Inhaltsangabe
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1908. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... PURITY OF STYLE. Style has been defined to be the peculiar manner in which a man expresses his conceptions through the medium of language. It differs^ from mere language or words. The words which an author employs may be unexceptionable, yet his style may be chargeable with great faults; it may be dry, stiff, feeble, affected. The style of an author is always intimately connected with his manner of thinking: it is a picture of the ideas which arise in his mind, and of the manner in which they arise. Hence the difficulty of drawing an exact line of separation between the style and the sentiment. All that can be required of a writer is to convey his/ ideas clearly to the mind qf others, and, at the sameV time, to clothe them in an advantageous dress. The f two general heads of perspicuity and ornament, therefore, comprehend all the qualities of" a good style. ~ Perspi- cuity demands our chief care ;" for, without this quality, the richest ornaments of language only glimmer through the dark, and puzzle, instead of pleasing, the reader^* An author's meaning ought always to be obvious, even to the most careless and inattentive reader, so that it may strike his mind, as the light of the sun strikes our eyes. We must study, not only that every reader may understand us, but that it shall be impossible for him to misunderstand us. If we are obliged to follow a writer with much care, to pause, and to read over his sentences a second time, in order to comprehend them fully, he will not long continue to please. Mankind are generally too indolent to relish so much labour: they may pretend to admire the author's depth, after they have discovered his meaning; but they will seldom be inclined to bestow upon his work a second perusal. In treating of perspicuity of style, it wi...
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