be divided into parts; and what follows suggests a division into two
parts. In every period, two things are to be regarded, equally capital;
first, the words of which the period is composed; next, the arrangement
of these words. The former resemble the stones that compose a building;
and the latter resembles the order in which these stones are placed.
Hence the beauty of language with respect to its meaning, may not
improperly be distinguished into two kinds. The first consists in a
right choice of words or materials for constructing the period; and the
other consists in a due arrangement of these words or materials. I shall
begin with rules that direct us to a right choice of words, and then
proceed to rules that concern their arrangement.
And with respect to the former, communication of thought being the
principal end of language, it is a rule, That perspicuity ought not to
be sacrificed to any other beauty whatever. If it should be doubted
whether perspicuity be a positive beauty, it cannot be doubted, that the
want of it is the greatest defect. Nothing therefore in the structure of
language ought more to be studied, than to prevent all obscurity in the
expression; for to have no meaning, is but one degree worse than to
express it so as not to be understood. Want of perspicuity from a wrong
arrangement, belongs to the next branch. I shall give a few examples
where the obscurity arises from a wrong choice of words; and as this
defect is so common in ordinary writers as to make examples from them
unnecessary, I confine myself to the most celebrated authors.
* * * * *
Livy, speaking of a rout after a battle,
Multique in ruina majore quam fuga oppressi obtruncatique.
_L. 4. § 46._
Unde tibi reditum _certo subtemine_ Parcæ
Rupere.
_Horace, epod. xiii. 22._.
Qui persæpe cava testudine flevit amorem,
_Non elaboratum ad pedem_.
_Horace, epod. xiv. 11._
Me fabulosæ Vulture in Appulo,
Altricis extra limen Apuliæ,
Ludo, fatigatumque _somno_,
Fronde nova puerum palumbes
Texere.
_Horace, Carm. l. 3. ode 4._
Puræ rivus aquæ, silvaque jugerum
Paucorum, et segetis certa fides meæ,
Fulgentem imperio fertilis Africæ
Fallit sorte beatior.
_Horace, Carm. l. 3. ode 16._
Cum fas atque nefas exiguo _fine_ libidinum
Discernunt avidi.
_Horace, Carm. l. 1. ode 18._
Ac spem fronte serenat.
_Æneid iv. 477._
There is want of neatness even in an ambiguity so slight as that is
which arises from the construction merely; as where the period commences
with a member which is conceived to be in the nominative case, and which
afterward is found to be in the accusative. Example: “Some emotions more
peculiarly connected with the fine arts, I propose to handle in separate
chapters[81].” Better thus: “Some emotions more peculiarly connected
with the fine arts, are proposed to be handled in separate chapters.”
* * * * *
The rule next in order, because next in importance, is, That the
language ought to correspond to the subject. Grand or heroic actions or
sentiments require elevated language: tender sentiments ought to be
expressed in words soft and flowing; and plain language devoid of
ornament, is adapted to subjects grave and didactic. Language may be
considered as the dress of thought; and where the one is not suited to
the other, we are sensible of incongruity, in the same manner as where a
judge is dressed like a fop, or a peasant like a man of quality. The
intimate connection that words have with their meaning, requires that
both be in the same tone. Or, to express the thing more plainly, the
impression made by the words ought as nearly as possible to resemble the
impression made by the thought. The similar emotions mix sweetly in the
mind, and augment the pleasure[82]. On the other hand, where the
impressions made by the thought and the words are dissimilar, they are
forc’d into a sort of unnatural union, which is disagreeable[83].
In the preceding chapter, concerning the language of passion, I had
occasion to give many examples of deviations from this rule with regard
to the manner of expressing passions and their sentiments. But as the
rule concerns the manner of expressing thoughts and ideas of all kinds,
it has an extensive influence in directing us to the choice of proper
materials. In that view it must be branched out into several
particulars. And I must observe, in the first place, that to write with
elegance, it is not sufficient to express barely the conjunction or
disjunction of the members of the thought. It is a beauty to find a
similar conjunction or disjunction in the words. This may be illustrated
by a familiar example. When we have occasion to mention the intimate
connection that the soul has with the body, the expression ought to be
_the soul and body_; because the particle _the_, relative to both, makes
a connection in the expression, which resembles in some degree the
connection in the thought. But when the soul is distinguished from the
body, it is better to say _the soul and the body_, because the
disjunction in the words resembles the disjunction in the thought. In
the following examples the connection in the thought is happily
imitated in the expression.
