beautiful defcription of poetry may be deformed by the introdaction of one low or vulgar expreffion : 'Tis night, dread night, and weary Nature lies So faft as if the never were to rife ; No breath of wind now whifpers through the trees, Lee. TH CHAP. IV. OF PRECISION OF STYLE. HE third quality which enters into the compofition of a perfpicuous ftyle, is precifion. This implies the retrenching of all fuperfluity of expreffion. A precife ftyle exhibits an exact copy of the writer's ideas. To write with precition, though this be properly a quality of ftyle, he muft poffefs a very confiderable degree of diftinctnefs in his manner of thinking. Unlefs his own conceptions be clear and accurate, he cannot convey to the minds of others a clear and accurate knowledge of the fubject which he treats. Loofenefs of ftyle, which is properly oppofed to precifion, generally arifes from ufing a fuperfluity of words. Feeble writers employ a multitude of words to make themselves understood, as they imagine, more diftinctly: but, inftead of accomplishing this purpofe, they only bewilder their readers. They are fenfible that they have not caught an expreffion calculated to convey their precife meaning; and therefore they endeavour to illuftrate it by heaping together a mafs of illconforted phrafes. The image which they endeavour to pre D fent to your mind, is always viewed double; and no double image can be viewed distinctly. When an author tells me of his hero's courage in the day of battle, the expreffion is precife, and I understand it fully. But if, for the fake of multiplying words, he should afterwards extol his fortitude, my thoughts immediately begin to waver between these two attributes. In thus endeavouring to exprefs one quality more strongly, he introduces another. Courage refifts danger; fortitude fupports pain. The occafion of each of thefe qualities is different; and being led to think of both together when only one of them fhould be prefented to me, my view is rendered unfteady, and my conception of the great object indiftinct. An author may be perfpicuous, without being precife. He ufes proper words, and proper arrangements, but as his own ideas are loofe and general, he cannot exprefs them with any great degree of precifion. Few authors in the English language are more clear and perfpicuous than Dr. Tillotson and Sir William Temple; yet neither of these can pretend to much precifion. They are loofe and diffufe; and very often do not felect fuch expreffions as are adapted for conveying fimply the idea they have in view: it is frequently affociated with fome kindred notion. All fubjects do not require to be treated with the fame degree of precifion. It is requifite that in every fpecies of writing this quality fhould in fome measure be perceptible: but we must at the fame time be upon our guard, left the ftudy of precition, especially in treating fubjects which do not abfolutely require it, fhould betray us into a dry and barren ftyle; left, from the defire of pruning more clofely, we retrench all copioufnefs and ornament. A deficiency of this kind may perhaps be remarked in the ferious compofitions of Swift. To unite copioufnefs with precision, to be flowing and graceful, and at the fame time correct and exact in the choice of every word, is one of the higheft and moft difficult attainments in writing. Some fpecies of compofition may require more of copioufnefs and ornament; others more of precifion and accuracy and even the fame compofition may, in dif ferent parts, require a difference of ftyle. But these quali ties must never be totally facrificed to each other. "If I was to reduce my own private idea of the best language to a definition; I fhould call it the shortest, clearest, and eafieft way of expreffing one's thoughts, by the most harmonious arrangement of the beft chofen words, both for meaning and found. The beft language is ftrong and expreffive, without ftiffness or affectation; fhort and concife, with out being either obfcure or ambiguous; and eafy and flowing and difengaged, without one undetermined or fuperfluous word*." The want of precifion is an unpardonable error in a writer who treats of philofophical fubjects. On this account, the ftyle of Shaftesbury is highly exceptionable. That pedantic writer feems to have been well acquainted with the power of words thofe which he employs are generally proper and fonorous; and his arrangement is often judicious. His defect, in precifion, is not fo much imputable to indiftinctness of conception, as to perpetual affectation. He is fond to excefs of the pomp and parade of language; he is never fatisfied with expreffing any thing clearly and fimply; he must always give it the dress of ftate and majefty. Afraid of delivering his thoughts arrayed in a mean and ordinary garb, and allured by an appearance of fplendour, he heaps together a crowd of fuperfluous words, and inundates every idea which he means to exprefs with a torrent of copious loquacity. Hence perpetual