CHAPTER VIII.

METHODS OF EXPRESSION-STYLE.

The style is of the man.-BUFFON.

Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.BANC..OFT.

WE

E speak of style in architecture, in painting, in music, or in any of the fine arts, meaning thereby the mode of presentation; of style in manners, meaning the characteristic way of conducting one's self; of style in dress, meaning the prevalent fashion, or that peculiar to an individual. So style in discourse is the special manner in which thought is expressed. Note the points of difference and resemblance in the following. Observe the Anglo-Saxon simplicity of some, and the classical stateliness of others. One shows a decided preference for short sentences, another for long. Here the movement is calm and regular; there, disjointed, jerky, volcanic:

A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.-Bible.

Were I ambitious of any other patron than the public, I would inscribe this work to a statesman who, in a long, a stormy, and at

length an unfortunate administration, had many political opponents almost without a personal enemy; who has retained on his fall from power many faithful and disinterested friends, and who under the pressure of severe infirmity enjoys the lively vigor of his mind and the felicity of his incomparable temper.-Gibbon.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips. Sew them up with pack-thread-do. Else, if you would be a man, speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon-balls, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks, in words as hard again though it contradict everything you said to-day. 'Ah, then,' exclaimed the aged ladies, you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' Misunderstood! It is a right fool's word.-Emerson.

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To omit mere prurient susceptivities that rest on vacuum, look at poor Byron, who really had much substance in him. Sitting there in his self-exile, with a proud heart striving to persuade itself that it despises the entire created universe; and far off, in foggy Babylon, let any pitifullest whipster draw pen on him, your proud Byron writhes in torture, as if the pitiful whipster were a magician, or his pen a galvanic wire struck into Byron's spinal marrow! Lamentable, despicable, one had rather be a kitten and cry mew! Oh, son of Adam, great or little, according as thou art lovable, those thou livest with will love thee!--Carlyle.

'Style' is from the Latin stylus, a steel instrument used by the Romans for writing on waxen tablets. By an easy metaphor it came to denote the method of composition, as 'pen' is now frequently a symbol for author or literature.

Subjective Aspect.-As the attire, the behavior, the air, indicate the disposition and habits of the person whether cleanly or slovenly, tasteful or tawdry, sensible or foolish, refined or boorish so a writer's style is, in no unimportant sense, the material expression of his soul-life; for his words are but the outward signs, the visible copies, of his ideas. His choice of terms, his way of putting them together, make (to speak conventionally) the garment of his

thought, showing by the fall of the folds (when once you have learned to read) what he likes, what he can do,― his clumsiness, his cleverness, his imagination, his delights. If the words carry too much ornament, you may know that he is greedy of pleasure; if too little, that he is hard, dry, insensitive, and the like; if too great bulk, that he is affected; if full of commonplaces set forth with solemnity. or flourish, that he is silly; if volubly uttered, with volume of sound, reaching us as sounds and nothing more, that he is unreal and hollow; if murky or obscure, that he has a confused habit of mind, vagueness and indirectness of purpose. At root, the virtues of style are moral. Hence the saying of Milton, that he who would write good poetry must make his life a poem. It is partly, no doubt, because style is the unconscious revelation of the hidden self, that men are influenced by language as much as by ideas.

Objective Aspect.-Though style receives its peculiar form chiefly from the mental movements of which it is the expression, it is greatly modified by external conditions as fulness and force of vocabulary; the choice, number, and arrangement of words; frequency of practice in composition; completeness of preparation, and carefulness of finish; the nature of the subjects treated, the end sought, and the power of persons addressed. The inner and the outer, the original and the acquired, blend and reveal themselves in the result.

Diversities.- Style, then, varies with many considerations, but preeminently with character. In literature as in painting, Orientals are more fanciful or picturesque than Europeans; savages than civilized men. The Italians are warm and passionate; the French, rapid and sparkling; the Germans, clumsy and unwieldy —Lessing, Richter, and a few others, excepted.

Again, the manner of one age differs from that of another. No Englishman now writes in the style of King Alfred or of Bacon. The literary garniture of the Elizabethans, like that of their bodies, was stiff and elaboratein keeping with their peaked beards, starched collars, trunk hose, and quilted doublets. In Pope's day-the day of powdered queues, cocked hats, and lace ruffles style was highly artificial, even finical, like the manners and fashions of society. To-day the stately periods of Johnson would not be tolerated.

The individual writers of any age, indeed, bear to each other a general resemblance in the method of expressing their thoughts, as they do in their dispositions and tastes; yet, as with the leaves of the forest, there are never two indistinguishably alike. The more original and creative the writer, the more distinctive his style. Where is he that could wear successfully the livery of Carlyle? Men will have similar or dissimilar styles, according as they have similar or dissimilar natures and environments.

Obviously there are many possible divisions of style, to be expressed by a great variety of adjectives, according to the quality which serves as a principle of division. Thus with respect to the number of words, it may be called concise, sententious, laconic, terse, copious, diffuse, verbose, etc.; with respect to arrangement, natural, inverted, loose, periodic, smooth or flowing, easy or graceful, etc. A composition abounding in any one of the figures would be described by a derivative from that figure; as metaphorical, antithetical, epigrammatic, ironical, elliptical, etc. The use of ornament in general would be designated, according to the amount of imagery present, by such epithets as elegant, flowery, ornate, imaginative. A style characterized by misplaced and overwrought finery is said to be florid; if marked by commonplaces floridly expressed, with more or less of mock or

real enthusiasm, it is said to be stilted or sentimental; if very extravagant and enthusiastic, ranting; if studiously clothing plain and simple matter in long, ponderous words, pretentious; if gaudily and deceitfully ornamental, meretricious; if high-sounding-big, with little or no meaning pompous, grandiloquent, sophomoric, bombastic. If the writer is constantly thrusting forward his own personality, he is egotistic. If he abounds in common forms of expression—if he is familiar, yet rises in some degree above the conversational, he is idiomatic and simple. His diction is seemingly artless. He writes so easily that the reader imagines he can write as well himself. If his words are swelling, if his sentences are long and involved, if his tone is constrained, he is labored. Either if he alludes frequently to the literature or history of Greece and Rome, or if he writes in accordance with the best standards, he is classical. If he conveys by hint or implication much that is not actually expressed, he is suggestive. If he possesses much human interest, warmth of heart, he is sympathetic or humane. Possessing humanity in a high degree, he will usually be popular. If he exhibits a ready flow of words and great ease of composition, he is fluent. If rich in thought as well as copious in diction, he is affluent. If he has vivacity, accompanied by novelty and wit, he is racy. If his imagery is refined, his suggestions delicate, and his expressions tenderly graceful, he is spirituelle. A style which has some ornament and considerable polish, is neat; if destitute of figures, wit, humor, and blood, it is dry-tolerable in didactic writing only; if clear and simple, not harsh, yet without mere embellishment, it is plain.

Many of the features denoted by the above and other adjectives will not seldom be found to coexist in the same author, while one or more may be especially prominent. Thus Milton is massive, dignified, classical, imaginative,