Style, as a topic connected with syntax, is the particular manner in which a person expresses his conceptions by means of language. It is different from mere words, different from mere grammar, in any limited sense, and is not to be regulated altogether by rules of construction. It always has some relation to the author's peculiar manner of thinking; involves, to some extent, and shows his literary, if not his moral, character; is, in general, that sort of expression which his thoughts most readily assume; and, sometimes, partakes not only of what is characteristic of the man, of his profession, sect, clan, or province, but even of national peculiarity, or some marked feature of the age. The words which an author employs, may be proper in themselves, and so constructed as to violate no rule of syntax, and yet his style may have great faults.

In reviews and critical essays, the general characters of style are usually designated by such epithets as these;—concise, diffuse,—neat, negligent,—terse, bungling,—nervous, weak,—forcible, feeble,—vehement, languid,—simple, affected,—easy, stiff,—pure, barbarous,—perspicuous, obscure,—elegant, uncouth,—florid, plain,—flowery, artless,—fluent, dry,—piquant, dull,—stately, flippant,—majestic, mean,—pompous, modest,—ancient, modern. A considerable diversity of style, may be found in compositions all equally excellent in their kind. And, indeed, different subjects, as well as the different endowments by which genius is distinguished, require this diversity. But, in forming his style, the learner should remember, that a negligent, feeble, affected, stiff, uncouth, barbarous, or obscure style is always faulty; and that perspicuity, ease, simplicity, strength, neatness, and purity, are qualities always to be aimed at.

In order to acquire a good style, the frequent practice of composing and writing something, is indispensably necessary. Without exercise and diligent attention, rules or precepts for the attainment of this object, will be of no avail. When the learner has acquired such a knowledge of grammar, as to be in some degree qualified for the undertaking, he should devote a stated portion of his time to composition. This exercise will bring the powers of his mind into requisition, in a way that is well calculated to strengthen them. And if he has opportunity for reading, he may, by a diligent perusal of the best authors, acquire both language and taste as well as sentiment;—and these three are the essential qualifications of a good writer.

In regard to the qualities which constitute a good style, we can here offer nothing more than a few brief hints. With respect to words and phrases, particular attention should be paid to three things—purity, propriety, and precision; and, with respect to sentences, to three others,—perspicuity, unity, and strength. Under each of these six heads, we shall arrange, in the form of short precepts, a few of the most important directions for the forming of a good style.

SECTION I.—OF PURITY.

Purity of style consists in the use of such words and phrases only, as belong to the language which we write or speak. Its opposites are the faults aimed at in the following precepts.

PRECEPT I.—Avoid the unnecessary use of foreign words or idioms: such as the French words fraicheur, hauteur, delicatesse, politesse, noblesse;—the expression, "He repented himself;"—or, "It serves to an excellent purpose."

PRECEPT II.—Avoid obsolete or antiquated words, except there be some special reason for their use: that is, such words as acception, addressful, administrate, affamish, affrontiveness, belikely, blusterous, clergical, cruciate, rutilate, timidous.

PRECEPT III.—Avoid strange or unauthorized words: such as, flutteration, inspectator, judgematical, incumberment, connexity, electerized, martyrized, reunition, marvelize, limpitude, affectated, adorement, absquatulate. Of this sort is O. B. Peirce's "assimilarity," used on page 19th of his English Grammar; and still worse is Jocelyn's "irradicable," for uneradicable, used on page 5th of his Prize Essay on Education.

PRECEPT IV.—Avoid bombast, or affectation of fine writing. It is ridiculous, however serious the subject. The following is an example: "Personifications, however rich the depictions, and unconstrained their latitude; analogies, however imposing the objects of parallel, and the media of comparison; can never expose the consequences of sin to the extent of fact, or the range of demonstration."—Anonymous.

SECTION II.—OF PROPRIETY.

Propriety of language consists in the selection and right construction of such words as the best usage has appropriated to those ideas which we intend to express by them. Impropriety embraces all those forms of error, which, for the purpose of illustration, exercise, and special criticism, have been so methodically and so copiously posted up under the various heads, rules, and notes, of this extensive Grammar. A few suggestions, however, are here to be set down in the form of precepts.

PRECEPT I.—Avoid low and provincial expressions: such as, "Now, says I, boys;"—"Thinks I to myself;"—"To get into a scrape;"—"Stay here while I come back;"—"By jinkers;"—"By the living jingoes."