Constituit agmen; et expedire tela animosque, equitibus jussis,
_&c._
_Livy, l. 38. § 25._
Again:
Quum ex paucis quotidie aliqui corum caderent aut vulnerarentur, et
qui superarent, fessi et corporibus et animis essent, _&c._
_Livy, l. 38. § 29._
Post acer Mnestheus adducto constitit arcu,
Alta petens, pariterque oculos telumque tetendit.
_Æneid, l. v. 507._
The following passage of Tacitus appears to me not so happy. It
approaches to wit by connecting in the foregoing manner things but
slightly related, which is not altogether suitable to the dignity or
gravity of history.
Germania omnis a Galliis, Rhætiisque, et Pannoniis, Rheno et
Danubio fluminibus; a Sarmatis Dacisque, mutuo metu aut montibus
separatur.
_De moribus Germanorum._
I am more doubtful about this other instance:
---- The fiend look’d up, and knew
His mounted scale aloft; nor more, but fled
Murm’ring, and with him fled the shades of night.
_Paradise Lost, B. 4. at the end._
I shall add some other examples where the opposition in the thought is
imitated in the words; an imitation that is distinguished by the name of
_antithesis_.
* * * * *
Speaking of Coriolanus soliciting the people to be made consul:
With a proud heart he wore his humble weeds.
_Coriolanus._
Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves; than that
Cæsar were dead, to live all free men?
_Julius Cæsar._
He hath cool’d my friends and heated mine enemies.
_Shakespear._
Why, if two gods should play some _heav’nly_ match,
And on the wager lay two _earthly_ women,
And Portia one, there must be something else
Pawn’d with the other; for the poor rude world
Hath not her fellow.
_Merchant of Venice, act 3. sc. 6._
This rule may be extended to govern the construction of sentences or
periods. A sentence or period in language ought to express one entire
thought or mental proposition; and different thoughts ought to be
separated in the expression by placing them in different sentences or
periods. It is therefore offending against neatness, to crowd into one
period entire thoughts which require more than one; for this is
conjoining in language things that are separated in reality; and
consequently rejecting that uniformity which ought to be preserved
betwixt thought and expression. Of errors against this rule take the
following examples.
* * * * *
Cæsar, describing the Suevi:
Atque in eam se consuetudinem adduxerunt, ut locis frigidissimis,
neque vestitus, præter pelles, habeant quidquam, quarum, propter
exiguitatem, magna est corporis pars operta, et laventur in
fluminibus.
_Commentaria, l. 4. prin._
Burnet, in the history of his own times, giving Lord Sunderland’s
character, says,
His own notions were always good; but he was a man of great
expence.
I have seen a woman’s face break out in heats, as she has been
talking against a great lord, whom she had never seen in her life;
and indeed never knew a party-woman that kept her beauty for a
twelvemonth.
_Spectator_, Nº 57.
Lord Bolingbroke, speaking of Strada:
I single him out among the moderns, because he had the foolish
presumption to censure Tacitus, and to write history himself: and
your Lordship will forgive this short excursion in honour of a
favourite author.
_Letters on history, vol. 1. let. 5._
It seems to me, that in order to maintain the moral system of the
world at a certain point, far below that of ideal perfection, (for
we are made capable of conceiving what we are incapable of
attaining), but however sufficient upon the whole to constitute a
state easy and happy, or at the worst tolerable: I say, it seems to
me, that the author of nature has thought fit to mingle from time
to time, among the societies of men, a few, and but a few, of those
on whom he is graciously pleased to bestow a larger proportion of
the ethereal spirit than is given in the ordinary course of his
providence to the sons of men.
_Bolingbroke, on the spirit of patriotism, let. 1._
To crowd into a single member of a period, different subjects, is still
worse than to crowd them into one period.
---- Trojam, genitore Adamasto
Paupere (mansissetque utinam fortuna) profectus.
