"The style which deals in long sentences or in short sentences, or indeed which has any trick in it, is a bad style. . . . The best thing which, to my mind, has ever been said about style was said in a metaphorical way, the writer declaring that the style should, as it were, involve and display the subject-matter, as the drapery in a consummate statue folds over and around the figure.”. Sir Arthur Helps. STYLE. Order of Rhetorical Study. It is with design that the order here followed is chosen for the two main divisions of a rhetorical course, that the part relating to expression precedes the part relating to the thought. For this corresponds to the logical order which all arts, as well as the art of discourse, must observe. The first care in every art is devoted to technical details, to those minutiæ of treatment which, it may be, escape notice in the perfected whole, but whose presence or absence makes all the difference between skill and crudeness. "In all arts," says Edmund Clarence Stedman,1 “ the natural advance is from detail to general effect. How seldom those who begin with a broad treatment, which apes maturity, acquire subsequently the minor graces that alone can finish the perfect work!" From this remark he goes on to describe a poet of this century (Tennyson), who in the beginning of his career "devoted himself, with the eager spirit of youth, to mastering this exquisite art, and wreaked his thoughts upon expression, for the expression's sake. And what else," Mr. Stedman then pertinently asks, "should one attempt, with small experiences, little concern for the real world, and less observation of it?" Following then this natural order, it is important that the student of composition begin with thorough investigation of the resources of expression, and with diligent practice in them, just as the musician begins with finger exercises, and the artist with drawing from models. Such initial discipline is valuable both in itself and in its results; for it is the best and directest means of awakening that insatiable desire for accuracy, in statement and in 1 "Victorian Poets," p. 156. thought, which is the indispensable accompaniment of honest writing, that feeling which forbids the author to rest until both the expression and the idea, both style and invention, are conformed throughout to a sternly chosen standard. Nor is this technical practice in style to be confined to the first period of the literary art, as if it could be mastered once for all and then neglected. Rather, it is present always, in the construction of every phrase and sentence. Its order is logical rather than chronological. In every literary undertaking, and with care for it increasing instead of diminishing, the skilled writer's fundamental labor is devoted to patient management of details and particulars, weighing of words, sifting and shaping of minute considerations, until with unhasting pains everything is fitted to its place. And the result of such diligence is increasing fineness of taste for expression, and increasing keenness of sense for all that contributes, in however small degree, toward making the utterance of thought perfect. CHAPTER I. STYLE IN GENERAL. I. Definition of Style. By style is meant, in general, manner of expressing thought in language; and more particularly, of giving it such skillful expression as invests the idea with fitting dignity and distinction. Some modes of exhibiting facts, as in statistics, reference-tables, formulæ, and the like, are too rudimentary to admit the idea of style. There can be no degrees of effectiveness in the presentation of them, nor is such effectiveness looked for; their interest centres solely in the thing that is said. A work characterized by style derives equal importance from the particular manner of saying a thing there is a force or a felicity in the use of language that adapts the thought to the occasion, and gives it fullness and power. That is, there must be some dignity or distinction in the expression before we can begin to estimate it as style. By its style the thought is made to stand out as adapted to act upon men. : NOTE. - To illustrate how great a difference there may be in the manner of saying a thing, and how much a thought may be enriched by its style, compare the following passages. 1. The first, quoted from the North American Review, has occasion only to give statistics, and hence contains little if any thought of style : "I have stated the taxable value of all the property of Texas at six hundred and three millions of dollars. Let me enumerate, in round numbers, a few of the items which go to make up that sum. "The land is counted at about two hundred and forty-seven millions, not including eighty-six millions for town lots. Cattle stand for eighty-one millions; horses, thirty-two millions; sheep, nine millions; and hogs, two millions. The assessed value of railroads is forty millions. The merchandise of the State is put down at twenty-nine millions; and the money on hand, twelve millions and a half." |