PRECEPT II.—In writing prose, avoid words and phrases that are merely poetical: such as, morn, eve, plaint, corse, weal, drear, amid, oft, steepy;—"what time the winds arise."

PRECEPT III.—Avoid technical terms: except where they are necessary in treating of a particular art or science. In technology, they are proper.

PRECEPT IV.—Avoid the recurrence of a word in different senses, or such a repetition of words as denotes paucity of language: as, "His own reason might have suggested better reasons."—"Gregory favoured the undertaking, for no other reason than this; that the manager, in countenance, favoured his friend."—"I want to go and see what he wants."

PRECEPT V.—Supply words that are wanting: thus, instead of saying, "This action increased his former services," say, "This action increased the merit of his former services."—"How many [kinds of] substantives are there? Two; proper and common."—See E. Devis's Gram., p. 14. "These changes should not be left to be settled by chance or by caprice, but [should be determined] by the judicious application of the principles of Orthography."—See Fowlers E. Gram., 1850, p. 170.

PRECEPT VI.—Avoid equivocal or ambiguous expressions: as, "His memory shall be lost on the earth."—"I long since learned to like nothing but what you do."

PRECEPT VII.—Avoid unintelligible, inconsistent, or inappropriate expressions: such as, "I have observed that the superiority among these coffee-house politicians proceeds from an opinion of gallantry and fashion."—"These words do not convey even an opaque idea of the author's meaning."

PRECEPT VIII.—Observe the natural order of things or events, and do not put the cart before the horse: as, "The scribes taught and studied the Law of Moses."—"They can neither return to nor leave their houses."—"He tumbled, head over heels, into the water."—"'Pat, how did you carry that quarter of beef?' 'Why, I thrust it through a stick, and threw my shoulder over it.'"

SECTION III.—OF PRECISION.

Precision consists in avoiding all superfluous words, and adapting the expression exactly to the thought, so as to say, with no deficiency or surplus of terms, whatever is intended by the author. Its opposites are noticed in the following precepts.

PRECEPT I.—Avoid a useless tautology, either of expression or of sentiment; as, "When will you return again?"—"We returned back home again."—"On entering into the room, I saw and discovered he had fallen down on the floor and could not rise up."—"They have a mutual dislike to each other."—"Whenever I go, he always meets me there."—"Where is he at? In there."—"His faithfulness and fidelity should be rewarded."

PRECEPT II.—Repeat words as often as an exact exhibition of your meaning requires them; for repetition may be elegant, if it be not useless. The following example does not appear faulty: "Moral precepts are precepts the reasons of which we see; positive precepts are precepts the reasons of which we do not see."—Butler's Analogy, p. 165.

PRECEPT III.—Observe the exact meaning of words accounted synonymous, and employ those which are the most suitable; as, "A diligent scholar may acquire knowledge, gain celebrity, obtain rewards, win prizes, and get high honour, though he earn no money." These six verbs have nearly the same meaning, and yet no two of them can here be correctly interchanged.

PRECEPT IV.—Observe the proper form of each word, and do not confound such as resemble each other. "Professor J. W. Gibbs, of Yale College," in treating of the "Peculiarities of the Cockney Dialect," says, "The Londoner sometimes confounds two different forms; as contagious for contiguous; eminent for imminent; humorous for humorsome; ingeniously for ingenuously; luxurious for luxuriant; scrupulosity for scruple; successfully for successively."—See Fowler's E. Gram., p. 87; and Pref., p. vi.

PRECEPT V.—Think clearly, and avoid absurd or incompatible expressions. Example of error: "To pursue those remarks, would, probably, be of no further service to the learner than that of burdening his memory with a catalogue of dry and uninteresting peculiarities; which may gratify curiosity, without affording information adequate to the trouble of the perusal."—Wright's Gram., p. 122.

PRECEPT VI.—Avoid words that are useless; and, especially, a multiplication of them into sentences, members, or clauses, that may well be spared. Example: "If one could really be a spectator of what is passing in the world around us without taking part in the events, or sharing in the passions and actual performance on the stage; if we could set ourselves down, as it were, in a private box of the world's great theatre, and quietly look on at the piece that is playing, no more moved than is absolutely implied by sympathy with our fellow-creatures, what a curious, what an amusing, what an interesting spectacle would life present."—G. P. R. JAMES: "The Forger," commencement of Chap. xxxi. This sentence contains eighty-seven words, "of which sixty-one are entirely unnecessary to the expression of the author's idea, if idea it can be called."—Holden's Review.

