The Philosophy of Style | Page 2

be apprehended with the least possible mental effort, is
the desideratum towards which most of the rules above quoted point.
When we condemn writing that is wordy, or confused, or
intricate--when we praise this style as easy, and blame that as fatiguing,
we consciously or unconsciously assume this desideratum as our
standard of judgment. Regarding language as an apparatus of symbols
for the conveyance of thought, we may say that, as in a mechanical

apparatus, the more simple and the better arranged its parts, the greater
will be the effect produced. In either case, whatever force is absorbed
by the machine is deducted from the result. A reader or listener has at
each moment but a limited amount of mental power available. To
recognize and interpret the symbols presented to him, requires part of
this power; to arrange and combine the images suggested requires a
further part; and only that part which remains can be used for realizing
the thought conveyed. Hence, the more time and attention it takes to
receive and understand each sentence, the less time and attention can be
given to the contained idea; and the less vividly will that idea be
conceived.
§ 4. How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought,
though the necessary instrument of it, we shall clearly perceive on
remembering the comparative force with which simple ideas are
communicated by signs. To say, "Leave the room," is less expressive
than to point to the door. Placing a finger on the lips is more forcible
than whispering, "Do not speak." A beck of the hand is better than,
"Come here." No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as
opening the eyes and raising the eyebrows. A shrug of the shoulders
would lose much by translation into words. Again, it may be remarked
that when oral language is employed, the strongest effects are produced
by interjections, which condense entire sentences into syllables. And in
other cases, where custom allows us to express thoughts by single
words, as in _Beware, Heigho, Fudge,_ much force would be lost by
expanding them into specific propositions. Hence, carrying out the
metaphor that language is the vehicle of thought, there seems reason to
think that in all cases the friction and inertia of the vehicle deduct from
its efficiency; and that in composition, the chief, if not the sole thing to
be done, is, to reduce this friction and inertia to the smallest possible
amount. Let us then inquire whether economy of the recipient’s
attention is not the secret of effect, alike in the right choice and
collocation of words, in the best arrangement of clauses in a sentence,
in the proper order of its principal and subordinate propositions, in the
judicious use of simile, metaphor, and other figures of speech, and even
in the rhythmical sequence of syllables.

ii. Economy in the Use of Words.

§ 5. The greater forcibleness of Saxon English, or rather non-Latin
English, first claims our attention. The several special reasons
assignable for this may all be reduced to the general reason--economy.
The most important of them is early association. A child’s vocabulary
is almost wholly Saxon. He says, _I have,_ not _I possess_---_I wish,_
not I _desire;_ he does not _reflect,_ he _thinks;_ he does not beg for
_amusement,_ but for _play_; he calls things nice or _nasty,_ not
pleasant or _disagreeable._ The synonyms which he learns in after
years, never become so closely, so organically connected with the ideas
signified, as do these original words used in childhood; and hence the
association remains less strong. But in what does a strong association
between a word and an idea differ from a weak one? Simply in the
greater ease and rapidity of the suggestive action. It can be in nothing
else. Both of two words, if they be strictly synonymous, eventually call
up the same image. The expression--It is _acid,_ must in the end give
rise to the same thought as--It is sour; but because the term acid was
learnt later in life, and has not been so often followed by the thought
symbolized, it does not so readily arouse that thought as the term sour.
If we remember how slowly and with what labour the appropriate ideas
follow unfamiliar words in another language, and how increasing
familiarity with such words brings greater rapidity and ease of
comprehension; and if we consider that the same process must have
gone on with the words of our mother tongue from childhood upwards,
we shall clearly see that the earliest learnt and oftenest used words, will,
other things equal, call up images with less loss of time and energy than
their later learnt synonyms.
§ 6. The further superiority possessed by Saxon English in its
comparative brevity, obviously comes under the