_Æneid. iii. 614._
Where two things are so connected as to require but a copulative, it is
pleasant to find a resemblance in the members of the period, were it
even so slight as where both begin with the same letter:
The peacock, in all his pride, does not display half the colour
that appears in the garments of a British lady, when she is either
dressed for a ball or a birth-day.
_Spectator_, Nº 265.
Had not my dog of a steward run away as he did, without making up
his accounts, I had still been immersed in sin and sea-coal.
_Ibid._ Nº. 530.
My life’s companion, and my bosom-friend,
One faith, one fame, one fate shall both attend.
_Dryden, Translation of Æneid._
There is obviously a sensible defect in neatness when uniformity is in
this case totally neglected[84]; witness the following example, where
the construction of two members connected by a copulative is
unnecessarily varied.
For it is confidently reported, that two young gentlemen of real
hopes, bright wit, and profound judgment, who upon a thorough
examination of causes and effects, and by the mere force of natural
abilities, without the least tincture of learning, have made a
discovery that there was no God, and _generously communicating_
their thoughts for the good of the public, were some time ago, by
an unparallelled severity, and upon I know not what obsolete law,
broke for blasphemy[85]. [Better thus]: Having made a discovery
that there was no God, and having generously communicated their
thoughts for the good of the public, were some time ago, _&c._
He had been guilty of a fault, for which his master would have put
him to death, had he not found an opportunity to escape out of his
hands, and _fled_ into the deserts of Numidia.
_Guardian_, Nº 139.
If all the ends of the revolution are already obtained, it is not
only impertinent to argue for obtaining any of them, but _factious
designs might be imputed_, and the name of incendiary be applied
with some colour, perhaps, to any one who should persist in
pressing this point.
_Dissertation upon parties, Dedication._
It is even unpleasant to find a negative and affirmative proposition
connected by a copulative.
Nec excitatur classico miles truci,
Nec horret iratum mare;
Forumque vitat, et superba civium
Potentiorum limina.
_Horace, Epod. 2. l. 5._
If it appear not plain, and prove untrue,
Deadly divorce step between me and you.
_Shakespear._
An artificial connection among the words, is undoubtedly a beauty when
it represents any peculiar connection among the constituent parts of the
thought; but where there is no such connection, it is a positive
deformity, because it makes a discordance betwixt the thought and
expression. For the same reason, we ought also to avoid every artificial
opposition of words where there is none in the thought. This last,
termed _verbal antithesis_, is studied by writers of no taste; and is
relished by readers of the same stamp, because of a certain degree of
liveliness in it. They do not consider how incongruous it is, in a grave
composition, to cheat the reader, and to make him expect a contrast in
the thought, which upon examination is not found there.
A light wife doth make a heavy husband.
_Merchant of Venice._
Here is a studied opposition in the words, not only without any
opposition in the sense, but even where there is a very intimate
connection, that of cause and effect; for it is the levity of the wife
that vexes the husband.
---- Will maintain
Upon his bad life to make all this good.
_King Richard II. act. 1. sc. 2._
_Lucetta._ What, shall these papers lie like tell-tales here?
_Julia._ If thou respect them, best to take them up.
_Lucetta._ Nay, I was taken up for laying them down.
_Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 1. sc. 3._
To conjoin by a copulative, members that signify things opposed in the
thought, is an error too gross to be commonly practised. And yet
writers are guilty of this fault in some degree, when they conjoin by a
copulative things transacted at different periods of time. Hence a want
of neatness in the following expression.
The nobility too, whom the King had no means of retaining by
suitable offices and preferments, had been seized with the general
discontent, and unwarily threw themselves into the scale, which
began already too much to preponderate.
_History of G. Britain, vol. 1. p. 250._
In periods of this kind, it appears more neat to express the past time
by the participle passive, thus:
The nobility having been seized with the general discontent,
unwarily threw themselves, _&c._ [or], The nobility who had been
seized, _&c._ unwarily threw themselves, _&c._
So much upon conjunction and disjunction in general. I proceed to apply
the rule to comparisons in particular. Where a resemblance betwixt two
objects is described, the writer ought to study a resemblance betwixt
the two members that express these objects. For it makes the
resemblance the more entire to find it extended even to the words. To
illustrate this rule, I shall give various examples of deviations from
it. I begin with the words that express the resemblance.