OBSERVATION.

Verbosity, as well as tautology, is not so directly opposite to precision, as to conciseness, or brevity. From the manner in which lawyers usually multiply terms in order to express their facts precisely, it would seem that, with them, precision consists rather in the use of many words than of few. But the ordinary style of legal instruments no popular writer can imitate without becoming ridiculous. A terse or concise style is very apt to be elliptical: and, in some particular instances, must be so; but, at the same time, the full expression, perhaps, may have more precision, though it be less agreeable. For example: "A word of one syllable, is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, is called a dissyllable: a word of three syllables, is called a trisyllable: a word of four or more syllables, is called a polysyllable."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., p. 19. Better, perhaps, thus: "A word of one syllable is called a monosyllable; a word of two syllables, a dissyllable; a word of three syllables, a trissyllable; and a word of four or more syllables, a polysyllable."—Brown's Institutes, p. 17.

SECTION IV.—OF PERSPICUITY.

Perspicuity consists in freedom from obscurity or ambiguity. It is a quality so essential to every kind of writing, that for the want of it no merit of other name can compensate. "Without this, the richest ornaments of style, only glimmer through the dark, and puzzle in stead of pleasing the reader."—Dr. Blair. Perspicuity, being the most important property of language, and an exemption from the most embarrassing defects, seems even to rise to a degree of positive beauty. We are naturally pleased with a style that frees us from all suspense in regard to the meaning; that carries us through the subject without embarrassment or confusion; and that always flows like a limpid stream, through which we can "see to the very bottom." Many of the errors which have heretofore been pointed out to the reader, are offences against perspicuity. Only three or four hints will here be added.

PRECEPT I.—Place adjectives, relative pronouns, participles, adverbs, and explanatory phrases near enough to the words to which they relate, and in a position which will make their reference clear. The following sentences are deficient in perspicuity: "Reverence is the veneration paid to superior sanctity, intermixed with a certain degree of awe."—Unknown. "The Romans understood liberty, at least, as well as we."—See Murray's Gram., p. 307. "Taste was never made to cater for vanity."—J. Q. Adams's Rhet., Vol. i, p. 119.

PRECEPT II.—In prose, avoid a poetic collocation of words. For example: "Guard your weak side from being known. If it be attacked, the best way is, to join in the attack."—KAMES: Art of Thinking, p. 75. This maxim of prudence might be expressed more poetically, but with some loss of perspicuity, thus: "Your weak side guard from being known. Attacked in this, the assailants join."

PRECEPT III.—Avoid faulty ellipses, and repeat all words necessary to preserve the sense. The following sentences require the words which are inserted in crotchets: "Restlessness of mind disqualifies us, both for the enjoyment of peace, and [for] the performance of our duty."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 166. "Double Comparatives and [Double] Superlatives should be avoided."—Fowler's E. Gram., 1850, p. 489.

PRECEPT IV.—Avoid the pedantic and sense-dimming style of charlatans and new theorists, which often demands either a translation or a tedious study, to make it at all intelligible to the ordinary reader. For example: "RULE XL Part 3. An intransitive or receptive asserter in the unlimited mode, depending on a word in the possessive case, may have, after it, a word in the subjective case, denoting the same thing: And, when it acts the part of an assertive name, depending on a relative, it may have after it a word in the subjective case. EXAMPLES:—John's being my friend, saved me from inconvenience. Seth Hamilton was unhappy in being a slave to party prejudice."—O. B. Peirce's Gram., 1839, p. 201. The meaning of this third part of a Rule of syntax, is, in proper English, as follows: "A participle not transitive, with the possessive case before it, may have after it a nominative denoting the same thing; and also, when a preposition governs the participle, a nominative may follow, in agreement with one which precedes." In doctrine, the former clause of the sentence is erroneous: it serves only to propagate false syntax by rule. See the former example, and a note of mine, referring to it, on page 531 of this work.

SECTION V.—OF UNITY.

