hell, a hell of heaven." "Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell." Millions of spirits for his fault amerced." "Tears such as angels weep." Energy is manifest among the succeeding English poets; but nowhere in the same degree till we come to Byron, with whom it is the prominent quality. The following passages are in his most vehement manner: "Though the strained mast should quiver as a reed, Still I must on." "From peak to peak, the rattling crags among, "The hell of waters! how they howl and hiss, "A father's love and mortal's agony With an immortal's patience blending." Scott and Campbell exhibit this quality in a high degree, and in our own day it is visible in Browning. The following passages afford examples: "The war that for a space did fail, Now trebly thundering swelled the gale, "Then shook the hills with thunder riven, Far flashed the red artillery."—CAMPBELL. § 237. FAULTS OF STYLE AS OPPOSED TO ENERGY. It remains now to notice the faults of style as opposed to energy. The most prominent of these is the weak style, by which is meant that sort of writing in which the language falls short of the subject or occasion. If, for example, the occasion demands vehement force, a style that is merely elegant would be weak, since it would be utterly inadequate. Thus the style and treatment of one of Addison's papers in the Spectator would be weak when brought to bear upon a great theme like that of the guilt or innocence of Warren Hastings. A weak style also results when an author undertakes a task that is above him, as when Martin Farquhar Tupper ventured to write a conclusion to Christabel. In general, when an author is successful in one class of writing, he should apply himself to that, and not go beyond it. A good essayist will write weak novels. The brilliant Macaulay left a fragment of a very dull work of fiction; the witty poet Aytoun failed as a novelist; the novelist Bulwer was by no means brilliant as an essayist; Dickens was nothing outside of his fictions. In short, when a writer leaves his own department, and attempts another, the result is deplorable, except in the case of a few very versatile minds. No one affirms this more strongly than Horace, who again and again refuses to leave his light themes for the loftier but more dangerous realms of epic song. In these cases the style may be said to be only relatively weak. There is another weakness of style, which amounts to positive puerility, where the writer shows plainly that his ideas are feeble, that he has no clear grasp even of these, and that he has no power of giving them adequate expression. But such a style as this does not belong to literature, and therefore be dismissed from our consideration. may Similar to this is the languid style, which indicates a want of interest in the subject on the part of the author. Tameness is a fault of the same nature, and indicates a lack of proper spirit and boldness. The effeminate style is that in which attention is paid to smoothness, euphony, and elegance of expression, where the ideas are feeble or conventional, and there is an utter absence of earnestness of purpose. CHAPTER XI. VIVACITY. § 238. DEFINITION OF VIVACITY. THE word vivacity is used by Dr. Campbell in a very extended sense, being selected by him to include all those qualities which are here represented by the general term persuasive ness. In a more restricted sense it may be defined as the exhibition of life and feeling, of vividness in portrayal, and perpetual variety in expression. The worst faults in composition are dulness in conception and monotony in expression. With other faults failure is not so inevitable, for there may be success of a certain kind. There are books which exhibit every variety of vice in stylethe obscure, the florid, the puerile, the vulgar, the flippant, the pretentious; yet in spite of such faults they reach a certain class of readers; but where there is dulness and monotony, even such success as this is unattainable, and there can be no result save utter failure. Vivacity is opposed to both of these. To dulness it opposes animation; to monotony it opposes perpetual variety. It rises from the lowest stage of liveliness to the highest enthusiasm ; and in expression it makes use of every conceivable device to vary perpetually the form of statement. Energy refers to strength of words and intensity of thought and feeling; vivacity connects itself rather with versatility in thought and statement. Energy belongs more exclusively to eloquence, and springs more directly from nature; vivacity associates itself readily with art, and is more entirely rhetorical. For this reason vivacity is connected with all the arts of embellishment; it brings to its aid all the figures of speech, and blends a profusion of imagery with affluence of expression. According to the definition above given, vivacity refers first to the thought, and secondly to the expression. In order to consider this topic fully, it will be necessary therefore to observe it according as it refers to either of these departments. § 239. VIVACITY AS IT REFERS TO THE THOUGHT. 1. Vivacity as it refers to the thought may exist in various gradations. Animation may be considered as the first ascent above the level of ordinary expression, and may be defined as that degree of feeling which is quite under control, and merely serves to give life and interest to composition. The term liveliness may be considered as almost synonymous with it, yet it is somewhat different, for it involves the exhibition of cheerfulness and pleasantry, with the addition in some cases of wit and humor. With liveliness sprightliness is almost interchangeable. Any author who writes with evident interest in his work is animated; but a lively writer is one who throws over his style a certain cheerful glow which is communicated to the reader. Rising beyond these we come to a feeling which is called abandon. The term is applied to those cases where the writer seems to abandon himself to his subject, or is carried away by it. In its lower grades it is like liveliness and animation, and amounts to little more than a kind of confidential manner or communicativeness. It is very common with Thackeray, and is illustrated in the following passage: "Would you not like to slip back into the past and be introduced to Mr. Addison?—not the Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq., George II.'s Secretary of State, but to the delightful painter of contemporary manners; the man who, when in good-humor himself, was the pleasantest companion in all England. I should like to go into Lockit's with him, and drink a bowl along with Sir Richard Steele, who has just been knighted by King George, and who does not happen to have any money to pay his share of the reckoning. I should not care to follow Mr. Addison to his secretary's office in Whitehall. There we get into politics. Our business is pleasure, and the town, and the coffee-house, and the theatre, and the Mall. Delightful Spectator! kind friend of leisure hours! happy companion! true Christian gentleman! How much greater, better you are than the king Mr. Secretary kneels to!" But in its higher manifestations this abandon leads to the most rapturous flights of the imagination, as in Shelley's ode on the Skylark: "Teach me half the gladness The world should listen then, as I am listening now.” It was this total abandonment of himself to his theme that led to that sublime outburst of Demosthenes, in which he swears by those who fought at Marathon. But this brings us to that higher stage of feeling and expression known as eloquence, one of the modes in which vivacity may be manifested. Eloquence which is simple and natural may be regarded as belonging to a display of energy, but where it is ornate and elaborate it is connected rather with vivacity. Such a display is seen in the following passage from Erskine's speech on Stockdale. He is alluding to the trial of Warren Hastings: "There the most august and striking spectacle was daily exhibited which the world ever witnessed. A vast stage of justice was erected, awful from its high authority; splendid from its illustrious dignity; venerable from the learning and wisdom of its judges; captivating and affecting from the mighty concourse of all ranks and conditions which daily flocked into it as into a theatre of pleasure. There, where the whole public mind was at once awed and softened to the impression of every human affection, there appeared, day after day, one after another, men of the most powerful and exalted talents, eclipsing by their accusing eloquence the most boasted harangues of antiquity; rousing the pride of national resentment by the boldest invectives against broken faith and violated treaties; and shaking the bosom with alternate pity and horror by the most glowing pictures of insulted nature and humanity; ever animated and energetic from the love of fame which is the inherent passion of genius; firm and indefatigable from a strong prepossession of the justice of their cause." Beyond this there is a still higher elevation-enthusiasm, which may be defined as the sustained warmth and glow of intense personal feeling. This may be seen in Martineau's argument from a disaster at sea : "There were travellers from foreign lands, ready with pleased heart to tell at home the thousand marvels they had gathered on their way. There was a family of mourners, taking to their household graves their unburied dead. And there was one at least of rare truth and wisdom, of designs than which philanthropy knows nothing greater; of faith that all must venerate, and love that all must trust; of persuasive lips, from which a thoughtful genius and the simplest heart poured forth the true music of humanity. And does any one believe that this freight of transcendent worth—all this |