CHAPTER IX. ORGANIC PROCESSES. EVERY composition, from the phrase onward, with all its component parts and stages, is an organism, wherein every part derives vitality from every other, and all are subservient to one unity of impression. The processes that are employed in evolving an organism of this kind have, therefore, applications beyond the limits of the phrase; they may on occasion extend to the ordering of a whole section or even discourse; they belong, in fact, to all organization of thought. Here, however, it is proposed to examine the most directly practical of them merely in their principle and first application, which, being understood, will naturally enough suggest their functions in a broader field. I. NEGATION. To create greater distinction for an idea, or to set one idea over against another, much recourse is had to the negative in some form or degree. Degrees of Negation. The typical means of expressing the negative, with no special connotation of stress or lightness, is the adverb not. For some purposes it may be desirable to intensify this negation, for others to soften it. 1. For intensifying the negative the most absolute means is the adjective no, taking the place of the adverb and negating the whole subject instead of the act. The adverb itself, too, is often strengthened either by a supporting adverb or by an equivalent containing no, as in the expressions not at all, in no wise, by no means. EXAMPLES. One can easily feel the difference in intensity between these two forms of negation: “Since the fall, mere men are not able in this life perfectly to keep the commandments of God"; with which compare : "No mere man, since the fall, is able," etc. This second sentence throws the negation into a stronger part of the assertion, Carlyle, whose tendency to negation was something of a mannerism, shall furnish examples of intensified negative. "Shall we say, then, Dante's effect on the world was small in comparison? Not so: his arena is far more restricted; but also it is far nobler, clearer; - perhaps not less but more important."—"This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot consider him so."-" He is by no means the truest of Prophets; but I do esteem him a true one." "No most gifted eye can exhaust the significance of any object." This example makes its negative still more rhetorical by assuming that there can be more than one superlative."No Dilettantism in this Mahomet; it is a business of Reprobation and Salvation with him; of Time and Eternity; he is in deadly earnest about it!" Here the absolute no is so strong that it can dispense with the verb and make its assertion alone.1 2. For softening the negative, various means are available. In negating a quality the negative prefix un- or in- (sometimes non-) is milder than the adverb not. In negating an act, the word nor, uncorrelative, at the beginning of the clause, softens the negation; it sounds literary, however, not conversational. The negative adverb may also be made unobtrusive by being buried in its clause. EXAMPLES. -I. Of the prefix negative. The increased use of forms in un-, already noticed (see above, p. 67, example 4), has greatly enlarged the vocabulary of the negative; e.g. "As in flame and lightning, it stands written there; awful, unspeakable, ever present to him.”—The following sentences give all degrees, strong and mild: "The one must in nowise be done, the other in nowise left undone. You shall not measure them; they are incommensurable; the one is death eternal to a man, the other is life eternal." 1 1 Examples taken from Carlyle's Hero Worship. 2. Of the uncorrelative nor. "But those were simple, fortunate times for the young minstrel, who took his success modestly and gladly, nor forgot his work withal; and he now enjoyed a season as poetic as ever afterward came to him."1 "Yet in my secret mind one way I know, Nor do I judge if it shall win or fail; But much must still be tried, which shall but fail." 2 3. Of the unobtrusively placed negative. "In fiction, no more than elsewhere, may a writer pretend to be what he is not, or to know what he knows not." Note how much milder this is than to say, "No more in fiction than elsewhere," etc. Double Negative. In English the use of two negatives to strengthen the negation, though native to the language, has through Latin influence been abandoned, and now survives only as a vulgarism. For modified affirmation, however, the double negative, one of the negations being expressed by a prefix, is extensively employed. 