Unity consists in avoiding needless pauses, and keeping one object predominant throughout a sentence or paragraph. Every sentence, whether its parts be few or many, requires strict unity. The chief faults, opposite to this quality of style, are suggested in the following precepts. PRECEPT I.—Avoid brokenness, hitching, or the unnecessary separation of parts that naturally come together. Examples: "I was, soon after my arrival, taken out of my Indian habit."—Addison, Tattler, No. 249. Better: "Soon after my arrival, I was taken out of my Indian habit."—Churchill's Gram., p. 326. "Who can, either in opposition, or in the ministry, act alone?"—Ib. Better: "Who can act alone, either in opposition, or in the ministry?"—Ib. "I, like others, have, in my youth, trifled with my health, and old age now prematurely assails me."—Ib., p. 327. Better: "Like others, I have trifled with my health, and old age now prematurely assails me."

PRECEPT II.—Treat different topics in separate paragraphs, and distinct sentiments in separate sentences. Error: "The two volumes are, indeed, intimately connected, and constitute one uniform system of English Grammar."—Murray's Preface, p. iv. Better thus: "The two volumes are, indeed, intimately connected. They constitute one uniform system of English grammar."

PRECEPT III.—In the progress of a sentence, do not desert the principal subjects in favour of adjuncts, or change the scene unnecessarily. Example: "After we came to anchor, they put me on shore, where I was welcomed by all my friends, who received me with the greatest kindness, which was not then expected." Better: "The vessel having come to anchor, I was put on shore; where I was unexpectedly welcomed by all my friends, and received with the greatest kindness."—See Blair's Rhet., p. 107.

PRECEPT IV.—Do not introduce parentheses, except when a lively remark may be thrown in without diverting the mind too long from the principal subject. Example: "But (saith he) since I take upon me to teach the whole world, (it is strange, it should be so natural for this man to write untruths, since I direct my Theses only to the Christian world; but if it may render me odious, such Peccadillo's pass with him, it seems, but for Piæ Fraudes:) I intended never to write of those things, concerning which we do not differ from others."—R. Barclay's Works, Vol. iii. p. 279. The parts of this sentence are so put together, that, as a whole, it is scarcely intelligible.

SECTION VI.—OF STRENGTH.

Strength consists in giving to the several words and members of a sentence, such an arrangement as shall bring out the sense to the best advantage, and present every idea in its due importance. Perhaps it is essential to this quality of style, that there be animation, spirit, and vigour of thought, in all that is uttered. A few hints concerning the Strength of sentences, will here be given in the form of precepts.

PRECEPT I.—Avoid verbosity; a concise style is the most favourable to strength. Examples: "No human happiness is so pure as not to contain any alloy."—Murray's Key, 8vo, p. 270. Better: "No human happiness is unalloyed." "He was so much skilled in the exercise of the oar, that few could equal him."—Ib., p. 271. Better: "He was so skillful at the oar, that few could match him." Or thus: "At the oar, he was rarely equalled." "The reason why they [the pronouns] are considered separately is, because there is something particular in their inflections."— Priestley's Gram., p. 81. Better: "The pronouns are considered separately, because there is something peculiar in their inflections."

PRECEPT II.—Place the most important words in the situation in which they will make the strongest impression. Inversion of terms sometimes increases the strength and vivacity of an expression: as, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."—Matt., iv, 9. "Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgements."—Psalms, cxix, 137. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."—Ps., cxvi, 15.

PRECEPT III.—Have regard also to the relative position of clauses, or members; for a weaker assertion should not follow a stronger; and, when the sentence consists of two members, the longer should be the concluding one. Example: "We flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken our passions, when they have forsaken us." Better: "When our passions have forsaken us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that we have forsaken them."—See Blair's Rhet., p. 117; Murray's Gram., p. 323.

PRECEPT IV.—When things are to be compared or contrasted, their resemblance or opposition will be rendered more striking, if a pretty near resemblance in the language and construction of the two members, be preserved. Example: "The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he recommends himself to the applause of those about him." Better: "The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains the applause of others."—See Murray's Gram., p. 324.

PRECEPT V.—Remember that it is, in general, ungraceful to end a sentence with an adverb, a preposition, or any inconsiderable word or phrase, which may either be omitted or be introduced earlier. "For instance, it is a great deal better to say, 'Avarice is a crime of which wise men are often guilty,' than to say, 'Avarice is a crime which wise men are often guilty of.'"—Blair's Rhet., p. 117; Murray's Gram., p. 323.

Part 4 — APPENDIX III TO PART THIRD, OR SYNTAX.

OF THE QUALITIES OF STYLE.