EX. VI.] แ ROBERT HALL ON WAR. 311 2. "The lot of those who perish instantaneously may be considered, apart from religious prospects, as comparatively happy, since they are exempt from (those) lingering diseases and slow tor"ments (to which others are liable).” The first clause is not well selected for feeling; 'instantaneously' is a long unpronounceable word, used only in science or in business. We might say "The lot of those stricken in a moment." The qualification, ' apart from religious prospects,' is unfortunate, being clearly official, to save objections. Either it should be left out, and the whole given as merely the terrestrial side; or it should be put in with becoming emphasis, "if we were able to put out of view their eternal prospects." The clause 'since they are exempt from lingering diseases and slow torments' is better without the relative clause 'to which others are liable.' It is like the rest, energetically pathetic. The tautology is admissible for impressiveness. 3. (6 We cannot see an individual expire, though a stranger or (6 an enemy, without being sensibly moved, and prompted by comA 'passion to lend him every assistance in our power." "Individual' is not a name in the vocabulary of feeling; 'expire' has not the pathos of 'die.' 'Sensibly moved' and 'prompted by compassion' are not touching phrases. Moreover, it is seldom that general maxims of human nature, so frequently invoked in preaching, contribute to strength of emotion. They have the double disqualification of subjectivity and generality. We should rather state the truth in the concrete, or as an individual fact: "Stand by the death-bed of one human being, and behold the throes and struggles of a closing career. A stranger, or even an enemy, melts you to compassion." The prosaic limitation 'to lend him every assistance in your power' is enfeebling. 4. "Every trace of resentment vanishes in a moment; every "other emotion gives way to pity and terror." The same objectionable generality. 'Every trace of resentment vanishes,' might be changed to "your hatred as an enemy is subdued at once;" your enmity disappears." The terms in the second clause are well chosen. 5. "(In these last extremities) 'At such a moment,' we remem"ber nothing but the respect and tenderness due to our common "nature." It is now requisite to consider the author's language as oratorically contrived, and not as the pure charm of pathos, which he does not often realize. The present sentence is an oratorical appeal for pity or sympathy on the ground of our common humanity. 6. "What a scene, then, must a field of battle present, where "thousands are left (without) 'with no' assistance, and (without) "with no' pity, (with) their wounds exposed to the piercing air, "while the blood, freezing as it flows, binds them to the earth, "amidst the trampling of horses, and the insults of (an enraged) 666 "the' foe." Out of many possible ways of giving form to this most terrible of subjects, the author has selected a few impressive points. The particulars are coherent with the exception of the last, which, although sufficiently strong to suit the climax, is a change of the figure, and might have been expanded as a distinct element of the description. The phrase 'their wounds exposed to the piercing air' is probably less suggestive than "their wounds exposed and unstaunched." 7. "If they are spared by the humanity of the enemy, and car"ried from the field, it is but a prolongation of torment." "If they are spared to be taken from the field, it is but to prolong their sufferings." "If they are spared by the enemy, it is but to prolong their sufferings." 8. 66 Conveyed in uneasy vehicles, often to a remote distance, "through roads almost impassable, they are lodged in ill-prepared "receptacles (for the wounded and the sick), where the variety of "distress baffles all the efforts of humanity and skill, and renders "it impossible to give to each the attention he demands." The variety of the participial commencement is here well-timed. The first member contains pertinent and impressive circumstances, but ' remote distance' is tautological; the second member ('where the variety of distress') is powerfully worded, but the last clause is an anti-climax. "Conveyed to a distance in uneasy vehicles, they are lodged in unsuitable tenements; and the variety and amount of the distress are such as to baffle the skill, and overpower the energies of the physician." These two sentences are purely oratorical. By a strong picture, containing nothing to redeem the horror, they strip war of its glorious pomp and circumstance, and substitute a feeling of energetic revulsion. 9, 10. We have now the language of genuine pathos. "Far "from their native home, no tender assiduities of friendship, no "well-known voice, no wife, (or) mother, or sister, is near to "soothe their (sorrows)'agonies,' relieve their thirst, or close their 'eyes (in death) at last.' Unhappy man! and must you be swept "into the grave unnoticed and unnumbered [?], and no friendly EX. VI.] ROBERT HALL ON WAR. 313 "tear be shed for your sufferings, or mingled with your dust? " The figurative turn of the last sentence is well-timed for varying the language and constituting a climax, where it was hardly possible by increasing the strength of the phraseology. The next paragraph changes the subject to the after-scenes of war, and riots in the author's strength of language. 1. "If we consider the maxims of war which prevailed in the 'ancient world, and which still prevail in (many) barbarous nations, we perceive that those who survived the fury of battle and the "insolence of victory, were only reserved for more durable calam"ities; "—The forms, 'if we consider,' 'we perceive,' are unnecessary. 'According to the maxims of war prevailing in ancient times, and among barbarous nations at the present time, those that survived the fury of battle and the insults of victory, were but reserved for calamities more enduring." 