Page images
PDF
EPUB

are of great utility in the study of that science or the practice of that art, but which are not adapted to general use; for the plain reason, that they are not generally understood.

THE DOUBLE MEANING.

§ 471. I. Obscurity may arise from the use of EQUIVOCAL TERMS. “The next refuge was to say that it was overlooked by one, and many passages wholly written by another." The word overlooked sometimes signifies revised, and sometimes neglected. In this case the word revised would have been preferable.

"The

II. Obscurity may arise from AMBIGUOUS CONSTRUCTION. rising tomb a lofty column bore." Did the tomb bear the column, or the column the tomb?

Obscurity also arises from Long sentences, or from an Artificial Construction of sentences, or from the use of foreign idioms.

THE UNINTELLIGIBLE.

§ 472. I. Obscurity may arise from CONFUSION OF THOUGHT. Though distinct thoughts are rendered confused by a gross medium, no clearness of medium can render a confused thought clear. The following indicates a confusion of thought: "The serene aspect of these writers, joined with the great encouragement I observe is given to another, or what is intended to be suspected, in which he indulges himself, confirmed me in the notion I have of the prevalence of ambition this way." II. Obscurity may arise from AFFECTATION OF ELEGANCE. "Men must acquire a very peculiar and strong habit of turning their eye inward, in order to explore the interior regions and recesses of the mind, the hollow caverns of deep thought, the private seats of fancy, and the wastes and wildernesses, as well as the more fruitful and cultivated tracts, of this obscure climate.” This is the way in which an author tells us that it is difficult to trace the operations of the mind. III. Obscurity may arise from WANT OF MEANING. "Whatever renders a period sweet and pleasant, makes it also graceful; a good ear is the gift of Nature. It may be much improved, but it can not be acquired by art; whoever is possessed of it will scarcely need dry critical precepts to enable him to judge of the true rhythmus and melody of composition: just members, accurate proportions, a musical symphony, magnificent figures, and that decorum which is the result of all these, are unison to the human mind; we are so framed by nature that their charm is irresistible." We have here only some faint glimmerings of

sense.

IV. Obscurity may arise from AFFECTATION OF METAPHYSICAL DEPTH AND ACCURACY. "Man is the dwarf of himself. Once he was permeated and dissolved by spirit. He filled nature with his overflowing currents.'

V. Obscurity may arise from the LOVE OF PARADOX. "The Gospel appeals not only to our sense of duty, but to all our selfishness."

VI. Perspicuity is often violated by the use of the Latin rather than the Saxon element of the language. In scientific works, words derived from the Classical stock are often especially appropriate. Indeed, in

many cases, there are no equivalent words derived from the AngloSaxon; but on common subjects the Anglo-Saxon element is much more expressive and perspicuous. See § 64. Perspicuity is often violated by the introduction of long parentheses. They call off the attention from the main subject, and fix it upon what is subordinate, and thus introduce confusion into the mind.

CHAPTER IV.

LIVELINESS OF EXPRESSION.

§ 473. LIVELINESS OF EXPRESSION is of the greatest importance to the orator or the writer, inasmuch as it serves to fix the attention of the hearer or the reader, to awaken his imagination, and to impress the thought conveyed upon the memory.

I. Liveliness of Expression as depending on the CHOICE OF WORDS. 1. In the Song of Moses on the shores of the Red Sea, the inspired poet says, "They sank as lead in the mighty waters." Make but a small alteration in the expression, and say, "They fell as metal in the mighty waters," and the difference in the impression produced on the mind will be quite remarkable. In the one case we have the specific terms, sank and lead; in the other the generic terms, fell and metal. In the one case the picture is more distinct and brighter than the other. Specific Terms are more striking and vivid than General Terms.

2. Words of Anglo-Saxon origin produce a livelier impression than those of Latin origin. "You lie!" will awaken more feeling than "You tell a falsehood."

3. Words used Tropically are more expressive than other words. See § 429.

II. Liveliness of Expression as depending on the NUMBER OF WORDS. As a general rule, the fewer the words, the more lively the expression. "Brevity is the soul of wit." The principal faults committed against brevity_are,

1. Tautology, which is the repetition of some idea in different words; as, "It was the privilege and birthright of every citizen and poet to rail aloud and in public."

2. Pleonasm. This implies bare superfluity, or more than enough; as, "They returned back again to the same city from whence they came forth."

3. Verbosity. The difference between Verbosity and Pleonasm is, that in the latter there are words which add nothing to the sense; and in the former, not only single words, but whole clauses may have a meaning, and yet it were better to omit them, because what they mean is unimportant. Instead of enlivening the expression, they make it languish.

III. Liveliness of Expression as depending on the ARRANGEMENT OF

P

WORDS. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, that great city!" How much more lively is the impression which it produces in this arrangement of the words than the following: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city!" The first is the order of the original Greek; the second, that of the received version. "Not in the legions

Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned

In ills to top Macbeth!"

This is the arrangement adapted to the speaker's purpose. How much superior it is in liveliness of expression to the same words in the following grammatical arrangement: "A more damned devil in the legions of horrid hell can not come to top Macbeth in ills!"

The general rule for the arrangement of words is, that the thought which is prominent in the speaker's mind should be the prominent thought in the sentence.

RHETORICAL SENTENCES.

§ 474. Sentences rhetorically considered are of two kinds: PERIODIC SENTENCES and LOOSE SENTENCES.