I have observed of late, the style of some great _ministers_ very
much to exceed that of any other _productions_.
_Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift._
This, instead of studying the resemblance of words in a period that
expresses a comparison, is going out of one’s road to avoid it. Instead
of _productions_ which resemble not ministers great or small, the proper
word is _writers_ or _authors_.
If men of eminence are exposed to censure on the one hand, they are
as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches
which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they
do not deserve.
_Spectator._
Here the subject plainly demands uniformity in expression instead of
variety; and therefore it is submitted whether the period would not do
better in the following manner:
If men of eminence be exposed to censure on the one hand, they are
as much exposed to flattery on the other. If they receive
reproaches which are not due, they likewise receive praises which
are not due.
I cannot but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so
currently with _other judgements_, must at some time or other have
stuck a little with your _Lordship_[86]. [Better thus:] I cannot
but fancy, however, that this imitation, which passes so currently
with others, must at some time or other have stuck a little with
your Lordship.
* * * * *
A glutton or mere sensualist is as ridiculous as the other two
characters.
_Shaftesbury, vol. 1. p. 129._
They wisely prefer _the generous efforts of good-will and
affection_, to the reluctant compliances _of such as_ obey by
force.
_Remarks on the history of England. Letter 5. Bolingbroke._
Titus Livius, concerning the people of Enna demanding the keys from the
Roman garrison, makes the governor say,
Quas simul tradiderimus, Carthaginiensium extemplo Enna erit,
fœdiusque hic trucidabimir, quam Murgantiæ præsidium interfectum
est.
_L. 24. § 38._
Quintus Curtius, speaking of Porus mounted on an elephant, and leading
his army to battle:
Magnitudini Pori adjicere videbatur bellua qua vehebatur, tantum
inter cæteras eminens, quanto aliis ipse præstabat.
_L. 8. cap. 14._
It is a still greater deviation from congruity, to affect not only
variety in the words, but also in the construction. Describing
Thermopylæ, Titus Livius says,
Id jugum, sicut Apennini dorso Italia dividitur, ita mediam Græciam
deremit.
_L. 36. § 15._
Speaking of Shakespear:
There may remain a suspicion that we over-rate the greatness of his
genius; in the same manner as bodies appear more gigantic on
account of their being disproportioned and mishapen.
_History of G. Britain, vol. 1. p. 138._
This is studying variety in a period where the beauty lies in
uniformity. Better thus:
There may remain a suspicion that we over-rate the greatness of his
genius, in the same manner as we over-rate the greatness of bodies
which are disproportioned and mishapen.
Next as to the length of the members that signify the resembling
objects. To produce a resemblance betwixt such members, they ought not
only to be constructed in the same manner, but as nearly as possible be
equal in length. By neglecting this circumstance, the following example
is defective in neatness.
As the performance of all other religious duties will not avail in
the sight of God, _without charity_, so neither will the discharge
of all other ministerial duties avail in the sight of men _without
a faithful discharge of this principal duty_.
_Dissertation upon parties, dedication._
In the following passage all the errors are accumulated that a period
expressing a resemblance can well admit:
Ministers are answerable for every thing done to the prejudice of
the constitution, in the same proportion as the preservation of the
constitution in its purity and vigour, or the perverting and
weakening it, are of greater consequence to the nation, than any
other instances of good or bad government.
_Dissertation upon parties, dedication._
The same rule obtains in a comparison where things are opposed to each
other. Objects contrasted, not less than what are similar, require a
resemblance in the members of the period that express them. The reason
is, that contrast has no effect upon the mind, except where the things
compared have a resemblance in their capital parts[87]. Therefore, in
opposing two circumstances to each other, it remarkably heightens the
contrast, to make as entire as possible the resemblance betwixt the
other parts, and in particular betwixt the members expressing the two
circumstances contrasted. As things are often best illustrated by their
contraries, I shall also give examples of deviations from the rule in
this case.
* * * * *
Addison says,
A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues, an enemy inflames his crimes.
_Spectator_, Nº 399.
Would it not be neater to study uniformity instead of variety? as thus:
A friend exaggerates a man’s virtues, an enemy his crimes.