3 3. The value of the double negative as an affirmative lies in the fact that it expresses a milder and more guarded degree of meaning than does direct affirmation; it is employed, accordingly, in the interests of precision. EXAMPLES. "It is not improbable that from this acknowledged power of public censure grew in time the practice of auricular confession." Here the writer, unwilling to commit himself to the unqualified assertion that the thing is probable, chooses rather to negative the opposite. In the following, too, the hedging of the assertion by double negative states the fact with obviously greater precision: "After a while, the little lad grew accustomed to the loneliness of the place; and in after days remembered this part of his life as a period not unhappy." 994 This construction, as it reveals effort, may easily be overworked; note for example the following: "Yet it is not unremarkable that an experi 1 STEDMAN, Poets of America, p. 403. 2 MATTHEW ARNOLD, Balder Dead. 3 LOUNSBURY, History of the English Language, p. 135. 4 THACKERAY, Henry Esmond, Chap. iv. enced and erudite Frenchman, not unalive to artistic effect, has just now selected this very species of character for the main figure in a large portion of an elaborate work."1 4. The figure LITOTES, already mentioned as a means of suggestion or innuendo,2 is virtually a double negative; that is, instead of asserting the affirmative that one would expect, it negates the opposite. Its effect, which it owes to innuendo, is rather strength than precision. EXAMPLES. In the following the litotes, by its innuendo, is made to enhance the humor of the situation:— "The sight of the curricle acting satellite to the donkey-cart quite staggered the two footmen. "Are you lords?' sang out Old Tom. "A burst of laughter from the friends of Mr. John Raikes, in the curricle, helped to make the powdered gentlemen aware of a sarcasm, and one with no little dignity replied that they were not lords. "Are ye judges?' "We are not.' "Oh! Then come and hold my donkey.'" 3 In the following the litotes derives further point by its antithesis to the affirmative: "Where Peter got the time it is difficult to understand, considering that his law practice was said to be large, and his political occupations just at present not small."4 In both double negative and litotes the two qualities are appreciably present; with the guarded affirmation predominant, however, in the former, and the force due to innuendo predominant in the latter. II. ANTITHESIS. The principle of contrast, by which opposite terms or ideas are so placed or employed as to set off each other, is one of the most spontaneous in literature. Shown on its narrowest scale as a pointed balance of word and structure, it may from 1 BAGEHOT, Literary Studies, Vol. i, p. 16. 3 MEREDITH, Evan Harrington, Chap. xxviii. this extend to whole masses of thought, to contrasted scenes, situations, characters, events; entering therefore as deeply into invention as into style. These various applications of the principle will come up for further mention in their place. Phases of Verbal and Phrasal Antithesis. It is impossible to construct a conventional mould for antithesis, because as a figure of speech it is more truly a thought-figure than a figure of word or construction. The various phases in which it appears rise largely from the varying proportions in which the more inner contrast of thought or emotion works to support or supplant the outward expression. 5. Antithesis shows itself most simply and typically in a balanced opposition of phrase, or in some contrasted pair of words standing as the core of the figure. As the antithesis of the thought itself is more fundamental, the manner of expression may be more disguised, and thus the figure may derive grace from being unobtrusive and hidden. "If EXAMPLES. -I. Balanced phrases, with a core-word antithetic. you would seek to make one rich, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires." "The Puritans hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators."1 66 2. In the following the author, recognizing the suggestiveness of the balanced terms, enhances the effect of the antithesis by breaking it off: It is because Shakespere dares, and dares very frequently, simply desipere, simply to be foolish, that he is so pre-eminently wise. The others try to be always wise, and, alas ! it is not necessary to complete the antithesis." 2 3. Hidden or unobtrusive antithesis. "They were engaged in the noble work of calling men out of their heathenism, with its manifold corruptions and superstitions, into the gospel of purity and love.” - -"A strange and contradictory spectacle! An army of criminals doing deeds which could only be expiated at the stake; an entrenched rebellion, bearding government with pike, matchlock, javelin and barricade, and all for no more deadly purpose than to listen to the precepts of the pacific Jesus."3 In these latter examples it is the idea, not the expression, that points the antithesis. 1 MACAULAY, History of England, Chap. ii. |