"That Dryden was a great poet is undeniable; that he desecrated his powers and burned them, like the incense of Israel, in unhallowed shrines, is no less certain.”1 "That some facts were stated in accurately, I do not doubt; that many opinions were crude, I am quite sure; that I had failed to understand much which I attempted to explain, is possible." 2 "That Dryden was a great poet is undeniable; but it is no less certain that he desecrated his powers and burned them, like the incense of Israel, in unhallowed shrines." "That some facts were stated in accurately, I do not doubt; that many opinions were crude, I am quite sure; and it is quite possible that I had failed to understand much which I attempted to explain." Here the proposed amendments not only secure variety of stress and movement, but produce an effect of climax. 2. A natural result of the observance of the cue and the adjustment of succeeding stress to it, is that in a series of sentences the stress is continually varied, coming in the beginning of some sentences and at the end of others. This is of course a thing for watchfulness and artistic management; regard being had always for the two considerations: variation of rhythm, and grouping of related ideas together. EXAMPLES. - To note how this variation of stress works in a passage of several sentences, compare the following extract with its respectfully suggested emendation : : "The great ideas that lie in the "The great ideas that lie in the philosophic systems of the world philosophic systems of the world have more vitality and utility for have less vitality and utility for the the preacher than for the thinker thinker, who is aiming at the producwho is aiming at the production of tion of a scheme that shall render a scheme that shall render obsolete obsolete the whole mass of preceding the whole mass of preceding specula- speculation, than for the preacher tion. These systems of thought are [, who is putting thought into the mines which only the man in sympa-production of character]. It is only thetic ethical contact with mankind the man in sympathetic ethical concan operate to advantage. The learn- tact with mankind who can operate ing of the historian of philosophy he | these mines of systematic thought to 1 FARRAR, With the Poets. cannot possess, but the great thoughts of the past he may master and make his own as few can. The same may be said of literature. The niceties of the study and the erudition of the literary commentator he may not have, but the spiritual possession of the vision and the passion of the world's great artists he may assuredly have. No form of human service is better fitted than the Christian ministry to reveal the vitality that is the source of all great literature." advantage. The learning of the historian of philosophy he cannot possess, but he may master and make his own, as few can, the great thoughts of the past. The same may be said of literature. The niceties of the study and the erudition of the literary commentator he may not have, but he may assuredly have the spiritual possession of the vision and the passion of the world's great artists. No form of human service is better fitted than the Christian ministry to reveal the vitality that is the source of all great literature." 3. The deadly snare of the jaded or perfunctory writer, and, it may be added, of that much-vaunted being the spontaneous writer is, monotony of sentence structure, a wooden movement, with the same rise and fall, the same type of sentence, the same relative placement of stress, dominating the whole work. This rises simply from the relaxation of vigilance in calculating the relation of part to part; in other words, from neglecting to follow and adjust to each other the mass and movement of sentences. EXAMPLE. - In the following, which is a perfunctory editorial notice, it will be seen that the sentences, with the sole exception of the second, and this more apparent than real, are all constructed in precisely the same way, – each consisting merely of two assertions connected by and: "The death of Senator Anthony has been long expected, and it releases him from a suffering which was beyond remedy. He was a public man of long and honorable service, who filled every station to which he was called with dignity and grace. As the editor of The Providence Journal, and Governor and Senator, he was the most important political figure in the State, and in his death Rhode Island loses the most successful politician in her history. "In other years Senator Anthony's crisp and pungent paragraphs in the Journal were very notable and influential, and his paper was one of the halfdozen leading journals in New England. It was by paragraphs rather than by elaborate editorial articles that he preferred to affect opinion, and in the Senate it was by his occasional brief speeches, which were often singularly felicitous, and not by participation in debate or by prolonged orations, that he took part in the proceedings. "He was a devoted party man, and his political experience and judgment made him a wise counsellor. At home he had the reputation of a shrewd manager, and his party will not easily find so well-trained a leader. Yet for a long time there have been complaints that his rule was too absolute, and that good politics required more freedom and independence than his sway permitted. Senator Anthony's social sympathies and his literary tastes made him a very pleasant companion, and his conversation was full of interesting political reminiscence. He had become the Father of the Senate, and no Senator would be more sincerely mourned by his associates than this courteous gentleman and devoted and faithful legislator." IV. THE SENTENCE IN DICTION. What we have here to consider will be apparent from the description of diction given