. The arts of deceit and cunning do continually grow weaker, and less effectual and serviceable to them that use them; whereas integrity gains strength by use; and the more and longer any man practiseth it, the greater service it does him, by confirming his reputation, and encouraging those with whom he hath to do to repose the greatest trust and confidence in him, which is an unspeakable advantage in the business and affairs of life.'

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In Locke, tautologies are frequent. Ideas quickly fade and often vanish quite out of the understanding, leaving no more footsteps or remaining characters of themselves than shadows do flying over a field of corn.' Pictures drawn in our mind are laid in fading colours, and, unless sometimes refreshed, vanish and disappear.' Again: Man, tho' he have great variety of thoughts, and such from which others, as well as himself, might receive profit and delight; yet they are all within his own breast, invisible, and hidden from others, nor can of themselves be made to appear'. Here there are three expressions for what is but one idea.

5. Diffuseness may arise from a needless multiplication of shades of meaning.

This is the diffuseness of Addison and Johnson. Johnson says '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'. 'Benefits' and 'pleasures are not synonyms, but benefits' might be held to comprehend 'pleasures'.

'It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life to be rather driven by the fear of evil than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause and diligence without reward.' (Johnson.) Here the three clauses are not identical, there being an advance from the more general to the more specific statement of the idea; yet there is but one idea, and nothing is gained by this diffuseness in expressing it.

'We

The following examples are from Addison. The blueness of the ether was exceedingly heightened and enlivened by the season of the year.' 'A thought rose in me which I believe very often perplexes and disturbs men of serious and contemplative natures.' Were the sun utterly extinguished and annihilated.' 'One who had so great a work under his care and superintendency.' 'Beings of finite and limited natures.' are so used and accustomed to this imperfection.' That space which is diffused and spread abroad to infinity." 'God Almighty cannot but perceive and know everything in which he resides.' These examples are all from the same composition, and occur within the range of some half-dozen short paragraphs. Some express almost identical meanings, while in others there is a difference in the shade of thought; but in all the idea might be given more forcibly by a single word.

Again: But there is nothing that makes its way more directly to the soul than beauty, which immediately diffuses a secret satisfaction and

complacency through the imagination, and gives a finish to anything that is great or uncommon. The very first discovery of it strikes the mind with an inward joy, and spreads a cheerfulness and delight through all its faculties.'

'Nor are the multitude less excessive in their love than in their hatred, in their attachments than in their aversions.' Here, although the second clause is somewhat more general than the first, either of them fully expresses the meaning intended.

Burke's eloquent eulogy of Howard indulges in this kind of diffuseness: He has visited all Europe, -not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art, nor to collect medals, or collate manuscripts :-but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain; to take the gage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and compare and collate the distresses of all men in all countries'.

6. The circumstances that justify the use of Tautologies are:

I. When the sense is not satisfactorily brought out by a single term.

We find in good style such couples as these:-'good and well'; 'one and the same'; the same identical measure'; 'the fulness and maturity of time'; 'poor and needy'; 'means and substance'; 'subject-matter'; 'fear and trembling'; 'college and university'; 'end and design' the very purpose and intention'; 'vi et armis'. The doubling of names for one meaning is helpful for bringing out the sense in various ways.

(1.) In the first place, a single term may want some portion of the full meaning, and that portion may be supplied by a second term, also insufficient in itself. This difficulty is chiefly exemplified in the more general notions of science. Each word separately may contain either a defect or an excess of meaning, and the concurrence of two or more may bring out more exactly what is intended. In discussing Sensation, we speak of something left in the mind, which may be called a trace, image, picture, or impression.

'It is chemical union that constitutes what we call burning or combustion.' " Burning' is a word familiar to all, and, therefore, has the power of at once calling up the idea; but, being also loose in its application, it needs to be limited by the more exact term "combustion'.

Farther examples :-'The peculiar distinction of a solid is that it insists upon keeping not only a certain space or size for itself, but also a certain figure or shape'. (Balfour Stewart.) 'Everything which forms a part of wealth must be useful or have utility; that is, it must serve some

JUSTIFIABLE TAUTOLOGY.

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purpose, or be agreeable and desirable in some way or other.' (Jevons.) Money acts as a medium of exchange; it is a go-between, or third term.' (Id.) The imagination of Plato created a new world of Forms, Ideas, Concepts, or objects corresponding to general terms. In the Euthyphron, however, we have not yet passed into this Platonic world, of self-existent Forms-objects of conception-concepts detached from sensible particulars. (Grote.) In this last example, the various names and expressions used to designate the Platonic Ideas are all useful for the purpose, since the conception has been the subject of much misunderstanding; besides that some of the ancient terms themselves, such as Ideas or Forms, naturally suggest to us misleading associations.

(2.) The second reason for coupling synonyms is more wide-ranging. Many of the terms of our language, when standing alone, admit of different significations. The word 'subject' has a variety of renderings, and we are thrown upon the context to say which is specially meant. The subject of a verb is one thing, the subject of a book is another; a subject of the realm is a third signification. So the word 'matter' has many meanings, and without some added circumstance we cannot fix upon any one in particular. Now it often happens that two such words joined together limit each other to a single meaning; this is the case with the combination 'subject-matter,' which is limited to one signification. The practice of coupling synonyms is one, although not the only, remedy for the equivocations of terms.

Among examples of combinations such as these may be mentioned-sum and substance,' separate and distinct,' 'trade and commerce,' 'impulse and stimulus,' 'privation and want,' · common and vulgar,' 'final and unalterable'. In such phrases, the two words are mutually helpful, the one making clear what might be obscure with the other alone. When a sacrament is defined as the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,' the tautologies are not useless expansion, though the words paired together are largely coincident in meaning.

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Nor should I have made mention of this Dell

But for one object which you might pass by,
Might see and notice not.

Here the second phrase brings out fully the thought implied in the first.
When Pope writes,

Oh happiness! our being's end and aim!

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name,

the phrase, end and aim,' is needed to express the full meaning that happiness is both the object attained and the object aimed at in our being; while 'good, pleasure, ease, content' are all forms of conceiving the chief