For here the contrast is only betwixt a friend and an enemy; and betwixt
all the other circumstances, including the members of the period, the
resemblance ought to be preserved as entire as possible.
* * * * *
Speaking of a lady’s head-dress:
About ten years ago it shot up to a very great height, insomuch
that the female part of our species were much taller than the men.
_Spectator_, Nº 98.
It should be,
Than the male part.
The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool
when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him.
_Ibid._ Nº 73.
Better:
The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation; the fool
when he gains that of others.
Sicut in frugibus pecudibusque, non tantum semina ad servandum
indolem valent, quantum terræ proprietas cœlique, sub quo aluntur,
mutat.
_Livy, l. 38. § 17._
Sallust, in his history of Catiline’s conspiracy:
Per illa tempora quicumque rempublicam agitavere, honestis
nominibus, alii, sicuti populi jura defenderent, pars, quo senati
auctoritas maxuma foret, bonum publicum simulantes, pro sua
quisque potentia certabant.
_Cap. 38._
We proceed to a rule of a different kind. During the course of a period,
the same scene ought to be continued without variation. The changing
from person to person, from subject to subject, or from person to
subject, within the bounds of a single period, distracts the mind, and
affords no time for a solid impression. I illustrate this rule by giving
examples of deviations from it.
_Honos_ alit artes, _omnesque_ incenduntur ad studia gloriâ;
jacentque _ea_ semper quæ apud quosque improbantur.
_Cicero, Tuscul. quæst. l. 1._
Speaking of the distemper contracted by Alexander bathing in the river
Cydnus and of the cure offered by Philip the physician:
Inter hæc à Parmenione fidissimo purpuratorum, literas _accipit_,
quibus ei _denunciabat_, ne salutem suam Philippo committeret.
_Quintus Curtius, l. 3. cap. 6._
Hook, in his Roman history, speaking of Eumenes, who had been beat down
to the ground with a stone, says,
After a short time _he_ came to himself; and the next day, _they_
put him on board his ship, _which_ conveyed him first to Corinth,
and thence to the island of Ægina.
I give another example of a period which is unpleasant, even by a very
slight deviation from the rule.
That sort of instruction which is acquired by inculcating an
important moral truth, _&c._
This expression includes two persons, one acquiring, and one
inculcating; and the scene is changed without necessity. To avoid this
blemish, the thought may be expressed thus:
That sort of instruction which is afforded by inculcating, _&c._
The bad effect of this change of person is remarkable in the following
passage.
The _Britains_, daily harassed by cruel inroads from the Picts,
were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence, _who_
consequently reduced the greatest part of the island to their own
power, drove the Britains into the most remote and mountainous
parts, and _the rest of the country_, in customs, religion, and
language, became wholly Saxons.
_Letter to the Lord High Treasurer. Swift._
The following example is a change from subject to persons.
_This prostitution of praise_ is not only a deceit upon the gross
of mankind, who take their notion of characters from the learned;
but also _the better sort_ must by this means lose some part at
least of that desire of fame which is the incentive to generous
actions, when they find it promiscuously bestowed on the
meritorious and undeserving.
_Guardian_, Nº 4.
Even so slight a change as to vary the construction in the same period,
is unpleasant:
Annibal luce prima, Balearibus levique alia armatura præmissa,
transgressus flumen, ut quosque traduxerat, ita in acie locabat;
Gallos Hispanosque equites prope ripam lævo in cornu adversus
Romanum equitatum; dextrum cornu Numidis equitibus datum.
_Tit. Liv. l. 22. § 46._
Speaking of Hannibal’s elephants drove back by the enemy upon his own
army:
Eo magis ruere in suos belluæ, tantoque majorem stragem edere quam
inter hostes ediderant, quanto acrius pavor consternatam agit, quam
insidentis magistri imperio regitur.
_Liv. l. 27. § 14._
This passage is also faulty in a different respect, that there is no
resemblance betwixt the members of the expression, though they import a
comparison.
The present head, which relates to the choice of materials, shall be
closed with a rule concerning the use of copulatives. Longinus observes,
that it animates a period to drop the copulatives; and he gives the
following example from Xenophon.
Closing their shields together, they were push’d, they fought, they
slew, they were slain.
_Treatise of the Sublime, cap. 16._