circumlocutions, and many words and phrafes employed to defcribe what would have much better been defcribed by one alone. If he has occafion to introduce any author, he very rarely mentions him by his proper name. In the treatife, intitled Advice to an Author, he ploys two or three fucceffive pages in defcanting upon Arif totle, without naming him in any other manner, than as "the Mafter Critic," "the Prince of Critics," "the Confummate Philologift," "the Grand Master of Art," "the Mighty Genius and Judge of Art." In the fame manner, "the Grand Poetic Sire," "the Philofophical Patriarch," and his Difciple of noble birth, and lofty Genius," are the only names by which he condefcends to defignate Homer, Socrates, and Plato. This method of diftinguishing perfons is extremely affected; but it is not fo contrary to precifion, as the frequent circumlocutions which he employs to exprefs the powers and affections of the mind. In one paffage, he denominates the moral faculty, "that natural affection, * Armstrong's Ellays. em and anticipating fancy, which makes the fenfe of right and wrong." When he has occafion to mention felf-examination, or reflection on his own conduct, he fpeaks of it as the act of "a man dividing himfelf into two parties, becoming a felf-dialogift, entering into partnership with himself, and forming the dual number practically within himself."-Contemptibe pedantry! In the following paragraph he wishes to flow, that, by every vicious action, we injure the mind, as much as a man would injure his body by fwallowing poifon, or inflicting on himfelf a wound. Now, if the fabric of the mind or temper appeared to us fuch as it really is; if we faw it impoffible to remove hence any one good or orderly affection, or to introduce any ill or diforderly one, without drawing on, in fome degree, that diffolute ftate which, at its height, is confeffed to be fo miferable; it would then, undoubtedly, be confeffed, that fince no ill, immoral, or unjuft action, can be committed, without either a new inroad and breach on the temper and paffions, or a further advancing of that execution already done; whoever did ill, or acted in prejudice of his integrity, goodnature, or worth, world, of neceffity, act with greater cruelty towards himself, than he who fcrupled not to swallow what was poifonaus, or who, with his own hands, fhould voluntarily mangle or wound his outward form or conftitution, natural limbs or body. Shaftesbury's Inquiry concerning Virtua Such fuperfluity of words is disgusting to every reader of a correct tafte; and produces no other effect than that of embarraffing and perplexing the fenfe. To commit a bad action is, first, " to remove a good and orderly affection, and to introduce an ill or diforderly one ;" next, it is, “to commit an action that is ill, immoral, and unjuft," and in the next line, it is, "to do ill, or to act in prejudice of integrity, good-nature, and worth." Nay, fo very fimple a thing as a man's wounding himfelf, is," to mangle or wound his outward form, or conftitution, natural body or limbs." "Lord Shaftesbury," fays Shentone, " in the genteel management of fome familiar ideas, feems to have no equal. He difcovers an eloignement from vulgar phrafes much be toming a perfon of quality," The "genteel management," however, of this, "perfon of quality," is fuch as no plebian who poffeffes any delicacy of tafte will ever ftudy to imitate. MANY CHAP. V. OF SYNONYMOUS WORDS. ANY words are accounted fynonymous, which are not fo in reality and indeed it may reasonably be difputed whether two words can be found in any language, which exprefs precifely the fame idea. However clofely they may approximate to each other in fignification, ftill ean the difcriminating eye of the critic difcover a line of feparation between them. They agree in expreffing one principal idea; but always exprefs it with fome diverfity in the circumftances. They are varied by fome acceffary idea which feverally accompanies each of the words, and which forms the diftinction between them. As they are like different fhades of the fame colour, an accurate writer can employ them to great advantage, by using them, fo as to heighten aud to finish the picture which he gives us. He fupplies by the one what was wanting in the other, to the force, or to the luftre of the image which he means to exhibit. But, with a view to this end, he muft be extremely attentive to the choice which he makes of them. For the generality of writers are apt to confound them with each other; and to employ them with promifcuous careleffness, merely for the fake of filling up a period, or of diverfifying the language. By ufing them as if their fignification were precifely the fame, they unwarily involve their ideas in a kind of mift.. Many inftances might be given of a difference in meaning between words reputed fynonymous. The few which I hall felect from Dr. Blair, and Mrs. Piozzi, may themfelves be of fome ufe; and they will befides ferve to fhow Shenftone's Effays. |