A PERIODIC SENTENCE, or a Period, is a sentence so framed that the grammatical structure will not admit of a close before the end of it; or it is one in which the meaning remains suspended until the whole is finished. "I am not of the mind of those speculators who seem assured that all states have the same period of infancy, manhood, and decrepitude, that are found in individuals." Here the sense remains suspended until the close of the sentence. So in the following sentence: "But if there be reason to be slow in rejecting the new proposition, still more is there necessity for caution in its adoption.'

[ocr errors]

A LOOSE SENTENCE is any one that is not a period; as, "I have told you already of mental ailments; and it is a very possible thing also that I may be bodily ill again in town, which I would not choose to be in a dirty, inconvenient lodging, where, perhaps, my nurse might stifle me with a pillow; and, therefore, it is no wonder if I prefer your house." In all loose sentences, as in this, there is always one place at least before the end, at which if you make a stop, the construction of the preceding part will render it a complete sentence.

The Period, as being the most vigorous and lively, is especially adapted to certain parts of an oration, and certain species of writing, where force and finish are necessary. The sense being suspended, keeps the attention awake until the close of the sentence.

Of all parts of speech, remarks Campbell, conjunctions are the most unfriendly to vivacity, and, next to them, the relative pronouns, as partaking of the nature of the conjunction. Introduce the conjunction and between the different members of the following passage, and you greatly lessen its remarkable liveliness:

"And the enemy said, I will pursue; I will overtake; I will divide the spoil; my revenge will be satiated upon them; I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them: Thou blewest with Thy breath; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters!"

THE CONSTITUENT PARTS OF A DISCOURSE.

§ 475. I. The EXORDIUM, or INTRODUCTION. II. The ENUNCIATION and DIVISION of the subject. III. The NARRATION or EXPLICATION. IV. The REASONING or ARGUMENTS. V. The PATHETIC part. VI. The PERORATION or CONCLUSION. It does not fall within the limits of the present work to exhibit specimens and illustrations of these several parts, though they are rhetorical forms of great value.

EXERCISES UNDER PART VII.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS.

§ 476. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS is that process by which the Rhetorical forms are separated from the body of a discourse, and named and exhibited. In this way, the constituent parts of the discourse of the great orators can be distinctly seen, and those modes of expression which are perspicuous, and lively, and energetic, and beautiful, can be distinguished as examples to be imitated.

For the constituent parts of a discourse, the learner is referred to the orations of the great masters of eloquence. It is those forms only that belong to almost every species of composition that are referred to here.

EXAMPLES.

1.

Ye living flowers, that skirt the eternal frost!
Ye wild goats, sporting round the eagle's nest!

Ye eagles, playmates of the mountain storm!

Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds !
Ye signs and wonders of the elements!

Utter forth God, and fill the hills with praise!—COLERIDGE.

Here the principal figure is ANAPHORA, "which is the repetition of a word at the beginning of several clauses of a sentence." See § 437. In the expression, "the dread arrows of the clouds," we have a Metaphor, "which shows similitude without the sign of comparison." See § 458.

In every line of the passage we have Personification, which is a figure by which the absent are introduced as present, and by which inanimate objects and abstract ideas are represented as living. See § 463.

There is also Apostrophe, which is a figure by which the speaker turns the current of his discourse, and addresses some person or some object different from that to which his discourse had been directed. See § 442.

2. An upright minister asks what recommends a man; a corrupt minister, who.-COLTON.

Here is an instance of Antithesis, a figure by which "the contrast of words and sentiments is rendered more striking. See § 438,

3.

High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised

To that bad eminence.-MILTON.

We have here Metonymy, a figure by which one word is put for another. See § 459.

We have also Personification, a figure by which inanimate objects and abstract ideas are represented as living. See § 463.

We have also Catachresis, a figure "by which a word is wrested from its original application, and made to express something at variance with its true meaning." See § 443.

4. Homer calls words winged; and the epithet is peculiarly appropriate to his, which do indeed seem to fly, so rapid and light is their motion, and which have been flying ever since over the whole peopled earth, and still hover and brood over many an awakened soul. Latin marches, Italian struts, French hops, English walks, German rumbles along. The music of Klopstock's hexameter is not unlike the tune with which a broad-wheeled wagon tries to solace itself when crawling down a hill. But Greek flies, especially in Homer.-Guesses at Truth, Second Series.

Here we have Metaphors, and a Simile, and a number of Personifi, cations.

5.

6.

A mirthful man he was; the snows of age

Fell, but they did not chill him. Gayety,

Even in life's closing, touched his teeming brain
With such wild visions as the setting sun

Raises in front of some hoar glacier,

Painting the bleak ice with a thousand hues.-SCOTT.

Talent convinces; Genius but excites:

This tasks the reason; that the soul delights.
Talent from sober judgment takes its birth,
And reconciles the pinion to the earth;
Genius unsettles with desires the mind,
Contented not till earth be left behind.
Talent, the sunshine on a cultured soil,
Ripens the fruit by slow degrees for toil;
Genius, the sudden Iris of the skies,

On cloud itself reflects its wondrous dyes,
And to the earth in tears and glory given,

Clasps in its airy arch the pomp of heaven!-BULWER.

7. The traitor lives! Lives! did I say? He mixes with the Senate; he shares in our counsels; with a steady eye he surveys us; he anticipates his guilt; he enjoys his murderous thoughts, and coolly marks us out for bloodshed.-CICERO.

8.

To fall asleep in this benighted world,

And in an instant wake in realms of day.-WILCOX.

9. She repeats the Creed in dying, and, like other Mussulmans, says, "In this faith I have lived, in this faith I die, and in this faith I hope to rise again."-Bishop SOUTHGATE.

10. I do not attack him from love of glory, but from love of utility:

« PreviousContinue »