Asyndeton, or the omission of connectives, is a figure conducing to energy. "The wind passeth over it-it is gone." "Thou sentest forth thy wrath-it consumed them as stubble." See also the song of Moses, and Psalm civ. 28–30. stress was laid on this figure by the Greek rhetoricians. Great The Hyperbaton (much used, it is said, by Demosthenes) is purposed inversion and perplexity, before announcing something of great emphasis and import, thus giving to a meditated expression the effect of an impromptu. EXERCISE. Point out and name the figures in the following passages:— No light, but rather darkness visible. A frame of adamant, a soul of fire, No dangers fright him, and no labors tire. Art thou the first man that was born? or wast thou made before the hills? Hast thou heard the secret of God? and dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself? He lived to die, and died to live. Harmonious discord everywhere. But there are even some, O Romans, who say that Catiline has been cast into exile by me. That timid and very modest man, no doubt, was unable to endure the voice of the consul; as soon as he was ordered to go into exile, he obeyed, he went. Ossian's Address to the Moon:-Daughter of heaven, fair art thou! The silence of thy face is pleasant. Thou comest forth in loveliness. The stars attend thy blue course in the east. The clouds rejoice in thy presence, O Moon! They brighten their dark-brown sides. Who is like thee in heaven, light of the silent night? The stars are ashamed in thy presence. They turn away their sparkling eyes. Whither dost thou retire from thy course, when the darkness of thy countenance grows? Hast thou thy hall, like Ossian? Dwellest thou in the shadow of grief? Have thy sisters fallen from heaven? Are they who rejoiced with thee at night no more? Yes, they have fallen, fair light! and thou dost often retire to mourn. But thou thyself shalt fail one night, and leave thy blue path in heaven. The stars will then lift their heads; they who were ashamed in thy presence will rejoice. Thou art now clothed with thy brightness. Look from thy gates in the sky. Burst the cloud, O wind! that the daughters of night may look forth; that the shaggy mountains may brighten, and the ocean roll its white waves in light. The cloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, If I had as many tongues as there are stars in heaven, as many words as there are grains of sand on the shore, my tongues would be tired, and my words exhausted, before I could do justice to your immense merit. War and Love are strange compeers. War sheds blood, and Love sheds tears; War breaks heads, and Love breaks hearts. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. Hasten slowly. Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness! How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! A Scotch mist becomes a shower; and a shower, a flood; and a flood, a storm; and a storm, a tempest; and a tempest, thunder and lightning; and thunder and lightning, heaven-quake and earthquake. For contemplation he and valor formed; Me miserable! which way shall I fly CHAPTER II. THE NUMBER OF WORDS. 57. THE Figures of Speech all conduce to the greater effectiveness of style; they either present a thought more vividly to the intellect, or operate more powerfully upon the feelings. It is now requisite to consider two other devices having the same objects in view as figures. The one regards the Number of Words employed, and the other their Arrangement. 58. On the principle of attaining ends at the smallest cost, Brevity is a virtue of language. Every word uttered taxes the attention and occupies a space in the thoughts; hence when words are used only as instruments, they should be compressed into the least compass consistent with the adequate expression of the meaning. The epithets "terse," "concise," "laconic," imply strength as the result of brevity. The veni, vidi, vici of Cæsar is unsurpassed and immortal. Of the ancients, Thucydides, Horace, and Tacitus were celebrated for brevity. Dante is likewise a great example. Though the genius of the English language is not so favorable to condensed forms of expression as that of the classical tongues, yet some of our writers are models of an elegant brevity; it is sufficient to mention Shakespeare and Pope. 59. The chief sources of Brevity are (1) the selection of the aptest words; (2) a condensed grammatical structure; and (3) the employment of figures, more especially Comparison and Metaphor, Transferred Epithet, Antithesis, Epigram, and the admissible forms of Ellipsis. (1.) For the selection of words no precise rules can be SOURCES OF BREVITY. 67 given. The effect, on trial, will show what answers the purpose of conveying much meaning in a small compass. (2.) There are certain constructions favorable to brevity. These are the use of the participle for the clause with a finite verb; apposition, instead of connectives; the employment of the abstract noun (See SIMPLICITY); the use of adjectives for adjective clauses,* of nouns for adjectives (“knowledge qualification,” “stump orator"), of the phrase made up of preposition and noun, with or without an adjective (“action for trespass," "the right of the strongest"); the contracted and the condensed sentence. (3.) As regards the employment of figures, it is apparent, from the illustrations already given, that the species named contribute to Brevity. The following are a few additional examples-Pitt's defence of the rotten burgh system was, "Their amputation would be death" (to the country). Curran's saying on Irish liberty is equally terse: "I sat at her cradle, I followed her hearse." The proverb, or aphorism, is a condensed expression of a truth, generally embodying an epigram, or a balanced struc"Least said, soonest mended." ture. 60. Brevity has to be sought without sacrificing perspicuity and the proprieties of language. There are occasions when the desired effects of style are gained by diffuseness. For example, an explanation must be suited in length to the state of mind of the persons addressed; while things well known are recalled by brief allusion. In working up the feelings, a certain length of time is requisite, which the orator and poet know how to adjust. Again, in suiting the sound to the sense, a polysyllabic word, or a lengthened clause, may be required. Thus the long word stupendous better corresponds with a state of intense astonishment than the monosyllable *"The clouds let all their moisture flow, In large effusion, o'er the freshened world." Byron describes the Rhine castles as "all tenantless, save to the cran nying wind." vast; magnificent is more powerful than grand. The highsounding word ambassador suits a dignified functionary; while we often express contempt by a curt appellation, as a flirt, a fop, a sot, a thief, bosh. It is a general rule that an excess of the connecting parts of speech-as pronouns and conjunctions-enfeebles the style. Yet emphasis sometimes requires their multiplication; as in the words of St. Paul, “For I am persuaded that neither life, nor death, nor," &c. So in Milton :— "Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn, Other exceptions will appear in what follows. 61. The violations of Brevity are of three kinds, denominated Tautology, Redundancy, and Circumlocution. I. TAUTOLOGY means the repetition of the same sense in different words; as when Swift says, "In the Attic commonwealth, it was the privilege and birthright of every citizen and poet, to rail aloud and in public." The meaning is the same as, "it was the privilege of every citizen to rail in public." The following sentence from Tillotson contains numerous tautologies: "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 with the world; it has less of trouble and difficulty, of entanglement and perplexity, of danger and hazard in it. The arts of deceit and cunning do continually grow weaker, and less effectual and serviceable to them that use them." So in Addison : "The dawn is overcast; the morning lowers, These three clauses all express the same fact. |