on p. 107, above. Going back a little from the question of sentence organism, we are to note what effect sentences of various lengths or types have upon the general coloring and movement of the style; what the texture of a whole passage derives from the prevailing char acter of the sentences that make it up. I. As to Length. - The question whether the sentences of a passage shall be long or short is by no means an idle one; it implies something regarding their kind of subject-matter, something also regarding their adaptedness to the taste or capacity of the reader. Accordingly we have to note of each class, what it is good for, and what ill effects result from using it injudiciously or in too great predominance. The Short Sentence. The short sentence, with its single assertion, nucleates in the meaning or weight of some single word. This suggests what it is especially good for subject : matter whose business it is to make some important point or discrimination, or to lay down some statement on which weighty consequences depend. The fundamental propositions of a course of thought, and passages that sum up or impress, are generally expressed in short, vigorous sentences. On the other hand, while good for occasional emphasis and point, the short sentence is lacking in rhythm and sustained power; it has no roll, no momentum. It makes its way as by a sharp stroke, not by a graduated progress. Further, an extended succession of short sentences, even with an important issue to support it, becomes a kind of clatter, curt and abrupt; while if the subject-matter is not weighty it misses its end of smartness and becomes merely flippant. It is in the use of short sentences especially that the evil of the insignificant sentence is to be guarded against.1 EXAMPLE.- The following passage will at once illustrate the use and suggest the limitation of the short sentence : “Sir, this alarming discontent is not the growth of a day or of a year. If there be any symptoms by which it is possible to distinguish the chronic diseases of the body politic from its passing inflammations, all those symptoms exist in the present case. The taint has been gradually becoming more extensive and more malignant, through the whole life-time of two generations. We have tried anodynes. We have tried cruel operations. What are we to try now? Who flatters himself that he can turn this feeling back? . . . We have had laws. We have had blood. New treasons have been created. The Press has been shackled. The Habeas Corpus Act has been suspended. Public meetings have been prohibited. The event has proved that these expedients were mere palliatives. You are at the end of your palliatives. The evil remains. It is more formidable than ever. What is to be done?" 2 1 For the insignificant sentence, see earlier in this chapter, p. 321.- Professor Earle, commenting on a quoted passage, thus remarks on short sentences: "For a certain space this may do well enough, but as it goes on in the same continued staccato, the reader is overtaken with a feeling of sameness. The sense may be good, each sentence may be neat and smart, and yet the whole may be wearisome. To give pleasure there must be symmetry, and to this end there must be the relation of parts and members, and these must be at once diverse in size and harmonious in proportion. The short-sentence fallacy is the repetition in another guise of the short-word fallacy."EARLE, English Prose, p. 207. 2 MACAULAY, On Parliamentary Reform, First Speech. The Long Sentence. The advantage of the long sentence is the room it affords, wherein to amplify the sense, by considerations ancillary to the main idea. This suggests the kind of subject-matter to which the long sentence is especially adapted: details, expansions, colorings, shadings of a thought already in the reader's mind, either as expressed briefly at the outset making the sentence a kind of paragraph, or as carrying out the suggestion of a previous short sentence. On account of its freer range, also, it is the kind of sentence in which can be incorporated qualities of rhythm, climax, cadence, massiveness, impressiveness. - On the other hand, the long sentence imposes on the reader a burden of interpretation; he must, to follow it properly, keep aware of its main and its subsidiary lines, and be at work adjusting the thought to simpler conceptions. Of this the writer who ventures on long sentences must take account, and make the structure plain and strongly marked to counteract the difficulty of its length. An extended succession of long sentences, especially of the evoluta type, is almost sure to be lumbering, heavy, forbidding. The composita, thus carelessly extended, is apt to be rambling and heterogeneous.' EXAMPLE. - The following illustrates the typical use to which the long sentence may be put. The second sentence gives simply the details necessary to fill out and color the idea expressed in the first: "And, while the many use language as they find it, the man of genius uses it indeed, but subjects it withal to his own purposes, and moulds it according to his own peculiarities. The throng and succession of ideas, thoughts, feelings, imaginations, aspirations, which pass within him, the abstractions, the juxtapositions, the comparisons, the discriminations, the conceptions, which are so original in him, his views of external things, his judgments upon life, manners, and history, the exercises of his wit, of his humor, of his depth, of his sagacity, all these innumerable and incessant creations, the very pulsation and throbbing of his intellect, does he image forth, to all does he give utterance, in a corresponding language, which is as multiform as this inward mental action itself and analogous to it, the faithful expres 1 For the heterogeneous sentence, see above, p. 320. |