2. "swept into hopeless captivity, exposed in markets, (or) ""and' plunged in mines, with the (melancholy) distinction be"stowed on princes and warriors, after appearing in the triumphal "procession of the conqueror, of being conducted to instant death." -"swept into hopeless captivity, exposed in markets, and plunged in mines, while to princes and warriors were accorded the distinction of appearing in the triumphal procession of the victor, to be then conducted to death." 3. "The contemplation of such scenes (as these) forces on us '(this awful) 'the' reflection, that neither the fury of wild beasts, "the concussions of the earth, nor the violence of tempests, are to "be compared to the ravages of arms; ""the reflection that the fury of the wild beasts, the violence of the tempests, the devastation of the earthquake, are not to be compared with the ravages of war: "—and that nature in her utmost extent, or, more properly, "divine justice in its utmost severity, has supplied no enemy to 66 man so terrible as man." Iteration and summing up of the idea to form a climax; 'utmost extent' is an inharmonious union, and might be changed to 'in all her extent,' 'in her widest compass;' 'divine justice in its utmost severity' is a somewhat questionable employment of divine justice; the conclusion echoes 'the proper study of mankind is man,' and is highly effective in its melody. EXTRACT VII.—I now give a passage from Gibbon, to exem plify Description, and incidentally the laws of the sentence, and of the paragraph, as well as minor points of style. 1. "In the vacant space between Persia, Syria, Egypt, and "Ethiopia, the Arabian peninsula may be conceived as a (triangle "of spacious but irregular dimensions) 'spacious and irregular tri"angle." The prefatory expression fixes the position of Arabia, and the words 'peninsula' and 'triangle' furnish the comprehensive type. 2. "From the northern point of Beles on the Euphrates, a line "of fifteen hundred miles is terminated by the Straits of Babel"mandel and the land of frankincense." The statement of the length is sufficiently expressive to those readers acquainted with the points of reference; it would, however, have been preferable to say, "The length from north to south-from Beles on the Euphrates, to the Straits of Babelmandel and the land of frankincense, —is more than twice the length of the British isles." The sentence is intended to follow up, with the detailed enumeration, the comprehensive type, given in the previous sentence. The land of 'frankincense' is an expressive circumstance to animate the cold numerical estimate. A concrete comparison is suggested, as, in these large numbers, preferable to figures. 3. "About half this length may be allowed for the middle "breadth, from east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from the Per"sian Gulf to the Red Sea." The subject here is not 'length,' but 'middle breadth,' the second point in the enumeration of details, and the order should be different. "The middle breadth, from east to west, from Bassora to Suez, from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea, is about half this length." 4. "The sides of the triangle are gradually enlarged, and the "southern basis presents (a front of a thousand miles to the Indian "Ocean) 'to the Indian Ocean, a front of a thousand miles."" The first clause is hardly intelligible. He means, "The breadth steadily increases, in accordance with the triangular shape-". The mention of the Indian Ocean gives a support to the description (p. 160), besides being a picturesque feature. 5. Position, outline, and size being thus determined, he proceeds to the surface. "The entire surface of the peninsula [well to re"peat the type] (exceeds in a fourfold proportion that of Germany 66 or France) 'is more than four times the extent of Germany or of "France; but the far greater part has been justly stigmatized "with the epithets (of the) stony and the sandy." The author EX. VII.] GIBBON'S DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 315 here employs the method of concrete comparison; "more than double Germany and France together," would perhaps be still neater. In passing from area in the first member, to quality of surface in the second, the break or transition is such as to demand a new sentence; more especially as several succeeding sentences are intended to amplify and illustrate the peculiarity of surface now stated. "By far the greater part, however, has been justly stigmatized," &c. 6. The features indicated are now to be shown in detail. The present sentence gives an illustrative contrast. "Even the wilds "of Tartary are decked, by (the hand of) Nature, with lofty trees "and luxuriant herbage; (and) the lonesome traveller derives a 66 sort of comfort and society from the presence of vegetable life.” The 'and' within parentheses is proposed to be left out as coming close after another 'and' used to connect two phrases; it is better, in such cases, to leave the connection of the two members of the sentence to be indicated by a semicolon pause." The second memper merely iterates the first, and is somewhat feeble from wordiness: "the lonesome traveller is cheered by the sight of vegetation." There is an omission in not explaining wherein the wildness consists, if abundant vegetation be the characteristic of the country 7. "But in the dreary waste of Arabia, a boundless level of sand "is intersected by sharp and naked mountains; and the face of the 'desert, without shade or shelter, is scorched by the direct and in"tense rays of a tropical sun.". The main subject is in the place of prominence, although not as the subject of the verb; this is one of the means of varying what might be considered the monotony of the parallel construction. The comprehensive feature is well given in the main clause, 'a boundless level of sand intersected by sharp and naked mountains;' 'naked' is a highly suggestive epithet. The second member is also good in continuation; 'face' is a comprehensive figure; 'direct and intense' has no fault but an ac * Ambiguity may arise in the reference of a conjunction within a sentence. Byron says, "Restore me the rocks where the snow flake reposes, He means though' to qualify the subordinate clause 'where the snow flake reposes;' but it is more naturally referable to the principal clause, 'Restore me the rocks.' |